Invented a game with some friends over some beers on Friday. Everybody gets dealt 6 cards. They arrange their cards into an omaha hand and a hold 'em hand before any action occurs. They cannot ever change this arrangement throughout the hand. Action is PL, and the pot is split between the best hold 'em hand and the best omaha hand. Obviously the idea is to scoop both sides.

Now the theory: How should I arrange my cards? We found that we mostly just gave our hold 'em hand the highest pair possible, regardless of its effects on our omaha hand. However, we are all hold 'em players, so I guess that's not surprising.

If you were dealt AKT45A, and the 4 & 5 are suited, do you go AAKT and 45ss, or do you go 45KT and AA?

def:
45KT and AA

reason is if AAKT wins the omaha side 45ss rarly is the winning hand.

45KT is a ****hole of a hand but maybe it can win on the same board where AA wins.

i would go for the PP only if its a big one, as a set wont do **** if my omahahand cant connect well with the board

So you said betting is PL but how does it work? Same **** you just bet on the flop the turn and river? And able to fold whenever?

Um, I'd assume it's just normal pot limit. It's exactly like no limit, except at any point you can't raise more than what's in the pot.

Correct, its just normal Pot-Limit, so you can fold whenever. Just can't re-arrange your cards once they've been set before the action preflop.

I found that I was basically trying to make big Hold 'Em pairs also, but wasn't sure if that was optimal in some situations. I'm lost about how to apply the math here, maybe some of you whizzes can help.

And StickingItIn: that was basically my thinking too. How do you quantify it mathematically?

Omaha hands run closer together in value than holdem hands. That, combined with the fact that the holdem hand only needs two cards, seems to make it logical to go for a good holdem hand when you can get one.

What gerryq said plus suited cards are way more valuable preflop in omaha than they are in texas. AA and KT45 looks like the best split. Can't turn down AA in texas holdem. But lets not forget position, which is important in texas holdem and either more important or less important in omaha depending on your approach to the game - AAKT and 45s hmmm maybe. So the jury's out until this game gets played on a regular basis. Btw, what a great game!

Okay, so because you can gain a bigger edge preflop in hold em, the priority should be towards the hold em hand. That makes sense. Would love to hear further thoughts on this...

Thanks! We jokingly make up games all the time, but this one we couldn't stop playing. Arranging the hands preflop is a really fun twist.

100 percent 4510k and AA, i mean AA equity in holdem vs two unders is substantially better than AAk10 equity in plo vs random 4 unders

Yea I can see that with AA.

Seems a bit more obscure with less extreme situations, like TTKQ87.

TT and KQ87?

KQ and TT87?

Yeah I think with smaller pairs it becomes very interesting. With 6 cards, the chances of a player having, say, JJ-AA in his hand becomes pretty large. If you have TT, and put TT in your holdem hand, then you're probably setting yourself up to be a 4.5:1 dog in the holdem hand. You'd probably rather put KQ in the holdem hand in this case or even 78.

Really a very interesting problem and it depends highly on your opponent's strategy.

Yea, good point regarding the likelihood of other players having big pairs. Even 3 handed, we were seeing big hold 'em pairs routinely. Makes mid/low pairs worthless.

We were paying so much attention to our hold 'em hands, our omaha hands were pretty worthless, often winning with one mid pair. I was considering putting in a "qualifier" of like 2pair or better, and if no one has that the whole pot goes to hold 'em.

I think this game is really interesting because the math is so convoluted (at least to me), strategy seems so opponent-dependent, and you need decent knowledge of both hold 'em and omaha to play it effectively. Plus you never know which hand your opponent is betting, unless of course they keep checking one or make it obvious somehow.

I definitely think it's interesting. In most split pot games it can become obvious which 'way' your opponent is going because the hands are different. In this game, the hands are evaluated the same way - unlike say O8 where the hands are opposites. The closest I've seen personally are wildcard games where the hand is split between the best natural and the best wildcard hand, which can get REALLY interesting.

Well there was just 3 of us playing for fun, figuring out the game, so we were seeing a lot of showdowns. But if you were to play with a buy-in, with a few more people, I'd imagine everyone would be tighter, looking for good hands on both ends to scoop.

As far as omaha winning with one pair, I think that's mostly just because we are hold 'em players by nature and kept putting our good cards in that hand, despite its consequences on our omaha hand. I felt that we were making an error here though...

As for the last question, no idea, but I'd love to hear your thoughts after you play!

I'm glad to hear you will give it a shot! I'm going to get a game going tonight too, and we'll try it out too.

Interesting. Trying this out at our next "dealer's choice" night.
Thanks.
AW

How do players separate their hands? Do they have to have two separate "piles"? If they can have all 6-cards in their hands at one time, it would be pretty easy for an unscrupulous character to rearrange their pairings.

We didn't start any action preflop until everyone had their cards arranged into two clear and separate piles. When checking our cards during the hand, we had to check them one at a time (which was another chance for tells if you don't consistently look at both hands in the same order). We also used chips as card protectors to keep hands separate and distinct.

But yea, I agree, I wouldn't want to play this game for high stakes with people I didn't trust, at least not without cameras around.