Introduction to Omaha
Differences between Omaha and Texas Hold'em
In Omaha Hold'em each player receives four hole cards and everyone
shares five community cards, similar to Texas Hold'em. The catch is that
you must use exactly two cards from your hand and three cards from the
board to make your five-card poker hand. In general the winning hands in
Omaha are much better than the winning hands in Texas Hold'em; in a game
of more than three people usually a straight or better wins.
When you are first playing Omaha, you should make sure you are
actually using two cards from your hand, and not three or one. For
example, if the board is K-Q-J-5-4, and you have A-Q-4-4, your hand is
only three-of-a-kind 4’s. You don’t have full house of 4’s over queens.
If the board is A-K-Q-10-9, then your J-J-5-4 is not a straight, since
you must use two of your cards.
Why play Omaha?
Omaha Hold'em is not as popular as Texas Hold'em, but is played by
plenty of fish. That’s one good reason to give it a shot. Also, a lot of
good Texas Hold'em players want to try out Omaha while they’re still
unfamiliar with the game, and yet they still go and play at the higher
limits because they’re good at Texas Hold'em. These players generally
play to lose, so take advantage.
Another thing worth mentioning: Omaha is much more of a technical
game than Texas Hold'em. It’s easy to see what the best hand is since
there’s usually a flush or a straight on the board—odds are that
somebody has one.
Some good places to play low-limit Omaha are
or
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