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Poker Rules: How To Play Omaha Poker

Omaha Poker is a popular community card game that resembles Texas Hold 'em Poker in many ways. However, we recommend that our players learn how to play Texas Hold 'em Poker before starting with Omaha because it makes learning the basics of Omaha poker much easier.

In Omaha Poker, five community cards (cards everyone is allowed to use to make their hand) are dealt after each player receives four individual face-down pocket cards. To make their hand in Omaha, players must use exactly two of their pocket cards and three of the community cards. It's important to note that no other combination of cards will be considered for the hand evaluation.

UltimateBet offers both Omaha High and Omaha Hi-Lo poker to its players. The differences between the two games involve the way the pot is distributed. In Omaha High, the player with the best hand takes the entire pot, while the pot Omaha Hi-Lo is split between the players who have the best and worst hands.

Betting and the order of play in Omaha Poker is the same as Texas Hold 'em and works in the following order:

  1. Big and Small Blinds are posted in order to get the pot started.
  2. Four pocket cards are dealt to each player
  3. Pre-flop betting occurs
  4. The flop is dealt (3 community cards)
  5. A second round of betting occurs
  6. The turn card is dealt (the 4th community card)
  7. A third round of betting takes place
  8. The river card is dealt (the 5th community card)
  9. A final round of betting occurs
  10. Showdown takes place (hands must use 2 pocket cards and 3 community cards)
  11. The ot is awarded to the player who assembles the best (and worst, in Omaha Hi-Lo) five-card hand.

Omaha Poker: Detailed Betting Rules

According to Omaha Poker Rules, there are four betting rounds in a complete game - exactly the same as in Texas Holdem.

Each bet on the first two rounds of betting is set at the lower limit of the stakes structure. For example in a $5/$10 game, all bets and raises are $5 for the first two rounds (after private cards are dealt and once the flop is spread in center of table).

The last two rounds of betting (turn card and river) are set at the higher limit of the stakes structure. For example in a $5/$10 game, all bets and raises are $10 for the last two rounds.

One bet plus three raises (four total bets) are the maximum amount of bets allowed per betting round. This would consist of (1) a bet, (2) a raise, (3) a re-raise, and (4) a cap. The term cap is used to describe the 3rd raise in a round since betting is then capped and cannot be raised anymore. Once any player has made the third raise (capped the pot), then players will have only the option of calling or folding.

Example Hand Evaluation for Omaha

To make their best hand in Omaha, players use any two of his or her pocket cards and any three community cards.. These examples below show you the best way to build hands with different sets of community and pocket cards.

Pocket Cards Community Cards Best Hand Evaluation
As|Ah|Ac|2d Ad|Kd|10d|2d|8d As|Ah|Ad|Kd|10d
3 of a kind
2s|4s|6c|10d 9s|10s|Jd|Qd|Kc Kc|Qd|10s|10c|6c
Pair of 10s
Ad|10s|Jc|Kd 2c|8d|9c|Qc|As 8d|9c|10s|Jc|Qc
Q high straight
Ac|Ad|Ks|2h Ah|Kd|4c|8c|6d Ac|Ad|Ah|Kd|8c
3 of a kind