Back in the late 90s, Dr. Ed Hustinson came up with a "point count" system for starting hand selection in Omaha Hi-Lo games. The idea is actually a pretty sound one: to create statistically-derived value for both high and low possibilities in different starting hands, based on their expected profitability in the average casual game.

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The point count method first identifies whether your hand qualifies as a "high only" hand. The criteria for this is naturally pretty strict; with 4 cards that are 10 or above required along with some other required features like a pair and two suited cards or two pair or double-suited unpaired cards. If your hand isn't high-only, then it needs to go through the full point-counting process to determine its strength.

Step 1 of the Omaha-Hi Lo Point Counting System
Take the two lowest cards in your hand and assign points based on the chart below:
A-2 = 20 points
A-3 = 17 points
A-4 = 13 points
A-5 = 10 points
2-3 = 15 points
2-4 = 12 points
3-4 = 11 points
4-5 = 8 points

Step 2 of the Omaha-Hi Lo Point Counting System
Assess only the remaining two cards that are not the cards used in step one. In other words, if you have A22X, then you don't assign points for the 2 at this stage.)

Any 3 = 9 points
Any 4 = 6 points
Any 5 = 4 points
Any Jack, Queen or King = 2 points
Any 6 or 10 = 1 point

Step 3 of the Omaha-Hi Lo Point Counting System
Extra points are now awarded for any pairs. If you have a third card that matches the pair, then you should only assign half the points noted

Pair of Aces = 8 Points
Pair of Kings = 6 Points
Pair of Queens = 5 points
Pair of Jacks = 2 points
Pair of Tens, Fours or Threes = 1 point
Pair of Twos = 3 points

Step 4 of the Omaha-Hi Lo Point Counting System
Finally, you take the suitedness of the cards into account. It's important to note that if you have three cards of the same suit, then you can only assign half the score given. Four cards of the same suit mean that no points are assigned at all. If your hand is double suited then assign points for both suits.

Ace + = 4 points
King + = 3 points
Queen or Jack + = 2 points
Eight, Nine or 10 + = 1 point

Finally, you total up the scores and decide whether to play based on these two simple rules:

20 Points or more (or high only) = Play This Hand
30 Points or more = Consider Raising With This Hand

This system is good for beginners who want to play a more mathematically-included game while they get a better understanding of the more psychological and esoteric aspects of Omaha Hi-Lo, especially because of its strict rules regarded high hands. Too many players that are new to Omaha Hi-Lo play far too many high hands.

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Frankly, it seems that Hutchinson’s system is a little too complex for ease of use at online poker tables, especially with the fast pace of today’s games. What does very well is to show that a good low hand is often determined by the accompanying cards and the amount they assist.

One of the most important factors in no-limit hold 'em games is also one of the most overlooked: the number of chips each player has. The size of one's stack greatly affects the strategy they'll use to approach the table. For instance, the amount a person buys in for is often a big clue about how well that person plays. If you see someone buying in for a small amount, they're either very confident in their skills or the opposite — they don't want to risk much money at all.

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(Before we go further, let's clarify how we're discussing small and large stakes. A small stack in this case usually features 40 or fewer big blinds while a large one will feature over 100 big blinds. Anywhere in the middle would be a medium stack, of course.)

The most important thing about the stack sizes of your opponents is how they'll affect their implied odds at any given time. If you're not familiar with the term, "implied odds" basically states the amount that you can expect to win in the future if you make a strong hand, taking into account the odds of hitting said hand."

You're holding 6c5c before the flop. As far as suited connectors go you could do a lot better, and the fact is that you're not going to be hitting a strong hand on the flop, like a straight or trips. However, you do have a pretty good chance of hitting a flush or straight draw on the flop, and that could win big. To win a lot of money with this draw, which may or may not finish, you need to call a bet on the flop and see the turn and the river to get the final card you'll need to make that straight or flush. If you hit a strong hand, you will want to bet a lot when you have the strong hand.

Now, if your stake size is small, you really can't expect to win much if you chase this draw. Hands like 6c5c are speculative and you'll not have the odds on your side to make it worth the relative drain on your stack size to be worth it. Mind you, when you've got a larger stack, then you can definitely benefit from these riskier plays because you might lose only 1% of your stack instead of 25% or more.

