Omaha Hi: Calling every hand

[tvdad]

I have played 16 multi-table Omaha Hi PL tourneys at Paradise, and in 14 of those there has been at least one guy at the table who calls every single hand, regardless of the preflop raising situation. And almost every time these guys have made the money. 18 out of the 19 players I have seen doing it have made it. 8 of them made the final table. That's just too awesome to be coincidence, even with this low number of tourneys.

Is calling every hand a known strategy? I've never heard of it, but it certainly seems to be working.

Me? I take the complete opposite approach and play tight as a drum in the early stages. I do okay, but seeing all these guys make the money with that strategy has got me thinking I should try it. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

T

[Greg (FossilMan)]

If you start monitoring the progress of EVERY ONE of these guys in the event, and then see how many of them make the money, and you still think it's a viable strategy, please get back to the forum with a report. Until then, I suspect selective memory or the like is at work here.

Later, Greg Raymer (FossilMan)

[Acesover8s]

Most players simply do not know what a reasonable Omaha Hi hand is. After all, every hand features some sort of straight draw or flush draw or pair.

Greg is right, and this idea is similar to what Sklansky says in his tournament poker book, about why the day 1 chip never wins the tourney.

[tvdad]

Obviously not every player using the "call anything" technique makes the money, but neither does every player using a more sane strategy. From my limited experience so far in these tourneys, a much higher percentage of "call anything" players are making the money, which is why I asked the question. Like I said, 18 of the 19 people I have seen doing it have made the money. That's a far, far greater percentage than the "regular" players at my tables. But of course I can't know what's going on at all the other tables.

I'm going to give it a shot in a few cheap buy-ins just to see what happens, how it affects my table image, etc. I'm just curious.

T

[Greg (FossilMan)]

Of course, no style makes it every time.

When I say look at all of them, I don't mean to see if they all make it. I mean to see if as a group, they make it more than their fair share.

The answer has to be no, over any statistically significant sample size.

Later, Greg Raymer (FossilMan)

[tvdad]

[ QUOTE ]
When I say look at all of them, I don't mean to see if they all make it. I mean to see if as a group, they make it more than their fair share.

[/ QUOTE ]

What would be their fair share? How often =should= a "call anything preflop" player make it to the money compared to players employing a more sane strategy?

I really am curious about this, because I'm seeing far more people having success with this than I would have thought possible. I just wish more of these people would play the ring games where I could take some of their money.

T

[Guy McSucker]

By "fair share" Greg means how things would pan out if everybody had the same skill level.

E.g. if there are 100 players in the tournament and 10 at the final, one player in ten should make the final; so if there are 10 of these "see every hand" guys in there, you might expect to see one at the final. If five make the final, something is up!

Guy.

[Greg (FossilMan)]

What Guy said in his reply.

Also, an interesting thing about tourneys. If you're not going to play well, then the best way to play badly is to play loose and aggressive. A player who is weak-tight will almost invariably blind himself away before he gets to the money. The loose (and preferably aggressive) player will bomb out frequently, and lose money overall, but will do well much more often than the too-tight player.

Later, Greg Raymer (FossilMan)