Omaha Poker Rules

Omaha shares many rules with Texas Hold’em, with a few important differences.
To begin the game, each player in Omaha is dealt 4 cards face-down, instead of 2 as in Hold’em. Players use their four face down cards and the five community cards that are eventually dealt in the middle to form their best poker hand possible.

That said, the way you form your best hand is another key difference between Omaha and Hold’em emerges. In Hold’em, you use any combination of your two face down cards and the five community cards to make your best hand. You can use one card from your hand and four from the board, two from your hand and three from the board, or play the five cards on the board.

In Omaha, though, you must use both of your hole cards when forming your best five card hand. You don’t have the option of using just one. So if you hold the AhKd face-down and the board is 10h 9h 3h 2h Qs, in Omaha you only have an Ace high hand, and not a flush, since you must use both of your hold cards. In Hold’em, you have an Ace high flush with hearts, as you can use only one of your hole cards if you so choose, but that isn’t the case in Omaha.

Betting in Omaha Poker

Betting in Omaha poker depends on which game you’re playing. Omaha always uses a big blind and a small blind in place of antes, but depending on whether you’re playing pot limit or limit Omaha the betting can be very different.

In Pot Limit Omaha (or PLO for short), you have the option to bet as much as what’s in the pot, when the action is on you. You don’t have to bet the pot, and can choose to bet anywhere between the minimum or as much as what is currently in the pot.

Keep in mind that the pot increases with each bet, so it’s not the size of the pot at the beginning of a betting round, but the size of the pot when the action reaches you. If the pot at the start of the betting round is $30 and someone raises $20, you can bet up to $50 when the action reaches you, as that’s the size of the pot when it’s your turn to bet.

In Limit Omaha, the betting is fixed each round. If it’s a $2/4 table, the most you can bet or raise pre-flop or on the flop is $2, with the maximum bet or raise increasing on the turn and river to $4.