Omaha High

Omaha High is a type of community poker. Community poker games feature a number of cards that are dealt face up in front of the dealer. These cards are visible to all players, and all players share the cards. Players then use their own cards and the community cards to form a winning hand.

The variations of Omaha High at Poker.com are defined by their betting limits:

Limit Omaha High (there is a specified betting limit in each game and on each round of betting)
Pot Limit Omaha High (a player can bet what is in the pot)
No Limit Omaha High (a player can bet all of their chips at any time)

Basic Play

1. Blind Bets
2. Deal - each player is dealt 4 cards
3. First betting round
4. The Flop - the first three community cards are dealt
5. Second betting round
6. The Turn - the fourth community card is dealt
7. Third betting round
8. The River - the final community card is dealt
9. Final betting round
10. Showdown

The Dealer Button

Omaha High Poker uses a small disc called the "dealer button" to indicate the dealer of each hand. At a new table, the first player seated will get the dealer button. Once a hand is completed, the dealer button then moves clockwise to the next player. This ensures that each player has the chance of playing early or late and that every player gets a chance to post the "blind bets".

Note: During Single Table Tournaments the first player to get the dealer button is determined through a high card draw (each player is dealt one card; the player with the highest value card goes first. If two or more players have the same value card then they are ranked according to suit - high to low - spades, hearts, diamonds, clubs).

The Blind Bets

The player to the left of the dealer button is required to place the "small blind" (usually equal to half the lower stake) and the next player to the left is required to place the "big blind" (equal to the lower stake limit). Once the blind bets have been made, the cards are dealt and the next player to the left starts the first betting round.

Both the small and the big blinds are considered live bets and therefore the player has the option of checking, calling, raising or folding when the betting action comes back around to their position. After the flop and after each subsequent betting round, the first active player left of the button is first to act.

When a player sits down at an active table, they will be required to post the equivalent of the big blind. Also, to prevent "blinds" abuse, players are required to post the small blind and the big blind upon re-entry (returning from sitting out) to the game if both blinds are missed (only the big blind amount is posted as a live bet and the remainder is added directly to the pot). All players have the option of sitting out and waiting for the button to rotate to their position before starting to play.

The mandatory posting of the blind is in place to ensure fairness to all players; preventing players from constantly switching seats to gain a positional advantage, or from entering games in a late position and then leaving before they are required to post the big blind.

First Betting Round

Starting with the player to the left of the "big blind", they have the option to bet, raise or fold. All remaining players can then call, raise or fold. To "call" is to bet the same as the previous player. If the first player folds, then the next player will have the option to bet while the remaining players can call.

The bets in the first betting round are set at the lower limit of the stakes structure, so in a $10/$20 game the value of a bet is $10 while the raise is $20 (a raise includes a call of the previous bet plus an additional bet).

The Second Betting Round

After the flop (when the first 3 community cards have been dealt), the second betting round begins.

The first player to the left of the dealer button is the first to act (bet, raise, check or fold). Checking is to refrain from betting and is only available if no bet has yet been made in the betting round. Once a bet has been made, remaining players will only have the option to call, raise or fold. Like the first round, the second also limits the bets and raises to the lower limit of the stakes structure.

The Third Betting Round

The third betting round starts after the Turn (when the fourth community card has been dealt).

Once again, the player to the left of the dealer button begins the betting (bet, check or fold). However, this time the bets and raises are limited to the upper limit of the stakes structure. Each subsequent player can then call, check, raise or fold (a player can only check if no bet has been made).

The Final Betting Round

The final betting round happens after the River card (the final community card) has been dealt.

The player to the left of the dealer button can bet, check, raise or fold. Bets and raises are limited to the upper limit of the stakes structure. Remaining players can then call, check, raise or fold (a player can only check if no bet has been made).

The Showdown

Any remaining players must use 2 of their cards and 3 community cards to make their hand.

If two or more players have the same hand then the pot is split equally between them.

Betting Exceptions

In Limit Omaha High a maximum of four bets are allowed per player in a betting round - (1) bet, (2) raise, (3) re-raise and (4) cap. In No Limit and Pot Limit Omaha High the number of times a player can raise is not limited. However, a player can not raise themselves (if a player raises and then all the remaining players call or fold, then the player who raised would not get an option to raise because they were the last to raise).

