OMAHA POKER OVERVIEW

The structure of the game of Omaha Poker is very similar to Texas Hold'em, you have Hole cards, there's a Flop, a Turn and a River card and there's the same betting sequence. But in Omaha Poker you play with 4 Hole cards rather than the two you receive in Texas Hold'em. The goal of the game is still to make the best 5 card hand from the 9 available to you, but in Omaha Poker 2 hole cards must be used - not 1, 3 or 4, it has to be 2.

More available cards mean more hand combinations, and therefore the strategy in Omaha Poker is often very different to that of Hold'em. This shouldn't put you off though, while this game may take a little more time to master, the rewards of playing Omaha Poker can definitely be worth it. With lots more players seeing a flop and so many more combinations available to those who do, there's certainly more opportunities if you want to win big!

Omaha Poker hands are made up of your best five cards, consisting of a combination of 2 of the 4 Hole cards dealt to you, and any of the 5 Community Cards dealt face up in the middle of the table by the dealer. Like Hold'em, Omaha Poker has 4 rounds of betting with a maximum of 10 players able to take part in a hand. The objective of the game is simply to finish with the best Poker Hand and to win the Pot.

At the start of every Omaha Poker hand the button is placed in front of a player, and signifies who is the dealer for that hand and the blinds are posted. The blinds are bets placed by the two players to the immediate left of the button before they have see any cards. The first player posts the small blind and the second player posts the big blind. The small blind is generally half the number of chips of the big blind although in Omaha it is not uncommon for both the blinds to be identical in cash games. After each hand the button progresses one place to the left, and so do both the blinds.

Each player is dealt 4 cards. These 4 cards are known as Hole Cards and can only be seen by the recipients of these cards. Once the Hole Cards have been dealt the first round of betting takes place.

Once you have received your hole cards, you have your first decision: to play or not to play. You must decide if you are in or out of the hand, and you do this by either matching or raising the bet that stands when the action reaches you. You always have the option to fold any time it is your turn. Betting goes in sequence starting from the first player to the left of the dealer, and continue round the table sequentially in a clockwise fashion until all bets have been matched.

The possible actions available to you are to Fold, to Call or to Raise.

As the action moves around the table, if you wish to remain in the hand you will have to at least call the big blind bet, or if a previous player has raised the bet then that bet will have to be at least called to remain in the hand.

If there has been no raise when the betting round returns to the big blind player, that player will still have the option to raise if they want to. Any money put into the pot by a player before any cards are dealt counts as part of their overall bet. So for example, if the blinds are $2 (small blind) and $4 (big blind) and there is no raise before the action gets to the small blind, then they will only have to put an extra $2 into the pot to match the $4 as they already have $2 in the pot in the form of the small blind.

Once all bets are matched the flop is dealt.

After this first round of betting the dealer lays down the The Flop, which consists of 3 cards, all dealt face up in the middle of the table. These 3 cards are Community Cards and are shared by all players at the table.

Once the Flop has been dealt by the dealer, another round of betting takes place between all the players left in the game, starting from the player to the immediate left of the button and continuing clockwise around the table.

Once again you have the option to to Fold, to Check, to Call or to Raise.

To Check is a situation where there is currently no bet that stands which you would have to match, so you can decide to continue that by checking. Betting then continues in a similar method to the first round of betting until all bets are matched and all players have contributed equally to the Pot (or else there's a winner and the hand is finished).

Once this happens the Turn card is dealt. The Turn card is a fourth Community Card which is dealt face up. Another round of betting then happens in the same fashion as above and any players who are still in the hand after this round of betting will then see the final card.

The final Community Card is then revealed - The River - and placed alongside the other Community Cards, again face up. The River Card is sometimes known as the Money Card as it often makes the difference between winning (money) or losing (money)! After the river you now have all the cards that are available to you and you have to make the best five-card poker hand from the nine available (two, and just two, of your hole cards and the five community cards).

Once again betting resumes once the River is dealt and each player left in the hand attempts to win the Pot on the strength of their cards. Once all betting has been completed the players who remain show their cards.

If there was betting on the last round then the player who made the last positive action (last player to make a bet - not to call one) will show first, if the last round of betting involved all players 'checking' then it will be the player to the immediate left of the button who will show first then clockwise from there.

The player with the best five-card hand wins the pot. In the event of a number of poker hands being the same, the poker pot will be equally divided between the players.

The button moves to the next player and the fun starts again.

Want to learn more about Omaha Poker? Click here for Omaha Strategies and Omaha Tips.