Regarded as a game for degenerate gamblers only, six-card Omaha offers skilled players a huge edge over the inexperienced. Ben Wilson explores the highs and lows of the six-card circuit.
A high-octane version of the traditional game of four-card Pot-limit Omaha (PLO), six-card PLO is a much faster paced game. Woe betide any hapless Hold'Em specialists who wander into this game without doing their homework as they will quickly end up broke, usually while wearing a very shell-shocked expression. Some of the variance involved in this game is huge, but then so are the pots and the action is fast and furious.
“Six-card Omaha isn’t really a recognised game in that it’s not a World Series event and I’ve never seen a six-card Omaha poker tournament in my life and I’ve been around for a while,” confirms keen Omaha player and Hendon mobster Joe Beevers. “People like to choose it in a Dealer’s Choice game because some people think that it’s a good gambling game, and it can be.”
In addition to being played as part some nasty Dealer’s Choice action, six-card PLO can also be played individually as cash game, either in the traditional format of Omaha-hi or Omaha hi-lo. Played just like Hold’em with the same hand rankings, both the high and the hi-lo versions require the use of two of your six hole cards to make the best hand.
Adds Joe: “Six-card Omaha hi-lo is much more of a trappy game where you are looking for people who don’t really understand what they are doing to make mistakes and give you their money, whereas six-card Omaha-hi is a nut peddling game and people that play it play it because they think that it’s just a gambling game.”
SWINGS AND ROUNDABOUTS
To the uninitiated, six-card PLO can look like it is played by degenerates eager to get their money in the middle and take huge flips with a minimal edge, and indeed, sometimes it can be. Even if you’re used to playing four-card Omaha and you play online or play a lot of Omaha cash games in your local casino, playing in a six-card game can make your head spin. Four-card Omaha is a lot more of a poker game, whereas six-card is a game where you draw to and peddle the nuts. But is it a game for degenerates only?
Cardiff-based poker professional Neil Shellard doesn’t think so and he has been playing poker for four years in a town where six-card Omaha is the big money game of choice for many casino regulars.
“I’m not a degenerate gambler as such, though it is a gambling game,” says Neil. “You’ve got to remember that as much as you might not gamble in the game, other players will gamble with you, so if you’re running bad and your hands are getting crunched by the gambling players then there’s not a great deal you can do. The best you can do as a poker player is to get your money in ahead or with a good percentage with the maths in your favour [but sometimes] it doesn’t matter, you can do that ten times over and still get beat, especially playing a game like six-card because of the drawing nature of the game.”
SIX-APPEAL
So what’s the attraction of a game where the bad players have more chance to hit their draws and suck out on you? Well, it’s one of the most fun games that you will ever play. If you love poker and enjoy a bit of a gamble then you will enjoy yourself playing six-card Omaha – you are going to see lots of hands and you are going to see lots of flops, which is a stark contrast to Texas Hold’Em where you will be folding a large percentage of the time.
Generally bad players are bad because they chase their draws and playing SCO they will always have something to chase. Neil Shellard again: “Now, you’ve got to understand that you are going to get outdrawn some of those times, that IS the game. Every time you sit down and play six-card there’s going to be ten times in the evening, maybe more, where your nuts gets beaten. But as long as you’ve got those players making the mathematically incorrect calls and chasing their draws you are making the right decisions.”
ENJOY RESPONSIBLY
As with all forms of gambling, poker is one where you should only play with what you can afford to lose. If played responsibly then games like six-card Omaha and other Dealer’s Choice poker variants – as well as being a lot of fun – can improve your skills as a poker player. In addition to enhancing your board reading abilities, six-card PLO also makes you play the streets and think several moves ahead as the texture of the board can change quickly. Any game that makes you consider bet sizing and controlling the size of the pot can only improve your skills as a poker player and provide you with more options than just pulling the all-in trigger.
So what are you waiting for? Come on and get down with the six-ness…
SIXY POKER – TOP TIPS
The players may be crazier, but there are still several key skills essential to success at the six-card tables:
Reading the board: You need to be able to read the board, know what the nuts is and what cards improve the nuts. You have to work out what hands are out there and what your outs are against these hands.
Hand selection: The key to success at six-card is choosing what hand to enter a pot with. Starting hand requirements should include a lot of connecting cards – suited Aces and high ranking cards are always better than low cards, you are more likely to make top set with a high pair and also be drawing to the higher end of straights and the nut flush. Unlike Texas Hold ‘Em, unimproved over-pairs are unlikely to be the best hand on the river so uncoordinated hands like unsuited Ace, Ace, X, X, X, X with low or no straight draws maybe worth a call in late position, but don’t get carried away and commit too much money with them pre-flop. Rundown hands like Ace, King, Queen, Jack, Ten, Nine down to Jack, Ten, Nine, Eight, Seven, Six (you can also include the odd gap connector) double or triple suited give you a lot of options on the flop; You will usually be drawing to either the high end of the straight or have a huge wrap (meaning you can several different cards to complete your straight rather than just a gut-shot or an open-ender). Rundown hands with big suited pairs in are also great starting hands but be wary if you are in a pot and are not drawing to the nut flush – odds are someone will be so you can count your two or three suited cards as blockers rather than outs.
Avoid hands with more than four suited cards in unless they are coordinated high cards, and do not under any circumstances play a hand with three of a kind or quads in (unless you are in the blinds and can get in cheap).
Don’t draw to the non-nuts: Unlike Texas Hold’Em, a 10-high flush is unlikely to be the best hand at showdown in a six-card game, nor is the bottom end of the straight. Flopping a hand like top set or the nut straight with no improvements (no chance of your hand getting better on later streets) can see you trapped into committing a lot of money to the pot when you are a massive underdog. A hand like top set and the nut flush draw is a huge favourite over the naked nut straight.
Be aware: In a full-handed six-card game (played with seven people) 42 of the 52 cards are in play, with each player having 15 possible hand combinations available from their starting six cards – that’s 90 different possible hand combinations in play against you at any one time. If the board pairs or the flush is out, odds are that someone already has the nuts.
Money management: Managing your money is an important skill for any poker player, however, in PLO proper bankroll management is not just important, it is essential. It’s a high variance game so you really need to be able to deal with the swings. Playing with an inadequately sized bankroll will see you crunched by the variance.
WHERE TO PLAY
So where can you get your fix of the six? Unlike its four-card PLO brother, the six-card version has yet to make it to the cyber-felt, so it’s strictly live play only. Grosvenor Casinos offer it as part of a Dealer’s Choice game but the only locations where pure six-card PLO seems to popular are Cardiff (mainly 6-card Hi in the Grosvenor), Swansea (both 6-card Hi and Hi-Lo in Aspers and the Grosvenor) and in Birmingham. There were rumours of a six-card Omaha tournament up in Glasgow, but not any time recently. Of course it may well be being played in a host of shady spielers and smoky home games up and down the country so it can only be a matter of time before it takes over… |
