Poker - Omaha

Players and equipment

Two to ten players, a standard 52-card deck, chips and a marker for the dealer button. The two players to the left of the button post the small and big blinds before the deal, as at Texas Hold'em, and the button moves one seat left after each hand. Omaha is most often played pot-limit: the biggest bet or raise allowed is the size of the pot. SquareScores is a chip ledger for the game: it keeps every stack, bet and pot, and it deals nothing and never sees a card.

The deal

Four private cards to each player. Then five community cards, exactly as at Hold'em: three face up together (the flop), a fourth (the turn) and a fifth (the river), with a round of betting after each. A hand ends early when everybody but one player folds.

Play

Betting rounds run as at Texas Hold'em: the first starts to the left of the big blind, and every later round to the left of the button. Check (pass when nobody has bet), bet, call (match the bet), raise (match it and add more) or fold. In pot-limit play a raise is at least the size of the last bet or raise, and at most the size of the pot once your call is counted in. A player with fewer chips than the bet may call for everything they have, and the rest of the betting goes to a side pot.

Scoring

Your hand is exactly two of your four cards with exactly three of the board. Not one, not three — always two. This is the rule that decides every argument at an Omaha table:

Four hearts on the board

Not a flush

One heart in your hand makes only two

A pair on the board

Two matching cards must come from your hand for four of a kind

Four to a straight on the board

You need two cards that fit, not one

Standard poker rankings then apply — straight flush, four of a kind, full house, flush, straight, three of a kind, two pair, one pair, high card — with poker's tie-breaks: kickers settle hands of the same rank, suits never do, identical hands split the pot. Four cards make six two-card hands where a Hold'em player has one, so the winning hand runs much stronger: two pair rarely wins a showdown, and a low flush is often beaten by a higher one.

A worked hand

Three players at pot-limit with blinds of 5 and 10. Ben has the button, Cara posts the small blind and Alice the big blind; everybody has over 1,000 chips. Alice holds A♥ K♣ Q♦ J♠, Ben 8♥ 6♥ 10♣ 10♦ and Cara 9♣ 9♦ 5♠ 3♠.

Before the flop

Pot 105

Ben raises to 35, the most the pot allows; Cara and Alice call

The flop, K♥ 9♥ 4♥

Pot 405

Cara checks; Alice bets 100 on her ace of hearts; Ben and Cara call

The turn, 2♠

Pot 405

All three check

The river, 7♥

Pot 2,005

Alice bets 400; Ben raises to 800; Cara folds; Alice calls

Showdown

Ben takes 2,005

Alice has one heart, so a pair of kings and no flush; Ben's two hearts make a king-high flush

Ben's opening raise is the pot-limit arithmetic: the blinds make 15, his call of 10 makes 25, so he may raise by 25, to 35 in all. On the river Alice sees four hearts on the board and the ace of hearts in her hand, and bets as if she holds the best flush there is. She has no flush at all. She must use exactly two of her four cards, and only one is a heart, so her best five are the K♣ paired with the K♥ on the board, with the A♥ beside them: a pair of kings. Ben's 8♥ and 6♥ are the two hearts a flush needs, and with the K♥ 9♥ 7♥ they make a king-high flush. Cara made three nines on the flop and was right to fold them on four hearts. Ben puts 935 into the hand and takes 2,005. SquareScores keeps the stacks and the pot as the chips go in; the two-card rule is the table's to police at the showdown.

Ending

The best hand shown at the river takes the pot, or the last player left when everybody else folds. Cash play ends whenever people want to stop; a tournament ends when one player has everything.

Starting hands that work together

Four cards are six two-card hands, and the best starting hands are the ones where all six are worth something. Two aces with two kings, each pair in its own suit, is the best there is: two high pairs, two flush draws and a straight draw between them. Four cards in a row, such as ten, nine, eight and seven, are nearly as good, because any flop of middling cards gives them a straight or a wide draw to one. Avoid the hand with one card that fits nothing — three good cards and a stranger — because a quarter of it is dead. A pair of aces with two unrelated cards is good and not great: against several callers it usually needs to make three aces, about one time in eight.

