Omaha Poker
Omaha Hold'em is a community card game with four betting rounds. It is similar to Texas Hold'em but in Omaha each player gets four hole-cards. Omaha is popular both in Europe and the US. The key skills in Omaha are mathematics as well as understanding of different hands value.
Rules of Omaha
Your goal is to make the best possible five-card hand (poker hand) out of two of the four cards in your hand combined with three of the five community cards on the table.
The difference between Omaha and Texas Hold'em is that in Omaha you have to use two cards from your own and three from the table, and not as in Texas Hold'em where you count the best five-card combination of all seven cards.
Hence having four of a kind in the pocket cards is really only counting as a pair. Omaha is mostly played in pot limit, which means that a bet or raise can be up to the size of the pot.
How Omaha is played
The blinds
A hand begins with the players posting the blinds, which are the mandatory bets. The blinds are posted by the two players to the immediate left of the dealer. The dealer is represented by a white plate called the dealer button. To be in this position is called to be sitting on the button.
The first player posts the small blind and the second player posts the big blind. The size of the small blind is half the big blind. When the blinds are out the dealer starts dealing clockwise one card at time until each player has four cards.
Pre-flop
Since the blinds already have opened the betting round it's the player to the left of the big blind, also known as "under the gun", who is first to act. From here betting proceeds as usual and the players may call, fold or raise until all players have made their move. The dealer places three open cards on the table, which is called the flop.
The Flop
This is the second betting round and it continues as usual, the players may check, bet, call or raise, and it's the player to the left of the dealer who begins. When all players have made their move the fourth community card is dealt. This is called the turn card.
The Turn
Betting continues as usual with the player to the left of the dealer as first to act. When all players have made their move a fifth and last card is dealt. This is called the river card.
The River
This is the last betting round and the player that made the last bet or raise shows his or hers cards if he or she gets called. The highest five-card poker hand wins the pot.Poker