Poker Rules - Omaha

Objective: To hold the best possible five card poker hand using exactly two hole cards and three community cards. (See Hand rankings to determine best hand).

The dealer deals each player four cards face down ("hole cards") starting with the player to the left of the dealer-button. This is followed by the first betting round. Next the dealer deals 3 community cards face up in the middle of the table ("the flop"). Another round of betting follows this. Now the dealer deals one card face up and places it next to the "flop" cards, called the "turn". The third round of betting follows. Lastly the dealer deals the last card face up and places it next to the other cards in the middle of the table, called the "river" card. The final round of betting takes place followed by the "showdown". To win the showdown, the player must have the highest ranking hand using 2 of his hole cards and three community cards.

In Ring game the blinds must be paid by the two players immediately seated to the dealers left. The first player to the left of the dealer must post the "small blind" which is half of the small stake. In the example of a €5/€10 game, the small blind is €2.50. The player to his left must post the "big blind" which is the full amount of the lower limit of the stake, in this case it would be €5. However, the Heads-up blind structure is a little different. Usually the player who owns the dealer-button pays the big blind and his opponent pays the small blind.

In limit Omaha the first two rounds of betting are set at the lower limit of the stake structure. For example say you are playing in a €5/€10 limit game then all the bets are €5 for the first two betting rounds and all bets are €10 for the last two betting rounds. The player to the right of the "big blind" starts the betting round all subsequent betting rounds are started by the "small blind" player. The maximum number of bets per player per round is limited to 4 bets. For example say there was a bet (1) in first position after the button ("under the gun") and then the next player raises (2), then the next player raises (3) and then the next player raises (4) at this point the pot is capped and no more bets can be made. All subsequent players must either call or fold. After the "flop" is dealt the second stage of betting starts. At this point if you like to bet you would need to put the upper limit of the stake into the pot. For our example above you would then need to put €10 into the pot to make a bet.

1. Omaha Hi - In player with the highest poker hand wins the pot.
2. Omaha Hi-Lo - In this game the player with the highest hand AND the player with the lowest hand split the pot. To qualify for a low hand your highest card must be 8 or lower. Aces can be either high or low depending on the use of the player and straights and flushes don't count against the player for the low hand. Since every player must use 3 board cards to make up the hand, there must be 3 cards 8 or lower on the board for a low hand to be possible. Players can tie for a low hand and in this case the low half of the pot is divided equally between the two low hand winners.