I didn't just write this

Omaha, where did I originally learn to play it? Good question, one I really don’t have an answer for. Mojo, you gonna rue the day you asked it. Poker in general I learned to play when I was knee high to the proverbial grasshopper. My family had a a regular Sat night game, nickel and dime, draw, stud, both 5 and 7 card, a few with wild card variations and a few games that resembled Omaha but weren’t quite. Instead of playing with the rest of the kids I sat tableside, watching, and then later filling in when someone went to get a drink or something to eat or to take a whiz. Once in awhile when someone didn’t show I could actually grab a seat but that was rare. It was a big night if someone won $20. When I-went away to college I basically gave up poker for a number of years as I didn’t play there and the home game fell by the wayside except on rare occasions. The opening of casinos in Atlantic City scratched the gambling itch of my family members. They played slots, I played blackjack. Never gave the poker room a thought.

Gave up blackjack after my second trip to Vegas. I was cold in general that trip but one day I wandered into the Mirage and sat down at a $5 table. I was up and down to start but then I went on a streak of 20 straight hands of 19 or better including a couple of blackjacks. Hell of a streak. Even more amazing, I didn’t win a single frikkin hand. Not one. Nada, zip, funjis, squadush. After that I packed it up, walked back to Excalibur, put on my bathing suit, went out to the pool, grabbed a paper and a lounger and told the girl working there to bring me a rum punch and to stop back every 20 minutes. Spent the last two days of my trip in that lounger, got a nasty burn. Have never played blackjack since. (Interesting aside to this is that my brother was out there again about 2 3 years later and ran across the girl from the pool working in one of the casinos. He was talking to her and mentioned that he remembered her from the pool a few years earlier. Her reply was, “oh yeah, you’re the brother of the guy who likes rum.” Guess I made an impression) so since I gave up blackjack I had also given up AC. Slots aren’t my thing except for maybe sticking a $20 in one while waiting around and while I like craps I can’t make a day of it so I just stopped going. Then one day, about a year or so before the poker boom hit I wound up being tricked into a trip to AC. Was told we were going to Cape May for awhile as my mother wanted to see the place and then stop at one of my favorite restaurants in Ocean City for dinner. I figured I could use the day out so I went along. Well we made Cape May but the restaurant in OC was closed, it was off season, and somehow dinner wound up being in a casino in AC. Of course it goes that since we are here … As the rest of the family went off to the slots I wandered around looking for something to do and found the poker room. Said what the hell got a seat at a 2-4 limit table and have been hooked ever since.

At this time poker was dying a slow death, no one was playing, the Borgata hadn’t opened yet and most of the rooms were closing. Eventually I think only the Trop and the Taj had rooms open. Luckily my family was big Taj goers so I had no problem when I went down with them. The room was right there. A little later I started futzing around online. Opened an account on UB and started with the play chips but quickly got bored with the idiot play sine it was only match sticks so I deposited on UB and stared playing micro games. It was probably somewhere around here that I found out about Omaha. Stated playing as a break from HE and found out I enjoyed it. Was helped along by the fact I won $10 bucks on a hi hand jackpot for a K hi straight flush, Hey, I was playing a penny game at the time, $10 was a lot. So that’s probably where I first ran across Omaha. Started with the hi game. Omaha complicated enough without worrying about splits. Still prefer the hi game though no one really plays it. Everyone wants to play O8. They get excited about those half pots. In live games finding an O8 game is tough enough, don’t even think about plain Omaha, at least in AC. Used to always put my name on the list for a game when I saw it but they rarely came together. The Taj had one at 2-4 that used to gather on Fri nights but the regulars locked up their seats and you weren’t getting in. Found out the Borg used to spread one n Wed afternoons at 4-8 with a half kill but that was usually locked up by regulars also. Besides, Wed is a work day. One week on vacation I actually got into the game. As I had gone up to AC from Ocean City to play on a Wed. It was great fun but never got back into it. O8 has since become a more regular game, at least the last couple ties I was at the Borg they had a list but I was there for tourneys and so never found out whether the game was actually going or just an interest list.

So I guess I started playing Omaha online. Of course as a newbie I had the same attitude you still see in a lot of games online, that of, Oh boy, I got 4 cards, I can probably make tons of hands. It wasn’t until much later I learned how to be selective in my starting hands. Basically picked up a lot of advice from the Poker Analysis forum and by playing. The one thing about Omaha and O8 is that the variance can kill you. Add this to the fact that many low limit players play it like they are playing Hold em and it can get expensive if you get cold decked especially in pot limit games. That’s why I prefer limit at low stakes.

OK MM, you sorry you asked that question? Totally bored yet? You really want to talk O8 you should probably talk to Riggs or CK; they seem to be playing a lot of it these days. One day I’ll have to ask you about bridge. Started to learn it while in high school but never stuck with it.


Thanks for stopping by boredom central