Omaha Hold'em Poker - A Primer


by Thomas Kearns - Date: 2010-08-03 - Word Count: 594 Share This!

Holdem poker and Omaha Hold'em have some things in common but Omaha Hold'em has a few very distinctive features which set it way apart. Omaha is burgeoning in popularity because of its uniqueness particularly in the deal. The deal consists of each player receiving four cards face down dealt within the play of the game. Omaha Hold'em is convoluted enough that only the most experience players should play in the very serious levels of the game. The object of the Omaha Hold'em is not esoteric in that the best five-card at showdown wins the pot, but there is a large departure in the combination of cards making up the best hand, which consists of a mixture of four cards from the player's hand and any of the five community cards. Limit Omaha and Pot Limit Omaha are the two betting structures normally played at the tables, with the latter being the most often found. There are tables featuring Omaha 8 as well.

The game got its start in America as the result of a brainstorming session of some veteran poker professionals who wished to come up with a mind bending poker variant. In a twist, pot limit Omaha has become wildly popular in Europe and is the most played variant of Omaha poker even having the edge over Hold'em in its popularity.

So, The Game is Played How?

A standard deck of 52 cards is used, no big news here, keeping the same dealer and double blind format common to most modern types of poker. Omaha Hold'em is distinct as the four cards received by each player are dealt face down. Any two of the hole cards in the player's hand plus any three of the community cards can be combined for the best hand. Omaha poker has other distinctive features that clearly separate it from Texas Hold'em.

The Mandatory Three Community Card Play

A full house is commonly generated in Hold'em poker by the possession of one card that matches up with a two-pair board. In contrast, Omaha Hold'em players must come up with a minimum of three board cards. This means that a player can create a full house with both of his hole cards put with three pertinent community cards. To further set Omaha Hold'em apart from the pack, a full house can also be constructed with a pair or four of a kind should there exist three of a kind on the board simply by adding a suitable fourth card. Also consider that the two suited cards must be on hand to make up a flush.

Once a hole card is dealt, a betting round follows where the players can call, raise or fold. Pot Limit Omaha allows the player to raise up to the topmost limit. The betting goes on to the flop wherein the dealer shows three cards and three betting rounds go on until the final round.

At the end of play are five community cards and four hole cards in each player's hand. The nuts is formed from the best five card hand as a combination of three community cards and two hole cards. Players will bet up to the limit allowed in pot limit poker with the upper limit being set by the house. You will encounter many venues where the house rules are such that only three re-raises can be made per round of betting. If there are a minimum of two players at showdown, the limits will often be scrapped. As mentioned before, as in most of the poker variants, the best five-card hand at showdown rakes it all in.


For more information on how to play Omaha Holdem poker or for other poker rules, please visit Rakeback Solution.n
n Your Article Search Directory : Find in Articles

© The article above is copyrighted by it's author. You're allowed to distribute this work according to the Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs license.
 

Recent articles in this category:



Most viewed articles in this category: