ALL THE Aces

COURCHA LOOKING!

The French game of Courchevel is 5-Card Omaha with a twist. The twist being that the first of the three flop cards is dealt face up before the initial betting round. Following that first betting round, the remaining players see the rest of the flop. Subsequent betting rounds follow as normal after the flop, turn and river. Omaha is a tasty game at the best of times, but throw extra cards in there, plus an early peek at a third of the flop -- and you have a recipe for potential mayhem! Going from four hole cards in traditional Omaha games to five in 5-Card Omaha and Courchevel has a massive impact on the number of hands you can put together.

COUR BLIMEY!

In Omaha, there are six possible combinations of the two cards you must use from your hole cards to make your best hand with three of the community cards. In Courchevel, that balloons to ten combos, which makes it much easier to hit big nut hands that can still be outdrawn on later streets. You must sharpen your board reading skills to know where you are and where you could be by showdown. Good starting hands are imperative, with AAKKQ, AAKQJ, AAQJT (double-suited to the Aces) topping the charts of desirability. However, in Courchevel, the strength of your hand is very dependent on what the flop ‘door card’ is. For more Courchevel tips, “eldodo42” has put together some useful observations on the TwoPlusTwo forum at: www.tinyurl.com/CourTips