Omaha High

Omaha is very like Texas poker in that you have hole cards (pocket cards) and community cards (face up) but whereas you only get two hole cards in Texas poker you get four in Omaha. Another difference is that in Texas poker you can use any of the seven cards in total but in Omaha poker you have to use exactly two hole cards and three community cards to make the best hand.

Betting is the same, after the hole cards are dealt the small and large blind is played then the next person to the left of the large blind either calls, raises or folds. The betting stops when each person not folded has bet the same amount so if someone has raised everyone in turn must match it. The raise must be to the table minimum, this is set at the beginning. If for instance blinds are £10 and £20 and no-one raises when it gets to the small blind that person must pay the difference of £10 to call (because he has only bet £10 whereas everyone else still in has bet twenty). The big blind has already bet £20 so he can check and bet nothing extra unless he wants to raise. If he does then it goes around the table again till everyone has bet the same amount.

After this the flop cards are dealt (face up) and betting starts again. This time the person who had the small blind is the first to bet and will be till the end of the hand. The same happens again till all have paid in the same or folded. The same will then happen after the TURN card and the RIVER card. At the end of betting after the river card you get to what’s called the SHOWDOWN. Simply put that is everyone still in showing their cards to see who has won.

There are variations of this game listed below with some details of the changes.

LIMIT OMAHA: In Limit Omaha the stakes are capped which means to say that any bet or raise is at a predetermined level. In a £10/£20 game of Limit Omaha any bet or raise is limited to £10 for the first two rounds, then limited to £20 in the last two rounds. In any round, the number of raises allowed is also capped, mostly to three, so that the maximum bet for each player per round is four times the original stake. The big blind on these games is usually the lower limit, ie £10 so small blind is £5.

POT LIMIT OMAHA: This one differs from Limit Omaha in as much as the betting and raising is capped by how much money is already in the pot. The pot consists of all the money staked in previous rounds (if any) plus whatever money has already been staked in the current round including, if a player wishes to make a raise, the value of the call that that player would have to make first. So if the pot has £3000 and the person wishing to raise would have to bet £300 to call then he could raise £3300. The person following would then be able to raise the pot plus what’s needed to call.

The other variation has a page to itself is Omaha Hi/Lo Poker and needs a bit more thought than standard Omaha.

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