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Stack sizes do more than just increase the value of speculative hands. They also tend to make the game much more psychological. Bluffing becomes a more valuable tool when people have larger stacks and you can threaten a much larger amount of money in relation to the pot when people have a lot of chips. However, just as bluffing becomes more valuable, marginal hands lose some relative value. Top pair is not going to get paid off often when large stacks because hands like middle pair are not going to throw in a lot of money in relation to the pot.  Large stacks mean that fewer hands go to a showdown, and the ones that do are much more likely to involve powerful hands like straights, flushes, and sets.

South Korea
Video footage of a group of monks drinking, smoking and playing high-stakes poker has caused a massive commotion in the country and now six senior monks from the nation's largest Buddhist sect have offered up their resignations. The monks are members of the Jogye order, which has 10 million followers. Thanks to some spectacularly lousy timing, the scandal broke just days before a national holiday to celebrate Buddha’s birth.

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The gaggle of monks had gotten together at a luxury lakeside hotel, where a group of religious leaders had gathered together for a revered monk's memorial service. Apparently, they decided a wake was in order and they dove in wholeheartedly. Gambling is illegal in South Korea unless it occurs in a casino, and these monks weren’t playing for prayer beads: there was more than $900,000 bet during their stunning 13-hour game.

The head monk of the Jongye order, who goes by the single name of Seongho, apologized to the people in a statement that was translated by the UK's Guardian newspaper. "We deeply apologize for the behavior of several monks in our order … The monks who have caused public concern are currently being investigated and will be punished according to Buddhist regulations as soon as the truth is verified by the prosecution."

It's assumed that a fellow monk secretly filmed the shenanigans, but there has been no official disclosure on who was responsible for the leak.

Las Vegas
Local legend Jackie Gaughan got a profile in the Associated Press recently and the spotlight they shined on the 91 year-old serves as a handy reminder of that city's history. Twice a day, Jackie sits down at a poker table at the El Cortez, the downtown casino he has nurtured and championed for five decades, and he stays in every hand he's dealt. He may lose more than he wins, but at one time, Gaughan owned a third of the downtown area of the city, including resorts and real estate holdings.

Gaughan is part of a group of people who are trying to revitalize the once-vibrant downtown area and it looks like they're already made some progress. El Cortez Executive Vice President Alex Epstein is a diehard Las Vegan and lover of its nostalgic heart and she's taken a lot of cues from Jackie and his love of how Vegas was. Despite Gaughan's retirement, he's inspired events such as Vegas StrEATS (held every second Saturday in a plaza named after the man) and the founding of Downtown Cares.

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"I'm crazy about the history, and I love the fact that we're living and breathing it down here," Alex Epstein told the press while taking about Jackie. "Even as progressive as we're trying to be and as much as we're trying to be a part of all the changes going on in East Fremont, it really is the last bastion of true vintage Vegas."

There are plenty of deep strategy articles on sites like this that explain the world of Omaha to players like you, but let's be honest: sometimes you want to dive in and play, and you just want a few pointers to help you find your way. I understand that impulse completely and that's why I've created this quick list of tips that can help you take on other newcomers more effectively.

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First: Omaha Is A Game Of The Nuts. We repeat that constantly on this site, but you should make sure that you're always playing for the best hand possible at any given time and if you can't make it (or get very close) when the flop hits, then you need to fold and walk away. Stay focused on the "nut" possibility. Always know what the three best hands will be regarding what cards are on the table.

Secondly: If you're holding two pair or three of a kind, you're probably not going to win. Normally these hands would be considered pretty solid but not in Omaha, as most players will share a similar hand. You’re better off folding and holding out for a better hand.

Third: You should never rise before the flop unless you have Aces or Kings. Another scenario for a raise before the flop would be if you were un-raised on the button with a strong hand that features strong suited connectors and multiple outs.

Fourth: Remember that even with the entire math involved, poker is a game of psychology! Study your opponents religiously! The best time is perhaps when you are not involved in the hand. Look for any signs that may give you an advantage. It could be something as simple as a hand motion to the face or a kink in the neck, but you will only benefit if you really study.

