I released an introductory guide yesterday for a variant that has become very popular in recent years in my home-game circles. I've heard many names for it, but we call it Simultaneous Omaha and Hold'em (SOHE) where I learned to play it.

You get six hole cards and split them into a Hold'em hand and an Omaha hand preflop. Betting is pot-limit, standard flop/turn/river structure.

At showdown, the best hand each way gets half the pot. It's an excellent, strategy-rich game that can produce a lot of action and give you a lot to think about.

I forget if it is allowed or not, but if it is allowed, will you post a link to where we can buy (or download) this guide if we wish?

Links to product pages are not allowed, as per Mason's sticky thread.

You should be able to find it easily by searching at the site that has become synonymous with online shopping, though. (Is naming that site without linking out of bounds? Not sure where the line is.)

I searched by googling the name and came up with nothing, but did not go to Amazon and search directly.

I just did this and found the book.

It was just released yesterday and is probably not indexed on major search engines yet. (Plus my name is pretty common and will trip a lot of other results.) It will definitely come up in that other place you mentioned, though.

I think new variants are an important part of the feature of poker. Especially for holdem that has become rather boring. SOHE sounds very interesting, good luck!

I agree wholeheartedly, and it's one of my major reasons for writing the book.

I also think that split-pot poker in particular is a great option, both for competitive players (because it presents so many complex decisions) and recreational players (both because of increased action and the fact that you can build a new game from something familiar).

Thank you!

Hi Jimulacrum:

First, here's the Amazon link to your book:

https://www.amazon.com/SOHE-Simultan...R7PQTA8EEDC35F

As for whether this particular game will work in the sense that it'll become popular, I don't know. But I do agree that for poker to survive and grow, no-limit hold 'em needs to become less dominant in our poker rooms.

Best wishes,
Mason

It really does, and the same goes for big-bet poker in general. My book is about a variant that's played primarily pot-limit, but it is a great candidate for fixed-limit too, and I'd like to see much more of that in public cardrooms (for reasons you've expressed more than adequately in Poker Essays).

Having played a fair amount of SOHE with Jim (well, a fair amount relative to the number of hands you can see in a live game), I can vouch for him being among the very best of a fairly competitive (if also degenerate and gambly) group of players in our regular group.

Bought the book not just to support a friend's project, but because I expect I will learn a lot reading his considered thoughts on the game.

will there be a kindle version?

Pick AA for nlh and the rest for omaha.

Yes. Currently working on the Kindle release. It looks like it will take some time, though.

Good luck with that strategy.

Jim leaving for vacation on Wednesday morning any chance you can get it to me by then?

you split the cards pre-flop? or at the end?

and given that that cards are "split" then i assume no overlap on the omaha and hold-em hands?

In the basic game, hands must be split preflop. There are variations that involve splitting at different points in the hand, but they only get a brief mention in the book.

hard to even find omaha game anywhere, people just seem to like basic stuff when it comes to poker. not poker players just fish/recs/noobs. it personally sounds like an interesting game to me.

how does that work mechanically in a casino as far as separating your hands?

Fish, recs, and noobs will have their games of choice, but those games are always subject to change.

Casual players may have their preference for simplicity, but you know people get bored with the tedium and frustration of waiting for good hands in a game where you only get two hole cards (and then often losing with those hands anyway). They also get tired of getting crushed to death at NLHE over and over again.

One of the things I especially like about SOHE in this regard is that it has the illusion of simplicity. You get six cards, so just wait for aces and put them in Hold'em! How could it be any easier? You're gonna be getting playable hands (or at least you'll think so) all the time! The split-pot nature of the game also means that players will tend to feel like they're winning more often.

In the home games where I've played this, the best approach so far is to require players to cap their cards, and keep the hands on separate sides of their stacks to impede any shenanigans. Any mingling of cards kills the hand.

I think a casino would do it best by giving each seat one "Hold'em" lammer and one "Omaha" lammer as official cappers, and adhering to the guideline about keeping hands on opposite sides of your stack.

a very general question...

with rakes seemingly high and increasing everywhere, do split games take more of a hit?

for example, let's assume that you deal with 6 deck shoe and everyone gets 10 cards and you split them 5 ways.

then at end there are 5 awards of 20% of the pot. isn't that getting close to everyone getting their money back net of rake? over say 10+ hands....... i realize some people will be very poor players and some may win more than one of the sub-pots.... i realize we are only talking about splitting into 2 sub-pots but isn't the effect the same, albeit much smaller.

i never found split games that interesting to play........ BUT i will say that the vast majority of players don't know basic strategy unlike NLHE where i'd say most know basic strategy, esp. pre-flop. and i don't think those players will ever figure out basic split strategy, except on extreme rudimentary level - i.e. want to scoop the pot with pre-flop hand selection.