After Texas Hold’em, Omaha is the most played poker modality in the world. It offers a different type of game, where strategy still has a lot of weight, but where players have the opportunity to give it a new approach.
Whether you have already had your first contact or you are getting ready to try an Omaha poker game, there are a number of aspects that you need to be clear about. This brief guide with the key points about the Omaha variant of poker can help you to familiarize yourself with the basics of this kind of game.
Omaha poker: how to play?
In Omaha poker, the rules state that each player must draw four initial cards. These cards are dealt face up and are the ones that each of the participants will use to create the best hand. The five community cards are then placed on the table, in the center and in full view of all the players.
In Omaha types of poker games, the rules state that hands cannot be formed indiscriminately, but that the ratio of player cards and community cards must conform to the rule. And that rule says that it is mandatory for all players to use three community cards and two-hole cards. Any hand formed by a different combination of cards will be invalidated.
Within what we know as the Omaha variant of poker, there are several types of games, as is the case with other modalities, such as Texas Hold’em:
- POT LIMIT OMAHA / PLO. In these games, each player can place bets of a value equivalent to the size of the pot at that moment. It is one of the most popular games among Omaha poker fans.
- NO LIMIT OMAHA / NLO. Omaha poker rules in No Limit or No Limit games allow players to place bets freely, without fixed limits.
- FIXED LIMIT OMAHA. In fixed limit games, the limits remain unchanged in each of the rounds and must never be exceeded in the bets placed.
Omaha poker vs. Texas Hold’em
For those who have not yet dared to try it, knowing how to play Omaha is the basics to start enjoying a different dynamic.
The main differences between Omaha poker and any kind of Texas Hold’em game are in the proportion and distribution of cards, as well as in their use to create the best hand.
While Hold’em deals half as many cards as Omaha and builds streets as it shows community cards, Omaha poker deals twice as many cards and shows community cards at the same time.
However, in a Texas Hold’em game you are free to use any combination of cards you want, regardless of their proportion. On the other hand, in Omaha poker you can only create hands respecting the rule of three community cards and two player’s cards.
Bets and raises in Omaha poker games
It is as important to know how to play Omaha poker as it is to know the right way to approach raises. Considering that the rules in Omaha poker are clear and well defined based on the type of game, it is easy to know how to face raises. Everything is based on knowing where the limit is, and if there is one.
For example, in Pot Limit games, the minimum bet will always be the BB, and the maximum, the pot. The minimum raise has to be equivalent to the previous bet of the round. For example, a player who bets 5 euros, if the next player wants to raise, he will raise 5 euros minimum. Maximum raises? Pot Limit, i.e., the limit is the pot.
No limit games keep the same dynamics of the PLO, only that the maximum bets have no limit. That is to say, any intention to bluff can end in an all-in at any time. Fans of raise in NLO games must have the ability to face raises so powerful as to face an all-in; otherwise, they will squeeze them to enlarge the pot until their stack does not allow them to stay in the game and they must fold.
As for street play, it is maintained in Omaha poker. On the preflop and on the flop, each of the participants can raise or call the BB when the betting round begins, the structure of which can be altered depending on the particular type of game.
In fixed-limit games, usually each bet and raise is made in fixed increments according to the SB. In a 0,50 € / 1,50 € game, the increments would be made in increments of 0,50 € at a time.
