Texas Holdem And Omaha Poker

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I’ve been writing a series of blog posts I call the “What Is Gambling?” series, and I’m excited today because I’ve finally gotten to the posts about poker. I started that series with “What Is Poker,” and continued it with “What Is Texas Holdem.”

Today I’m writing “What Is Omaha Poker,” which is my best try to explain what’s essential to Omaha poker. This means I’m going to write about both Omaha and Omaha 8 (which is also sometimes called high-low).

I’m also going to write about the various betting limits—limit, pot limit, and no limit.

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Texas Holdem is one of the most popular variants of poker and has fascinated players for many years. The history of the game is full of intrigue, mystery and full of interest. The popularity of this game has continued to grow and players are flocking from all over the world to get a piece of the action.
Omaha poker is a popular variant of poker similar to Texas Hold'em. Instead of two cards, you are dealt four, and must make the best poker hand with two of these cards, and three of the five.

If you’re familiar with Texas holdem, Omaha poker will be familiar to you, but the differences might blow your mind during actual play. I played in a home game Saturday night, and the other players there were unanimous in their hatred of Omaha.

They all had the same complaint, too—they couldn’t get around the biggest difference between the games.
This post covers that difference and how best to remember it. It covers the basics of how to play and includes some advice about strategy.

I’m not an Omaha poker expert, but I understand the essence of it well enough that you’ll understand the game, too—if you pay attention to the below.

Omaha is a community card poker game, which means you have some of your own cards, but you also share some cards with your opponents. In Omaha, you get 4 face-down cards to start with. Then you shared 5 community cards with your opponents.

If you’re familiar with Texas holdem, you’ll see immediately that the basics are the same with one difference:
You get 2 hole cards in Texas holdem, but you get 4 hole cards in Omaha.

But that’s NOT the only difference.

In fact, there’s a difference between the games that’s even more important:
In Omaha, you must use 2 cards from your hand and 3 cards from the board to create your final hand.
In Texas holdem, you can use ANY combination of cards from your hand with the cards on the board to create your hand.

In the United States, most poker players are familiar with Texas holdem before they try Omaha. As a result, they get confused at the Omaha table about what their final hands are.

If you remember that you always use 2 cards from your hand—no more, no less—and 3 cards from the board—no more, no less—you’ll do fine.

But forget this at your peril.

One of my Saturday night buddies told me that he got dealt 4 of a kind in an Omaha game—all 9s. He thought he was killing it, but he was so wrong.

He only had a pair of 9s.

And his outs were already in his hand. It was impossible to improve to 3 of a kind or 4 of a kind, which kills the value of the hand.

If you can remember that major difference, you have a chance of making the transition from Texas holdem to Omaha.

All poker games use forced bets to drive the action. Older versions of poker use antes, which are small bets you’re required to place every hand before even being dealt a hand.

Omaha, though, is like Texas holdem—the forced bets are blinds, and you don’t have to place that bet every hand.

Only 2 players must place forced bets during a hand of Omaha—the player to the left of the dealer places the small blind, and the player to her left places the big blind.

As the deal rotates around the table, so does the blind requirements.

The size of these bets is based on the limits you’re playing, but the big blind is usually the same size as the smaller betting amount at those limits. The small blind is usually half that amount or less.

For example, if you’re playing in a $5/$10 limit game of Omaha, the bets must be at least $5 during the first 2 rounds of the game, and they must be $10 during the 2nd 2 rounds of the game.

The blinds in such a game will usually be $2 for the small blind and $5 for the large blind.

Everyone at the table must bet a small blind and a big blind once during every orbit of the table. The location of the dealer position and the blinds also determines what position you’re in, which becomes important when you start discussing strategy.

We’re not there yet, but we’ll talk about Omaha strategy soon.

All poker games have betting limits, and Omaha is no exception.
Like Texas holdem, Omaha is usually played in one of 3 formats:

Limit
Pot limit
No limit

In a limit game, like the example I gave earlier of a $5/$10 game, you would only be able to bet in increments of $5 during the 1st 2 rounds of the game. In the 2nd 2 rounds of the game, you would bet in increments of $10.

