Playing online poker, international poker tournaments, televised poker is at an all time high. The public gets to see the game being played and it has become such a popular spectator sport because of the agony and ecstasy – in other words, the drama. Part of the drama in poker is losing, but like most professional sports there is only really one winner. The guy/girl at the top of his/her game – in movies this is the glamour puss! 

Losing hurts badly for most players but winning is intoxicating; it is something the player wants to experience time and again. Unfortunately one of the facts of life is that you can’t always be a winner, there will always be someone better than you and tantamount to being a good player is being a good loser. 

To put this in a more positive light “being able to not win well”. Some players simply cannot handle losing and it is inevitable that a pile of broken bodies shores up the mountain of successful poker players. These successful players standing at the top of the pile are the players who have been able to handle losing well.  

Texas Hold ‘em in particular provides for a massive pool of players whose skills are getting better all the time. They are making names for themselves and have huge skills levels. They haven’t seen glory days yet, while other top players are trading on old reputations. Recognition and differentiation between poker playing states of being is critical.   

Believing you are bulletproof particularly after winning in No Limit Hold ‘em is not a good place to be. This game in particular combines great skill with massive amounts of completely random luck, and it is all part and parcel of this game. Most of the people sitting round that last table had to get lucky to get there, while this may not be true of most other poker games. As a poker player you have to know this! 

No one wants to downplay the skill it takes to get to the end of a No Limit Hold ‘em Tournament; there is simply an aspect to this game which makes it different from others. The point is that every player should get this, and it is the players that don’t get the idea who will be the dead bodies shoring up the mountain. 

Poker skill lasts a lifetime while luck is fleeting, it comes and goes. Understanding this helps the player to weather losses better and be cool about losing too. These players understand that the laws of the universe, chaos, mathematics and quantum theory apply to them and their game too.    

Skill and knowledge will always be around to help you be a winning poker player, even if you lose the game. It’s all about being real, keeping your feet on the ground, your head out of the clouds and getting down to the business of playing poker for as long as you want to. Not just for the glory of, and intoxication of winning!   
 

We know that the roots of poker date back many centuries, but it is often hard to say when and where variations of the game spring from. Sometimes these are clouded in mystery and sometimes we know exactly how a particular game of poker evolved.

Texas Hold ‘em for example, we know exactly how this game got started and that it is the most popular version of poker being played world-wide. However Omaha poker is another kettle of fish and seems to be shrouded somewhat in mystery. It also just happens to be the most widely played version of poker after Texas Hold ‘em, so it is an interesting exercise to try and uncover its roots.

Some poker historians are of the consensus that Omaha was a rogue version of Texas Hold’em which was invented in a local poker club in Omaha, Nebraska – while others guarantee this is not the case. We are just grateful that the game was not invented in Intercourse, Pennsylvania. If it had, it might be called “Intercourse Poker” and may not have risen to the heights of popularity it enjoys today, although I do believe strip poker is pretty popular!

Most people refer to the game as simply Omaha and it is highly regarded and regularly played in the biggest poker tournaments in the world.

What makes it a better deal than Texas Hold’em is players get to choose from nine cards to make up their poker hand and this allows them more options. It also involves more decision making, so a choice of nine cards balances the good with the bad, and it is often played in the form of a Hi-Lo split.

Less than thirty years ago, definitive books written by professional poker players such as Doyle Brunson and David Sklansky, make no mention of Omaha at all, so we surmise that back then the game had not yet arrived. Not even a “blip” on the poker radar screen!
Things have however changed dramatically in the poker world, and they have changed quickly. What were home played staple poker diets may not have come to the attention of the big boys, but they were being played and the world was fast becoming a smaller place. So Omaha was introduced to Las Vegas casinos around 1982, and became an overnight success.

It was called the “poker game of the future” and this is has certainly proven to be the case if you look at Omaha’s wide-spread popularity. It is a tournament staple, and its popularity grew so quickly because of the fact that it is an attention grabber. Omaha always promises plenty of action and because of the popularity of playing online poker, and televising games, Omaha has spread and become popular all over the world.

Seeing the evolution of a game such as this becoming so popular so quickly, it stands to reason that many more incarnations of poker will follow. We may never find out what their exact roots are, but as long as they are being play for pleasure, that is all that really counts.