Whait is Omaha Poker?

Omaha poker is a community cards game very similar to Texas Holdem. In fact, the full name of Omaha poker is Omaha Holdem (another variation of the same Hold'em game). If you are familiar with Texas Hold'em you will only need to learn a couple of stipulations characteristic for Omaha. For those who are new to Hold'em poker we describe the full play sequence and rules below.

Omaha, as well as most other poker games, can be played in High or High/Low split format, meaning that the pot is split between the player with the highest hand at the table and the player with the lowest one. In fact, the most popular Omaha game is Omaha High/Low Eight or Better (also called Omaha Hi-Lo, Omaha 8 or simply Eight or Better). The game is played in High/Low split format and has a qualifier that allows only players with 8-high or lower hands to claim for the low half of the pot. Omaha Hi-Lo is more popular than Omaha Hi, but both these games can be found almost in every card room because of their immense popularity.

Omaha poker, as well, as Texas Hold'em is usually played with blinds. Blinds are forced bets placed by two first players to the left of the dealer regardless of their cards. The small blind is normally equal to half the minimum bet at the table and the blind bet is twice bigger than the small one. The first player to perform voluntary betting action is the third player to the left of the dealer. Later in the first betting round, the two blinds are treated as if they were a bet and a raise and the round is played accordingly.

What is commonly known as burning the card consists in the dealer discarding the top card of the deck, after the first betting round. This prevents cheating and anyone seeing the top card. Then, the dealer flips three more cards, called the flop, face up on the table. The flop is followed by a betting round, which is played without blinds following standard poker betting structure.

After the second betting round, the dealer burns another card and flips another one face up on the table. This is known as the Fourth Street. The third round of betting is started by the player who is sitting to the left of the dealer.

The Fifth Street is played the same way as the Fourth Street. A card is burnt before placing the final card face up on the table and the final betting round follows. At this stage, when the play is finishing, players reveal their cards and compare their hands to the others. They can use three of the five community cards and two of their hole cards. The objective is to form the best five-card Poker hand.

If the game is called Omaha Hi, the player who holds the highest hand at the table wins the pot. However, a more popular version of Omaha is Omaha Hi-Lo. In Omaha Hi-Lo, the player with the highest hand and the player with the lowest one split the pot. Omaha Hi-Lo usually involves a qualifier for the low hand. For example, probably the most popular variation of the game called Omaha Hi-Lo Eight or Better uses 8 as a qualifier, which means that only player who have 8-high or lower hand can claim for the low half of the pot. If none of the players qualifies for the low half (which happens quite often), the player with the highest hand wins the entire pot.