In a pot limit game, you still have minimum bets, but the size of your bets and raises is only limited by the amount of money already in the pot. This creates a marked difference in strategy.

I should point out that pot limit Omaha is more common than any other format, which is a marked difference from Texas holdem, which is usually played in either limit or no limit format.

And of course, as the name of the game might imply, no limit Omaha has no upper limit for the sizes of your bets and raises other than the number of chips you have in front of you.

But you can’t bet your car or your house; you can only bet what chips you have in front of you.

The game starts when the 2 players to the left of the dealer post the small blind and the big blind. Each player gets 4 cards, face-down. These are your hole-cards, and this is the pre-flop phase of the game.

After everyone gets their cards, there’s a round of betting. The first player to the left of the big blind is the first person to act.

She can fold, forfeiting any right to the pot, call the big blind, or raise. At this point in the game, you can’t check, because the blinds are live bets.

Play continues around the table in order. Once the betting action is completed, the dealer puts 3 cards face-up in the middle of the table. This is called the flop.

You have another round of betting now, but the order is determined by where the dealer sits. If the small blind is still in action (she didn’t fold), she’s the first person to act. This is important, and I’ll discuss that more when we get to the section on position.

During this round of betting and subsequent rounds of betting, checking is an option. This means you’re playing in the hand, but you’re not wagering any money.

After the betting round on the flop, a 4th community card—the turn—is dealt, and there’s another betting round.
It’s important to note that during the pre-flop and flop betting rounds, you’re betting in increments of the lower end of the betting limits. (In the $5/$10 game, your minimum bet is $5.)

But during the turn, you must move up in bet sizes. This means your minimum bet in that $5/$10 game is now $10, and it will be $10 on the next phase, too.

The last phase is the river, which is the final community card to be dealt. If multiple players are still in the pot after the river betting round, there’s a showdown to determine who wins the pot.

The player with the best 5-card hand, consisting of 2 cards from her hole cards and 3 cards from the board, wins the pot.

But Omaha is often played in a different way from some other poker games. I cover that in the next section.

In many Omaha games, the pot gets split between the person with the highest possible and the best qualifying low hand (if there is one).

A qualifying low hand must consist of 5 cards ranked 8 or lower with no pairs. Flushes and straights don’t count against you when competing for the low hand.

This adds huge wrinkles to your strategy, because you can easily get quartered if you’re playing for the low hand only. Being quartered means you tie with another player for the low, so you only get 1/4 of the pot or less.

This variation of the game also has a marked effect on which starting hands have what kind of value. Aces, for example, become so much more important that it’s almost impossible to overstate how important they are.

I’ll have more to say about that in the next section, which is all about strategy.

The Basics of Omaha Poker Strategy Resemble the Basics of Other Poker Strategies

Most people who’ve done any reading about Texas holdem strategy have heard that a tight-aggressive approach is the right approach. This is true of Omaha as well as any other variety of poker.

But what does that mean?

Omaha players can be categorized according to 2 different tendencies:

How likely they are to play a hand versus fold it
How likely they are to bet and raise with a hand versus checking and calling with it.

The first one is a measure of how tight or how loose an Omaha player is. A loose player plays a lot of hands. A tight player folds a lot of hands, and she only plays hands that are above average or better.

If you have 2 Omaha players, and one of them plays 50% of the hands she sees preflop, and a 2nd Omaha player who only plays 20% of the hands she sees preflop, the 2nd player is tighter. Most of the time, she’ll be in the hand with better cards, and she’ll win a showdown more often.

The 2nd tendency is the tendency to bet and raise versus check and call. A player who bets and raises is aggressive; a player who checks and calls is passive. Aggressive players can sometimes win in tight games by just buying a lot of pots by betting and raising.

