Omaha hold 'em
Encyclopedia
Omaha hold 'em is a community card poker
game similar to Texas hold 'em
, where each player is dealt four cards and must make his best hand using exactly two of them, plus exactly three of the five community cards. The exact origin of the game is unknown, but casino executive Robert Turner first brought Omaha into a casino setting when he introduced the game to Bill Boyd, who offered it as a game at the Las Vegas
Golden Nugget Casino
(calling it "Nugget Hold'em"). Omaha uses one standard 52-card French deck. Limit Omaha hold 'em 8-or-better is the "O" game featured in H.O.R.S.E. Both limit Omaha/8 and pot limit Omaha high are featured as "O" and "A" respectively in the 8-Game (T.H.O.R.S.E.H.A).
n casinos, the term "Omaha" can refer to several poker
games. The original game is also commonly known as "Omaha high". A high-low split version called "Omaha Hi-Lo", or sometimes "Omaha eight-or-better" or "Omaha/8", is also played. In Europe
, "Omaha" still typically refers to the high version of the game, usually played pot-limit. Pot-limit Omaha is often abbreviated as "PLO." Pot-limit and no-limit Omaha eight-or-better can be found in some casinos and online, though no-limit is rarer.
It is often said that Omaha is a game of "the nuts
", i.e. the best possible high or low hand, because it frequently takes "the nuts" to win a showdown. It is also a game where between the cards in his hand and the community cards a player may have drawing possibilities to multiple different types of holdings. For example, a player may have both a draw to a flush and a full house using different combinations of cards. At times, even seasoned players may need additional time to figure what draws are possible for their hand.
The basic differences between Omaha and Texas hold 'em are these: first, each player is dealt four hole cards instead of two. The betting rounds and layout of community cards are identical. At showdown, each player's hand is the best five-card hand made from exactly three of the five cards on the board, plus exactly two of the player's own cards. Unlike Texas hold 'em, a player cannot play four or five of the cards on the board with fewer than two of his own, nor can a player use three or four hole cards to disguise a strong hand.
Some specific things to notice about Omaha hands are:
-8 or better (simply Omaha/8), each player makes a separate five-card high hand and five-card ace-to-five low hand (eight-high or lower to qualify), and the pot is split between the high and low (which may be the same player). To qualify for low, a player must be able to play an 8-7-6-5-4 or lower (this is why it is called "eight or better"). A few casinos play with a 9-low qualifier instead, but this is rare. Each player can play any two of his four hole cards to make his high hand, and any two of his four hole cards to make his low hand. If there is no qualifying low hand, the high hand wins (scoops) the whole pot. This game is usually played in the fixed limit version, although pot limit Omaha/8 is becoming more popular. A few low-stakes online
tournaments
feature no limit Omaha/8.
The brief explanation above belies the complexity of the game, so a number of examples will be useful here to clarify it. The table below shows a five-card board of community cards at the end of play, and then lists for each player the initial private four-card hand dealt to him or her, and the best five-card high hand and low hand each player can play on showdown:
In the deal above, Chris wins the high-hand half of the pot with his J-high straight, and Bryan and Eve split the low half (getting a
quarter of the pot each) with 7-5-3-2-A.
Some specific things to notice about Omaha/8 hands are:
In the game of "Courchevel", instead of betting on the initial four cards and then flopping three community cards for the second round, the first community card is dealt before the first betting round, so that each player has four private cards and the single community card on his first bet. Then two more community cards are dealt, and play proceeds exactly as in Omaha.
Pot Limit Omaha high can also be played with more than four hole cards, the most common variety being six card Omaha which can be found in many casinos across the UK
.
In the original Omaha poker game, players were only dealt two hole cards and had to use both to make a hand combined with community cards. This version of Omaha is defined in the glossary of Super/System
(under Omaha) as being interchangeable with "Tight Holdem". Across all the variations of the game, the requirement of using exactly two hole cards is the only consistent rule. The "Omaha" part of the name represents this aspect of the game.
"Hold'em" refers to a game using community cards that are shared by all players. This is opposed to Draw games where each player's hand is composed only by hole cards and Stud games where each player hand contains both non-community cards that are visible to the other players and concealed hole cards.
