Hutchison Point System - Omaha...

I'm just curious about how many people are using this as a tool + if my strategy for use is sound. I'm thinking 30pts or more is good for an early position raise, while 25pts or more is good for middle position and 20pts or more good for late position with the majority of players folding to me.

I'm practicing with play money and not even bothering with freerolls as I don't want to get tempted to use real money before I'm ready. It takes quite a bit of effort for a math-moron such as myself to get used to the quick calculations, even if they are just adding and subtracting, it's getting the values right for each step memorized that seems to be trickiest for me.

See the point system's just for hand selection and has little to do with actual play. It just tells you what to go in with, but even then, there's very little strategy in the article, it just tells you what hands to play if you want the hand with highest percentage to win. Only, realistically, especially in tournaments, that's not doable. Can't wait for 30+ points to go into a pot. Ring game, sure, but still, it's not a lot of fun folding for 4 or 5 orbits in a row. That's why I was hoping that setting some sort of minimum points based on position would be a good idea.

So is anyone else using the points system, and how?

I'm guessing people are taking a look and either get sick of my verbosity or just haven't the foggiest what I'm on about.

http://erh.homestead.com/omaha.html Basically you go through the steps and if you divide the points by two you get a very close approximation to the pre-flop percentage for your hand. So essentially you know if it's a raise-worthy hand pre-flop. Of course you still have to play beyond the flop, but it's a huge help just knowing how great a hand is and why.

i am yet to use it for omaha, but i use it all the time for texas holdem. it almost always takes me far in tourneys and sngs. in ring games, it doesnt work as much for me...not sure why, but for tournaments and sngs i have success with it. i feel like with omaha there are too many card combinations that it would be inneffective, but that is just my opinion.

The system's really great for Omaha hand selection. You use it and tally up your points quickly. Then you divide by two to get an incredibly close approximation to your win rate percentage pre-flop.

For tournaments which have greater variance than ring games I suggest going with only premium hands in early position and you can tell which ones they are by how highly they score. For instance AAKQ double suited. I'm loving this starting hand because it scores highly for all aspects of building a hand. Your total points are 48. Divide by two to get 24% and that's huge for Omaha. You've got the power of two suited aces, the power of pairs, and the power of straight draws. With this particular hand you're flopping good most of the time, even at a full table.

The most powerful hand is AAKK double suited. It adds up to I think 54 points so divided by 2 it's a 27% win rate. Compare that with the 10% most players enter pots with.

I'm still experimenting with positional play. I've tried the so called french style and it's not horrible. At a loose and relatively passive table it's profitable. But when I sit at a LAG table I'm going with the system. I sit at these tables, and everyone's playing french style. Many sit with the maximum buy-in specifically for this purpose. They're so sure they have the edge, but they're mistaken. The thing about Omaha is that knowing when to fold is really important. Maybe even more important then knowing when to bet and raise.

Many players go with the french style only to fool themselves into having to call with an inferior flush or the dummie end of a straight. They think they're so smart, but sadly, they're fooling themselves. I've tried it so I know I fooled myself too. By using the system for hand selection, you don't have to fool yourself. More often than not you end up with the nuts. This won't happen at a table full of solid players but most players in online microstakes Omaha aren't solid.

I watched nothing but pros one night to find that even at tables with buy-ins at over $200 there were people fooling themselves. The pros were for the most part cleaning up. They were selecting starting hands with very big value in the system. I won't say who wasn't cleaning up, but I will tell you he made only one big mistake the whole session. He pushed hard with trips with the board drawing to both a flush and a straight. Needless to say, he had a losing session at that table. He just never got back to 100% with his play. I kinda felt bad for him, but then he was making mistakes I'd make with pennies as a beginner, not what you'd expect from a pro.