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OMAHA

Texas Holdem with a Twist

PLAYERS: Two to eleven (ideally, seven to nine).

CARDS: Each player has four pocket cards, there are five community cards.
BETTING : Ante plus four rounds with bets doubling at fourth street.
WHAT TO WATCH FOR: Pairs and suited cards in the widow. Low cards if you are playing Hi-low.
WHAT WINS: Relatively high hands, straight or better? When playing Hi-low, your highest card should be no higher than an 8.

Omaha is played like Texas Holdem except each player is dealt four cards in the hole instead of two. The real trick is to remember you must use two cards and only two cards from your hand and three from the community hand.

The first round of betting begins with the player to the left to the dealer. As in Texas Holdem, players cannot check in the first round. After the first round of betting, the dealer turns over the first three community cards the flop and there is another betting round. After the fourth community card is exposed, known as Fourth Street or the turn, the third betting round takes place. As in Holdem, the bet now doubles. As in Holdem, the opening bet must be at least twice the minimum bet.

Finally, the last common card Fifth Street or the river is flipped over, and there is one final bet. If you are new to Omaha, it may take some time to figure out what you have. Because you have four cards in your hand, you may have more than one good hand. A fun twist to Omaha is to play it as a Hi-low game. In fact, most Omahs games are played as Hi-Low. There are some differences between regular Hi-Low and Omaha Hi-Low. If you are going for the low hand in Omaha, you cannot have a card higher than an eight. For instance, you could have 2,4,6,7,8 as your low, but not 2,4,6,7,9. As in other Hi-low games, there is the possibility of going for both the high and low hands. In this poker game you can try for both using the four cards in your hand. If your pocket cards were A♠, 2♥, K♣, K♥ you have two very good low cards and two good high cards. Unlike regular Omaha, if the widow produces the cards you need, you can use your two low cards and the two high cards separately to form two potentially winning hands. (Remember, if you are trying to win both the low and the high, you must win both to claim any of the pot. Therefore, it is crucial that you make sure you have the best of both hands.) When playing Omaha poker it is not uncommon to have ties, especially low ties. In these cases, the winner of the high hand gets half, and the two ties low hands split the other half.