Last time I left you with a challenge. You were to put together nine hands that would always lose to a player holding As-2a- 3d-Af and as a second challenge a player holding [As]-[2h]-[Kd]-[Ac].
The chart above displays the solution I developed. If you have another solution I would be interested in hearing from you.
The top part of the chart show results for "You" the first hand displayed. Please note that in both instances "You" scoop the pot 100% of the time meaning you win the high half of the pot 100% and you win the low half 100% of the time there is a low.
The A-2-3-A will form a low and therefore win it 70.2% of the time. The A- 2-K-A will form and win the low 78.79% of the time. This is true even though you are holding only two low cards as compared to the three of the previous hand. The difference, being we are placing an additional low card in the unseen deck while removing a high card.
Finally the bottom part of the chart displays the 12 remaining cards in the deck after all the hands have been dealt. These 12 cards may combine, when disregarding order, to form 495 unique 5 card boards. The only player with a flush draw is player 8 who is holding the eight and deuce of diamonds. There are however only two possible diamonds that may appear on the board. There are four spades that may appear on the board against the A-2-3-A but no player holds 2 spades in their hand. To make a straight against the A-2-3-A a player would have to hold an A-2, 2-6 or 6-7. None of the players in either scenario possesses such holdings.
How rare would it be to encounter either of these scenarios in real life? Very rare! It would be even rarer for every one to stay with the hands to the river. The purpose of this exercise was to give you a feel for the fact that in Omaha H/L there almost always may be another hand out there that can win half the pot.
This exercise could not be duplicated in hold-em. You could never be dealt a hand that guarantees you will win the entire pot 100% of the time.
A number of fellow poker players have asked if I would express their concerns about the chips used by casinos in various poker games. Since it is also a pet peeve of mine I decided to put it in print and hopefully poker room managers will take note.
If you ever played in an $8/16 game here in Vegas you have undoubtedly experienced the problem. Mountains of chips go into the pot. If it is hold-em it is not too bad as there are few split pots. I am also told that hold-em players enjoy the experience of having mountains of chips stacked in front of them. Omaha H/L or any other split pot most players seek a faster game. They want the hand to be over and the dealer to deal the next hand as soon as possible especially if they did not see the flop. Oddly enough it is not just the players who would like a faster game.
The dealers would prefer a faster game. The more hands they deal per hour the more tokes they receive per hour. Even stranger the house earns more with a faster game. The more hands dealt the higher the drop from the rake. So why do casinos still use $1 chips in split pot games?
Some casinos use $2 chips or even $3 chips? They do not use them in a $2/4 game. Not for use in a $4/8 either. I know of one casino that has $3 chips but they are only used for the drop! Other casino's that have $2 chips only used them in $6/12 games. You can not bring them to the $4/8 or even the $2/4 game.
Three $2 chips do add up to $6. Six of them add up to $12. Some have begun using them in the $8/16 games. Four $2 chips add up to $8. Don't three $1 chips and one $5 add up to $8? In either case you are putting in 4 chips. But wait, one $5 and a single $1 also add up to $6 and that is only 2 chips and not three. I once bought a rack of $10 chips to play with at a $15/30 hold-em game and was promptly told "They don't play at this table, they're for the $30/$60 game." Isn't that kind of like Macy's saying we don't accept $20 bills in this store!
The way I see it casinos should match the chip size to the lower limit of the game. If you deal a $4/8 game, then play it with $4 chips. Better yet why deal a $4/8 Omaha game in the first place? Change it to a $5/10 game and most casinos will automatically have the proper chips.
Some casinos in Arizona and California have adopted their chips to the game and the games do move along at a faster pace. Some of these casinos will keep off size chips to facilitate the drop. It is a win/win/win situation. So what is taking so long?
So what have we learned? It is possible to deal a hand in Omaha H/L that is the absolute nuts. Don't count on it happening very often though. Next time I will begin a series of articles looking at the vernacular of poker supplemented with match hands.
