| Ploppies, however, tend to think of it as treason to ever give up a hand without a fight and often chastise other players for surrendering. What's worse, since most ploppies believe that the order of the cards is sacred, they sometimes object to another player's surrender -- professing that he should've taken a card and now their flow has been insidiously corrupted. Some ploppies go so far as to leave the table after another player has just surrendered a hand. This undesirable controversy gives casino managers incentive to steer clear of the advantageous surrender option altogether -- even though many players will misuse it thereby bolstering house profits. "No Mid-Shoe Entry" signs: You don't have to be a low-stakes player to be a ploppy. It's obvious that plenty of $50 bettors never laid their eyes on a basic strategy card. One of the first things a higher-stakes ploppy often does at the table is ask for a "No-Mid Shoe" sign to keep others from jumping in and spoiling his "run". If you're not a ploppy you understand that this is utter nonsense, since preserving the order of the cards is just as likely to hurt as help. Still, casino management will often grant the ploppy his inane wish, which keeps everybody else from joining in until that shoe is over. This includes shoes that skilled players can recognize are likely to be "player friendly" from here on out. Thus, the rest of the players are hindered while ploppies are pacified to no benefit of their own.Rumor has it that Texas Hold'em originated in the Lone Star State back in the early 60s. When I began going to Vegas in the late 70s, they were already playing it there. It was a catchy concept, what with its community "flop" and all. Then, in 1982, a new breed of "flop style" game appeared in the Vegas poker rooms called "Omaha". Like Hold'em, there was a three-card flop, then a fourth "turn" card and finally the fifth "river" card. Difference was, in Omaha you had four cards in the hole. That didn't really make it a nine-card poker game, though, because you could only use 2 cards from your hand. In fact, in Omaha you must use exactly two cards from your hand -- unlike Texas Hold'em where you could use two, one or none. Having four hole cards to choose two from made the game a lot more action filled. That's because four cards can be broken up into six different pairs of hands. With 10-J-Q-K for example, you can make a hand using 10/J, 10/Q, 10/K, J/Q, J/K or Q/K. In Omaha, you actually have six Hold'em hands in one. That being true, people soon realized that if you played the game as high/low split, you could use two cards for high and two other cards to go low. Ergo, Omaha Hi/Lo Split was born. Nowadays, the most popular Omaha games are the hi/lo split variety. As with most hi/lo games played in public poker rooms, though, you must make an 8 low or lower, otherwise the high hand takes it all. What about strategy for this game? With so many different cards working so many different ways in your hand, you'd think Omaha Hi/Lo would be a nightmare to play effectively. Ironically, it's so easy to make "the nuts" (best possible hand) in this game, that somebody usually does! Consequently after all five cards are on board, you can usually just look at them and know what hand is going to win high and what the low winner will be. With so many cards out, somebody, somewhere will often make whatever the board will accommodate. Here's a "for instance". Suppose at the river the final board was: |
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