How To Play Omaha Poker

So you want to know how to play the game of Omaha poker? It's honestly not very hard and if you already know how to play Texas Holdem than you practically know all there needs to be known about how to play Omaha. The two versions of poker are incredibly similar.

A lot of people are overwhelmed when they are tasked with trying to understand the Omaha variant of poker. Mistakenly, they believe it to be a completely different game when in fact, it's incredibly similar to the Holdem version of the game. Although the differences are small there is one major difference that both gives Omaha poker it's appeal as well as shakes up certain games immensely.

Like in Holdem, the community is given five cards to pick and choose from in the middle of the table. Unlike in Holdem, everyone is given four face down pocket cards in order to make their hand with. The key difference in how to play Omaha poker and how to play Holdem poker is that you MUST use at least two of the four pocket cards that you possess. There is no using just one even if you have a fantastic hand with the five community cards and one pocket card.

The betting in Omaha poker is also very similar to the system used in the Holdem version. Big and small blinds are posted and the dealer chip rotates around the table after each round. Other than the pocket cards that players get there are really no other significant differences with the Holdem way to play. Other than the name differences and sub-variants of each game of course!

There are also some minor variations of how to play Omaha poker itself. One version is called Omaha Hi/Lo and in this version of the game the highest hand and the lowest hand split the pot. All in all Omaha is an incredibly fun variant of the traditional Holdem set up and it has been gaining popularity worldwide recently. This could perhaps be due to the fact that people are just sick of playing 10,000 Holdem games and want to try something different or maybe even the name Omaha appeals to some people (especially in Nebraska!).

Regardless of why you want to play, you now know the inner intricacies of the game so you now know how. So what are you waiting for? Go and get to playing some Omaha poker!