Omaha Poker Rules

Omaha is similar to Texas Hold'em in using a three-card flop on the board, a fourth common card, and then a fifth common card on the board. Each player is dealt four pocket cards (instead of two) at the start. In order to make a hand a player must use two and only two of their pocket cards with three common cards. Unlike Texas Hold'em, you can not use one card from your hand and four common cards, nor can you play the board. Everything else such as betting, posting blinds etc. is the same as in Texas Hold'em.

Since four pocket cards are dealt to all players instead of two, winning hands tend to be much be better in Omaha then in Texas Hold'em. Click here for a ranking hands in poker.

Omaha Hi/Lo is a variation of Omaha where the pot is split between the holder of the highest hand and the holder of the lowest hand, if there is a qualifying lowest hand.

To qualify for a low hand, you must have five distinct cards (no pairs), with no card higher than an 8. Remember, since you have to play two cards in your hand, the two cards in your hand and three on the board all need to be 8 or lower. Straights and flushes are ignored. The best 5-card low hand is A-2-3-4-5 of any suit. The hand is "ranked" by starting with the highest low card. 7-4-3-2-1 would be considered a 7-low, and would lose to 6-4-3-2-1, a 6-low. If two players each have low hands with the same highest card, the next highest card determines the winner. 7-5-4-3-2 loses to 7-4-3-2-1. If there is no qualifying low hand, the high hand wins the entire pot.

Just like in the regular version of Omaha (Omaha high), each player starts with four pocket or hole cards, and then the dealer places five cards face-up on the table. These are community cards and are a part of each player's hand, so each player has access to nine cards. The difference between Omaha high and Omaha Hi/Lo, is that in Omaha Hi/Lo each player can potentially have two different hands: a high hand and a low hand.

A player does not need to play the same two cards for both his high hand and his low hand. In fact they usually would not.

Because of the 8 or lower qualifier restriction, if at least three cards of rank 8 or lower do not appear among the community cards, a low hand is not possible and the entire pot would go to the high hand.