Overview

Introduction

Omaha poker looks a lot like Texas Hold'em, but in Omaha, each player receives four hole cards, and a set number of cards from hole and board must be used to make a hand. This lends Omaha an extra layer of complexity, and makes it much more of a ‘post-flop action game’.

The Game

In Omaha, you receive four face-down hole cards. Then, as with Hold’em, five community cards are dealt face up on the board (three on the flop, and the one each on the turn and river after each betting round). If a hand progresses that far, you must use two of your hole cards and combine them with three community cards in order to form the best possible poker hand.

Blinds

Omaha is played with ‘blinds’. Before the cards are dealt, the two players to the left of the dealer post a ‘small blind’ and a ‘big blind’ to create a starting pot for everyone to play for. The big blind is usually twice the value of the small blind.

The deal

When the blinds have been posted, each player is dealt four cards face down: the ‘hole cards’. Then the first betting round takes place, starting with the player to the left of the big blind.

The flop

When the first betting round is finished, three cards are dealt face up on the table. They are called "the flop".

Then the second betting round takes place, starting with the first player to the left of the dealer who is still in the hand.

The turn (fourth street)

After the second betting round, the fourth community card is dealt. It is called the turn. The third betting round takes place, starting with the first player to the left of the dealer who is still in the hand.

The river (fifth street)

The fifth and final community card is called the river. Now the hand is concluded by the fourth and last betting round, again starting with the first player to the left of the dealer who is still in the hand. If more than one player remains in the hand after the betting, there is a ‘showdown’, and the best (highest) hand wins. The hand ranking in Omaha poker is the same as for Texas Hold’em.

Game Advice: Omaha

Being dealt four of a kind is an easy fold!

Remember that in Omaha, picking up your four hole cards and seeing a monster hand is not the best news in the world, since you can only use two of them to complete your hand. If, for example, your hole cards are four-of-a-kind Aces, you do not have four of a kind! As a matter of fact, you cannot even make three of a kind, since no ace can come on the board.

Equally, if you have four hearts, your chances of making a flush are worse than if you had had only two hearts. If you have two hearts and two spades in your hand, your flush chances are even better – don’t be fooled when you look down at a “fantastic” hand!

Big straight draws

After the flop in Texas Hold'em, a ‘made hand’ (such as three of a kind) is usually the favourite against a drawing hand (such as four consecutive cards drawing to a straight). In Omaha, this is not the case, since there are so many ways of making a really good hand.

For example, if you hold 9-8-5-4 and the flop comes: J-7-6, there are 20 cards which will make you a straight if they arrive on the turn or river: four three, three fours, three fives, three eights, three nines, and four tens.

With Ah-Ks-Th-9s and a flop of Qh-Jh-3c, there are 22 cards that would make you either a straight or a flush. 16 cards would make you a straight: four eights, three nines, three tens, three kings, and three aces. The nine remaining hearts would give you a flush, but three of them have already been counted, since they also give you a straight: the 8h, 9h, and Kh.

In both these cases, you have equal or better chances than a player who made three-of-a kind on the flop.

Starting hands with connecting cards

With four cards, there are, of course, many more combinations than with two cards. Since all four cards can be combined with any of the other three cards, an Omaha hand is not like having two Texas Hold’em Poker hands, it is like having six at once. So, in Omaha, look out for hands where all four cards connect with each other in some way, for the best possible draw, and redraw possibilities.

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