How to Play Omaha: Beginners Guide
Omaha is Texas Hold’em on speed. It’s an aggressive game that brings lots of action and high rewards. Texas Hold’em is often called the Cadillac of poker, but in his book “Farha on Omaha”, old school Vegas legend Sam Farha says Omaha is the Porsche. He then goes on to say that it’s not a game for the meek or timid.
This will either sound daunting or exciting if you’ve never played the game. Either way, we’re here to give you the tools you need to learn how to drive this wild Porsche.
Starting from Scratch: What is Omaha?
Omaha is very similar to Texas Hold’em. The main difference is that you get four hole cards instead of two. You still only use two of them along with three community cards from the board. The reason it’s so wild is that having four cards doesn’t mean double the action, it means your hole cards can be combined in six different ways.
That means six different hands you can draw to and six different hands you can hit. If one combination goes out the window, you have five more. The downside of this is that all your opponents also have the same options. This is why hands in Omaha are usually better and pots can get really big really quick. One important thing to note is that you have to use two of your hole cards. In Texas Hold’em, you can hit a flush or a straight with four community and one hole card, but in Omaha you need to use exactly two hole cards and three community cards.
This is why Omaha is usually played as a pot-limit game to try and keep the reins in a little and allow player to protect their hands. No-limit would just be an all-in frenzy while a limit game wouldn’t ever see anyone fold. There are also a few different variants of Omaha. Pot-limit Omaha (PLO) is played using a high hand value while there’s also Omaha 8 or Better where the pot is split between the high and the low hand.
But we’ll get more into the variants later.
Omaha Poker Rules
Omaha poker is played with anywhere from 2 to 10 players at a table. After players are seated, comfortable and ready to roll, the action can begin. The first order of business is deciding where the button will be. This can be done by drawing a high card or any other method you prefer. After that, the player to the button’s left becomes the small blind and the player to the small blind’s left becomes the big blind.
Players then get dealt four cards – one at a time – starting at the small blind and going clockwise. After that, action starts with the “under the gun” player. This is the player who’s on the left of the big blind.
This player has the option to call the big blind, raise or fold. Action then continues clockwise to the blinds. The blinds have the same options as the rest of the players, but if the small blind folds they lose their blind. If action was just called, the big blind can check. If not, they must call a raise, reraise or fold.
The dealer then lays out three cards known as the flop. Action now starts with the player closest to the button, again, going clockwise. The options are the same as preflop and another round of betting continues. After that, the fourth community card known as the “turn” is dealt and we have a third round of betting. Just like before, betting starts to the button’s left. Then players get the final community card, known as the river. This brings on the final round of betting. After that, players turn over their cards and see who takes down the pot.
Omaha Poker Betting
There are a few different ways to bet in Omaha and that depends on where you’re playing. If you’re playing at a casino or playing poker games online the most common type of Omaha you’ll see is Pot-Limit Omaha. This is where the most you can bet is the size of the pot. Once you start working in antes, blinds and reraises and split pots, things can get pretty hectic pretty quick.
If you find yourself a little bit lost, you can always ask the dealer for the pot size and they’ll count for you. And, If you’re playing online, the pot size is always visible and is one of the best advantages of playing PLO online.
If you’re playing O8, then that’s usually a fixed-limit game. That means you’re playing with big bets and small bets. These are called the limits and are static if you’re playing a cash game or go up alongside the blinds in tournaments and Sit & Gos. This means there’s a fixed amount you can bet and raise every hand. There are also limits to how many times you can reraise called “caps”. These vary, but limit games are usually restricted to four bets, that means one bet and three raises.
There’s also been a big surge in NLO8, which is No-limit Omaha 8 or better. This is a pretty wild betting structure that sees massive pots, and is definitely a game to check out if you love action and big gambles.
Omaha Poker Variants
There are a few different Omaha variants and there might be more in the future given how popular the game has become.
Pot-Limit Omaha
The most popular way to play the game is Pot-Limit Omaha. This is a high hand game where the best poker hand gets the pot. It’s popularity stems from the fact that it’s basically Texas Hold’em on steroids. The game is played almost exactly the same except that you have four hole cards instead of two. This means that there are six different possible two-card combinations in your hand. Unlike Hold’em though, you have to use exactly two hole cards and three community, where in Hold’em you can use four or all five community cards.
But all these variations create all kinds of fast-paced action and is why PLO is often called a game of “the nuts” because if there’s a big draw on the board, chances are someone stuck around to see it.
Omaha 8 or Better
Omaha 8 or better is normally just referred to as O8. This is a split pot game where the pot is split between the high and the low hand. A key thing to remember is that there has to be a qualifying low hand for there to be a split pot. As the name would suggest, the low hand needs to be an 8-high or better. The best possible low hand is A-2-3-4-5 which is also a straight. That means you can win both pots with this hand. Winning both pots is also known as “scooping” the pot. Since players must use three community cards to make a hand, it’s sometimes apparent when there’s no possible low hand on the board.