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Finally, make sure that you're patient when you play. Omaha poker is stressful and players will often become very impatient and make mistakes. Your job is to be patient and wait for the right time to make your move. It’s almost like a baseball team that is losing by a few runs; if you’re patient and execute well you will eventually get back into the game and even win.

In his book The Theory Of Poker, David Sklansky posits that you make money when your opponents play differently than they would if they could see your cards. This "fundamental theorem of poker" means that if you bluff and your opponent folds their better hand, you win. If you can get your opponent to give you more money when they've got improper odds, you win. It seems fairly obvious, but it's still a challenge to properly maximize your money when you're holding a big hand in limit hold 'em.

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Traditional poker wisdom says it fairly plainly: raise your big hands before the flop. However, this frequently leads more skittish players to fold and thus ends up with you holding just the blinds or maybe one or two smaller bets that ended up in the pot before you made your play. You should instead consider checking or limping in before the flop to get other players to commit.

By checking, you immediately create deception in regards to the cards that you're holding and that increases the likelihood of getting paid off by second best hands. This also keeps the pot smaller and makes it possible to lull other players into calling with improper odds. These two factors are closely related, since it's obvious that players who call your bets with the second best hand are making a mistake, but the second reason is directly concerned with pot odds. Are these hands getting the correct odds to call and see the next card? If so, then you haven't actually induced a mistake, which is what you want to do.

Let's break down a hand so you can understand how you can best benefit and unveil Sklansky's theorem in full force. You're in the big blind with pocket rockets and a middle position player limps in. The guy after him also limps in and is followed by the button and the small blind. If you raised and all three players called with a flop like 9h4hTd, you might think you are still in the lead but this allows the middle position player to build two pair between the flop and the turn.

This might look like another suck-out, but the middle position player had odds that allowed him to chase. When you lead going into the flop, the pot had 11 small bets; hence the middle position player getting 11 to 1 pot odds to chase two pair or trip 9s. He's got five possible cards to improve and that's going to happen 10.64% of the time on the turn. The middle position player is actually correct to call your initial bet and certainly the button's raise. On the turn, the pot has nine big bets and the middle position player gets 9 to 1 pot odds to call your lead bet. He knows that he's going to improve 10.87% of the time on the river. This means his odds to improve are 8.2 to 1, giving the correct pot odds to chase on the turn. Raising preflop, as traditional wisdom suggests, led to a situation in which that middle position player gets correct odds to chase with only second pair and a bad kicker.

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According to Sklansky's fundamental theorem of poker, you make money when opponents make mistakes; hence you make money by keeping the pot small initially and then leading him into a situation where he only has 6 to 1 odds with an 8.4 to 1 chance to make the hand he needs to win. Yes, you make money when the pot is large, but you don't need to tip your hand immediately.

There are two ways in which you're going to find yourself in prolonged heads-up play: you'll either be at the end of a tournament and you're battling the one person standing between you and victory, or you're actually engaging in a heads-up tournament. Many poker players and writers feel that heads-up poker play is the most visceral, "true" version of the game, and it's hard to deny that. Let's take a look at some things that change when you're playing in heads-up versus poker against multiple opponents.

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First of all: you're going to need to be more aggressive and broad with your hand selection. Don't wait for big hands, and do your best to not let the gap between you and your opponent affect your play. Unless you both receive a pair at the same time (and that never happens,) you should have a decent pre-flop chance of winning. Even when you're behind, the odds are going to let you have a 40% chance when you have the lesser hand.

With preflop domination off the table for the most part, what matters when you're playing in heads-up play? Two things factor into your pre-flop play: your position and the pot odds. Heads-up produces an odd situation regarding position. The Button is also the Small Blind so the Big Blind is therefore out of position since the Button is always the prime position. However, before the flop, it is the Button who is first to play, being the player immediately to the left of the Big Blind. After the flop, it is the Big Blind who plays first to ensure the Button is last to act.

The importance of position means that if a player is out of position, they should be trying to end the hand with a sizable raise early on if they've got reasonable strength, otherwise they're at the mercy of the button. If you are the button, it's almost always the right play to at least call the Big Blind regardless of your cards.

Pot odds dictate that it's going to cast you $X to enter the action and with three times that amount already in the pot, you're going to be in the right, even if the cards you're holding wouldn't ordinarily justify a call on their own.