But poker strategy gets more interesting when you look at both categories.

Then you wind up with 4 types of players:

Loose, passive
Tight, passive
Loose, aggressive
Tight, aggressive

A loose, passive player gets involved in a lot of hands and mostly just calls bets. This is the ideal opponent. You would call such a player a calling station. If you stick with good hands and bet and raise with them, you’ll easily dominate a loose, passive player and win a lot of money.

A tight, passive players, on the other hand, doesn’t play many hands. But when she does play a hand, she doesn’t bet or raise with it. She just calls.

This gives her opponents multiple opportunities to get extra cards without having to pay for them by risking money. You won’t win much money from such a player, although you can sometimes buy pots from them just by being willing to bet and raise.

A loose, aggressive player can sometimes compensate for how loose they play by driving other players out of the pot.

But the ideal Omaha strategy, regardless of which kind you play, is to only play solid hands, and then when you get them, bet and raise with them.

When you’re playing Omaha for high only, you’re looking for starting cards which work well together. The best possible hand is AAKK, especially if the aces and kings are suited. In fact, any starting hand with a pair of aces is probably playable in Omaha.

Hands with a pair of kings in them are also strong starting hands, as are big suited connectors like 8910J. It’s better, though, if the suited connectors are of 2 different suits, giving you more outs. (If all 4 of your cards are suited, your odds of drawing to a flush drop dramatically.)

The cards you want to be careful of in Omaha are the lower ranked cards. For purposes of this discussion, cards lower than 9 or so are almost worthless in Omaha. In Texas holdem, you can often get away with playing something like A3 suited, but that 3 is worth a lot less when you’re playing Omaha.

The other thing to keep in mind about starting hands in Omaha is that you need a better hand to win at the showdown. With more cards in play, everyone has a better chance of winning. 3 of a kind is a great hand in Texas holdem, but not so much when playing Omaha.

And, of course, there’s a whole different set of considerations about starting hands when you’re playing Omaha 8 or better.

Your goal in Omaha hi lo should be to “scoop” the pot. This means you’re going to win both the high and the low hand. This makes the ace the most important card in the deck when it comes to Omaha hi lo starting hands.

The best possible Omaha hi lo starting hand is AA23 especially if you have suited cards. The pocket aces give you the opportunity to build a high hand with an ace high. The A2 and the A3 combinations give you the opportunity to capture the best possible low hand.

AAKK is still a playable starting hand in Omaha hi lo, because sometimes the community cards won’t give your opponents the opportunity to make a low hand. If there’s no qualifying low hand, the high hand wins the entire pot.

The cards that are worst for you in Omaha hi lo are the middle cards. Cards of 8 or lower are considered low cards. The lower they are, the better, because they give you the opportunity to pick up the low hand.

Face cards and aces are great, too, because they can help you win the high hand.

But the closer the cards get to the middle, the worse they are. Aces and kings are great. 2s and 3s are great, too. The cards go down in value the closer to the middle you get.

In fact, these cards even have a nickname among Omaha 8 or better players—middle poison.

If you get a starting hand with a pair of 9s and a pair of 8s in it, you’re in trouble. You might think you have a lot of opportunity here, but you don’t. Almost anyone else in the pot with you is going to be able to put together a better hand than you are.

Fold middle poison hands before the flop. Think about how the cards work together in your hand, and as much as possible, stick with starting hands that have at least one ace in them. It wouldn’t kill you to fold every starting hand that lacks an ace.

The 2 biggest roadblocks to Texas holdem players having trouble winning at Omaha are these:

They forget that the hand must be 2 hole cards + 3 community cards.
They can’t tell how good their low hand is in hi lo.

The first point is more important than you might imagine. If you get confused about the strength of your hand because you think you can play 3 cards from your hand and 2 from the board, then you’ve lost before you’ve ever started.

You must use 2 (and exactly 2) cards from your hand and 3 (and exactly 3) cards from the board to form your final hand—every time.