Community card poker
Community card poker refers to any game of poker that uses community cards , which are cards dealt face up in the center of the table and shared by all players. In these games, each player is dealt privately an incomplete hand , which are then combined with the community cards to make a complete...
game similar to Texas hold 'em
Texas hold 'em
Texas Hold 'em is a variation of the standard card game of poker. The game consists of two cards being dealt face down to each player and then five community cards being placed face-up by the dealer—a series of three then two additional single cards , with...
, where each player is dealt four cards and must make his best hand using exactly two of them, plus exactly three of the five community cards. The exact origin of the game is unknown, but casino executive Robert Turner first brought Omaha into a casino setting when he introduced the game to Bill Boyd, who offered it as a game at the Las Vegas
Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...
Golden Nugget Casino
Golden Nugget Las Vegas
The Golden Nugget Las Vegas is a luxury casino-hotel located in Las Vegas, Nevada on the Fremont Street Experience. The property is owned and operated by Landry's Restaurants....
(calling it "Nugget Hold'em"). Omaha uses one standard 52-card French deck. Limit Omaha hold 'em 8-or-better is the "O" game featured in H.O.R.S.E. Both limit Omaha/8 and pot limit Omaha high are featured as "O" and "A" respectively in the 8-Game (T.H.O.R.S.E.H.A).
Explanation
In North AmericaNorth America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
n casinos, the term "Omaha" can refer to several poker
Poker
Poker is a family of card games that share betting rules and usually hand rankings. Poker games differ in how the cards are dealt, how hands may be formed, whether the high or low hand wins the pot in a showdown , limits on bet sizes, and how many rounds of betting are allowed.In most modern poker...
games. The original game is also commonly known as "Omaha high". A high-low split version called "Omaha Hi-Lo", or sometimes "Omaha eight-or-better" or "Omaha/8", is also played. In Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, "Omaha" still typically refers to the high version of the game, usually played pot-limit. Pot-limit Omaha is often abbreviated as "PLO." Pot-limit and no-limit Omaha eight-or-better can be found in some casinos and online, though no-limit is rarer.
It is often said that Omaha is a game of "the nuts
Nut hand
In poker, the nut hand, is the strongest possible hand in a given situation. The second-nut hand or third-nut hand may refer to the second and third best possible hands...
", i.e. the best possible high or low hand, because it frequently takes "the nuts" to win a showdown. It is also a game where between the cards in his hand and the community cards a player may have drawing possibilities to multiple different types of holdings. For example, a player may have both a draw to a flush and a full house using different combinations of cards. At times, even seasoned players may need additional time to figure what draws are possible for their hand.
The basic differences between Omaha and Texas hold 'em are these: first, each player is dealt four hole cards instead of two. The betting rounds and layout of community cards are identical. At showdown, each player's hand is the best five-card hand made from exactly three of the five cards on the board, plus exactly two of the player's own cards. Unlike Texas hold 'em, a player cannot play four or five of the cards on the board with fewer than two of his own, nor can a player use three or four hole cards to disguise a strong hand.
Some specific things to notice about Omaha hands are:
- As in Texas hold 'em, three or more suited cards on the board makes a flush possible, but unlike that game a player always needs two of that suit in hand to play a flush. For example, with a board of , a player with cannot play a flush using the ace as would be possible in Texas hold 'em; the player must play two cards from in-hand and only three from the board (so instead, this player's best hand is two pair: ). A player with can play the spade flush.
- Same thing applys to straight. In Omaha, a player cannot use only one hole card and four cards on the board to play a straight. For example, with a board of , a player with or cannot play a straight. But a player with can play a straight from 3 to 7;
- Two pair on the board does not make a full house for anyone with a single matching card as it does in Texas hold 'em. For example, with a board of , a player with a hand of cannot play a full house; the player can only use the A-J to play , since he must play three of the board cards. A player with can use his J-9 to play the full house (or ).
- Likewise, with three of a kind on the board, a player must have a pair in hand to make a full house. For example, with a board of , a player with does not have a full house, the player only has three jacks with an ace-king kicker, and will lose to a player with only a pair of deuces. This is probably the most frequently misread hand in Omaha. (Naturally, a person with the fourth jack in hand can make four jacks because any other card in hand can act as the fifth card, or "kicker".)
Omaha hi-low split-8 or better
In Omaha hi-low splitHigh-low split
In traditional poker games, the player with the best traditional hand wins the whole pot. Lowball variations award the pot to the lowest hand, by any of several methods...
