Hello,

I am a complete beginner from the perspective that I really want to begin studying seriously. I am interested in Omaha. However most of the Omaha books I have started seem to be for people who have learned about hold em.

Basically I would like a recommendation for a true beginner book on general poker math and on Omaha.

I appreciate that the things are going to change based with the games.So should I just learn from a book based on hold em or is there a good recommendation for a book that is more generally focused. Thank you.

PLO from Scratch

Learning PLO is much easier if you already have a good grasp on hold 'em. You should probably learn two card poker first to be honest.

The only PLO maths you need to know is this - you only need 33% equity against a pot size bet, and you're never worse than a 48/52 underdog. So never fold.

Thank you for the reply. Can you explain/ That is basically what I have been doing just because the books and sites all seem to be geared to hold em. Is there another reason?

Thanks.

It’s because the less complex *relatively* basic hold em math lays the groundwork for the more complicated equities involved in Omaha.

Also just personally I believe learning both games in succession makes you a better player overall. The skills can be transferable.

Thank you. What book then would you recommend?

There are some in this forum that may suggest that you go right into PLO so you aren't fogged up by some of the NL 'stuff'. Depending on how you plan to play (live, online, day or night) you may need to learn both since game selection may be limited.

When we try to bring NL Players over to PLO I tell them that PLO is 6 times the fun. This is because you have 6 possible combinations of cards in your holding ... and you must use one of them. There is a small adjustment to PLO by every NL Player who thinks at least once (or six times) that they have a straight or flush by only using one hole card ... It happens.

The other adjustment is realizing that a lot of draws .. and even made hands (like bottom boat or Aces) .. don't have the 'value' that they do in NL. Your opponent can have the same or better situation than you do since holdings overlap much more often than in NL. It is true that you rarely are 'that' far behind in PLO ... but just remember that it also means you really aren't that far ahead either!

Search this site (and Amazon) for books. Most PLO books will be fairly new, but I wouldn't worry too much about 'beginner' books being 'too old' to learn from to establish a foundation to start working on your game.

Lots of folks on this site don't like it ... but jump onto a site or App with play chips to get a feel for the game, but not so much how the game is being played. Yes, people tend to gamble more when the chips are free ... or even when they've paid $2.99 for them because they're on monkey tilt after some interesting plays beat them. GL

Jeff Hwang’s “big play” series part one. Also Jockusch’s PLO book on short stacking is good for beginners who don’t want to risk as much money.