Omaha is a game quite similar to Texas Hold’em in that it is played with five community cards, available to all players at the table. The fundamental differences between the two forms of poker lie in the number of hole cards each player is dealt and the quantity of community cards that players may use to construct their best hands.

In Omaha, as well as in its Hi Lo variation, players are each dealt four hole cards as opposed to the two hole cards dealt in Texas Hold em. And, while both games do see five community cards on the table (three on the flop, one on the turn, and a final card on the river), in Omaha, players must use only three of the community cards in combination with only two of their hole cards with which to form their best five card poker hand. This may sound like a simple difference on the surface, but the dynamics of each player seeing four hole cards plus the fact that they may only use three community cards makes this an entirely different game in terms of betting strategies. It gets even more complex in the Omaha Hi-Lo version.

In Omaha Hi-Lo (aka high-low split, Omaha 8, or Omaha 8’s or better), each player makes two separate five-card poker hands - his best high hand and his best low hand. The pot is split between the player with the best traditional high hand and the player with the best low, Ace-to-Five being the best low hand. The final kicker here is that, in order to qualify for low, a player must be able to play an 8-7-6-5-4 or lower, thus the Omaha 8 moniker. Given that players must use 2 of their 4 hole cards in combination with any 3 community cards, it’s possible for a single player to win both the high and the low hands, using different combinations of hole and community cards.

As simple as all of this may sound on the surface, Omaha and Hi-Lo are quite complex and require different strategies and “thinking” than other poker games. It’s an exciting form of poker, though and one well worth trying out.

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