who has the advantage in this weird poker game??

[ill rich]

this is a game i invented, and want to challange some people to a heads up match (it can only be heads up), but i would like to know who has the advantage.

dealer = small blind, and the other is a big blind

the board is set up like hold em and delt the same

player A: gets four cards like omaha, and must use EXACTLY two cards

player B: gets three cards, but can use either ALL THREE, only two, or even only one, to make his best 5 card poker hand.

who has the advantage?

[Abbaddabba]

3 cards would win more (i think), but the winning hands would be a lot more transparent which makes it kind of difficult to guage who would be 'winning'.

[CityFan]

Here's a quick calculation:

Player A gets a choice of
4c2 * 5c3
= 4*3/2 * 5*4/2
= 6 * 10
= 60 possible ways of combining two of his cards and three of the board cards.

Player B gets a choice of
8c5
= 8*7*6/3*2
= 56 possible ways of combining his cards with the board cards in any way he likes (i.e. picking any five from eight)

If my arithmetic is right, then, the guy who's playing Omaha has access to a slightly bigger set of hands. That would suggest that he has an edge - but I suppose there may be correlations going on between the players' possible hands, so more thought is required in order to be certain.

[ill rich]

my initial thought is the guy with 3 cards would because he could catch a flush with only 2 board cards and start out with trips, and even use lone suits or ranks for one card flushes and straights while the other guy... trips is a terrible hand and even 3 suited is bad, plus u cant make 1 card flushes or straights

[RocketManJames]

[ QUOTE ]
player B: gets three cards, but can use either ALL THREE, only two, or even only one, to make his best 5 card poker hand.

[/ QUOTE ]

Can player B also choose to use none of his cards? Not that it matters much, but it'd be pretty cool to say, "I play the board" and have the other guy muck his hand, because it is a loser.

-RMJ

[AKQJ10]

[ QUOTE ]
it'd be pretty cool to say, "I play the board" and have the other guy muck his hand, because it is a loser.

[/ QUOTE ]

Indeed. And it's not even that hard to imagine such a case. Broadway on the board, for example, or something like a full house on board where the Omaha player doesn't have a pocket pair, or has an underpair.

[Nivek24]

the three carder for sure.. If you want to experiment take out a deck and deal ahundred of these hands and see who comes out on top

[Gonso]

[ QUOTE ]
the three carder for sure.. If you want to experiment take out a deck and deal ahundred of these hands and see who comes out on top

[/ QUOTE ]

You might want a few more than that - throw together some code and run it that way. I'd expect the player with the greater amount of hand possibilities to have the edge, but gameplay and hand analysis might factor into it heavily enough to swing one way or the other.

[lsuplayer]

I think b/c the advantage is so close, 60-56, the one playing with 3cds will win more because a lot of times his hands will be disguised and/or he will be able to play hands the omaha will not such as 1 card straights, flushes, and board, etc.

[LouisCyphre]

The Omaha player might have more card combinations but some of them probably are redundant most of the time.