Omaha Poker Rules

​

Omaha poker can be called the second most popular format of poker in the world. As Texas Hold'em has become increasingly difficult to play and win lately, more and more players are trying their hand at learning the Omaha rules.

Before you begin to study this discipline, it will be useful to familiarize yourself with the rules of hold'em, since the Omaha poker rules are based on them. However, even experienced players make mistakes when moving from one poker discipline to another.

How to Play Omaha Poker: Game Rules

It is believed that this type of poker first appeared in the seventies. It was in Detroit and that format is now called 5 card Omaha. The game quickly gained popularity and soon spread to other states. It is curious that the transition from 5 pocket cards to 4 occurred at the behest of the casino. The owners of gambling establishments were not satisfied with the fact that a maximum of 8 people could sit at the table, this was the reason for changing the rules.

So, how do you play Omaha Poker? Its rules are similar to those of Texas Hold'em. The betting rounds and combinations are the same, but there are some differences:

• Players receive 4 hole cards (two more than in Hold'em).
• The player's combination must necessarily include 5 cards: two in hand and three community cards of the board.

Let’s talk about how to play a hand in some details (we consider the option of PLO with four hole cards):

How to Determine the Winning Combination

If you are already familiar with the rules of hold'em, you can quickly learn how to play Omaha poker. The combinations in these games are identical, but players must use their two pocket cards to make them.

For a better understanding, let's take an example:

Player 1: K♥Q♥J♦9♦

Player 2: A♥10♣5♣4♦

Board: 10♥5♥4♥7♥3♦

Player 1 wins with a king-high flush of hearts, Player 2 has two pairs of tens and fives. Player 2 loses: he has an ace of hearts, but he doesn’t have another heart as a pocket card.

Common Features of Omaha and Holdem

What is Omaha poker? This game is sometimes called four-card hold'em, from which we can safely conclude that these formats have many similarities. So let's start with the commonalities of these poker disciplines, and then see how they are still different.

They have similar rules:

• Before the betting rounds, players are dealt starting hands. After that, two participants place SB and BB;
• Each hand has four stages, namely preflop, flop, turn and river;
• The betting round consists of four stages. In each betting round, the participant is offered the following options: fold, bet, raise, call, check;
• The pot is awarded to the participant who is left alone in the hand, or who owns the strongest combination and shows it after the showdown;
• The combinatorics for determining the champion is similar (the list of possible combinations is the same).

Main Differences Between Disciplines

Now let's move on to the important question “How is Omaha poker different?”.

At the very beginning of the game, the participants have a different number of cards: two cards in Texas poker and four in Omaha. Of course, the chance of making a good combination in Omaha is much higher, since the more cards you have, the more likely you are to have something strong at your disposal. However, it should be borne in mind that your rivals also have the same prospects.

A new player can ask the question “How many cards can you use in Pot Limit Omaha?”. In all types of Omaha, you need to use two cards from your pocket and three cards from the board. In the disciplines that we are comparing, any combination includes five cards, namely a combination of both pocket cards and common ones. But in hold'em you can use one card from your hands and four from the board, or even all five cards from the board, and for Omaha it's more strict.

Both Hold'em and Omaha have different varieties depending on the betting structure. It can be no-limit, limit, pot-limit or fixed limit. However, some games are very popular among players, while others are almost never played. If we talk about hold'em, then the most common option is, of course, no-limit hold'em. And if we talk about Omaha, then this, of course, is pot limit variant or PLO.

Many players like the betting structure in hold'em, which is why they prefer this particular discipline. However, Omaha poker has one feature that makes it easier to make a good hand, since the presence of 4 cards allows you to make a strong poker hand much more often.

This feature fills Omaha with exciting action, here the action is richer and more vivid. Participants play the post-flop stage more often and do not consider folding. This is because such players are unaware of the relative strength of their cards.

For example, a hand with two aces preflop is considered a strong hand in hold'em, whereas in an Omaha card game, the other two hole cards are more important. It is worth noting that the AA hand is much stronger in Hold'em than the AAxx hand in Omaha. Therefore, inexperienced players overplay with such cards in Omaha, creating the very bright action.