-8 or better (simply Omaha/8), each player makes a separate five-card high hand and five-card ace-to-five low hand (eight-high or lower to qualify), and the pot is split between the high and low (which may be the same player). To qualify for low, a player must be able to play an 8-7-6-5-4 or lower (this is why it is called "eight or better"). A few casinos play with a 9-low qualifier instead, but this is rare. Each player can play any two of his four hole cards to make his high hand, and any two of his four hole cards to make his low hand. If there is no qualifying low hand, the high hand wins (scoops) the whole pot. This game is usually played in the fixed limit version, although pot limit Omaha/8 is becoming more popular. A few low-stakes online
Online poker
Online poker is the game of poker played over the Internet. It has been partly responsible for a dramatic increase in the number of poker players worldwide...
tournaments
Poker tournament
A poker tournament is a tournament where players compete by playing poker. It can feature as few as two players playing on a single table , and as many as tens of thousands of players playing on thousands of tables...
feature no limit Omaha/8.
The brief explanation above belies the complexity of the game, so a number of examples will be useful here to clarify it. The table below shows a five-card board of community cards at the end of play, and then lists for each player the initial private four-card hand dealt to him or her, and the best five-card high hand and low hand each player can play on showdown:
| Board: | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Player | Hand | High | Low |
| Alan | |||
| Bryan | |||
| Chris | |||
| Derek | |||
| Eve |
In the deal above, Chris wins the high-hand half of the pot with his J-high straight, and Bryan and Eve split the low half (getting a
quarter of the pot each) with 7-5-3-2-A.
Some specific things to notice about Omaha/8 hands are:
- In order for anyone to qualify low, there must be at least three cards of differing ranks 8 or below on the board. For example, a board of K-8-J-7-5 makes low possible (the best low hand would be A-2, followed by A-3, 2-3, etc.) A board of K-8-J-8-5, however, cannot make any qualifying low (the best low hand possible would be J-8-5-2-A, which does not qualify). Statistically, around 60% of the time a low hand is possible.
- Low hands often tie, and high straights occasionally tie as well, as do, even more rarely, full houses. In theory, it is possible to win as little as a 14th of a pot (though this is extraordinarily rare). Winning a quarter of the pot is quite common, and is called "getting quartered." One dangerous aspect of playing for the low pot is the concept of "counterfeitingCounterfeit (poker)In community card poker, a player or hand is said to be counterfeited when a community card does not change the value of his hand, but makes it more likely that an opponent will beat it. This occurs primarily in Omaha hold 'em hi-lo split and sometimes in Texas hold 'em...
". To illustrate, if a player has, for example, 2-3 and two other cards in his hand and the flop is A-6-7, that player has flopped the "nut low". However, if either a 2 or a 3 hit the board on the turn or the river, the hand is "counterfeited" and the nut low hand is lost (the player still has a much weaker low hand however, with 3-4, 3-5 and 4-5 making better lows). This is why there is significant extra value in possessing the "protected" nut low. To illustrate this, if the player has 2-3-4 in his hand his low is protected, i.e. if a 2 or 3 hits the board he still has the lowest possible hand. To lose the nut low in this case either a 2 and a 3, a 2 and a 4, or a 3 and a 4 would have to hit the board on the turn and the river (giving the nut low to a player holding 4-5, 3-5 and 2-5, respectively), an unlikely possibility. For similar reasons it is significantly better to possess the protected nut low draw over the low draw. For example, this could be having A-2-3 with a flop of 7-8-9; any low card below 7 on the turn or river gives the player the best low.
- When four or five low cards appear on the board, it can become very difficult to read the low hands properly. For example with a board of , the hand is playing a 6-5-4-2-A (either his 2-4 with the board's A-5-6, or his 4-5 with the board's A-2-6--either way makes the same hand). In this situation he is often said to be playing his "live" 4, that is, his 4, plus some other low card that matches the board but still makes a low because the one on the board isn't needed. A player with is playing a "live" 3, for a low of 6-5-3-2-A, which makes a better low. However, a player with can only play 7-5-3-2-A low; even though he has a "live" 3, he must play two low cards from his hand, and so he must play his 7-3, and cannot make a 6-high low hand.
