If you ask anyone at a Chicago Charitable Games event, or at the local casinos who knows me they will tell you that Pot Limit Omaha is my favorite game.  There is nothing better than getting twice as many cards as Texas Holdem, and there is a heck of a lot more play after the flop, and you rarely get the blind play of Texas holdem where you wait and hope for good hands.  In Omaha any hand can be a great hand.

With that being said I wanted to talk about an article I read a few days back about re-draws in pot limit Omaha.  This is what separates Omaha players from Holdem players.  In Omaha you can flop the nuts and actually be behind in the hand.  If you flop the nut straight, and your opponent flops an opened straight and flush draw, you are behind in the hand 55%-45%.  This happens when your opponent has all the drawing cards and your hand cannot improve.  Makes your hand tighten up a bit when you are betting pot, and getting popped right back (also a pet peeve when players say re-pot, its just another pot size bet) on the flop.  Thats when the beginning Omaha players stop and think what could he have that would constitute another pot size bet, and what should I do in this situation.  I always try to put my opponent on what I would consider a dream hand for the flop on board and then work backwards from there.  This means that in the hand where I flop the nut straight, I am thinking if I could pick four cards what would they be, and at that point that is what I give my opponent.  Then I have to decide what card can come on the turn and improve my hand OR what re-draws do I have?  If I have no re-draws (meaning I have the best hand I can make after the flop) then I am going to be careful making any more bets in this hand for two reasons.  Reason #1 for not betting anymore is that my hand cannot improve, and any flush or bigger straight card that comes out is going to make my hand second best, and me a big loser.  Reason #2 for not betting anymore is that my opponent might have flopped the same hand as me, but with bigger draws, which means at best I am getting my money back, and at worst he wins the hand because one of his draws hits.

Pot Limit Omaha is all about your draws and re-draws.  In Omaha the nuts change from Flop to Turn to River, and you can see it in the players faces who had the re-draws and who flopped the best hand and had to dodge two bullets (which could technically be half the deck) to win the hand.  The best hand on the flop will rarely be good on the river.  This fact is something that kills new Omaha players.  Especially when said newbie flops top set and bets it the whole way only to find out they got third in the hand, and a lot less bank roll.

Drawing cards, and having your hand fit to the flop and the possibility of straights and flushes, or the possibility of a full house is what makes Omaha players foam at the mouth when playing.  Sometimes your on the winning end of receiving those drawing cards on the turn and river, and other times you are the one trying to fight off all on comers in order to win the hand.  Either way Omaha is not so much about what you have, but what hand you can make.  As a good friend once told me in Omaha “build a pot, make a hand” (Johnny Draws).

Remember my fellow poker players that Omaha is a game that is played after the flop, and is determined by what hands you can make, not what you have. Playing Omaha and flopping hands that have no chance to improve is like playing a game of Russian Roulette by yourself.  No one else is going to eat that bullet for you, and you are eventually going to take one to the head.  So please please please play hands that have at least a possibility to improve, and remember that two pair, sets and the sucker end of straights and flushes are rarely good in Omaha.

You heard it here first folks.  Chicago Charitable Games and its hosting charities are going to be offering a $3 Max Rake (that is the lowest in the state and possibly the lowest in Vegas or Reno or anywhere else live poker is played) for its Limit Holdem Games.  But wait thats not all… for a limited time only limit holdem poker players playing in a cash game will be eligible to win FREE Single Table Tournaments every hour.  Every hour in a Limit Cash Game the dealer will high card for the table, the poker player with the highest card will win a FREE $25 Single Table Tournament.

This is a deal that poker players cannot pass up.  FREE Single Table Tournaments as well as a $3 max rake for limit cash game players.  I can hear shouts from the poker player packed crowds yelling ” how can you stay in business” giving away all of these poker player promotions.  Chicago Charitable Games is working hard to stay on top of the chraity poker scene in Illinois, and we hope that our players will reward that top spot with telling all of your poker player friends about how great CCG is and that is is the only place to play charity poker in Illinois!

The Limit Cash Game Giveaways start this weekend June 4th at the Odeum.  Come out and see what Chicago Charity Poker is all about!