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» About
Omaha Hi is a version of Texas Hold'Em where players are
dealt four hole cards instead of two. But there's a catch:
two and only two of the hole cards can be used in making the
final hand. Omaha Hi is also known as Omaha Hold'Em or simply
Omaha.
The four hole cards make Omaha a nine-card game and having
more cards to choose from means players will typically finish
with stronger hands. Poker players being the people that they
often are, the possibility of higher hands typically means
that players stay in longer and the pots will grow accordingly.
In practice, Hold'Em players will find that the focus in
Omaha Hi tends more towards playing the cards than playing
the other players.
» Basic rules
For the basics of Omaha, see our Texas
Hold'Em rules. The only variations are:
- the player is dealt four hole cards.
- the player makes their final hand from two of the four
hole cards and three of the five community cards.
» Strategy
Since the name of the game in Omaha is to assemble the killer
hand, it essentially becomes a drawing game. You take the
possibilities you're dealt with the hole cards, determine
what you can make out of it, watch the community cards as
they fall with a careful eye on what they're doing to your
chances and bail if it becomes clear that things are going
sour. You can burn off a lot of chips hanging around to see
if things improve.
The strategy guidelines for Omaha run into the dozens because
of the number of cards in play and the two-from-four rule.
To make a long story short, it's generally advised that you
stay in if your hole cards integrate well -that is,
they form the beginnings of several good hands - and muck
them if they don't.
Rookie Omaha players are often suckered in by a solid pack
of hole cards or a strong string of community cards. Remember,
Four to a Flush in the hole is useless because you only get
to keep two of them. Ditto with the community cards. There
is no point to betting on cards you can't keep so remember:
two hole cards, three community cards, no exceptions, period.
Watch out for busted hands in the initial deal: two
cards might start a Straight and the others a Flush, but there's
no crossover in that you can't recombine the cards to form
yet another hand, like a Straight Flush for instance. To avoid
chasing rainbows, muck pairs of orphans unless they're top-nut
beginnings.
Beware of "second nut" hands, those where
even if you got what you needed it still wouldn't be a boss
hand. Many an Omaha player has gone home with empty pockets
and the haunting feeling that they should've learned something
from the experience. Second nut is second place -if you're
lucky-and you should play accordingly.
Finally, don't stay in hoping things will get better.
If the flop goes against you, muck out because if those three
cards haven't helped you the chances are that nothing else
will. The smart money says keep your chips for the next hand.
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