Pot-Limit Omaha Poker

• #18 in Best Poker Books

12 Reviews

Sort by: Most Helpful ▲ Date Rating

I just got this book a week ago and have spent more than ten hours reading it and taking notes. I'm blown away. I actually was a little afraid to come on here and tell others how good the book is, but I realized there was no need to worry. Only the most studious and stable players will get a lot out of this book. Most players, even the ones who read this book, will continue to play naked ace-deuces in pot-limit Omaha hi/lo, and call off their entire stacks with only a low draw. So I don't care if a few people get educated by studying the game of Omaha through this book. For every one person who really studies this book and improves, there will be another hundred who couldn't care less. I suppose all poker games are like that, especially in online play.
I should mention that I bought this book, thinking it would cover Omaha high only. But the pot-limit Omaha/8 discussion, which only covers about 50 pages of the book, is worth the purchase price in and of itself. The Omaha high discussion in this book has already been seen, for the most part, in previous books.

Jeff Hwang has written the most helpful and insightful book on Omaha poker available. I also purchased Bob Ciaffone's 'Omaha Poker' and 'Pot Limit & No Limit Poker' by Reuben and Ciaffone. All three of these cash-game oriented books are valuable additions to a well rounded poker players library. However, Hwang is far more systematic in his presentation of key ideas, his prose is lucid, and his insights are gold. Those insights have provided 90% of improvement in my game that I have gained by reading these books.

After a brief intro, Hwang jumps right into his core thesis: you only want to get involved with hands that have big play potential. Big play hands have structures that allow you to bet strongly when flopping the nuts with redraws to even better nuts by the time you reach the river. He then goes on to map out all of the types of big play potential hand structures in a clear and systematic way. While the big play notion, and the importance of counting nut outs have been made before, the systematic and lucid presentation in 'Pot-Limit Omaha Poker' really make it shine.

If you are hold em player who is branching out into Omaha you should buy this book. If you don't, please invite me to your game.

I am a semi-pro player out of Florida and I will confess that Omaha has been my weakest game since I began playing. I never really got the gist of it. But I bought this book about 2 weeks ago and I must say, the ideas, topics and overall presentation of this book were so simply presented, that I will swear that my game has improved significantly.

Applying these strategies is a bit tricky, however the excercises and out counting regognition teqchniques used in this book are what will improve your game. If you study these guidlines your game will improve dramatically.

This book shows you betting patterens, real situation semi-bluffing techniques and a ton more. If you are really interested in playing Omaha read this book.

P.S. There are additionally chapters covering Omaha hi/lo that are staggeringly informative.

Hope this helps any aspiring pros, or anyone wanting to improve their game.

very detail-oriented and specific book about winning concepts and applications. easy to follow.

amazing value for the price.

almost too good.

I don't know what Bob Ciaffone could have read to call it "very accurate technically" but it must have been a pre-printing proof of some kind. it could not possibly have been an actual physical book from the first printing.

There may be great material here, but it is seriously damaged by poor editing (e.g. a whole paragraph repeated out of place on page 88/89) and the apparent LACK of technical review.

As for the Quiz on page 118, step 3, neither choice is even remotely acceptable. When that trey of diamonds hits the board, you MUST call the floor manager, show the same card from your hand, and insist that every chip in the pot go back to the player who put it in. Then, get a new deck (and probably a new dealer), and you STILL need to reconsider whether you ever want to play another hand in that card room. OBVIOUSLY one of those cards was not printed according to the author's intent.

I don't think there have been blocks larger than about a dozen pages without SOMETHING that any decent technical reviewer would have flagged.

The editor of this book should be ashamed. The technical reviewers, if in fact there were any, should be terminated. And the author should seriously consider shopping for a new publisher.

The "Poker Boom" has rushed yet another unready book into print. Yes, this book probably stands head and shoulders above many dozens of poker books *unworthy* of having been published at all, but we the buyers should send the publishers a message that shoddy production is not acceptable either.

I'm barely even halfway through, but it would take a minimum of a revised edition to earn more stars. There's probably five-star quality material in here, but you practically need a pickaxe to mine for it.

The definitive book on Omaha Poker. If you read this it will improve your game, period. More than just a guide to starting hands and recommended plays, Mr. Hwang provides insight into the Omaha players state of mind. With the knowledge presented in a well thought out and easy to understand format, Pot Limit Omaha Poker is a must for any player's library. Patience, aggression, and the information presented here are enough for anyone to become a winning player.

This is great instructional and very practical book regarding Omaha. Hopefully the author is correct with the thought that Omaha will continue to become more popular. He does a nice job mixing up mathematical analysis and other topics such as bankroll management, etc. The author who has written for Motley Fool previously does a very nice job. Over time this will be considered a required reading for the Omaha player.

I play PL08 for a living and I have to say this book refocused me on some of the concepts I kept forgetting.

A phenomenal work and a must read.

Echoing the sentiments of another reviewer -- I would not want to be playing Omaha against anyone who has this book in his or her arsenal. This is currently THE book on Omaha, but as was mentioned before, you will only get out of it what you put into it. The amount of detail contained within will probably be lost on most players, especially the uber-in-depth look at the straight draws (holy cow!). This book has improved my game immensely, and will most likely do the same for you.

Ciaffone's Omaha Poker is a very thin book, but in the content that is there, it is very useful. It is low on examples, or at least in-depth examples. Sklansky's stuff repeats a lot of the standard theory of poker, which is good if you haven't read all of his other books.

This book takes the info from both styles, and combines them, so you get the theory of pot odds and the like, mixed with strategy, and then example hands with discussions.

I found the most useful strategy part the limit omaha hi/lo section, as I had read the least on that prior to this book.

As many reviews mention, there are errors in the examples in the book, but you would have to be a moron not to realize they are errors. They have offered corrections for these for free online, and usually you can look at them and know what they intended regardless of the error.

Are you an Holdem player who want's to understand Omaha? Well, this book is for you. I was such a player and didn't understand Omaha. Now I understand it better and even if I don't play it very much it also improved mu understanding of Holdem. Buy this book and you won't regret.

This book gives interesting insights and pretty detailed discussion of a few subjects. He spends a lot of time on which straight generating hands are best (rundowns, two gaps, etc.) and which are most vulnerable to domination, and a lot of time discussing the vulnerability of certain very good LOOKING hands, like under full (66 on 996 board).

For the very deep stacked among us, this is decent stuff to consider. But realistically in most Omaha games, the finer points of huge versus big hands aren't so applicable. He also gives very little guidance on opening hand standards, and many of his general discussions lack depth or variety of perspective.