Omaha High is the poker variant that grew out of Texas Hold'em and then handed everyone two extra hole cards, which means your old Hold'em favourites suddenly look a little underdressed.
Each player receives four hole cards that belong to them alone, while five community cards are dealt face-up on the board for everyone to share. The aim is the familiar one: build the best five-card poker hand.
The twist that defines the game is the construction rule. You must use exactly two of your hole cards together with exactly three community cards. Not one, not three, not a creative blend of all four. Two and three, every time.
Bets, Payouts & Rules
A hand of Omaha High follows the same street-by-street shape as Hold'em, with betting rounds separating each reveal of the board.
- Blinds: the small blind and big blind are posted before the cards are dealt. In Pot Limit and No Limit games, a table is identified by the size of its blinds.
- Pre-Flop: everyone looks at their four hole cards. Action starts with the player under the gun, immediately clockwise from the big blind, who may fold, call or raise. Play then moves clockwise.
- The Flop: the first three community cards are dealt face-up, and another round of betting follows, beginning with the active player immediately clockwise from the button.
- The Turn: a fourth community card joins the board, followed by a further round of betting.
- The River: the fifth and final community card is dealt, and the last betting round begins.
- The Showdown: if more than one player remains, cards are revealed and the best five-card hand takes the pot. Where hands are identical, the pot is divided equally.
Each betting round continues until all players still in the hand have matched one another. Once the pot is awarded, the button moves clockwise and a fresh hand begins.
Pot Limit, No Limit and Fixed Limit
The rules of Omaha High stay the same across all three formats. Only the betting structure changes.
- Pot Limit Omaha Poker: the pot itself sets the upper boundary for a bet, and there is no cap on how many raises a round can contain. This is the most widely played form of the game.
- No Limit Omaha Poker: the ceiling is a player's own chip stack rather than the pot, again with no cap on the number of raises.
- Fixed Limit Omaha Poker: betting happens in pre-determined, structured increments, with larger increments on the later streets. Up to four bets are permitted per player in each round: a bet, a raise, a re-raise and a final cap.
Features & Bonus Rounds
Omaha Hi/Lo
Also known as Omaha 8-or-better, Omaha 8 or Omaha/8, this variant splits the pot between the highest and the lowest qualifying hands, so your carefully assembled monster has to share the spotlight with the runt of the table.
Starting Hand Strength
Because two hole cards must be used, hands with several routes to a strong holding are generally viewed as the more promising ones. A double-suited hand offers two possible ways to a flush, and pairing that with high pairs or connectors adds more ways to connect with the board.
The hands widely regarded as the strongest ten starting holdings in Omaha, all double-suited, are:
- A, A, K, K
- A, A, J, T
- A, A, Q, Q
- A, A, J, J
- A, A, T, T
- A, A, 9, 9
- A, A, X, X
- J, T, 9, 8
- K, K, Q, Q
- K, K, J, J
Worth noting: a strong hand in Omaha High is not automatically a strong hand in Omaha Hi/Lo, where half the pot goes to the low side.
Tournaments
Alongside cash tables, Omaha is also offered in tournament format.
Taste & Feel
Four hole cards fanned out in front of you changes the mood of a table. Draws appear where Hold'em would have offered none, and the board tends to look busier by the river.
The atmosphere is chatty and considered rather than frantic. Players take their time reading how three of those five community cards might sit alongside two of their own, and the two-and-only-two rule keeps everyone honest, since the board is completely immune to persuasion.