- Starting hands with three or four cards of one rank are very bad. In fact, the worst possible hand in the game is . Since the only possible combination of two cards from this hand is 2-2, it is impossible to make low. As no deuce remains to appear on the board, it will be impossible to make three deuces or deuces full, and anyone with any matching card to the board will make a higher pair. Likewise, starting with four cards of one suit makes it less likely that you will be able to make a flush. Starting with four different suits yields no chance for a flush, and starting with four disconnected cards reduces straight possibilities. Computer analysis of the best starting hands has proven that the best starting hand for Omaha is A-A-K-K (double suited). For the Hi-Lo variation, the most valuable starting holding is A-A-2-3 (double suited).
- Hands to avoid tend to contain mainly middle ranked cards, which are of little use for any low splits and which tend to generate lower pairs and sets, weaker flushes and lower straights and can be very expensive. Four of a kind is the worst possible starting hand in omaha, in contrast to most other poker games, where it is exceptionally strong.
- Low hand ranks from best to worst: 5-4-3-2-A (the wheel), 6-4-3-2-A, 6-5-3-2-A, 6-5-4-2-A, ... , 8-7-6-5-4. Low hands can thus be read as numbers between 54,321 and 87,654 (with the exception of any number that has a pair, i.e. 54,322). The lowest number that any player can make is the best possible low hand in play.
Pot-limit Omaha
Pot-limit Omaha (shortened to PLO) is popular in Europe, online, and in high-stakes "mixed games" played in some American casinos. It is more often played high only, but can also be played high-low. Even more so than Limit Omaha Hi-Lo, PLO is a game of drawing, if you are drawing, to the nut hand. Second best flushes and straights can be, and frequently are, beaten. Furthermore, because of the exponential growth of the pot size in pot-limit play, seeing one of these hands to the end can be very expensive and carry immense reverse implied odds.Redraws
A great hand to have in PLO is the nuts with a redraw. For example, if the board is , and you have , then not only do you have the current nuts (your ace-king makes the broadway straight), but you also have a redraw with the two queens in your hand because if the board pairs, you will make queens full, or four queens. If your hand is , your hand is even better because you have flush and royal flush redraws as well. In fact, with the board, is approximately a 80-20 money favorite over a random hand containing ace-king (see freerolling). Even a pair of queens with any two spades is better than 55-45 against a random ace-king hand. Flopped nut straights, flushes and even sets can thus often be a double-edged sword in pot-limit Omaha.Variations
Sometimes the high-low split game is played with a 9 or a 7-high qualifier instead of 8-high. It can also be played with five cards dealt to each player instead of four. In that case, the same rules for making a hand apply: exactly two from the player's hand, and exactly three from the board.In the game of "Courchevel", instead of betting on the initial four cards and then flopping three community cards for the second round, the first community card is dealt before the first betting round, so that each player has four private cards and the single community card on his first bet. Then two more community cards are dealt, and play proceeds exactly as in Omaha.
Pot Limit Omaha high can also be played with more than four hole cards, the most common variety being six card Omaha which can be found in many casinos across the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
.
History
Omaha Hold'em gets its name from two types of games.In the original Omaha poker game, players were only dealt two hole cards and had to use both to make a hand combined with community cards. This version of Omaha is defined in the glossary of Super/System
Super/System
Super/System is one of the first books about poker strategy. It was written and published in 1979 by Doyle Brunson, a professional poker player and multiple winner at the World Series of Poker.-History and title:...
(under Omaha) as being interchangeable with "Tight Holdem". Across all the variations of the game, the requirement of using exactly two hole cards is the only consistent rule. The "Omaha" part of the name represents this aspect of the game.
"Hold'em" refers to a game using community cards that are shared by all players. This is opposed to Draw games where each player's hand is composed only by hole cards and Stud games where each player hand contains both non-community cards that are visible to the other players and concealed hole cards.
External links
- Strategy from 1999 World Series of Poker Omaha champion Steve BadgerSteve BadgerSteve Badger is a former professional poker player and World Series of Poker bracelet winner. He also owned Playwinningpoker.com before he sold it to PokerStars in 2010.-Career:...
- Strategy from 2004 World Series of Poker Omaha champion Annie DukeAnnie DukeAnnie Duke is a professional poker player and author who won a bracelet in the 2004 World Series of Poker $2,000 Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better Event and was the winner of the 2004 World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions, where she earned the Winner-Take-All prize of $2,000,000...
- Omaha Recommended Starting Hands Strategy Lou Krieger
- How to Play Omaha Poker