A player is declared All-In if they do not have enough chips to call. This player is eligible for the portion of the pot to the point of their final bet.

All further bets by other players go to a "side pot" which any All-In players are excluded from

Continuation Betting

The most profitable bluff in poker...

There are many aspects of Texas hold'em that need to be mastered to become a profitable poker player. Starting hand selection, betting, raising, check raising, slow playing, hand reading, and bluffing...just to name a few.

But there is one particular type of bluff that is absolutely necessary to master. It is the most frequently used, lowest risk, most profitable bluff in Hold'em. It is the Continuation bet.

The continuation bet, or "C-bet", allows you to use selective aggression to maintain control of a hand after the flop has hit. So how exactly does one do this?

Well, first you have to establish control, and this is done preflop. It's quite simple... raise your hand preflop rather than just calling the blinds. This generally allows the preflop raiser to establish control. Since you are communicating to the rest of your table that you have a strong hand, most other players will fold, or just call. By being the first to raise the pot preflop, you have established the lead, and are in control.

Now, since a non-paired hand will pair on the flop about 32% of the time, this means that 68% of the time, the flop will miss your hand...but it will also miss your opponents hand 68% of the time as well! So, this presents a great opportunity to bet a decent amount, knowing that your opponent will generally have missed the flop, it will be very hard for him to call and continue on with not even bottom pair.

This is really the magic of the continuation bet. Whether or not you make a hand on the flop, being the first to bet the flop will generally force a fold from your opponent, as long as you established the lead preflop.

So, once the flop hits and you are first to act, betting 1/2 - 2/3 the pot will generally take it down right there. This is small enough bet to preserve your stack, but large enough to give incorrect odds for calling most draws.

If you are last to act, and your opponents check to you, bet 1/2 - 2/3 the pot. It's the same as before, except in this hand you have position on them as well!

By establishing the lead preflop, you are saying you have a strong hand. Once the flop hits and you continuation bet, you are really telling your opponents, "I have a strong hand, and I will make you pay to see the next card, and possible pay all the way to the river".

Unless your opponent has a real hand (which they usually won't), you will take down the pot.

As usual in poker, it doesn't matter so much what hand you have...it matters more what hand your opponent has. The C-bet will force them to fold their frequently weak hand, even though yours is just as frequently weak. Remember, selective aggression forces players to give up pots...and to make a profit in poker, you need to win more than your fair share of pots!

And, as usual in poker, this strategy is an effective, but not perfect strategy. There are three situations when it loses effectiveness:

1. Many people see the flop. C-betting works best against 1 opponent, maybe 2. If 3 or more see the flop, you can be fairly sure someone hit something they like, and a 1/2 a pot bet won't force a fold.


2. The flop is very coordinated. Continuation betting works well when a flop is Ace, 8, 2 rainbow. It looks like you hit your Ace. But, if the flop is 9 of clubs, Ten of clubs, Jack of clubs, it is very likely that someone will stick around to see if the next card makes their straight or flush.


3. You have been C-betting, or bluffing a lot in general. If the rest of the table starts to see you as a bluffer, they will call you down with little more than Ace or King high sometimes.

I generally aim to C-bet about 75% - 80% of the time...which is just enough to bet most of my real hands, some of my small pocket pairs, some of my draws, and a few stone cold bluffs. this keeps opponents guessing, 100% c-betting is just asking someone to go to show down with you.

Like all things in poker, practice makes perfect. However, once you master the continuation bet, your will have a new tool to build up your chipstack with!

Table Statistics

Regarding the statistics in the tables list, I think it's most important to remember to use the numbers for comparisons; i.e. once you've decided the game and limits at which you wish to play, the next step is to use the numbers to help decide which particular table is likely to be the most satisfactory / most profitable (not always the same thing).

Technically, of course, the three stats fairly simple to decipher:

Average pot size - total $ in all pots for the last "n" games / "n"

Players per flop - average for the last "n" games of number of players seeing the flop / number of players at the table

Hands per hour - total number of hands completed in a previous 60 minutes period

Note that some additional information is needed to help you optimize your play:

First, the "n" in the calculations would be helpful, although this is not generally available (although some poker sites publish this information on well-hidden web pages). The reason this can be important is that the "flavor" of a table can change rapidly online, and a fishpond can become a sharkpool before the averages change enough to warn you what you're getting into. However, we work with what we have.

