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The Final Quiz
Over the past ten months, I’ve presented you, the reader with quizzes on many topics, from how to follow up on the turn after making a continuation bet, to how to play a big combination draw in Six Card Omaha. Next month, I’ll be starting a new series of articles about the other varieties of poker, covering a different one each time. Let’s use this last quiz to bridge the gap by looking at some games and miscellaneous topics we haven’t covered yet.
Part 1 – Omaha Eight or Better
Omaha Eight or Better is also known as Omaha Hi/Lo. It’s dealt in the same way as Omaha, the difference being that at a showdown, the pot is split in half between the best traditional poker hand, and the best Ace to Five lowball hand. Low hands are ranked by their highest card, and straights and flushes don’t count, so 6-5-4-3-2 beats 7-4-3-2-A, and both hands lose to 5-4-3-2-A (a ‘wheel’). For a low hand to qualify, it must be an 8-7-6-5-4 or lower (hence the name ‘Eight or Better’). If nobody has a low hand, the best high hand wins the entire pot.
Question 1.1
What is your number one goal in a split pot game like Omaha Eight or Better?
- To win half the pot as often as possible
- To win the whole pot
- To bluff your opponents at every opportunity
Trying to win as often as possible is a trap that a lot of inexperienced poker players fall into. If you want to win as often as possible, you should play every single hand and raise as much as possible whenever possible. Then, your opponents will either fold, or you’ll win every pot that you’re entitled to at a showdown. However, it’s obvious that you’ll lose money playing this way. It is much better to win the occasional big pot than to try to win every single one.
Another trap that beginners fall into is bluffing too much. Despite what TV shows might suggest, bluffing is just a small part of poker, and a lot of players bluff far too often. In some types of poker, just having good fundamentals can be enough to win, without ever having to bluff. Omaha Eight or Better, at least for small stakes, is such a game and in a typical game you should hardly bluff at all.
In any split pot game, whether it be Omaha Eight or Better, Badeuci, or Double Flop Hold’em, the number one goal is to win the entire pot, or ‘scoop’. The best way to do that is to start with a hand that has two-way potential, and play aggressively when you have a hand that can win both halves of the pot. In Omaha 8, the best hand to start with is A-A-2-3 double suited, which gives you a great low draw, and the aces, flush and straightening cards for high. In general, you should aim to start with similar hands and avoid those which can only win one half of the pot.
Question 1.2
I have Ah-2c-3c-6h and you have 2s-3s-9s-Js. The board is As-4c-5d-7h-Jh. What portion of the pot would you win at a showdown?
- All of it
- Two thirds
- Half
- A quarter
- None
Answer
You started with a trash hand – two mediocre low cards and two mediocre high cards, all of the same suit. The best you can expect is to make a mediocre hand, and win a mediocre portion of the pot.
However, on this occasion you got very lucky and hit the perfect flop – or did you?
For high, you use the 2-3 from your hand with the A-4-5 from the board to make a five-high straight. For low, you use the same cards to make the best possible low, 5-4-3-2-A.
I started with a co-ordinated hand, with excellent low chances, plus straight and flush cards for high. I use the 2-3 from my hand to make the same low as you, 5-4-3-2-A. However, I can make a better high hand, using the 3-6 from my hand with the 4-5-7 from the board to make a seven-high straight.
Therefore, I win the high half of the pot, and we split the low. You win a quarter of the pot – a common scenario in Omaha Eight or Better. Getting quartered is something that happens to everyone, but it will happen less often to you if you exercise proper hand selection.
Part 2 – Bankroll Management
If you play poker mainly for recreation, you don’t need a bankroll. You can play whatever stakes you can afford, and replenish your bankroll from your regular salary if necessary. However, if you intend to take poker seriously and use it to make a long-term profit, you absolutely must learn to manage your bankroll to avoid going broke. The goal is to optimise your profit potential, while lowering your ‘risk of ruin’ to an acceptable level.
Question 2.1
You’re starting out playing No Limit Hold’em cash games, and you’ve allocated yourself a bankroll of $200 to begin with. Assuming you’re a competent player, what stakes should you be playing?
- $5/$10
- $1/$2
- $0.10/$0.20
- $0.04/$0.08
A good general guideline for No Limit Hold’em cash games is that you should start out with a bankroll of twenty to thirty full buy-ins for the stakes you are playing. The bigger stakes you play, the more aggressive the game will be in general, and the bigger bankroll you will need.
$5/$10 is way too high, as you don’t have enough for a full buy-in, assuming this is a typical internet game. Similarly you only have enough for one full buy-in at $1/$2.
What about $0.10/$0.20? That’s ten full buy-ins, which might not seem like enough. However, if you’re the kind of player who can control their ego and move down in limits when necessary, you could take a shot at these stakes. However you absolutely must have the discipline to quit and drop down, and still play your best game.
For most players, $0.04/$0.08 is a better choice. That’s 25 buy-ins, which should be enough against the weak players you’ll find at these limits. If you win a little at first, you could quickly move up to the more ubiquitous $0.05/$0.10.
Don’t move up until you have proved to yourself that you can comfortably beat your current stakes, and until you have twenty to thirty buy-ins at the higher level. Following this strategy might take time, but it’s the best way to ensure that you never have to deposit again!
Question 2.2
Tony is a losing player, playing $1/$2 No Limit Hold’em. How big should his bankroll be to minimise his chances of going broke?
- $200
- $5000
- A cool million dollars
- He should have an infinite supply of cash
If you are a losing player making –EV decisions, no amount of bankroll management can save your money. The answer is D – he should have an infinite supply of money, or he will eventually go broke. Of course an alternative would be to study, learn and improve, and become a winning player. However the vast majority of your opponents will never do that.
Part 3 – Poker Probability
Learning to think about poker in terms of your equity in the pot, as opposed to just ‘I have the best hand, he has the worst’, is one of the best things you can do for your poker career (and your sanity). Thinking about equity can help you make marginal but correct calls, and it can help you to deal with bad beats, which often aren’t quite as bad as they seem.
There are innumerable websites that can perform equity calculations, or you can use a downloadable tool like PokerStove. It’s also good to know how to work out a few poker probabilities by hand.
Question 3.1
Before the flop, you have A-K, and your opponent has Q-Q. What is your equity in the pot?
- 66%
- 50%
- 43%
- 33%
This confontation is known as the ‘classic coinflip’, but it’s a common misconception that this is a 50% to 50% confrontation. The actual odds are 57% to 43% in favour of the pocket queens, so the correct answer is C.
Question 3.2
On the turn in Hold’em, you have eight outs to make the best hand. If any other card appears you lose the pot. What is your equity?
- 24.8%
- 21.1%
- 17.4%
- 8%
This is the kind of calculation you can do yourself with some basic maths. You know your two hole cards, plus the three flop cards and the turn. That’s six known cards, out of 52 in the deck. Therefore, there are 46 unknown cards remaining.
Of those 46 cards, eight will give you the best hand, and 38 won’t. Your percentage equity is therefore 8 divided by 46, or 17.4%, so the correct answer is C. You can also express the figure in odds. You have 38 losses to 8 wins, which is 38/8 odds. Dividing 38 by 8 gives you the odds in a more useable form – in this case 4.75/1. Knowing such a figure is invaluable when it comes to making marginal calls on a draw.
