Review of Winning Omaha/8 Poker

Title:

Winning Omaha/8 Poker

Author:

Mark Tenner and Lou Krieger

Publisher:

ConJelCo

Date:

2003

ISBN:

1-886070-19-9

Pages:

252

Price:

$24.95

Reviewed by Nick Christenson, npc@lvrevealed.com

May 28, 2004

Recently, there have been a relative flood of Omaha/8 books available on the market. This is a good thing, as the literature on this popular poker game has been neglected for too long. While Omaha/8 generally doesn't require the tactical sophistication of Texas Hold'em, it is a more subtle game than many people believe. Long time Omaha/8 semi-pro Mark Tenner and poker professional and author Lou Krieger attempt to unlock some of the mysteries of this game in Winning Omaha/8 Poker.

The book begins with a history of Omaha poker, at least some of which was new to me, and then it moves right in to an explanation of the game. Besides providing a reasonable introduction, this section is replete with well-worn poker platitudes. If the reader isn't familiar with poker and poker literature, though, these could be very helpful. The veteran Omaha/8 player and poker book reader can safely skip this section. The information here isn't quite enough to get true novices to be able to safely navigate the waters of their first Omaha/8 session in a public card room, but a poker player who hasn't played much (or any) Omaha/8 before will probably find it at least somewhat useful. This is all followed by an explanation of some key concepts, such as getting counterfeited and quartered, along with some basic poker math.

Next we get in to the bulk of the book which analyzes play pre-flop, on the flop, on the turn, and on the river. The book provides an interesting mixed bag here. In my opinion beginning Omaha/8 players may have a tough time understanding many of the strategies mentioned here, and old hands at this game who are well-studied and have spent time away from the table thinking about how to play will probably have covered most of this ground already. At the same time, even though they may be confused in places, beginners are likely to be able to take away more than a few of the key concepts of the game, and I expect they would be able to understand even more if they reread the book after gaining some experience at the table. I found many of the more interesting concepts in the book to not be as fully developed as I'd like, but I'd guess that few players will have already thought through everything the authors have to say.

The book concludes with some thoughts on playing poker online and some suggestions about the mind set of a winning player. These sections are largely afterthoughts, but some readers will find some value here, and there's isn't much anyone will find objectionable. There is an index, but, honestly, I didn't find it very useful in finding passages for which I was looking.

I would say that this book is focused squarely on the intermediate Omaha/8 player, and it provides a great deal of advice that such a person would likely find valuable. The main fault I find with the book is that just when the authors start to discuss an interesting area they move on without fully developing it. In these spots adding just a little more in the way of explanation, or providing a few additional examples to show how a subtle change in the cards in one's hand or on the board can drastically alter the nature of an Omaha/8 situation would be of great benefit. Also, there are a few places in the book where I disagree with the authors about some notion or another, but rarely do I disagree violently.

Winning Omaha/8 Poker isn't the best book on the market on this game, but it is by no means the worst. It has its faults, but I think a reasonable segment of the poker book buying public is likely to get their money's worth out of it. Anyone who has a basic understanding of Omaha/8 poker who believes they need to think about the game at a deeper level will likely benefit from this book.

Capsule:

Winning Omaha/8 Poker is a reasonable choice for intermediate Omaha/8 players trying to obtain a better grasp of the game. There are places in the book where the authors' analysis misses a chance to provide real insight, and there are many other places where I wished the authors would explore a situation more thoroughly, but many players are likely to derive significant benefit from this book.