
Winners Guide to Omaha Poker - Ken Warren (Review)
I read a lot of poker books and for the past few months I have been writing little "mini reviews" on them. Hopefully these will give you a broad idea of what each book has to offer and can help you choose which book to buy.
I have also created a little ratings system to simplify things as between this site and others I have many many mini reviews floating around.
The level is the level of player I believe will get the most out of the book. The Reading Difficulty suggests wether a particular writing style was an easy read for me or if I felt that I was constantly reading thing 2 or more times to fully grasp the concept. Organization has to do with how the book is organized, mainly will the book be easy to reference or will you have to re-read it to find what you are looking for. Usefullness is pretty obvious but there are a few factors. Mainly: is the information right and can it be applied at the table or in simulation and make an impact on your game.
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Level: Beginner
Reading Difficulty: 1
Organization: 3
Usefullness: 2 (consider this a rulebook with a few tips for the complete omaha newbie)
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This is the second book I have read by Ken Warren and although the information in the book wasn't bad it was a little weak. Is this book about Omaha High? Omaha high/low? Who knows. Ken seemes to kind of mix the two games together as one big game when infact they are two completly seperate monsters. As far as hard strategy there really is none.
The book starts out by describing the differences between Omaha and Hold em. Interesting because after about 20 differences I felt like I was reading filler that anyone who has spent a few hours playing both games could come up with. There is a chapter with over 25 points on hand reading for Omaha hi and then another for Omaha Hi/lo. Talk about filler. There is also a section on Omaha tournaments which is more like a weak beginners crash course on Hold em tourneys than any kind of new information related to Omaha tourneys. I think the great big new piece of tourney strategy I learned from this book was "tournament seat and table selection." Yeah, that is not a typo, he covers this in the book.
I would discuss the strategy advice Ken gives but his book is more of a jumbled mess of random points about how Omaha is different from Hold em and how to read an Omaha hand than anything. If there was a section on how to play a hand after the flop I missed it. While his advice is not wrong it is very redundant and extremley simplistic, not really covering any single area of the game completly other than the rules and how to read a hand.
I don't really reccomend this book unless you need to learn the rules of Omaha high or Omaha Hi/Lo as this book to me resembles a long drawn out rulebook. For the complete total beginner this book might cover a few small tips about Omaha but other than to the complete novice this book is only going to burn a hole in your pocket. I really felt that while I read the book Ken Warren was sitting somewhere counting his money saying "wow, they will publish anything!" I rarely give a bad review but I just can't really speak to fondly of this book. Don't waste your time or money on this book. |