The second factor that can really skew the averages is number of players AT the table. A 10-table with 3 players will naturally have a much higher H/hr rate than a full table, and will most likely have a higher PPF number as well (as most players will loosen their starting hand requirements with fewer competitors).

Finally, on the "techie" side, one would use the Average Pot Size (APS) figure together with the blind or limit size for that particular table to help decide how much bankroll will be "at risk". It's fairly typical, I think, to sit down at a limit table with 50x the big bet, and most sites seem to limit the buy-in for a NL table to 100x the big blind, so much of the decision here will be based on the table limits. However, once you know the total amount of money at the table, the APS number will give you a fair idea of how much is being committed to pots, and therefore a good feel for the post-flop aggressiveness of the players at the table.

Now, with all the math out of the way, I said earlier that "most satisfactory" and "most profitable" were not always the same thing. There will be times (many) when I sit down only to improve the bankroll balance. In these cases, I'll look for a game with a large number of players (8-9), a fairly high PPF number (depending on the site and the limits, this can be anywhere from 45% on up) and an APS of about 15x big blind (NL). This tells me, in general, that there are several players calling preflop, but who do not have the hands to support aggressive post-flop action. In these cases, playing premium hands, and with a little help on the flop, I can usually catch all the fish I can eat.

On the other hand, there are times when I really want to play against premium opponents, just for the enjoyment of the poker. While one usually has to go into the higher limits for this kind of action, some quality games can be found in the lower limits if you know how to look. Lower PPF is a great indicator that a table is tight early, and a lower APS on this kind of table lets you know that the players are also tight late, leaving the way clear for some delightful one-on-one action for late play.

As far as actually using the H/hr number, this is really only useful to me in the way that knowing the alcohol content of my drink is: the higher the number, the more I can feed the "action junkie" monkey. Again, this mainly depends on my mood for the evening.

So how do the table statistics make your poker game better? Like any other information in our sport of "using limited data to best effect" they are tools to assist in selecting the best game to achieve your objectives for the session. If by "better" you mean "more profitable", use them in one way; but if you mean "higher quality poker by playing higher quality opponents while minimizing your risk", then use them another.

Poker Chips

The terms "Casino Grade Chips" and "Poker Chips" have different meanings in the Gaming Industry. Essentially, there are two classes of chips to be considered. The premier chip is the true casino grade chip and the other alternative is the low cost 'home game' chip.

Casino Grade chips are further divided into 2 categories; clay and clay composite. Both generally weigh between 9 and 10.5 grams.

The discerning or professional player considers clay chips the most desirous chips. These compression-molded chips are the standard for the vast majority of casinos worldwide. Both the composition of clay chips and their manufacturing process are highly guarded industry secrets. In addition, they are a very labor-intensive product. Both of these factors contribute to their higher cost. Clay chips are generally priced in excess of $1 per chip.

Home Poker Chips - From Left to Right - Full Clay Poker Chip, A Clay Composite Chip, 13 Gram 'Casino' Chip, 11.5 Gram 'Dice' Chip

The second casino grade chip is the clay composite chip. These chips are injection molded. Chipco and Kardwell are the two primary manufactures of this style chip and both firms manufacture their chips in the USA. NJ utilizes a 'natural' feeling substance, giving their chip a clay sound and feel while Chipco's chip is a more 'cold' ceramic material. The major advantage these chips have over their clay counterpart is their ability to accept full-face graphics.

Although the clay chip has been the industry standard for decades, the composite chip's popularity and use has grown significantly in the past few years. While there is no tangible difference in the quality of a clay chip versus a casino grade composite chip, the lower cost and graphic capability of the composite chip has seen its popularity grow within the casinos worldwide. NJ offers a "production line" chip to the public for the purpose of creating an affordable quality chip for the home user and is releasing a second more traditional "casino line" soon.

There is a third type of chip available for the home user. This is a composite chip manufactured in China. These low cost, multi-colored chips are made of PVC injected plastic over a metal slug and are produced specifically for the inexperienced and novice market. Cleverly marketed as "the heaviest (11.5 - 13 gram) casino chips on the market", these chips are not casino grade.

