Omaha Poker Online

Omaha Poker, or Omaha Hold’em, is one of the variations of flop poker. Along with Texas Hold’em, it may be rightfully viewed as one of the most aggressive types of Poker games, especially challenging for beginners.

How to play Omaha Poker

Under the rules of Omaha Poker, players are dealt four cards each. The larger number of cards in the game provides players with a better opportunity to build a winning hand, but at the same time it complicates the task of figuring out what cards the opponents might be holding. Although Omaha Poker is essentially a modification of Texas Hold’em, the two games have very little in common, to say the least, except that in both of them five community cards are put face up on the table.

History of the game

It’s not quite clear where exactly Omaha Hold’em originated. According to some speculations, it derived from a five-card Poker game called Twice Three, which came about in Detroit in the early 1970s. A little later Omaha Poker made an appearance in major casinos of Las Vegas although it was not as popular as its ‘older brother,’ Texas Hold’em. In the gambling capital of the US, the new game was introduced under the name of Nugget Hold’em by a legendary player Bill Boyd. This unofficial name came from the place where it was offered, the famous Golden Nugget Casino. Despite being more complicated and aggressive than Texas Hold’em, as early as 1983 Omaha Poker was included in the Stardust Poker tournament. Today the tradition of playing high-stake Poker games such as Omaha Poker still persists.

General principles of the game

The most distinctive feature of Omaha Poker, distinguishing it from Texas Hold’em and other games, has to do with the number of ‘hole’ (pocket) cards dealt to the players. While in Texas Hold’em each player is dealt only two hole cards, in Omaha Poker four such cards are dealt. It’s important to realise, however, that only two of these four cards can be used to build a qualifying winning combination. Omaha Poker is particularly advantageous to the experienced Poker players and by no means is recommended for newbies: because of the larger number of cards being dealt, it is more difficult for any player to read the opponents’ hands in this game than in Texas Hold’em.

Just as Texas Hold’em, the game of Omaha Poker consists of several stages:

The initial pot is formed at the preflop stage. First, the player sitting next to the dealer makes a blind bet known as the ‘small blind.’ Its amount is equal to one half of the minimum bet. The player that is sitting next to the first player also makes a blind bet, known as the ‘big blind.’ Its amount is twice as much and equals 100% of the minimum bet. Once all the blind bets have been made by the players, the dealer deals four cards face down to each participant, and they begin to bet against each other. Types of betting actions at this stage of the game are quite similar to those in Texas Hold’em. Players can call (match the previous bet), raise, fold, check (pass their turn to bet to another player) or go all-in.

During the second round of Omaha Poker, the ‘flop,’ the dealer puts three cards face up on the table, and the players make new bets, this time based both on the value of the cards dealt and the value of the three community cards. At this stage some of the players usually withdraw from the game, and the betting continues until all the bets are matched.

During the third stage of Omaha Poker called the ‘turn,’ the dealer puts the forth community card on the table. One has to keep in mind that in the ‘turn’ to build a winning hand players may only use two of the four hole cards dealt to them as well as any three of the four community cards put on the table. At this stage most of the players, especially newbies, fold their cards withdrawing from the game, and the remaining players by and large usually build their hands.

The fourth, and final betting round, is called the ‘river.’  The dealer deals the fifth community card face up. The players may still build a winning combination by using only two of the hole cards.

After the final betting round is over, the ‘showdown’ begins. The players turn-up their cards to determine the winner. As in Texas Hold’em, there may be more than one winner in the game. In this case they equally divide the pot between or among themselves.

The winning hand hierarchy in Omaha Poker is identical to that in Texas Hold’em and other Poker games and consists of royal flush, straight flush, four of a kind, etc.

Rules of the game

Overall the rules of Omaha Poker are the same as in Texas Hold’em. However, each of the four main variations of Omaha Poker features its own special rules. Thus, in Pot Limit Omaha Poker a cap both on the maximum and minimum bet is put. The amount of the maximum bet may not exceed the total of the money in the pot coupled with all the bets on the table. It’s this variation of Omaha Poker that is usually played in European casinos.

Under a special rule in Five-Card Omaha, the first player is dealt five cards, not four as in other types of Omaha Poker. However, Five-Card Omaha Poker has become rather obsolete by now, and very few players will ever come across this rule.

The rules in Omaha Hi / Lo Poker, also known as Omaha 8, provide that the player having the strongest hand (a ‘high hand’) collects only half of the pot. The other half is awarded to the player with the weakest hand (‘low hand’), a hand with no pairs or cards with a rank higher than an 8. Note again that to build a winning combination, only two hole cards and three community cards may be used. In a situation where no player has built a low hand, the pot in its entirety is awarded to the player who has the high hand.