The 2nd point is easily addressed. To compare low hands, you just turn them into 5 digit numbers. The lower of the 2 5-digit numbers is the better hand.

For example, you would think of a hand with 45678 starting with the highest card first and going in descending order. It might help you to include the comma. You’d be looking at 87,654.

If your opponent has 35678, she has the better low hand. It becomes 87,653, which is clearly the lower hand.
The best possible low hand, of course, is A2345, which turns into 54,321.

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The strength of A2 and A3 in your starting hand becomes clear when you think about it this way, because that does so much for your probability of winning the low hand.

If you’re sure you’re going to win the low hand on the flop, you can keep pouring money into the pot and feel reasonably confident that you’re going to get that money back.

You’ll also still have a great shot at scooping the pot if you stuck with the starting hand advice I provided earlier.

Omaha is a great variation of poker, but it’s confusing as heck for a lot of Texas holdem players.

For this reason alone, you should probably learn to play Omaha poker. The mind is like a muscle. It requires exercise to stay strong, and changing things up is a great way to exercise your mind.

Do you think you’d like to try Omaha poker after reading this post? Why or why not?

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For many poker players who start out learning how to play Texas hold'em, Omaha poker is often the next game to discover.

If you are thinking to explore this poker variant and you would like to learn how to play Omaha poker, this beginner's guide to the game gives you everything you need.

Continue reading to find:

1. What is Omaha Poker?

The more you play poker, the more you keep hearing how Omaha poker is the game to play to get the best action and challenge the best players.

In the past 10 years or so, Omaha poker became one of the most popular poker variants. Some go as far as to say that Omaha poker (PLO, specifically) it's on a trajectory to surpass Texas hold'em and become the most played game in the world.

Part of the game's success has to do with its rules. Like most poker games, the basics of Omaha poker are the same as those in Texas hold'em - meaning that if you know how to play one, you are in a good spot to play the other.

When it comes to Omaha poker, there are different sub-variants out there, each with its specificities and dedicated players base.

The two most popular types of Omaha poker (i.e. those you'll find at every major poker site) are:

pot-limit Omaha (PLO)
Omaha hi-lo

This guide on how to play Omaha poker focuses on pot-limit Omaha (PLO) poker, one of the most played games of the year and probably the easiest version of the game to learn as a beginner.

If that's not what you are looking for or if you are already fluent in PLO poker, you can read about Omaha hi-lo poker rules here.

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2. How To Play Omaha Poker

To play a game of Omaha poker you'll need a 52-card deck of French cards. Also, unless you are in for an old-fashioned game with beans, buttons, and pennies, you'll need also some poker chips, a dealer button, and two blinds buttons.

A game of Omaha poker needs two to ten players to begin.

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Like in other poker games, the action of a hand of Omaha poker includes several betting rounds and a combination of private ('hole') and community cards ('the board).

The first thing you want to remember when it comes to learning how to play Omaha poker is the name of the different phases that compose a hand.

The pre-flop: The initial betting round. Some players (the 'Blinds') are obliged to place a bet while the others can decide wether to call, fold, or raise.
The flop: The second betting round. The players still in the hand decide how to act once the dealer places the first three community cards on the board, face up.
The turn: The third betting round. The players still in the hand decide how to act once the dealer places the one more community card on the board, face up.
The river:The last betting round. The players still in the hand decide how to act once the dealer places the last the five community cards on the board, face up.
The showdown: The players still in the hand reveal their cards.

Preflop Action

The Big Blind (BB) and the Small Blind (SB) place their bets on the table so the action can start.

The dealer distributes four cards to each player, all face down. As we will see later, this is one of the key differences between Omaha and Texas Hold'em poker.

As soon as all the cards reached the respective players, the first betting round begins. The first player to act is the one at the left of the Big Blind (table position: 'Under the Gun' or UTG).

The action continues clockwise until it reaches the Big Blind.