It's important that you make sure that you mix up your play as well. You should sometimes call and other times raise with medium to poor hands before the flop. You should sometimes call and other times raise with strong hands before the flop. You have to keep your opponents guessing at all times by mixing up the play.

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In the end, a heads-up match is going to be settled when two strong hands meet head-on. This is why many people think that luck is the biggest factor in heads-up play, but the fact is that a lot of maneuvering and strategy goes into every hand that takes place before the final confrontation. Make sure that you're in the best position possible with good poker strategy.

Australia
Despite the popularity of poker down under, major events have always been rather shy about diving into the Australian poker scene. That is, until this past week when the World Series of Poker organization announced that they've entered a multi-year agreement with Australia’s Crown Melbourne Casino.  The first fruits of their labors, the World Series of Poker Asia-Pacific (or WSOP APAC) is going to take place a year from now, April 4-15, 2013 at Crown Melbourne and is going to feature five WSOP gold bracelet events.

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"Our goal is to establish the worldwide grand slam of poker and use our platform to elevate the game through a series of major championships," said WSOP Executive Director Ty Stewart in a press release. "With WSOP Las Vegas growing annually and WSOP Europe poised for long-term success after five years, the time is right to turn our attention to the dynamic poker scene in Asia and Australia. Given Crown’s success with the ‘Aussie Millions Poker Championship’, we couldn’t ask for a better partner than Crown to establish the Asia-Pacific’s definitive poker festival."

Australia’s poker boom kicked off back in 2005, when Melbournian poker pro Joe Hachem became the WSOP champion, earning $7.5m in prize money for his win.

"It’s thrilling to think the World Series of Poker is coming to Australian soil," added Hachem. "I know first-hand what a life-changing moment winning the WSOP gold bracelet was and how it served as a catalyst for the growth of poker in Australia and Asia. It will be a dream come true to host a worldwide poker event such as this at Crown. I can’t wait."

The agreement marks the first time the WSOP is exporting its prestigious tournament series to Australia, and marks just the second expansion of the 42-year-old brand, after the advent of WSOP Europe in 2007.

New England
Poker pro Bernard Lee is about to make the big jump to radio presenter to television host with the announcement that he's gotten a test run of the Bernard Lee Poker Show on Comcast SportsNews New England. "We decided to take this radio show that has been so successful and we thought we would bring it to another medium of TV," said Lee of Wayland, MA.

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The Bernard Lee Poker Show can be heard on Tuesdays on 1510 AM, and the three-episode tryout run for his program can now be seen Mondays on Comcast SportsNet New England. In addition to his regular radio spot (Tuesdays on 1510AM,) Lee also writes a poker coulomb for the Boston Herald.

"There are ideal series of events which run parallel with the real ones. They rarely coincide."
— Novalis

Georg Philipp Friedrich Freiherr von Hardenberg, who wrote under the pen name of Novalis, was (in case you couldn't tell by that lengthy name) a German author and philosopher that helped codify the nature of German Romanticism. He was born wealthy, educated privately and was part of an aristocracy dedicated to academic pursuits for his brief life. He died in 1801 at the age of 28, but he worked at a fever pitch and left a prodigious bibliography behind.

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For someone whose life was (relatively) easy, Novalis understood and explained the real world's foibles very well, and this week's quote, which applies almost too well to the game of poker, demonstrates that perfectly. When you play poker, you need to be very aware of the fact that it is a fluid game. You may have the winning hand one moment and that very hand can be taken from you in the next thanks to a card on the river turning someone's low-ended straight into a high-ended straight flush. That understanding and willingness to change your game plan is essential to good poker play.

Far too often, players get attached to the hand they've build and exclude other possibilities at the table. They ignore the signals they're getting from the rest of the pack and zero on in on what's in front of them. They've got three of a kind! They're kings! And on the flop, too! Man, it's just more and more money going into the pot as they play, right? Wrong. If they've bet heavily and another player steps up to the plate, that's when any player's sensors should tune into what's happening right away.

Poker is more than about the cards and how they're dealt. It's about decisions. Understanding how and why other players make decisions is as important as the decisions you make yourself. You need to be able to adjust your plans to accommodate how others act and use logic to dissect their behavior. A previously slow player is suddenly pushing you when you know you've got them beat? Maybe they've got more outs than you know and can build a monster.

