How hard is Omaha?

Some questions for all you Omaha experts:

- How long would it take a profficient winning $400 NLHE player to learn Omaha sufficiently well to beat the $400 level? How long to become one of the better $400 players? How long did it take you to master the game?

- Is the game really as juicy as it seems? I have no expertise at all, yet from the few k hands I have played even I can see some truly awful players at the $400 level and I also see lots of $ going into the pot very frequently, seems like a solid players winrate could far exceed NLHE.

- How big is the player pool on Party? Can you always find a good game?

- The variance at NLHE is not too much of a problem IMO. Omaha seems a little different, would anyone mind posting some SD figures? How many buy-ins do you operate on?

- I understand Reuben & Ciaffone are the best starting points in terms of reading. What else is good?

Thanks in advance...

[stigmata]

I'm just starting out but I would love to hear these questions answered.

All I have to add is that Ciaffone's Omaha book is out of print, but I got a photocopied version through the gamblersbook.com I think. Worth every penny, all the used copies on Amazon here in the UK were going for astronomical prices!

[ipp147]

Hi Goldstone,

I'm not really an Omaha "expert" per say but here are some answers.

[ QUOTE ]
- How long would it take a profficient winning $400 NLHE player to learn Omaha sufficiently well to beat the $400 level? How long to become one of the better $400 players? How long did it take you to master the game?

[/ QUOTE ]

I play the $200 level s/handed at the moment. I think that a good poker player/thinker can become proficient to this level fairly quickly (maybe 10,000 hands)

[ QUOTE ]
Is the game really as juicy as it seems? I have no expertise at all, yet from the few k hands I have played even I can see some truly awful players at the $400 level and I also see lots of $ going into the pot very frequently, seems like a solid players winrate could far exceed NLHE.

[/ QUOTE ]

Like any poker game some of the plays and players that seem retarted are actually quite decent but yes upto the $200 level I have had no problem finding fish.

[ QUOTE ]
How big is the player pool on Party? Can you always find a good game?

[/ QUOTE ]

Small. At the $200 level during UK evenings there is normally upto 4 s/handed games going and about the same at the $400 level. There seems to be a core set of regulars and a number of people taking shots or trying a different game. It's not possible to achieve the 6-8 tabling of Limit and NL holdem unless you spread across a number of sites and even then you are probably in virtually every online game going at that time.

[ QUOTE ]
The variance at NLHE is not too much of a problem IMO. Omaha seems a little different, would anyone mind posting some SD figures? How many buy-ins do you operate on?

[/ QUOTE ]

The omaha variance is brutal. If you search for Big Dave D's post he has some stuff on it. My PT database has me at 50BB/100. My sample size is smallish however.

[ QUOTE ]
I understand Reuben & Ciaffone are the best starting points in terms of reading. What else is good?

[/ QUOTE ]

This forum is good. I also found this website helpful Omaha (http://www.winningonlinepoker.com/) but there isn't a great deal of literature out there.