Bob Ciaffone Omaha Poker

Bob Ciaffone is an old school poker player from Brooklyn, New York. He is not as famous as some of his colleagues, but he has an impressive resume and one of his best performances is the 3rd  place in the WSOP Main Event of 1987 (back in the days). His nickname is “The Coach”, because he has mentored many players, while he was playing professionally himself. He also writes columns for Card Player Magazine. In 1984 Ciaffone wrote Omaha Poker, one of the first book about this game (which was new back then), and it was the book for Omaha poker for years. A few years ago Ciaffone has rewritten Omaha Poker in order update this book to the current standards and I will discuss this book in this review.

Structure Omaha Poker

Omaha Poker is a thin book to start with. It has 120 pages and this is included the update that Ciaffone has done a few years ago. Ciaffone has structured his book in 3 parts. The first one discusses Omaha High (PLO), the second one Omaha High/Low split and the last one discusses example hands of Ciaffone’s students. The writer has added the latter part in his update to the original copy of his book. Many example hands are from online poker and all of them are PLO, which is not strange since this form is more popular than Omaha H/L. The first 2 parts, about PLO and Omaha H/L, end with a quiz, such that readers can test their new obtained knowledge. Readers don’t need prior knowledge about Omaha to understand this book, since Ciaffone explains the rules of the game and provides some easy example hands.

Writing Style Bob Ciaffone

Ciaffone has written his book in a no nonsense manner, but it isn’t hard to read. This is due to the many example hands he provides. Ciaffone explains the game in such a way, that reader don’t need prior knowledge to understand it. There are no illustrations included, which contributes to the no nonsense style of the book.

Judgment Omaha Poker

I think that Omaha Poker is suited for those who just started Omaha or want to try/switch from Holdem to Omaha. Bob Ciaffone first explains the rules of the game and compares the game to Holdem on various points and explains specifically what errors Holdem players make when starting Omaha. Next to this, the writer also discusses playable starting hands and factors that are important post flop (like drawing to the nuts and the power of wrap around draws).

On the other hand, I think that player who are more or less knowledgeable about Omaha will learn few from this book. The theory in this book is for current Omaha standards quite trivial and the book misses in depth hand analyses. This is because it is a thin book, in which both PLO and Omaha H/L is discussed and also, more importantly, a relative old book. Omaha and especially PLO has developed tremendously recent years (on the internet) and so the theory about this game too. This causes that older literature is getting outdated, which also can be seen with older Holdem books. This effect can be noticed in Omaha Poker in its theory, which is less comprehensive than in newer books, and in concepts like the preferred blinds structure for Omaha. Although Ciaffone has updates this book, the most part is written in 1984 and you can simply see that.

All in all, I advice this book to anyone who is unacquainted with Omaha, but who wants to learn the game. Omaha players with some experience can better skip this book and read other books on Omaha.