All players have the following options:

Call: They place a bet equal to the size of the Big Blind (or to the highest bet that was placed before them, in case someone in the hand decided to raise).
Raise: They increase the bet making it more expensive for other players to stay in the hand.
Fold: They give back the card and leave the hand.

The Flop

The dealer places three cards on the board, all face up. These are the first of a series of five that the players need to use to build their final poker hand.

As soon as the three cards are on the table, a new betting round begins.

The Flop betting round is identical to the previous one.

The Turn

The dealer places one more card on the board, again face up. All the players still in the hand enter a new betting round that develops exactly as the previous one.

The River

The dealer places the last community card on the table, face up, and a new betting round follows.

If there are still two or more players in the hand, the action continues to the final chapter (the 'Showdown). It most player fold, the hand goes to the last-one standing.

The Showdown

The players in the hand turn at least two of their private cards and use them in combination with any of the five on the board to build a five-card poker hand.

The player with the highest poker hand is the one who wins the hand and takes down the pot.

And here's where most beginners get in trouble.

Players that are just starting to learn how to play this game and are not too familiar with the Omaha poker rules tend to make a lot of mistakes when it comes to building five-card hands.

The most common PLO poker mistake people make when they learn how to play Omaha poker is to forget they need to use at least two of the four hole cards to build their final hand.

Let's look at one example.

A player holding A♥Q♣7♦6♦ looks at a board of 9♥4♥2♣J♥Q♥ thinking he has made the nuts with an ace-high flush.

That's a mistake.

The Omaha poker rules do not allow you to make a hand using only one hole card (A♥) in combination with four community cards (the four hearts on the board).

In fact, this player only has a pair of queens, not a flush.

How to Bet in Omaha Poker

Another factor to consider when it comes to Omaha rules is how betting works. And that's because there are some key differences between Omaha poker and Hold'em — and not being aware of them could cost you a lot of precious chips.

Like in hold'em, the minimum bet allowed in Omaha is always the equivalent of the big blind.

In a $1/$2 PLO poker game, the minimum a player can bet is $2.

However, while in no-limit hold'em player can always bet all their chips at any point, the maximum bet allowed in PLO is the size of the pot.

Calculating what exactly is a 'pot-sized' bet can be trickier and it often needs the help of the dealer.

If the pot is $10 and a player is the first to act, the calculation is easy: the maximum possible bet is $10.

However, poker is never that easy. You need to be prepared for different types of situations and calculations if you don't want the other players to take advantage of your lack of experience.

Let's use an example to understand how betting works in PLO poker.

In this fictional PLO poker hand, there are $10 in the pot when a player bets $5. The next player, however, decide to up their game and announce the intention to 'raise pot'.

How much is that?

Based on the previous bets, the most that player can bet is $25.

This number is calculated by adding the $5 to call plus the $20 that would be in the pot after the call ($5 + $20 = $25).

When you play Omaha at a casino, the dealer will take care of the math for you should you announce you wish to bet the pot.

Things get even easier when you play online because the calculations appear right on the screen, automatically.

3. The Hands in Omaha Poker

Pot-limit Omaha (or 'Omaha high') is known as an 'action game' which is one reason why it is popular among high-stakes players.

Since players start with four hole cards in Omaha instead of two, they can make a much wider range of hands.

For that reason, hand values tend to be higher in Omaha than in hold'em, with players making 'the nuts' or the highest possible hand much more frequently.

If you think about it, in PLO players aren't dealt just a single two-card combination (as in hold'em), but six different two-card combinations (among the four hole cards) from which to choose the best hand.

It isn't surprising, then, that players tend to make much better hands at showdown in Omaha poker.

In Texas hold'em making two pair or three-of-a-kind can be a very strong hand, but in Omaha there will often be better hands out there to beat those holdings.

Let's look at two more examples.

Example 1.

Yu have been dealt 10♠9♠8♥7♥ and by the river the board is 7♠9♥K♥J♣2♦.

Using the ten and eight in your hand along with three community cards, you have a jack-high straight.