It is their metal core that makes them heavier than a casino grade product. Their mass production makes them widely available throughout the world at sometimes extremely low prices. This doesn't make them better. just heavier and cheaper and therefore not casino grade. This type of chip, although never recommended over a casino grade product, may be appropriate for the occasional player.

Whilst the clay chips and clay composite chips are generally more expensive (often 3 to 4 times more) I would suggest any regular poker player invest in a quality set as acquiring poker chips should be a once in a lifetime purchase. The cheaper Chinese chips are quite slippery, making them difficult to create high stacks and perform some chip tricks. From our experience casino grade quality (clay or clay composite) is the way to go! The usual set makeup is from 300-500 chips and are available from the following retailers.

Buying Poker Chips

There are literally thousands of poker chip retailers online, but it is important to understand what you are buying. Our poker chips article explains the two main types and origins of the gaming chips that are for sale to home game players. If you are still uncertain whether to purchase the "cheap" Chinese chips or go all out and spend upwards of 5 - 10 times as much for a high quality clay poker chip set, then this poker chips guide should help.

Most respectable poker chip retailers will sell you a "sample" set of their chips before you commit to purchasing an entire set. If you do happen to get hold of some sample chips, use the following tests before making up your mind on what to buy.

Inlay Labels
Some chips (mostly custom chips) have a printed inlay or stick on label. Try to peel it off with your fingernail and then try a knife. Is it set into the chip or stuck on top of the chip, would a nervous fingernail pull it off during a game.

Does the print scratch off easily? Is there a clear layer that will come away with extended use? Dip one in water and then leave it out overnight, will it be ruined if someone's wet beer hand touches them? Are the labels in the center of the chip? If you have a full face label, does the design line up with the edge spots? Grab the knife and have a stab at the label, does it mark or scratch?

Hot Stamped Chips
Hot-stamped chips usually have gold text stamped on them, representing values or branding. Check to see if this rubs off or gets dirty when you rubs two chips together. Also try to scratch it off using your fingernail and a knife.

Edges
Some makes of poker chips have quite sharp, square edges, others have softer edges, and some chips, such as the Modern Clay, come with intentionally pre-rounded edges to give the chips that 'worn in' feeling. If you smash the chips edges against each other a few times to see if the edges mark or get dents. If they do mark and dent, it is probably the sign of a better quality clay chip however they should not mark so badly that the chip is mutilated. The "All In" clay chip is quite soft, if you push these together you can actually make a deep mark in the chip.

Stacking / Face Texture
It is hard to guage the stacking ability of a certain chip with only one or two of a specific style. Generally, clay chips stack a lot better than the cheaper plastic or composite chips. I was lucky enough to have tested certain types of chips before I bought mine. The cheaper Chinese plastic composite chips are stackable slip over very easily, where as the Nevada Jacks type clay composite you can stack 100 chips high or finger to finger horizontally with no problems.

Try that with even 15 of the plastic type and enjoy picking them up off the floor. If you are lucky enough to have a few of each chip, put them on top of each other and see how easily they slide off each other. If you cant tell by pushing them flat, hold on to the bottom chip, place another on top and slowly tip your chips on an angle till one slides off. This will also be influenced by the weight of the chip, so please be mindful of all elements when performing tests.

Scratch the chip
With another chip, your fingernail, and then a key or knife, try to scratch and then gouge the surface. The surface of the chip is made of clay, clay composite, ABS plastic, or a ceramic material. Note what instrument leaves a mark, note how easy or hard it was to scratch? Consider the look of chips that now have a contrasting color underneath. How will your chip set look after 100 hours of play? Would the scratch marks soften, fill with dirt or blend in over time?

Calculating Pot Odds

The concept of pot odds is easy to learn and in my opinion is one of the most important concepts of playing winning poker, especially no limit hold'em.

It's simply, the relationship, expressed as a ratio, between the size of the bet you are making or calling, and the number of bets those bets in the pot. For example, if there is 12$ in the pot and you need to call a 3$ bet, you are getting 4:1 pot odds, expressed as 4:1.

To have good enough pot odds, generally you need to have better pot odds than your chance of winning the hand. So if you think you only have a 20% chance to win the hand, you should only play that hand if there is 5 times your bet or more in the pot. This is a risk/reward ratio - if you risk losing the bet, you need to have a big enough reward to make it affordable.

