|
|
Omaha poker may be the second most popular form of poker after Texas Hold’em. The rules are almost identical to Texas Hold’em with one huge variation. In Omaha each player is dealt four hole cards instead of the two dealt in Hold’em. The actual play of the hand, as far as betting goes, is the same as Hold’em. There is a betting round pre-flop, another post-flop and another after the turn and a final round of betting on the river. The order of high hands is, of course, the same as any other game of poker.
|
|
There is one critical difference in making your best poker hand in Omaha. Your best five card hand must include two cards from your hand and three cards off the board. This is the rule that costs many new Omaha players a lot of money. If the board holds the Ace, King, Queen and Jack of hearts and you have the Ten of hearts in your hand; you do not have a Royal Flush. You don’t even have a flush unless you are holding another heart in your hand. Two from your hand, three from the board, no exceptions!
|
|
Strategy in Omaha poker revolves around playing hands with many possibilities. You might think that AAKK would be the best starting hand. While we wouldn’t be throwing that hand away, we certainly would have a much stronger hand if those aces and kings were suited. Flushes win a lot of hands in Omaha for the simply reason that players tend to come in with suited cards. Remember at a full table of ten players, forty of the cards are dealt out as hole cards, that means a lot of suited cards are being played. If three of a suit hit the board, the odds on a flush being out are very high.
|
|
In fact, one of the key teaching lessons of Omaha is that it is a game of straights and flushes and a flush always beats a straight. So you want to be playing starting hands in Omaha where all four cards have the potential to work together. Consider the starting hand QsJs10h9h; calculate the cards that will give you a straight. [AKQ, AKJ, AK10, AK9, KQJ, KQ10 and more] It’s a very long list and double-suited you also have all of those flush possibilities.
|
|
Omaha is often played with Pot Limit betting, in fact, PLO is possibly the most popular poker game in Europe. Omaha is also played hi/low and that game is very popular in the United States. The Hi-Lo variation is often referred to as Omaha 8 or better, because the low hand side of the game must include five cards 8 or below only. Omaha 8 is a very interesting variation on the Omaha game but just like Hold’em is different from Omaha Hi, the Hi-Lo variation has its own strategy and should be studied before you make any large investment of your bankroll.
|
|