Omaha and Texas Hold’em

The Omaha poker game is also named Omaha Hold’em and represents a variation from the traditional poker games including similar features and rules. Following the same principle as the regular poker rule, the players get 4 cards as well as community cards, with the consistent rule of using two whole cards. In this article, we invite you to discover the Omaha poker version in order diversify your cards’ games’ tendencies!

Introduction

In this game, the betting format and community cards are the same as Texas Hold'em, which most of you are familiar with. However in Omaha, you get dealt four whole cards, from which you must use only two. Nonetheless, in the high low version, although they can interchange you use two of your cards for the high, and two of your cards for the low hand. If a player is trying to win the low hand, he must use two unpaired whole cards that are ranked lower than eight, and three board cards, also unpaired, that are also ranked lower than eight. It sounds confusing, and that is why you will see a lot of mistakes in Omaha and Omaha Hi-Lo.

The rule

The players post the blinds and then receive their whole cards. After receiving the whole set of cards, a betting round takes place and then comes the ‘flop’, the ‘turn’ and the ‘river’ with a betting round between each of them.

The strategies

In that sense, the hand that you decide to play should contain cards that work together and have potential to scoop both sides of the pot. Thus, a strong hand in Omaha eight might look like this: Ac, 2d, 4c, and the Qd. Notice how all of these cards work together in some way, be it straight or flush draw. The Ace and deuce are the best two cards you can obtain to win the low, and save for being counterfeited. The Ace and Queen combination is a good high drawing hand for a Broadway straight, while being a double suited combination, which can make you win the high pot on a flushed board. In addition, if your deuce does get counterfeited, the four is a reasonable out for the low end as well.

Compare that hand to Qh, Qc, Jh and the Jc. This hand actually looks very good to a lot of players, but it is a huge underdog in Omaha 8, considering the fact that you have no possible low hand to play for, thus eliminating your potential for scooping. This is actually a trap hand that Hold’em players tend to lose a lot of money on.

Even though you get more choices and possibilities with four hole cards in Omaha, they should be coordinated - meaning all four of the cards should work together. Paired hands, and two pairs don’t really hold up in Omaha. You really need community cards that can give you straights, flushes, full house or better. At the very least, do not even consider entering a hand without at least 3 cards working together. Double-suited hands will significantly improve your outs in Omaha because flushes are very common as opposed to Hold’em.

Omaha is normally played either Pot Limit or Limit, but increasingly, (at least online) you can now find no-limit games. Since Omaha is by nature a drawing game, keeping the pot constrained to start is better suited for a potential win in the game.

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