AceHighWine

Every time I look at the site’s tagline I feel like a bit of fraud because I’m painfully aware that the poker content is way, way down.

It’s not that poker doesn’t have a role in my life anymore – I’m actually playing a bit more than usual and also wrote a dining and drinking piece on Sydney for PokerNews magazine – it’s just that I don’t think I have that much to contribute to the poker community as of late.

Yesterday I was reminded about one of the most extraordinary hands of poker ever. It was played out during the Million Dollar Cash game staged at this year’s Aussie Millions at Crown in Melbourne and will be forever remembered not for the size of the pot that brewed, but for the fact that the guy who ended up second-best (Patrick Antonius, pictured here) was incredibly unlucky to lose the hand not once, but four times.

I suspect there might be a few people scratching their heads as to what this four-card strain of poker is. While the world has been conditioned to think Texas Hold’em when it comes to poker nowadays, countless variants of the game exist with Omaha one of the most popular. Although I doubt it’ll ever reach the same lofty, ubiquitous heights Hold’em has, it’s a safe bet that Omaha will be the poker game of the future.

Its mechanics are similar to Hold’em in that there’s a flop, turn and river, but the major difference is that players must use exactly two out of their four hole cards in making their strongest five-card hand (another version of the game exists called hi-lo, where players can also win by making a “low” hand). This can lead to some embarrassing – and costly – confusion when a player might think they have the nut flush with the naked ace of spades in their hand, but really, aren’t playing much at all. Omaha is also a game where fortunes really can change on the turn of a card with lead changes right the way through a single hand almost de rigeur.

When all the money went in the middle in the above hand, Andrew Robl might have been ahead with his pair of aces, but the number of cards left in the deck that would improve Antonius’ hand was ridiculous. The fact that he couldn’t hit any of his flush or straight outs (or without Robl’s hand further improving) was even more ridiculous, laughable even.

But don’t feel too bad for Mr Antonius’ loss. In addition to his ridiculous male model exterior, the Fin is one of the world’s greatest poker players and plays at the highest stakes possible. He’s not short of cashola. Fearless, creative and an excellent hand reader, more often than not he leaves the poker table a winner, as illustrated by this insane televised hand.

Most poker players will be aware of Omaha’s existence but if you’re ever looking to change things up at your regular home game with friends, dealing a few rounds of Omaha is the ticket. There’s a good chance you’ll learn what “swings” are all about.