Why don’t more players play Omaha Hi-Lo?. To find out, I asked dozens of Hold ‘Em players why they didn’t play Omaha Hi-Lo.

The number one reason I heard was: “I don’t like to chop pots.” .

I hate to tell you folks, even Omaha players don’t like to chop pots and they still play. That is NOT a good reason to not play the game. You see, the purpose of Omaha Hi-Lo is not to chop pots, but to WIN THE WHOLE POT!.

Who told Hold ‘Em players the goal of Omaha Hi-Lo is to chop pots? The goal, like Texas Hold ‘Em, is to win the WHOLE POT. I’ve seen Hold ‘Em players chop pots also. In fact, I saw a hand once where it was an eight way chop. You would never see that in Omaha Hi-Lo.

Then after chopping the pot, the Hold ‘Em player inevitably says; “well it’s better than losing the pot“, or “I’ll take a chop anytime“. Seems the Hold ‘Em player loves to chop also. Does that make Hold ‘Em players hypocrites?

By now you are probably thinking (provided you are a Hold ‘Em player), “we DO play for the whole pot, but are happy to chop instead of losing“.

Well guess what, this is the same goal of Omaha Hi-Lo. You play to win the whole pot (called a scoop). If you miss it, then it’s always nice to chop and get money back on your failed scoop. However here is the kicker Hold ‘EM  doesn’t have..

In Omaha, more players come in to the pot chasing for only half a pot.  When they miss (roughly half the time), it makes for a MUCH bigger pot than in Hold ‘Em, where you don’t have the extra chasers.

The next time you have to wait for a Hold ‘Em game, try Omaha Hi-Lo. But remember, play only the right hands to scoop the pot. What hands are the right ones? We’ll cover that in another post. Make sure you don’t miss it. Subscribe to this blog today. You’ll see several links on this page as well as in your browser where you can subscribe by feed or email.

Maybe you have never given thought to this but it can be a pretty important part of your poker strategy. Playing 3 chip vs 4chip.

3 chip games are:

• $3-$6 Limit (played with $1 chip)
• $6-$12 Limit (played with $2 chip)
• $9-$18 Limit (played with $3 chip)
• $15-$30 Limit (played with $5 chip)
• $30-$60 Limit (played with $10 chip)

4 chip games are:

• $4-$8 Limit (played with $1 chip)
• $8-$16 Limit (played with $2 chip)
• $20-$40 Limit (played with $5 chip)
• $40-$80 Limit (played with $10 chip)

Most casinos prefer to spread 4 chip games. Why? Because 4 chip games create action. There are more chips in the pot, thus the pots appear to be bigger. Notice I said appear because you are using four chips for one bet vs three chips for one bet. However, mathmatically speaking, there is the same number of bets in the pot whether it is a 3 chip game or a 4 chip game.

Since the pots appear to have more bets in them, more people start to chase (which in effect does create bigger pots on average in 4 chip games).

So now you have to analyze your playing style and pick the type of game that is right for your style.

For example, I’m a tight player and I like to wait for the better Hold ‘Em hands. I don’t like to play any two suited cards or A-6 or other garbage folks like to chase with. I like to bluff and win pots even when I have nothing, or the dealer is giving me nothing. Finally I love to steal blinds and I like to win when I have AA. I know the cards I play have a better chance of winning against 2-3 players at the most. Therefore, I play 3 chip games almost exclusively.

If you are the type of player who loves action, will play any two cards suited, play any Ace no matter what card it is with, love to play your blinds, love big pots, will play any suited connectors.. then you are the type of player who loves playing the long shots. When you play those type of hands you need lots of other players in the pot or you will go broke fast. A 4 chip game is best for your playing style.

In my last post I told you of the Luckalyzer software we have installed here and how it analyzes your luck.

Let’s see how it relates to playing poker. Luckalyzer tracks your three primary life cycles, Intellect, Physical, and Emotional. You can read more about it here.

All three of these have to do with poker. If you play long hours (usually associated with all-nighters or tournaments) then you will want to include Physical cycle into your analysis.

My playing style is usually 2-4 hours and then I’m off to enjoy the finer things in life. Because of this.. I ignore the Physical cycle.

The other two cycles I do use. Intellectual is very important because you always are making decisions and they need to be the correct ones. Emotional is also important as they can control how you play. Ever hear of the term “tilt”? Many players have lost all their bankrolls by getting a bad beat and then letting their emotions (frustration, anger, etc..) run their card playing. Greed is another emotion you need to watch out for, but we’ll post on this another time.

Back to our Luckalyzer results. If you take a look at the Monthly report you’ll see the days broken down into GOOD, VERY GOOD, BAD, etc.. What I do is to look for when my Intellectual and Emotional are both in the green (good or very good). Those are my lucky days for playing poker and those are the days I really score big!

Now if you can eliminate Emotional from the equation (some folks have great discipline and can avoid emotions) then just play on days Intellectual is green.

I have had success and have come out profitable while playing when Intellectual was green and the other cycles were red. However, my profit per hour was a lot less than when playing when Intellectual AND Emotional were both green.

We’ve added a new Poker Tool to PokerTools.com. It’s a luck analyzing software called Luckalyzer™ from Luckalyzer.com.

As you may have experienced, no matter how much skill you have, luck plays an important roll in Texas Hold ‘Em. Imagine having skill AND luck. You would be a formidable opponent, indeed.

The question is.. how do you know when you will be lucky at poker? We came across the Luckalyzer™ recently and were skeptical as to whether it would work. The nice thing about the software you can look up your past as well as your future.

Being that I’m a professional player I always keep track of the day I played, how long I played, and how much I won or lost. Using the Luckalyzer™, I was able to check the days in the past when I played and to determine if they were lucky or unlucky days for playing.

Last year my average hourly win at $9-$18 (my game of choice) was $24 per hour. Now if I look only at my lucky days and add up how much I won/lost, my average hourly winnings jumped to $93 per hour.

The numbers are showing me that this software may have something to it. One word to note is that I have only been playing professionally for six months so I don’t have a lot of data to run it on. If anyone else has records of their playing and can run tests to see if their hourly wage jumps on lucky days.. please post a comment here.

In my next post, I’ll tell you what to look for when running the Luckalyzer™ software, so you’ll be able to pinpoint your lucky days.