Omaha Hold 'em
CONTENTS
WHAT IS OMAHA HOLD 'EM?
HISTORY (ORIGIN)
HOW TO PLAY?
WHAT IS OMAHA HOLD 'EM?
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 origination 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". 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. Omaha Hold’Em is a popular poker variation that, while very similar to Texas Hold’Em, is an entirely unique game compared to its popular Texas counterpart. This guide will teach you the basics of Omaha, and give you the knowledge you need to start hitting the PLO tournaments and cash games in our lobby.
HISTORY (ORIGIN)
There is a lot of confusion and misconceptions about the history and origins of Omaha Holdem. Many people assume that this was an old 1800's Wild West game because of the name Omaha, which is the same name as the famous city in Nebraska, which is somewhat out west and out in the plains. You may be very surprised to learn the real origins of this game if you already don't know much about the history. Speaking of Texas Holdem, Omaha is almost exactly the same thing and some consider it a type of variation of the game. The only difference between them is that Texas Holdem only allows players to have 2 hole cards instead of 4, meaning less variance. Some early variations of Omaha required that players only be dealt 2 hole cards and they must use these two cards with the five community cards in order to make their strongest 5-card hand. This was somewhat similar to Texas Holdem but with a small difference. 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 hold 'em". 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 of hole cards, and stud games, where each player hand contains a mix of non-community cards that are visible to the other players and concealed hole cards.
HOW TO PLAY?
Omaha is a board game similar to hold’em in so far as there is a flop, a turn card, and a river card. Learning how to play Omaha is simple if you’re familiar with Texas hold’em. In this lesson we’ll frequently compare the differences between Omaha and Texas hold’em, so it’s assumed that you are familiar with the game. The fact that you must use two cards from your hand and three from the board in Omaha, means you can quickly see that being dealt four of a kind is really a very poor hand as you only have a pair and both your key outs are dead. In Omaha each player receives four starting cards versus just two in hold’em. Of these four cards two must be used with any three from the board to make your best five card poker hand. This is something that beginners often forget – and such rookie mistakes can prove expensive. 고스톱
