Omaha Poker - Rules

Omaha poker is a game usually played with high hands only, but you will find out that the high-low split version is also popular - you may find it being called Omaha High-low, Omaha Hi-Lo, Omaha hi/lo, Omaha high/low, etc. Poker players in Europe prefer Omaha poker limit high while in the US, the Hi-Lo game of Omaha poker is gaining in popularity. Before you start playing, you better clear up the rules so as not to get confused later when you actually need to know what you are doing. You should know that Omaha poker rules are based on Texas Holdem with several main differences. Remember that in Omaha poker players are dealt four pocket cards while in Holdem they receive two. According to the rules of the game, each player must use two pocket cards and three community cards to make the best possible poker hand. In Omaha poker you will find a maximum of 10 players. All betting rounds and distribution of community cards are exactly like in Holdem poker. When the Omaha poker games starts, each player is dealt four cards face down and after that the first betting round begins.

Omaha Poker - Types Of The Game

There are three different types of Omaha poker the only difference between them being the amounts and limits available for each betting round in the game. In a fixed limit Omaha poker game, both the bet and raise amounts for each round are a preset amount - for instance, in a $5/$10 fixed game, both the bets and raises for the first two rounds of betting will be $5 and in the last two rounds the bet/raise amount will be $10. When you play in pot limit Omaha poker, the maximum bet/raise that a player can make is not more than the current pot amount - simply put, when the pot is $30, you cannot bet more than $30. The third game type of Omaha poker is no limit. As you may guess from the name, there are no maximum bet limits and each player has the right to bet as much as they like during any round of betting. Yet, you should keep in mind that in no limit Omaha poker the minimum bet is the same as the big blind amount. It is no limit Omaha poker that makes some pretty big pots, and there you can surely find lots of action.

Omaha Poker Hi-Lo

Omaha poker is often played high-low split also called eight-or-better. When you play in Omaha Hi-Lo you can use any combination of two holecards and three boardcards for the high hand and if you want to try and qualify for the low hand, you can do that with another or the same combination cards. The rules of Omaha poker eight-or-better are the same as the rules of Omaha. There is only one rule that is different - in Omaha Hi-Lo you will find a qualifier for the low hand which actually applies to all high-low split games, unless, of course, a specific posting to the contrary is displayed. Remember that in case there is no qualifying hand for low, the best high hand wins the whole pot.