Omaha
How to Play
Omaha poker is similar to Texas Hold’em in that each player makes the best poker hand drawing from the cards in their hand and the community cards dealt face up on the table. Unlike Hold’em, each player in Omaha Poker is dealt four hole cards, and the final hand must consist of two cards from the player’s hand and three cards from the table.
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Joining a Table
To begin playing Omaha poker in our online poker room, log-in, and then join a Omaha poker table by clicking any available seat. This will allow you to buy-in to the game. You will be prompted to specify how much you want to buy-in for the game.
The "buy-in" is the amount of money you want to bring to the poker table, and the minimum buy-in in a limit game is typically ten times the minimum bet for the table. Different poker tables may have different minimum and maximum buy-in amounts. You can choose to buy-in with any amount you like within the minimum and maximum. When you submit your buy-in, the buy-in amount is transferred from your casino account to the table. When you leave the poker table, your remaining chips are automatically transferred back to the casino account.
If you need more poker chips, you can buy-in for more money at any time by clicking the Get Chips button on the bottom right-hand corner of the poker table window. Your total poker chips on the table cannot exceed the maximum buy in amount.
Playing Omaha
After you’ve taken a seat at a poker table and bought in, as long as there is at least one other player sitting in at the table, the game will begin (unless you are playing in a scheduled tournament, in which case you will wait until the designated start time). The player to the dealer’s left must post the small blind, and the player two seats to the left of the dealer must post the big blind (the white disk, or button, on the table indicates the dealer position).
Hole Cards
After the blinds are posted, four cards are dealt face down to each player in clockwise manner, starting with the player to the left of the dealer button. Omaha poker is played with a single deck of cards, shuffled every game. You can only view your cards.
The player to the left of the player who posted the big blind starts the betting. The player may call the big blind, raise any amount within the raise limit guidelines for the game, or fold and surrender his hand. The betting proceeds clockwise around the table with each player having the option to either check, call, raise, or fold. In Limit games, bets and raises are restricted to one bet and three subsequent raises per round (on the initial deal, the big blind is counted as the first bet). If no player raises the big blind by the time the betting returns to the player who posted it, the player that posted the big blind can either check his own blind, raise, or even fold if he wants.
If no player calls the big blind amount, the player who posted the big blind wins the pot in Omaha poker.
Flop
After the hole card betting round completes, the first three community cards, or the flop, are dealt face up on the poker table. All players can see these cards. Betting begins again with the first active player to the left of the dealer. He has the option to either check, bet, or fold. Play continues clockwise around the table with each player having the option to either check, call, raise, or fold.
When all players have either folded, called the last raiser, or put all of their chips in the pot, the betting round is complete and the cards are dealt for the next round in Omaha poker.
Turn
After the flop betting round completes, one more card is dealt face up on the poker table, called the turn card. All players can see this card. Betting begins again with the first active player to the left of the dealer. The betting process is the same as after the flop, except in Limit poker all bets must be made at the higher bet limit.
When all players have either folded, called the last raiser, or put all of their chips in the pot, the betting round is complete and the cards are dealt for the next round in Omaha poker.
River
After the turn betting round, one last card is dealt face up on the table, called the river card. No more cards are dealt. All players can see this card. Betting begins again with the first active player to the left of the dealer. The betting process is the same as after the flop, except in Limit poker all bets must be made at the higher bet limit.
When all players have either folded, called the last raiser, or put all of their poker chips in the pot, the betting round is complete and the cards are dealt for the next round.
After betting concludes the showdown occurs.
Showdown
After the final betting round ends, the showdown occurs to determine the winner in Omaha poker. Each player must make a hand consisting of two hole cards and three community cards. Any player earning a portion of their pot must display all of their hole cards.
The last winning player who raised displays his cards first - if no players have raised, then the first active player to the left of the dealer displays his cards first. All losing players have the option of choosing whether or not to display their hole cards.
The winning player receives the entire pot except in the case when he goes all-in. In that case, the player only wins the amount that he contributed to the pot, less a small fee charged by the poker room, called a rake. Rake is charged as a small percentage of each pot and is based on the pot size and the number of players at the table. The amount of rake taken from each pot is displayed in the middle of the board, along with the pot size. For more information on rake, see the Rake Page.
