During the span of a lifetime, we are all involved in terrible, bad, ok, good, great, & excellent situations.Do you ask yourself "Why me?"; "How did we get here?" & then do you bemoan or gloat over your luck or lack of? Now you are reading this & thinking that Chewey has turned into Dr. Phil on you! I didn't come here to read the philosophy of life; I want to hear poker stories & illusions of endless glory. Here comes the hook: Omaha 8, Omaha High/Low teaches you to learn, adjust & to foresee life on the fly. What is this Omaha 8 that I speak of? Is it a city? Some 12 step program? No, it's a game.
Omaha 8 is a poker game
where you are dealt four cards & must use two from your hand & three from the community board. It plays like Texas Hold'em in that the high hand wins the pot. Ok, easy enough! Here's the hook If there is a low hand; 8 or lower; then the low splits half of the pot & half goes to the high hand. There is not always a low hand & Aces can play High or low. How does this relate to life? In Omaha8, your four-card dealt hand provides you with more combinations than Hold'em. Whether you choose to fold, call or complete a raise; the percentages/odds change with each card revealed along with the amount that you could possibly win or lose. Okay, sounds like Hold'em. Omaha8 is played mostly Limit/Structured betting & sometimes when you win a portion of the pot; you could lose because someone has the same hand as you do. In this instance, you are splitting the 1/2 of a 1/2 pot (quartered). Omaha 8 is different from Hold'em in that the combinations of hands is tripled even quadrupled sometimes. You need to be able to quickly assess how high or low your hand is & the combinations that could beat or tie you. Do you need to check? Do you want to extract an extra bet by playing possum. If you bet, when there is 3 people in the hand; will the 3rd person fold & not call? You can google Omaha8 Poker to find out more about the game.
Life is the same way, you have imperfect info. Info is always changing. Do you blindly forge ahead & not think/foresee what could be next. You can better prepare yourself for what's ahead by thinking not only about now but what the outcomes could be? Use your past experiences to guide you for the future. I still do play Texas Hold'em but not nearly as much anymore. To me; Hold'em is blah. The game now is Omaha8; it suits my personality & thinking. It will make your brain hurt in the beginning but makes for a better all-around player. I've only been playing it regularly for 1 year but have learned so much & it has helped me all around in & outside of poker.Shameless Plug: If you are in the Denver area, I invite you to come play H.O.R.S.E. /Omaha 8 with me on Wednesdays (I'm here when in town) with NPTColorado www.nptcolorado.com
My next post will be my deep runs/progress & adjustments on the fly in my first few Omaha8/b Events from Vegas (All deep runs; within the money). Arm yourself with knowledge not ignorance! Be a step ahead, not behind!
View my daily thoughts: www.twitter/cheweyLam
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