PokerWorks

Some things go really well together, such as beer and baseball, ice cream and hot fudge, and casinos and suckers.

Other things may not go quite as well together. Like "The Matrix" and its sequels.

In poker, I'd argue that nothing goes better than Hold 'Em and Omaha.

Perhaps 7 Card Stud and Razz could compete for Poker's Best Couple, but I still think Omaha and Hold 'Em wear the crowns. Why? Well, they really are the same game. You get hole cards, and there's a flop, turn and river, so the betting is almost exactly the same.

Except the little differences in both games completely change how you play them, and that's the true beauty of it. In Omaha you're dealt four cards instead of two, and you must use two cards to complete your hand. Plus Omaha is readily found in a Pot-Limit format, and by far the most popular game in Hold 'Em these days is No Limit.

Your Omaha game can help your Hold 'Em game, however. Here's how:

• Big lay downs won't seem so big - You have to fold two-pair almost all the time, sets sometimes and flopped straights more than you'd like. You have to pay attention to the board in Omaha or you're dead, and that will help you let go of hands that are obviously beat in Hold 'Em. Folding when you're beat is just as important as getting value from your hands when you're ahead.

• Timing, more than just blind aggression, is everything - I realize that it seems like the best Hold 'Em players are just firing bullets all the time, but they're masters at knowing when to be aggressive and, yes, when to back off. That's a skill you must learn in Omaha because there are so many possible hands out there, so blind aggression won't work all the time. Omaha will teach you how to time your aggression to make it more effective.

• Making believable bluffs - You can bluff in Omaha. In fact, I've shown you how. But you'd better make sure your story makes sense. You can't just throw out a bluff because you missed your draw in Omaha, as someone will probably have at least two pair and may look you up. Omaha will teach you how to tell better stories in your bluffing, and, therefore, there's a better chance they will work.

• Bet like you have it - One of the basic strategies in Omaha is to bet until you get there, that is, bet on the come. You can do this because in Omaha it's easier to get a monster draw, and those draws are ahead of practically any hand, even naked sets. Omaha will teach you how to effectively bet on the come. You should bet or even raise occasionally with your draws in Hold 'Em, and Omaha will help you learn how.

• A pair is just a pair - It's so easy to forget that a pair is just a pair, but if you push with a pair in Omaha, you're dead. It's perhaps the quickest way to lose money. Omaha will teach you that a pair is just that, a pair, even when it's a pair of Aces in your hand, and that will make it easier to let it go when you must.

• Position is power - It might be even harder to play Omaha out of position than Hold 'Em. I'm still learning, but I find myself pushing with a hand a lot harder if I have position and letting hands go a lot more if I'm out of position, even if I think I might have the best hand. It's also easier to steal the pot in Omaha with position. Omaha will reaffirm my belief that position is the most important tool in poker.

Omaha can also hurt your Hold 'Em game if you let some of the skills that you must have to win at Omaha creep into your Hold 'Em game. Here's a few examples:

• Passive play - Passive play, I'm convinced, does not work in Hold 'Em. But it's not so bad in Omaha. In fact, many top players will check a flopped straight out of position and wait to see what the next card brings, especially if there's obvious flush draws out there. If there's a raise and re-raise against your straight, it's not a bad idea to fold.

But you can't play that way in Hold 'Em. You're rarely going to run into draws that beat a set, and you're almost always ahead in Hold 'Em with a flopped straight. Make sure that you don't let the occasional passive plays in Omaha creep into your Hold 'Em game.

• Too cautious with big pairs - Big pairs aren't much in Omaha, even A-A if trash surrounds it, but in Hold 'Em there isn't much that beats a big pair pre-flop. You want to make sure you push the action with those hands pre-flop, as playing them carefully usually leads to too many people in the hand, and that just ruins your pair.

• Betting too hard - Omaha as a pot-limit game, there's really no reason to slow-play your big hands. In fact it's stupid. You really need to bet, bet, bet in Omaha. But that can cost you some value in Hold 'Em, where you can make more money by letting your opponents catch up a bit if you've flopped a monster. Since it's a No-Limit game, you can definitely get your money in the pot even if you give away a free card.