Pot odds can be used during different situations, including calling bets or drawing to a straight or flush. For example, if you need to call 5$ with a 25% chance to win a hand, there needs to be 4 or more times the size of your bet in the pot, or 20$.

BEFORE THE FLOP: especially when you are playing weaker hands trying to hit a flop, ex. suited connectors and small pairs, be aware if the pot is big enough for you to take a flop and try to hit your hand. To have good enough odds, generally you need to have better pot odds than your chance of winning the hand. So if you think you only have a 20% chance to win the hand, you should only play that hand if there is 5 times your bet or more in the pot. This is a risk/reward ratio - if you risk losing the bet, you need to have a big enough reward to make it affordable.

AFTER THE FLOP: This will mainly be applied when you are drawing to a hand, but the same rule applies, you must have better pot odds then your chance of winning, so it will be profitable in the long run if you hit. To apply this, you need to know how many outs you have, and what percentage this gives you to win the hand. Below is a chart drawing odds from a deck of 47 unseen cards.

Good players will also use these when defending the best hand. When you are playing with the best hand, especially against loose players, you can put in a bet that gives the player bad odds to call if you think he will play anyway, or if you want to just win the pot right away you can put an oversized bet in that is clearly not an affordable price to draw. This is just one of the ways that you can tilt pot odds in your favor.

Drawing odds from a deck of 47 unseen cards

Outs	2 Cards to Come	1 Card to come
20	67.5%	43.5%
19	65.0%	41.3%
18	62.4%	39.1%
17	59.8%	37.0%
16	57.0%	34.8%
15	54.1%	32.6%
14	51.2%	30.4%
14	51.2%	30.4%
14	51.2%	30.4%
13	48.1%	28.3%
12	45.0%	26.1%
11	41.7%	23.9%
10	38.4%	21.7%
9	35.0%	19.6%
8	31.5%	17.4%
7	27.8%	15.2%
6	24.1%	13.0%
5	20.4%	10.9%
4	16.5%	8.7%
3	12.5%	6.5%
2	8.4%	4.3%
1	4.3%	2.2%

BLUFFING: Pot odds must also be considered when bluffing. Over and Over again I have seen people bluff all in to attempt to steal the smaller blinds: an incredibly high risk for a very small reward. The mathematical rule for bluffing is that THE POT ODDS MUST BE GREATER THAN THE ODDS OF SUCCESSFULLY PULLING OFF THE BLUFF.

For example, if you estimate the odds of bluffing and winning at 1 in 5, then there must be more than 5 bets in the pot when you attempt the bluff. This means that you can bluff 1 10th the size of the pot and lose 9 times, and you win in the long run if you win the 10th time. HOWEVER, be careful when playing against bad players, who are often "un-bluffable". Make sure you consider that your chance of bluffing bad players is very small, and use this move scarcely.

As you can see, pot odds can make you a winning player in many aspects of the game, and it is essential to always be thinking about pot odds in the risk/reward game that is poker.

Poker Hands

Winning Poker Hands, Texas Hold'em Poker Hand Ranks

When playing poker, sometimes the most frustrating part of the game is figuring out which hand outranks another at the poker table. Poker.com has placed the ranking of poker hands in a easy to read layout that is suitable for printing so that you are never wondering who is the winner of any poker hand at the table. We have included an illustrated example of each hand. The list is in order from strongest to weakest.

Royal Flush:
Five card sequence from 10 to the Ace in the same suit (10,J,Q,K,A).

Straight Flush:
Any five card sequence in the same suit. (eg. 8,9,10,J,Q and A, 2,3,4,5 of same suit). All the cards are of the same suit, and all are consecutive. Ranking between straights is determined by the value of the high end of the straight.

Four of a Kind: All four cards of the same index (eg. J,J,J,J).

Full House:
Three of a kind combined with a pair (eg. A,A,A,5,5). Ties on a full house are broken by the three of a kind, as you cannot have two equal sets of three of a kind in any single deck.

Flush:
Any five cards of the same suit, but not in sequence. Don't be tricked into thinking that all five cards are the same color. The high card determines the winner if two or more people have a flush.

---

Straight:
Five cards in sequence, but not in the same suit. A straight cannot wrap, meaning it is not a straight if you have a Queen, King, Ace, Two, Three. The higher straight wins if two or more people have a straight. In case of straights that tie, the pot is split.