There is one more peculiarity of playing Omaha: it is difficult to determine the favorite on the preflop. Suppose you have a strong hand, but even in this state of affairs, the probability of coming out ahead against one opponent will be only 65%. After the flop, the game will gain momentum. The bets increase, and the size of the pot on the turn and river will be significantly larger than the size of the previous bets. It follows that Omaha is more of a post-flop game.

So, how to play Omaha poker? It is recommended to use a tight style of play in Omaha, because the nut hands are the "protagonists" in this discipline. A strong middle hand does not guarantee you success. Pre-flop and post-flop, it's better to play it safe if you don't want to pay big money for mistakes.

Many people try to figure out which disciplines are harder to bluff. Omaha comes first here because a weak or mediocre hand doesn't fold as often as it can improve to a good hand. But fans of Texas hold'em will more often be inclined to get rid of cards that did not hit the flop. Thus, these players are more vulnerable to bluffing.

There are still disputes about the degree of complexity of the compared disciplines. It can be said that no-limit Omaha is much more difficult than no-limit hold'em, and as for playing PLO, it is more difficult to draw a final conclusion here.

Many players do not take full advantage of the range of possible bet sizes, and it will be much more difficult for a beginner to play Omaha. We can understand how two cards interact with the flop in hold'em, but when it comes to four cards, things get more complicated. For a beginner, combinations can seem too confusing, and it can be difficult to figure them out. You may miss the combination, or you may think that you have it, making a mistake when choosing the right cards.

Omaha poker hands formation is one of the reasons why hold'em remains number one in the world of poker. Learning the rules of hold'em and ranking hands is easy, but in Omaha it's much more difficult. Some players like the extra difficulty, while others have trouble with it.

Types and Varieties of the Game

Types according to bet structure:

• Pot Limit Omaha (PLO)

The most popular format. According to pot limit Omaha rules, the maximum bet is limited by the size of the existing pot. For example, if there is $10 in the pot on the flop, if no one has shown aggression before you, then you can make a pot-sized bet of $10.

• Fixed Limit Omaha

The size of bets is limited. For example, a game at a $10/$20 limit. The minimum bet is $10 and the maximum bet is $20. The blinds in this game will be $5/$10. You can bet the maximum on the turn and river. In our example it is $20 and the raise is $40. Omaha fix limit implies the maximum number of re-raises (cap). The most common limit is three re-raises, but some rooms have a cap of four re-raises.

• No Limit Omaha

In this format, the player can place all of their chips in the center of the table on any of the trading streets. Unlike hold'em, this format is not as popular.

There are several common variations of the game of Omaha, and each of them has its own peculiarities in the rules. Let's take a quick look at the main varieties, in addition to the usual 4-card format.

5 Card Omaha

Five-card Omaha, as you can easily guess, differs from the usual only in the number of hole cards (there are five of them instead of four). The appearance of an additional card in hand greatly complicates the strategy of the game. The main reason for this is the dramatic increase in the number of unique starters (starting hands).

By building a combination, everything remains the same: we use two hole cards out of five in hand, plus three cards on the board.

Omaha 6 Cards

Omaha 6 cards: here, players receive as many as six cards in their hands, and five more cards still appear on the board. The innovator room that offered its players such a game option is PokerStars, it happened in 2020. Again, poker players can only use two cards from their hole cards, and such a game is played exclusively in the PLO format.

Omaha Hi-Lo (Omaha 8)

Here the highest and lowest combination wins (the lowest must be in the range from ace to eight). If in the five-card and six-card variants the main (and practically the only) difference is one or two additional pocket cards, then Omaha Hi Lo poker can be safely called a separate game with its own characteristics and unique strategy. This format is also sometimes called "Omaha 8" or "Omaha 8 or better".

Courchevel Omaha

Courchevel poker is a variation of five-card Omaha. Its main feature is that preflop players see one community card, in addition to their 5 hole cards. After a round of preflop betting, two more cards are dealt, which finally form the flop, and then (turn and river) are dealt without changes.

The rules for playing Courchevel poker are quite simple if you have already played the regular variant. The only difference from the five-card format is the very first card of the flop, which is opened to all players at the preflop stage. This affects the strategy and the choice of starting hands for the game. By the way, Courchevel can also be played in hi-lo format.

Poker Rooms to Play Omaha Poker