Omaha poker is a community-card based poker game, similar to the hugely popular Texas Hold’em poker.
The game is easily the most popular game in casinos and tournaments after Texas hold’em.
Owing to its immense popularity, the game has been modified, and the variants are also available in casinos, both on land and online.
Omaha Poker History
Interestingly for a game that is relatively new in gambling, the history of the game is not very clear. However when it comes to casinos, the game was first played in the Las Vegas Golden nugget casino where it was called the Nugget hold’em. In the original format of the Omaha game, every player was given 2 hole cards, and then they had to make up the strongest possible hand using the community cards.
Most of the books of poker strategy describe this version as interchangeable with a game called Tight Hold’em. Omaha poker is often called Omaha hold’em, the ‘hold’em referring to the fact that it uses the community card shared by every player. The stud games use cards unique to each player which can be seen, and in draw poker games all the cards are hole cards.
Omaha Poker Rules
Omaha poker is played with the standard French deck having 52 cards. To win at Omaha you need to capitalize on the mistakes made by others, which is why learning the rules becomes very important. The aim is to use the two hole cards and the community cards to make the strongest possible hand.
The game can be played with a pot limit or no-limit, but no-limit Omaha is rare. Here are the rules regarding the game play.
- To begin with, every player is dealt 4 cards, unlike the two given in Texas Hold’em. These cards are dealt face down and are called hole cards. You have to use exactly two of these 4 cards while making up your final hand.
- After the cards have been dealt, one player who will assigned as the blind for the game will start off by making the initial bet.
After that the player can either check, raise, fold or call. If the payer calls or raises, then it is necessary for the other player to call or raise. Once every player has checked, the three community cards are revealed; this move is also called the flop.
- Once the community cards are revealed the betting process starts again. Following this, the fourth community card is revealed which is called the ‘turn’ or the ‘fourth street’.
After another round of betting, the final card called the ‘fifth street’ or the ‘river’ is revealed. Then the final round of betting takes place. After this, if there are two or more players left in the game then a showdown takes place.
- One major difference when compared to Texas hold’em is that two cards from the hand have to be used. For instance there are four cards of spades in the community cards, and the player has one spade, then he cannot use those four to make a flush. He has to use two cards from the hand.
Omaha Poker Variants
The Omaha Hold’em has a few variants as well that have become quite popular. One of these is the Omaha hi-low poker. The rules are pretty much the same but the main difference is that the pot is divided between the highest and the lowest hand. A player can also win the entire pot if he/she has the right cards.
The rules for judging the highest hand remain the same. For judging the lowest hand, two hole cards and three community cards have to be taken. The cards are then read backwards. For instance cards 2, 3,6,7,9 would be read as 9-7, 6, 3, and 2. If two players have the same lowest hand then the amount is halved.
It is also important to note that the five cards taken for the low hand should all be below 8. If there are no three community cards below 8 then there cannot be a low hand and the pot goes to the high hand winner.
Strategy
A very common mistake committed by a lot of players is to treat the game in the same way as they treat Texas hold’em. Because of the variations in rules described above, the playing strategy changes significantly for this game.
The starting hand: It is very important for a player to figure out whether the hand dealt is good enough to bet or not. If a player commits a mistake here then it can lead to a loss of lot of money. The hands are usually divided into two categories, the scoops which can help you in winning both the high and low or either the high or the low hands.
The other is the redraw which is a hand that can be made better with the help of community cards. If your hand has an ace that is suited with some other card in your hand then it is a great example of a hand that is both a scoop and a redraw. You should go ahead with such hands that offer the possibility of both a scoop and a redraw.
Cards should work together: When you play Texas Hold’em, you have only two cards that leave you with a single combination of 2 cards. In Omaha you have 4 cards; that means there are 6 possible combinations of the cards. A hand like an ace and 9 of spades, 2 of diamonds and 4 clubs is a good example of a hand that works together.
The ace and 2 provide you with a good low hand. The two spades provide you with a chance of making flush. Since you have an ace, a 2 and a 4, you also stand a chance of making a straight. For this very reason, a pair of aces and a 2 and a 3 card of suites corresponding to the aces is considered to be the best hand in Omaha poker.