Omaha High/Low:

ON SLEEP

BY: Russ Fox

“Sleep is the best cure for waking troubles.” – Cervantes

I went to my local cardroom yesterday to play in a no limit hold’em tournament. I got there early – about three hours before the tournament began – and sat in my usual $6/$12 Omaha game. For whatever reason, all of a sudden I felt quite tired. Perhaps the monotony of looking at tax returns knocked me out. Perhaps it was the large number of people in the cardroom – it felt very stuffy. Whatever the reason, I felt very lethargic.

I decided that it would be much better to not play in the tournament and just stick to Omaha. Omaha is a game I can play half asleep; no limit hold’em requires concentrating on your opponents as you play the players, not your cards. I knew I’d be dead money in a no limit tournament.

At least 20 percent of Americans don’t get enough sleep each night (this according to a UCLA study). Most adults need between seven and eight hours of sleep each night (although everyone is different; you might need as few as five hours or as many as ten hours). If you don’t get enough sleep your judgment, reaction time and other functions will likely be impaired. Given that while playing poker you need good judgment and other skills, this can be a problem.

I’ve never found, while playing Omaha, that I need the same level of concentration as I do while playing hold’em – especially no limit hold’em tournaments. It’s not that I don’t need to concentrate (I do), but I’m playing far fewer hands and because the play of most hands is quite predictable (in Omaha) I can relax during the hands I’m not playing.

Omaha is a more social game than hold’em. An Omaha hand takes much longer than a hold’em hand (just dealing the four cards significantly lengthens the hand). There are a lot more conversations at an Omaha table. Additionally, the games tend to be much friendlier than in hold’em. Finally, because fewer players play Omaha than hold’em, you tend to play with many of the same players time after time. It pays to be on friendly terms with the people whose money you’d like to acquire. But I digress.

One of the things that happens when you’re tired is that your emotions will show much quicker. That includes getting angry (and other negative emotions) quite quickly when you get a bad beat (which can happen in Omaha). When your opponents perceive that you are getting angry (or any other negative emotion) with them they will react. How they react will vary – it can range from showing the same (or a similar) emotion or a quite different emotion such as bemusal.

There are circumstances where you may wish to have the emotional behavior of the table change. Perhaps your table is quite tight – both in the play of the cards and socially. Then you’d like to encourage a change (at least in how others play their cards). While a tight Omaha game can be beaten, it usually can only be beaten for a small amount.

The Omaha game I was in a few days ago is a perfect example of this. The game was tight (relatively; only three to four players seeing each flop). The game continued in this manner for the first hour that I sat in it.

A few minutes later I picked up A459 under the gun (just to the left of the blinds). Four of us saw a flop of K95. One of the blinds bet, I called, and the button called. The turn was the 6. The blind bet, I called and the button called. The river was the J leaving me with the two pair I started with. There was no way that my hand was the best of the three remaining; in fact, I’m certain it was the worst. However, after the blind checked, I bet. There were two ways this bet could work. First, I might win the pot. Alternatively, I might loosen up the game. The button folded. The blind considered what to do for some time and then, in a resigned way, threw in his chips to the pot. I called out my hand, “two pair,” and the blind looked stunned. He turned over his set of Kings (the hand I put him on), and the other blind yelled out, “Ah hah! Now I’m going to call you down every time!”

The remainder of the session was quite good for me. I did get called almost every time I had the nuts. The game loosened up significantly. The only reason I left was that I got quite tired – tired enough where I knew I’d better leave before I became a danger (to others) during my 40-minute drive home. Tired enough where I began to make bad decisions at the table.

So remember what you were taught as a child. Get your sleep, and you’ll play better. And when you get tired, stop playing. The games will be there tomorrow.

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