Three of a Kind:
Three cards of the same value. The highest set of three cards wins.

Two Pair:
Two seperate pairs (eg. 4,4,Q,Q). As usual the pair with the higher value is used to determine the winner of a tie.

Pair:
One pair of two equal value cards constitutes a pair.

High Card:
If no one has any of the above winning hands, the tie is determined by the highest value card in the hand. If the highest cards are a tie then the tie is broken by the second highest card. Suits are not used to break ties.

The history of Poker

The history of Poker is thought to have evolved over more than ten centuries from various games, all involving the basic principals of ranked card or domino combinations and the use of ‘bluffing’ to deceive opponents.

One popular belief is that a game similar to poker was first invented by the Chinese sometime before 969 A.D, when The Emperor Mu-tsung is reported to have played "domino cards" with his wife on new years eve.

Egyptians in the 12th & 13th centuries are known to have used a form of playing cards, and in 16th century Persia “Ganjifa” or “Treasure Cards” were used for a variety of betting games. A Ganjifa deck consisted of 96 elaborate cards, often made of paper thin slices of ivory or precious wood. The Persians played “As Nas” which utilized 25 cards, rounds of betting and hierarchical hand rankings.

A French game named “Poque” and a German game named “Pochen” became very popular in the 17 & 18th centuries, both developed from the 16th century Spanish game called “Primero” which involved three cards being dealt to each player. Bluffing, or betting high stakes whilst holding poor cards to deceive opponents, was an integral part of the game. Primero dates back to 1526 and is often referred to as “poker’s mother” as it is the first confirmed version of a game directly related to modern day poker.

French colonials imported the game to the new world when they arrived in Canada. Their beloved poque was the national card game of France and from the beginning of the 18th century, when a hardy group of French-Canadian settlers founded New Orleans, it spread from the state of Louisiana up the Mississippi river and then throughout the whole country.

In 1834, Jonathan H. Green made one of the earliest written references to poker when in his writing he mentions rules to the "cheating game," being played on Mississippi riverboats. The Cheating Game" quickly began to supplant the popular cardsharp game of 3-card monte on the gambling circuit. Gamers embraced the new game as it was perceived as a more challenging and 'honest' gamble than the notoriously rigged 3-card game. Green took more than a passing interest in the new game and took it upon himself to formally name and document the 'Cheating Game' in his book 'An Exposure of the Arts and Miseries of Gambling': Poker was born.

During the Wild West period of United States history, a saloon with a Poker table could be found in just about every town from coast to coast. It was extremely popular during the Civil War when the soldiers of both armies played. European influence of poker ended when the joker was introduced as a wild card in 1875.

In just over two centuries, poker has never looked back. Since its humble beginning on the banks of the Mississippi, the popularity of this widely played game has grown in leaps and bounds to evolve numerous variations and sub-variations.

There have been three games that have, in turn, dominated the modern poker scene:

• 5 Card Draw rose from relative obscurity during the American Civil War to the most popular game for almost a century.

  Nevada made it a felony to run a betting game. However the Attorney General of California declared that draw poker was based upon skill and therefore the anti-gambling laws could not stop it. But stud poker was still deemed illegal as it was based solely on chance. With this decision, draw poker games developed and grew. This caused Nevada to reverse itself in 1931 and legalize casino gambling.

• 7 Card Stud then took over the throne shortly before WWII and maintained its position for about 40 years with the help of the new and thriving Las Vegas casino industry.

• Texas Hold’em, christened the ‘cadillac of poker’ rose to promienence in the 1970's when it was featured as the title game in the World Series of Poker. Today, Texas Hold’em is indisputably the most frequently played and most popular poker game in the world, played in casinos and on home game tables the world over.

Other variations such as Omaha, Stud Poker, Manila, Draw Poker and Razz are also popular, but nothing can compete with the thrill of No Limit Texas Hold’em.

No Limit Texas Hold’em played at The World Series of Poker and the World Poker Tour have been captivating American television audiences to the point that there are now made for TV events such as the National Heads Up Poker Championship and the World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions being filmed especially for TV and shown in prime time.

Poker looks like it is here to stay and it’s popularity has never been as widespread nor growing as quickly as it is right now. With the wealth of poker information available online, and the relative ease of logging on and playing with other poker players from around the world, there is no time like the present to join the poker craze.