So I’m learning how to play Omaha. Well, I know HOW to play Omaha, but I’m learning how to really sit and play the game. Chinook Winds has a game every week. In fact, all day every Tuesday is dedicated to Omaha. Usually there’s an NL game goin’ on as well, but the poker room manager there said she wouldn’t open one up short handed, probably because of the $100 an hour high hand money the casino is feeding into the game every hour.

That’s why I was there in the first place. The game almost always starts out short-handed; a die-hard player or two, and a tourist maybe, and myself. Something like that. There has to be four players in the  game for the high hand promotion.

Every hour the casino pays $100 to the highest full house. None of the players hands cards even have to play, so the whole table can in theory split the bonus if the boat is dealt onto the board. If no one wins gets a boat during the entire hour, then the bonus carries over, so the winner the next hour gets $200. If there are two holdem tables playing at once, them the bonus is bumped to $150, $200 for three tables, and so on.

It’s a weekday promotion, because the place is like a ghost town lately. Not as bad as Spirit Mountain, but there’s definitely a wait for a game to start.

Anyway, I’m there on Tuesday, waiting for Holdem to start, me, and an older guy I like real well are both waiting when another guy comes into see if there’s a game. That’s three people, so we’d just need one more, when the manager kills that thought. She says she won’t open it shorthanded, there’s only one dealer there, and there are a couple seats at the Omaha table.

I was irritated, but I sat down for a few. I know how the game is played, I even know a bit about the odds, and I’m confident, I can read boards, players etc.

Well that all may be true, but I love Omaha, you can find a reason to play EVERY hand! Honestly, it’s folding that’s tricky! You have 4 cards, obviously 2 of them go together right? AK suited with 2 junk cards, well that’s PERFECT! Now I have a high and a low! But it didn’t stop there. . .

I can be an action player at the No-Limit tables. I like to play, and I have to remind myself to tighten up. I’m just plain sick at the Omaha table. About a half hour into my second reload I really had to shake myself and say.. “Think of reasons to fold the cards!”

Needless to say, I kissed the felt again.

The day wasn’t a total loss though, only a bunch of old coots play this game, which is great for the story value if nothing else. I like to watch how they play. Honestly, they’re… almost… all calling stations just like me. The couple of guys that weren’t were of course the guys with all the chips.

The guy in seat four, two seats from me, always always folded into a bet, or raised it. When he raised, he had nothing less than a boat. That was a simple tell right? Yet he was totally cleaning up!

I’d have to learn some serious discipline to play with these guys on a regular basis, and honestly, I have been doing ok on the NL tables, and busting early in tournaments lately, due to lack of that particular quality, so it’s not likely that I’ll be making my living with Omaha any time soon.