The nut hand

The nut hand is the best hand possible given the cards on the board, and in Omaha it is the only hand to be happy putting a big pot on. With six two-card hands each, the second-best flush, the low end of a straight and a small full house all lose far more often than at Hold'em, because at a full table somebody usually holds the best the board allows.

Pot-limit sizing, said in chips

A pot-sized bet is the pot as it stands; a pot-sized raise is the pot after your call is counted in. First to raise before the flop with blinds of 5 and 10, you may make it 35: the blinds are 15, your call makes 25, and you raise by 25. With 200 in the pot and a bet of 200 in front of you, the pot is 400, your call makes 600, so the largest raise is 600 more, to 800 in all. Bet the pot on the flop with a made hand, because that prices out every draw where a small bet gives all of them the right price.

Drawing to the nuts

Draw to the best hand a card can make, and count the cards that make it. A flush draw is nine cards, about one in five on the next card and one in three by the river, but only the ace of the suit in your hand makes it the nut flush. Straight draws are the game's speciality: hold jack, ten, eight and six with a flop of nine, seven and two, and any eight, ten, six, jack or five makes a straight — sixteen cards, about one in three on the next card and better than an even chance by the river. A draw to the second-best hand is worth very little, because the card that makes it often makes somebody else's better one.

No-limit Omaha

The same game with no ceiling on a bet: at least the size of the last bet or raise and at most everything in front of you. Rarer than pot-limit, because with so many draws the ceiling is what stops one all-in deciding most hands before the flop.

Fixed-limit Omaha

Every bet and raise is a fixed size, twice as big on the turn and river as before, usually capped at one bet and three raises a round. Common for hi-lo, rare for high-only.

Omaha hi-lo, eight or better

The pot is split between the best high hand and the best low hand. A low hand is five cards of different ranks all eight or lower — that is the qualifier — with aces counting low and straights and flushes ignored, so ace, two, three, four, five is the best low there is. If nobody has a qualifying low, the high hand takes the whole pot. The two-from-your-hand rule applies to each half on its own, and you may use different cards for each, so one hand can win both halves — scooping, which is what the game is played for.

Five-card Omaha

Five private cards instead of four, still exactly two of them with three from the board. Ten two-card hands each rather than six, so the nuts are held more often still.

Courchevel

Five-card Omaha with a twist: the first card of the flop is turned face up before the first round of betting, so everybody bets their five cards knowing one of the board.

How many cards do you use in Omaha?

Exactly two of your four private cards and exactly three of the five on the board, every time. You cannot use one card from your hand with four from the board, or three with two, and you cannot play the board alone: a straight on the board is nobody's straight unless two of their own cards fit it. It is the rule new players get wrong most.

What is the best starting hand in Omaha?

Two aces and two kings, each pair in a different suit, which is called double-suited. It carries the two highest pairs, two draws to the nut flush and a straight draw between them, so all six of its two-card hands are worth something. Two aces with two unrelated cards is good, not great.

What does pot-limit mean in Omaha?

The most you may bet or raise is the size of the pot. For a raise, the pot is counted after your call: with 100 in the middle and 20 bet to you, calling makes 140, so you may raise by 140 and make it 160 in all. Most Omaha is pot-limit.

Can you have a flush with one card in Omaha?

No. A flush needs two cards of the suit in your hand and three on the board. Four of a suit on the board and one in your hand is not a flush; only a player holding two more of that suit has one, and if nobody does there is no flush in play.

How does Omaha hi-lo work?

The pot is split between the best high hand and the best low hand, and the low must qualify: five cards of different ranks, all eight or lower, aces low, straights and flushes ignored, so ace to five is the best low. Each half follows the two-from-your-hand rule on its own, and if no low qualifies the high hand takes everything.

What is a wrap in Omaha?

A straight draw where your cards sit around the board's, above and below, so that many cards complete it. Jack, ten, eight and six on a flop of nine, seven and two has sixteen cards to a straight, against eight for the best draw at Hold'em.