The newfound lust for Omaha can be attributed to a couple of things: For one, there’s a natural similarity in the rules to Texas Hold’em, making the switch over an easy one for most players. Second, and likely the biggest draw, is the game’s all-out action. Unlike Holdem, Omaha players are much more inclined to make and call more bets and to play more hands to completion. This increased action can make the game incredibly exciting and infinitely more interesting to both beginners and professionals alike. If you’ve just read the Texas Hold’em Rules and Game Play guide, or you already understand how to run and play a game of Texas Hold’em, most of the information in this article will be old news to you. There are only two differences between Hold’em and Omaha: Every player is dealt four cards in Omaha (instead of two in Hold’em) There are more rules for evaluating the winning hand at showdown. If you’re coming into this article fresh, and would like to learn how to run and play a game of Omaha Poker, just keep reading. You’ll find that the game is simple to learn, and a lot of fun to play. This article will cover all the aspects of Omaha in broad strokes. If you need more detail on anything in this guide such as: How to decide the denominations of chips you should use. How to pick the stakes of your game (set betting limits). More details on how betting, raising and calling works. Glossary of poker terms used in this guide. You can find all of that information in the Texas Hold’em Rules and Game Play article (There will be another link to that article at the bottom of this page). The Basics Omaha is a community-card game played with two to ten players on one table. The goal of the game is to win as many chips as you can off your opponents. You win chips by winning a pot, and you win a pot in one of two ways: All the other players fold their hands, making you the only player left in the pot. You have the best hand at the showdown. A game of Omaha only ends when the players decide they are finished playing, or one player wins all of the chips from the other players – those players being unwilling to re-buy and continue playing. A game of Omaha can be broken up into a few simple sections: Setup Betting Rounds Showdown Setup When you have two to ten players sitting around a table, each with a stack of chips, you’re ready to get started. The first thing you need to do is draw the high card for a dealer. Deal every player one card face up. The player with the highest ranked card (Aces are high) will start as the game’s dealer. If two players both have the same high card, either deal both players a second card, or use the suits of their card to determine the winner. (Poker suit ordering is alphabetic from worst to best: Clubs, Diamonds, Hearts, Spades) When you have a dealer, give that player the dealer button (typically a white disk, used to keep track of the current dealer in the hand). This player needs to shuffle up the cards and prepare to deal the first hand. Before the cards are dealt in any hand, the two players to the left of the dealer need to put out the blinds. The player directly to the left of the dealer puts out the small blind and the player to the left of the small blind puts out the big blind. The big blind is equal to the size of the small betting limit. The small blind is half of the size of the small blind (Rounded for convenience. For example if the big blind is 25
