The future of poker, according to many industry analysts, lies in Omaha, the card game that features four hole cards instead of just two. With the increased number of hole cards for each player, the number of draws significantly increases, which equates to more action and bigger pots at the tables.
With more and more players migrating to the game, the need for Omaha tools and programs is on the rise. Traditionally, most players who use a tracking and analysis program have been left in the dark when it comes to Omaha. The only program built for importing Omaha hands prior to the release of Omaha Manager was the woefully outdated PokerTracker 2 Omaha Edition, which requires another program (Poker EV) in order to do statistical analysis and graphing.
The development group that put together the critically acclaimed program Holdem Manager released Omaha Manager, an add-on that allows for the importing and tracking of Omaha hands. After a lengthy beta testing phase, the Omaha Manager program was officially rolled out as part of the 1.08.02 release earlier this week and comes with a 15 day free trial. Small-stakes users can purchase the Omaha Manager add-on for $55, while players at bigger stakes can purchase the full Professional Edition for $80. Players who purchase the Small-Stakes Edition are welcome to upgrade at any time to the Professional Edition for the difference in price between the two programs.
Installation of the new Omaha Manager is a very easy process. Simply download the latest update of Holdem Manager. From there, open Holdem Manager and enter in your new serial code (which might require you deactivating your old code). After that, the process is complete and your Holdem Manager program will have officially been upgraded to import, track, and analyze all things Omaha.
The program imports all Omaha games and can import from the same breadth of poker rooms as Holdem Manager. You won’t have to configure anything as long as Holdem Manager was already importing hands from a given poker room. The Heads-Up Display (HUD) will even appear as soon as the first hand is imported.
Managing the HUD is a great experience and the developers behind this program really got it right. Setting up an Omaha-specific HUD is extremely easy. A user should go into the HUD Options and select “Player Preferences,” which brings up the main window for editing the HUD. Click on “New Config,” enter in an appropriate name (such as “Omaha HUD”), and assign it to work with Omaha tables. Users are welcome to customize the HUD with any of the statistics available to them in Holdem Manager. Once completed, users will find that the HUD works fantastically and auto-updates after every hand without a hitch.
Analyzing your stats specific to Omaha games is done similarly through all of the tabs. For example, from the “Reports” tab, users will see a small drop-down button that by default says “Holdem,” but when clicked on, reveals the following:
· Holdem
· Omaha High
· Omaha High-Low
· All Omaha
· All Games
The stability and reliability of the program is second to none. After using it extensively during both the trial and full release periods, Omaha Manager never crashed and the HUD worked perfectly. Having testing the program on both PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker, the Omaha importing and tracking worked as advertised.
Overall for Omaha players, getting the new Omaha Manager add-on is an absolute must. There’s simply no program that integrates all of these statistics, HUD features, and graphs into one software solution. Casual Omaha players would do well by using the Small-Stakes edition and even players new to the Omaha scene can check out the fun through the 15 day free trial.
