A good friend of mine who plays more Hold-Em then Omaha read my article on how often you should play a hand in Omaha. He then challenged me to calculate how often you should you play a hand in Hold- Em.

To answer this question I once again turned to Wilson's software. This time I used Turbo Texas Hold-Em and ran three different simulation for a total of 15 million hands.

In the charts below we take a look at who wins and how often they decide to play a hand. The simulations were run using a full table at a $10/$20 game with a bet and 3 raises allowed. Here is the first chart:

This average table consist of 3 tight, 4 average and 2 loose players. The "Win/(Loss)" column shows how each player fared after 5 million hands of play. The columns labeled Flop, Turn, River and End show the percentage of time each player saw that street. The End column indicates how often our players proceeded to a showdown. The last two sets of columns indicate how often a player lost and won with a pair and 2 pair. These are the most frequent hands played to a shown down.

The most common hands to loose and win with are pairs and 2 pair. Two pair in Hold-Em is a very difficult hand to get away from especially when the board is not paired.

The top two money winners above are both tight players. The 3 tight players finished in the top 4. The loose players finished last. They exhibited a dramatic and statistically significant difference in terms of money lost. Our tight players saw the flop less then 30%. At a full table that is less then 3 hands per round. This is a little more frequently then in Omaha H/L. The unknowing player may believe that since you are dealt twice as many cards in Omaha, you should be playing more hands. That is not the case. In fact it is the complete opposite. Also notice that when our tight player sticks around to see the river he will showdown 98% of the time.

In this second chart we have reduced the number of tight and average players by one. There are a few major differences here but they do not change the percentage of hands our tight player decides to play or tends to call on the river with.

loose and win the most number of hands with a pair or two pair. The loose players will see twice as many flops as the tight player and continue to loose more money.

The top money winner in the first chart is the same tight profile as the top money winner in the second chart. I point this out because this particular player won 33% more money, playing the same frequency of hands at each street, by adding two more loose players to the table!

This would indicate that the more loose players at a table the greater the winnings for the tight players. This is true because in aggregate the loose players are dumping more money. This being the case why do so many hold-em players complain when they are in a no fold-em hold-em game. One reason for the complaints is that they hate being out drawn on by a player who should have never seen the flop to begin with. Here is a tip for you. Stop complaining! Just be patient.

Continue to play your good game knowing that in the long run you will win more money. Yes there will be greater fluctuations but you are the aspiring pro who knows better.

The chart to the right shows the results from a table with all loose players.

There was no difference with the hands lost vs. the hands won and in consideration of space I left that portion of the chart off. Look at the percentage of time each player saw the flop. The average for the group is 58%. 9 out of the 10 players saw the flop more then 50% of the time. The two loosest players saw the flop 75% of the time and lost 78% of the monies lost.

Another point to notice is the number of times the players saw the river without following through to a showdown. This is an excellent indicator that the players are playing drawing hands. When they don't get there on the river they fold. Here is another tip. If you are playing in a loose game where a number of players are chasing draws, you may want to bet on the river. You may be able to steal more pots when your opponents fail to connect.

So what have we learned? Playing tight is good in both Hold-Em and Omaha. You may see the flop slightly more often in Hold-Em then in Omaha H/L even though you are dealt more cards.