Omaha Poker – Rules and How to Play
Most people think of Omaha Poker as Texas Hold em with extra cards. It in fact has some similarities however some of the key differences make this a fun and exciting game. If you are looking for action Omaha high/low split has all you could want. There is also Omaha straight high.
On the deal you get 4 cards face down rather than 2 that you do in Texas hold em. The player left of the dealer posts a small blind and the person to the left of the small blind posts the big blind. For the sake of understanding all this we will assume for the rest of this article that we are playing on a 10/20 table. In that case the small blind would be 5 dollars and the big blind would be 10 dollars.
After the blinds are out action begins with the person to the left of the big blind being first action in this betting sequence. The betting proceeds around the table until it gets back to the big blind providing that there are no raises. If there are raises first it can only be raised 3 times in each round. After the flop the betting starts with the person in the small blind or the person closest to the little blind moving clock wise fro the dealer position. This remains the same till the end of the game. The betting phases are pre-flop, the flop, the turn, and last but not least the river.
The reason why it is different for Texas Holdem is that you must use 2 cards from you hand and you must use 3 cards from the board. If it is a high low split game it splits at the 8 meaning A 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 three of these is needed on the board that are not paired in order to qualify for a low. You then must also have 2 in you hand that are again not paired with the board. And high is the best poker hands of 5 cards but again please remember you must use 3 cards on the board and 2 out of your hand.
Because of the high low there is a lot of betting and a lot of action and if there are ties the pot is split several ways or at least can be. There have been times when I have seen a pot split 4 to 6 ways it doesn’t happen often but it can.