The problem is that any opponent holding Qx10xXxXx would complete a higher, king-high straight and defeat you.

If the betting gets heavy on the river, that's probably exactly what is happening.

Example 2.

You hold J♠J♣9♠9♥ on a board of 9♦K♠Q♥5♦3♦.

You have a set of nines, which would be a nice holding in Texas hold'em. But Omaha poker is a different game and there are several hands that could beat yours.

Anyone with KxKxXxXx or QxQxXxXx would have a higher set, and an opponent with Jx10xXxXx would have a straight.

There is also a flush possibility, meaning anyone with X♦X♦XxXx (two diamonds) would make a flush.

Due to the nature of so many better hands, an opponent may just be calling your bets with a set of kings or queens as they may fear a straight or flush, so even if you are not facing any immediate aggression, you could still be beaten so proceed with caution.

4. Differences Between Omaha and Texas Hold'em?

Like hold'em, Omaha is a 'flop' game that uses community cards.

Just like in hold'em, players are dealt their own hands face down — their 'hole cards' — and use those cards in combination with the five community cards (the flop, turn, and river) to make five-card poker hands.

However, there is one big difference between Omaha and hold'em.

Whereas in hold'em all the players receive two hole cards each, in Omaha they get four hole cards.

Of those four hole cards, players must choose two to be used in combination with three of the five community cards to build their five-card poker hands.

Yes. In a game of Omaha poker, each player must use two of their hole cards and three of the community cards to build a poker hand.

That's different from hold'em where players can use:

both of their hole cards (and three community cards),
just one hole card (and four community cards),
or no hole cards (and all five community cards, which is called 'playing the board').

In pot-limit Omaha, the poker hand rankings are just the same as in Texas hold'em.

Like hold'em, pot-limit Omaha or 'PLO' poker is played as a 'high-hand' game, which means the hands go (from best to worst):

royal flush
straight flush
four-of-a-kind
full house
flush
straight
three-of-a-kind
two pair
one pair
high-card.

Other Omaha Poker Tips

The Importance of 'Position'

Just like in hold'em, poker positioning is an important element in Omaha.

Many consider this aspect of the game to be even more important in Omaha poker. That's due to the the pot-limit betting format and all the combinations a player can make with an Omaha hand.

When you have 'position' on your opponents, you can follow their actions and base your decisions on the information you received.

When you are out of position, it becomes much harder to make the correct decisions. The lack of information can lead to wrongful assumptions and push you to take risks that are not justified by the value of the cards you hold.

Another benefit of being in position is that you have a better chance of controlling the size of the pot, which is often based on the strength of your hand and your overall goal in the pot.

Being out of position to one or more opponents gives them the ability to control the pot size and also capitalize on the added information of knowing your actions first.

Bluffing in Omaha Poker

Because Omaha is so focused on the nuts, it might seem like bluffing plays an important role in the game.

A player can represent a wider range of hands in Omaha, and also open up with a bit more with so many more semi-bluffs available.

In fact, experienced Omaha players will often bet big draws heavily on the flop, since in some cases those draws are actually mathematical favorites versus made hands.

All of which is to say players do bluff in pot-limit Omaha, but with so many possible hands out there you have to be judicious when deciding when it is best to bluff.

The more you learn about the game, the easier it will become to pick up on these spots and determine how to proceed against various opponents.

Be Wary of the Blockers

Relatedly, blockers also become much more prevalent in Omaha than in Texas hold'em.

Blockers are those cards you hold in your hand that prevent an opponent from making a specific hand.

For example, if a board reads K♠10♠5♥2♠4♦ and you hold the A♠ in your hand but no other spades, you may not have a flush, but you know your opponent cannot make the nut flush.

This gives you added power in the hand being able to push your opponent off certain hands as your opponent is guaranteed to not contain the nuts.

5. Where to Play Omaha Poker Games Online

Like you would expect for a popular game like Omaha poker, you'll find PLO games at all the major poker sites online.