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Omaha
Head out of Texas for a real poker adventure
With celebrity players, big money tournaments and global television coverage,
Texas hold ’em grabs all the headlines – but ask anyone who loves the game of Omaha and they’ll tell you their game delivers more excitement per hand than you’ll ever see in Texas.
How it’s played
Omaha is action packed but it’s also pretty easy to pick up. Anyone familiar with Texas hold ’ em will soon pick it up. The rules are essentially the same, with hole cards being dealt to each player followed by a three-card community flop, then one card on the turn and one on the river. Betting is also the same with rounds following the deal, flop, turn, and river. |
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The big difference is that each player is dealt four hole cards instead of two.
The object of the game is to make the best five-card poker hand with any two
(but only two) of your hole cards. You don’t have to decide which two until the end of the hand (online, the poker software will pick out your best hand).
As you might rightly imagine, the extra two hole cards mean that Omaha tends to draw some very strong hands.
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Hi/Lo
Rules for Omaha Hi/Lo (sometimes known as ‘Omaha 8’s or better’ or just ‘O8’) are the same as regular Omaha with one notable exception – qualifying low hands can split the pot. To qualify for low hand, no card in your five-card low hand can be higher than an eight (that means at least two of your hole cards and three on the board). Straights and flushes don’t apply to low hands and A can be played as either high or low (or both). So A-2-3-4-5 of any suit or mixed suits is the best possible low card hand. That makes A-2 pockets pretty tasty hole cards in Omaha Hi/Lo – with a shot at both the high and low hands. |
Hi/Lo hand rankings
The best low hand in Omaha Hi/Lo is ‘the wheel’: A-2-3-4-5 (if the cards are suited it’s the ‘steel wheel’). The former has a pretty good shot at the high hand as well, while the Steel Wheel has a great chance to take both pots. The rest of the best are listed below in descending order of strength. |
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A-2-3-4-5
A-2-3-4-6
A-2-3-5-6
A-2-4-5-6
A-3-4-5-6
2-3-4-5-6
A-2-3-4-7
A-2-3-5-7
A-2-4-5-7
A-3-4-5-7
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Omaha strategy
With four hole cards, Omaha players tend to make much bigger hands. Top pair and
a good kicker just isn’t going to do it for you in this game like it does in hold ’em. Omaha brings out the monsters and that’s usually what you’ll need to win – drawing out high straights, flushes, and the full house. |
Pots are bigger in Omaha too. With players hitting more often with bigger hands there’s usually more than one contender in every hand. This complicates things for those who like to use pot-odds because rapidly increasing pot sizes make it attractive for drawing hands to stay involved.
With all that action and all those possibilities you’ll want to focus on made hands that are at least drawing to the nuts. In other words, you want more than one way out of every hand – say two high pairs after the flop plus straight, flush or (obviously) full house possibilities. But remember, even the full house is dangerous in this game if there’s one developing on the board that could beat you. You also want to try to avoid giving away free cards when you’re ahead – this is the time to be betting very aggressively.
Bluffing in Omaha
With lots of players in each hand, much broader drawing possibilities and
super-sized pots, the bluffing opportunities are few and far between in Omaha.
But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t go on. Just like in hold ’em look for favorable conditions but pay less attention to the cards on the board. If you can isolate a weak or very tight player with a pre-flop raise or just through circumstance then you might be able to blow him off a hand after the flop. But you’ll have to get your work done early. Get deep into a hand with lots of chips in the middle and Omaha’s limitless drawing possibilities could easily see you bluffing at the nuts. |
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Starting hand selection
If you want to enhance your chances in Omaha there is no substitute for good
hand selection.
With much higher odds of hitting your hole cards there is a strong temptation to see a lot of flops in this game. Doing so is a sure way to fritter away your stack by getting involved in too many marginal hands. Strong Omaha players will usually only play premium starting hands, preferring to start with an edge. |
Unlike Texas hold ‘e m, it's not always so clear what a good starting hand is. Let’s start at the top. T he best hand you can be dealt in Omaha is A-A-K-K double suited (like, Ah As Kh Ks) – though many will argue that A-A-J-T double suited is at least as strong. After that though, it’s not as easy to draw up a list of strong and weak hands for Omaha as it is in Texas hold ’em. Factors like position and your opponent s’ styles play an even bigger role than they do in hold ’em and playing a hand isn’t as easy as making ‘automatic’ decisions.
Look for...
High cards. Obvious, really. By selecting only high cards to play it means you'll more likely than not be drawing to the nuts when you stay in a hand.
A really big hand. Top pair with high kicker is a strong hand in Hold ’em. I n Omaha you’ll want to see a whole lot more to get excited. Focus on selecting cards that will give you the best chance to make the nut full house, flush or straight, or straight flush.
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Four cards that work together. Two separate hold ’em hands that look good can be tempting but there not always as good as they look. Linked cards give greater flexibility and better drawing opportunities after the flop to help you achieve the high hands needed to win a pot. Ideally you want all cards to be close in rank to increase the chances of making a straight, suited preferably, with the ace.
Suited cards. For every hand you win with non-suited cards you'll win four if you're suited and five if you're double suited! But remember, if you have more than two cards of the same suit in your hand you can only use two of them, so that extra suited card in your hand actually reduces your odds of making a flush.
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For example...
Ac- Kc-Ad-Kd
The highest possible starting hand. Double suited and double paired with strong flush and full house possibilities.
As-Qs-Jh-Th
A great starting hand. Doubled suited with nut straight, full house, flush, and straight flush possibilities.
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Ah-Qh-Js-Kc
Another strong starting hand. Possible nut flush, four parts of the nut straight and with so many high cards any full house is likely to be bigger than an opponents’.
Note: The only consistently winning Omaha Hi/Lo hands that don't contain an Ace are K-K-Q-Q, K-K-J-J and K-K-T-T, where they are suited at least once.
Pitfalls
Two playable Hold ’em hands don't always make a playable Omaha hand.
For example, if you're holding Kh- 7d- Ks- 8d you have two recognizable Hold ’em hands – pocket kings and suited connectors. However, the other four hands you're holding – Kh- 7d, Kh- 8d, Ks- 7d and K- 8d – are all weak hands.
Three of your cards work together but the fourth is a blank.
These can be real tempters – especially if the three cards are high – but it's usually incorrect to play them. When deciding whether to play three- card hands make sure you’re in a strong (late) position and avoid calling a raise. Also be sure that your strong hand is drawing to the nuts (like the A flush) rather than the second or third nut (K or Q high).
Three of a kind or quads in your hand.
Being dealt A-A-A-A might make your eyes pop but it’s actually a pretty poor starting hand in Omaha. You can only use two of them so the best you can expect is to have high pair with no hope of you r A’s improving (you’ve got them all!). The same is true for being dealt trips. You can only use two of them and that third of a kind in your hand only means that you’re that much less likely to draw the fourth on the board to make playable trips.
Discipline
With so many possibilities in the various dealt hands at the table you have to be a lot more ready to put down your good hands after a bad flop.
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