Big O
This is a relatively new variation of Omaha and it mixes things up by adding yet <i>another</i> hole card. That’s right, you get five hole cards in Big O along with the five community cards. You still have to use two hole cards and three community cards though. There’s no mixing and matching of card quantities, that would be too crazy.
Mixed Omaha
There are so many popular Omaha variants that the World Series of Poker now has a mixed Omaha event to cram them all into one tournament. This event has a round of each of three games mentioned above. It’s a round of PLO, followed by a round of O8 and then a round of Big O until a champion is crowned. This is truly the ideal tournament for Omaha enthusiasts
H.O.R.S.E. and mixed games
Omaha always makes an appearance in any kind of mixed game format like H.O.R.S.E. It’s so popular it makes it there twice. Both the O and the E stand for Omaha. The O represents PLO while the E is for O8. If you want to master these mixed games, you better get good at Omaha.
Omaha Poker Strategy
As we’ve mentioned before, Omaha is a fast-paced game with tons of action, and with so many cards. Players are hitting good hands a lot more often than they would in Hold’em. This is why Omaha is of game of “the nuts” (where “nuts” means the best possible hand) because if there’s a big hand possibility on the table, chances are good that someone is holding it.
This makes bluffing big hands a little harder, but also means you should draw to your big hands and bet big along the way to get paid off when you do. Because of all this action, it’s also incredibly important to have position in Omaha. Position is referred to when you’re able to act last in a hand. Acting during every betting round gives you more information since all your opponents will be betting before you. It also helps you control the pot size a bit more and by being able to finalize with a check or a call without having to be faced with a raise.
Another thing to keep in mind with Omaha more than other games are “blockers”. Blockers are cards in your hand that you know can prevent someone else from having the nuts. For example, if there are three hearts on a board and you’re holding the ace of hearts, you know that while you can’t make the flush, nobody else can make the nut flush. This makes it less likely that someone was drawing to a flush in the first place and raises the value of your other hands.
Difference between Omaha and Hold’em
Omaha and Hold’em are very similar games. The number of community cards, the betting order and the general structure are all the same. But the big differences come in the number of hole cards. Like we mentioned earlier, the main difference is that you get four hole cards in Omaha while you only get two in Hold’em.
This is where another key difference lies. In Hold’em you can use both, one or none of your hole cards. If there are four spades on the board and you have one spade in your hand, then you have a flush. This isn’t true in Omaha. If there are four spades and you only have one in your hand, then you don’t have a flush. This is true for straights and any other hand in Omaha.
This can get a bit hectic since there are six different combinations in which you can use your hole cards. If you’re playing online, the site will tell you what your hand is, but it’s up to you to see what your drawing possibilities are. If you’re playing live in a casino, then you better make sure to keep an eye on all your cards.
FAQs
Nearly every casino that offers poker has a game of Omaha running. It’s an incredibly popular format for both cash games and tournaments. Just check your local casino to see what kind of Omaha games are running. If you’re looking for a place to play online, we have you covered. Our team is filled with Omaha fans who have done their due diligence to find the best Omaha sites out there. Check out our detailed poker reviews to see which site best suits you.
That depends on if you’re playing PLO or O8. If you’re playing PLO and shooting for the best high hand, then the best starting hand you can get AAKK double suited. If you’re playing O8 and looking for the best scooping hand, then that’s AA23 double suited. This not only gives you a pair of aces for the high hand, but A2, A3 or 23 as a great start for the low hand.
That question can spark a lot of debate depending on where you ask it. Since O8 and PLO are such different games it’s hard to give a definitive answer. If you go by WSOP rankings, then Scott Clements is the highest earning O8 player with $1,109,333 in earnings while Tommy Le tops the Omaha leaderboard with $2,413,480.
Yes, there’s plenty of Omaha at the WSOP. There are dozens of cash games and Sit & Gos running at any given time and there were more than 15 Omaha bracelet events during the 2021 WSOP. Check out the WSOP Schedule if you want to see the exact days, times and buy-ins.. They ranged from everything from PLO to Mixed Omaha to bounty tournaments.
While the $50,000 Poker Players Championship has some Omaha in it because it’s a H.O.R.S.E. event, the WSOP Main Event is a Texas Hold’em tournament. If you’re interested in that $10,000 tournament, check out what your odds of winning it are.
There are tons of places to learn more Omaha strategy. There are a myriad of books including “Farha on Omaha”. If you’re looking for a good introduction with solid strategy, then “Pot-limit Omaha Poker” by Jeff Hwang is a solid choice. If you want to go deeper into O8, then you can’t go wrong with “Scoop!: Big O and PLO8: Winning High Low Concepts for the Hold’em Mind” by Greg Vail.
There are also tons of online message boards like 2+2 with tons of free content and discussions where you can read up on Omaha and post your hands so other players can provide feedback. If you’re a more visual learner, then there are tons of coaching sites out there that have hours of video training and one-on-one coaching to help bring your game to the next level.
