Community Card Poker Games

Various Community Card Poker Games

Omaha Poker

Omaha poker is a variant of Texas hold'em poker.  It is a popular and complex poker game.  Briefly, each player is dealt four cards to his private hand instead of two.  The betting rounds and layout of community cards are identical.  At showdown, each player's poker hand is the best five-card hand he can make from exactly three of the five cards on the board, plus exactly two of his own cards.  Unlike Texas hold'em, a player cannot play only one of his cards with four of the board, nor can he play the board, nor play three from his hand and two from the board, or any other combination.  Each player must play exactly two of his own cards with exactly three of the community cards.

Omaha poker was originally created as a high-hand only game, but the high-low split variant called Omaha 8 or better has become so popular that the unadorned term Omaha usually now refers to that, while the original poker game is more commonly known by the phrase Omaha High.  It plays best with 5 to 10 players.

In Omaha 8 or better, or just Omaha 8, each player makes a separate five-card high poker hand and five-card ace-to-five low hand, and the pot is split between the high and low (which may be the same player) hands.  To qualify for low, a player must be able to play an 8-7-6-5-4 hand or lower.  A few casinos play with a 9-low qualifier instead, but this is rare.  This poker game is generally played at a fixed limit. 

When high poker hands only are used, the game is generally called Omaha high to avoid ambiguity.  This game plays particularly well at pot limit.

Another variant is to deal each player five cards instead of four.  The same rules apply for showdown: each player must use two of his cards with three of the community cards.

Before undertaking to learn Omaha poker, be sure that you are familiar with Texas hold'em as well as with general poker game play and poker hands, and particularly ace-to-five low poker hands.  In casino play, Omaha is generally played with the same betting structure as Texas hold'em.  Omaha high is particularly well-suited to pot limit play.

The basic differences between Omaha and Texas hold'em are these: first, each player is dealt four cards to his private hand instead of two.  The betting rounds and layout of community cards are identical.  At showdown, each player's poker hand is the best five-card hand he can make from exactly three of the five cards on the board, plus exactly two of his own cards.  Unlike Texas hold'em, a player cannot play only one of his cards with four of the board, nor can he play the board, nor play three from his hand and two from the board, or any other combination.  Each player must play exactly two of his own cards with exactly three of the community cards. 

In high-low split, each player, using these rules, makes a separate five-card poker high hand and five-card ace-to-five low hand (eight-high or lower to qualify), and the pot is split between the high and low hands (which may be the same player).  To qualify for low, a player must be able to play an 8-7-6-5-4 or lower hand (this is why it is called 8 or better, or simply Omaha 8).  A few casinos play with a 9-low qualifier instead, but this is rare.  Each player can play any two of his four hole cards to make his high poker hand, and any two of his four hole cards to make his low hand.

This brief explanation belies the complexity of this poker game, so a number of examples will be useful here to clarify.  The table below shows a five-card board of community cards at the end of play, and then lists for each player the initial private four-card poker hand dealt to him or her, and the best five-card high hand and low hand each player can play on showdown:

In the deal above, Chuck wins the high-hand half of the pot with his J-high straight, and Brenda and Emily split the low half (getting a quarter of the pot each) with 7-5-3-2-A.  Some specific things to notice about Omaha poker hands are:

In order for anyone to qualify low, there must be at least three cards of differing ranks 8 or below on the board.  For example, a board of K-8-J-7-5 makes low possible (the best low poker hand would be A-2, followed by A-3, 2-3, etc.).  A board of K-8-J-8-5, however, cannot make any qualifying low poker hand (the best low hand possible would be J-8-5-2-A, which doesn't qualify).

As in Texas hold'em, three or more suited cards on the board makes a flush possible, but unlike that poker game, a player still needs two of that suit in his hand to play a flush.  For example, with a board of K♠ 9♠ Q♠ Q♥ 5♠, a player with A♠ 2♥ 4♥ 5♣ cannot play a flush using his ace; he must play two cards from his hand and only three from the board.  A player with 2♠ 3♠ K♦ Q♥ can play the spade flush.

Likewise, two pair or trips on the board does not make a full house for anyone with a single matching card as it does in Texas hold'em.  For example, with a board of J♠ J♦ 9♦ 5♥ 9♣, a hand of A♠ 2♠ J♥ K♦ cannot play a full house; he can only use his A-J to play J♠ J♥ J♦ A♠ 9♣, since he must play only three of the board cards.  A player with 2♣ 5♣ 9♠ 10♠ can use his 9-5 to play the full house 9♠ 9♣ 9♦ 5♥ 5♣.  With trips on the board, the player with the fourth card of that rank can play quads because any other card in his hand can act as a kicker.

Low poker hands often tie, and high straights occasionally tie as well.  It is possible to win as little as a 14th of a pot (though this is extraordinarily rare).  Winning a quarter of the pot is quite common, and is called getting quartered, a term referring to the ancient torture of being "drawn and quartered."

When four or five low cards appear on the board, it can become very difficult to read the low poker hands properly.  For example with a board of 2♦ 6♥ A♣ 5♣ 8♠, the hand 2♥ 4♠ 5♠ K♦ is playing a 6-5-4-2-A (either his 2-4 with the board's A-5-6, or his 4-5 with the board's A-2-6 - either way makes the same hand).  In this situation, he is often said to be playing his "live" 4, that is, his 4, plus some other low card that matches the board but still makes a low hand because the one on the board isn't needed.  A player with 3♠ 5♠ 10♥ J♦ is playing a "live" 3, for a low poker hand of 6-5-3-2-A, which makes a better low.  However, a player with 3♣ 7♦ Q♦ Q♠ can only play 7-5-3-2-A low; even though he has a "live" 3, he must play two low cards from his hand, and so he must play his 7-3, and cannot make a 6-high low hand.

Starting poker hands with three or four cards of one rank are very bad.  In fact, the worst possible hand in the game is 2♠ 2♣ 2♥ 2♦.  Since the only possible combination of two cards from this hand is 2-2, it is impossible to make low; since no deuce remains to appear on the board, it will be impossible to make three deuces or deuces full, and anyone with any matching card to the board will make a higher pair.  Likewise, starting with four cards of one suit makes it less likely that you will be able to make a flush.

Variations

Sometimes the high-low split poker game is played with a 9-high qualifier instead of 8-high.  It can also be played with five cards dealt to each player instead of four.  In that case, the same rules for making a poker hand apply: exactly two from the player's hand, and exactly three from the board.

...go here for a complete Index of the Poker Rules including Texas Hold em and Omaha Poker

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