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The best-laid plans of mice and men alike fall to chance and fate. Even if you're 99.995% sure you've won hand, take the time to understand why other players are doing what they're doing. Your ideal plans and theirs may not correspond as well as you'd like.

With its popularity ever rising, 6-Max PLO poker has become more ubiquitous than full-ring Omaha games at most online poker sites. If you're a thinking player, you can see more money and better return on your investment in a shorter amount of time. 6-Max games allow you to play in more hands per hour and those that don't adjust their game to the new demands can give you more money than you'd see elsewhere.

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There are three core components that you'll need to address when moving from full-ring play to 6-Max games. The first is how much more importance your position gains. It's always important, but it's absolutely critical that you understand how to maximize position in short-handed games. In a full ring game you are likely to be up against some decent holdings – that is to say that even when you have position the chances of one or more opponents flopping a good draw or made hand are high. In a 6-Max game, the odds of another player flopping a beast drops significantly and you're likely to use your position to take small pots when nobody's hit their hand.

After position comes hand selection. You should loosen up your starting hand selection pretty significantly to compete in more hands because too-tight play with fewer cards being dealt to fewer players means that you simply won't play for long stretched if you stay super-tight. Keep your position in mind, but know premium pairs become a lot more valuable with fewer players in the round and you can be more aggressive after the flop than you are against multiple opponents in a full-ring game.

While you're going to adjust your playing style, you're also going to see that other players have done the same and that's one of the biggest components you have to keep in mind when you're playing in 6-Max games. You're going to see a lot more aggressive players who bet on 80% of the hands preflop and keep going after the play. They're doing their best to pick up easy pots and are looking out for resistance to avoid or use as they see fit.

Against these types, you should definitely take a hand that has a decent favorite over the range you've seen them play and get the chips in: let them stuff the pot for you and then take them for a ride. You'll occasionally see people advising that you slowly these opponents, but I've found that that strategy rarely works because they're hammering more than actually playing.

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Hopefully, the advice here serves you will when you're next playing in 6-Max games, or maybe it's helped you make the decision to start playing in them. They're certainly one of the most exciting ways to play Omaha poker and I personally find them to be a welcome change from girding at hold 'em games.

Not every poker table you sit down to play at is going to be packed, especially if you play at non-peak hours. If you want to be a winning poker player, you'll definitely want to learn how to play in these shorthanded tables, and a lot of online poker rooms actually restrict the number of players in their higher-stakes table to create a shorthanded environment. Let's take a look at how you can play better shorthanded poker.

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Firstly, you should definitely look for the right game, and while that seems obvious, it's surprising how many players don't take this basic step. Unless you just want to practice playing the game, there's no reason to sit down and take on a bunch of pros! The best way to examine any given game is to watch how much betting and raising occurs. If you see a great deal of raising and folding, stay away — that game's probably too aggressive to be profitable! If people limp in a lot preflop and then just call bets jump into the water! The reason you want to play against more passive players is that selective aggression is the key to winning shorthanded poker games.

Preflop starting hand values become a little more fungible in shorthanded play, as there are fewer players involved and the chances of running against certain hands is dropped by a few percent. I recommend raising with Pocket Pairs, AT+, KQ, KJ, QJ, JTs. You'll want to call with High Pocket Pairs, AJ, KQ, KJ, AT (maybe) and QJs. Reraising is a bit trickier: it all depends on the opponent. If they're aggressive to a ridiculous extent, don't be afraid to reraise them while holding any decent pair or cards better than A9. The rest of the time, stick to strong hands like AA, KK, QQ, JJ, AK and  AQ. For the most part, I recommend staying away from suited connectors and small pairs.

If you picked the right table, that selective aggression is going to come in handy. If you have a made hand, bet on it and just stick to good, tight aggressive poker play. Stay on top of the number of outs you have and remember that you're playing against fewer players and thus have more control over the board.

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I honestly don't recommend bluffing when you're playing in shorthanded games except for very rare cases where you can make the board look made for you. If another player begins to play very aggressive poker, you'll want to adjust your game for them or simply leave and find another table. There are usually plenty of them to go around.