Omaha: The next big thing?

By Mark Lasser

Stud Poker is a classic, like Sinatra. Hold’em is mainstream, like U2. Omaha is still somewhat of a rogue’s game. I don’t know if it’s punk rock or alternative country, but it’s an action game that seems to be gaining more attention every year.

For those of you not familiar with it, Omaha is a flop game like Texas Hold’em except you get dealt four cards instead of two. Unlike Hold’em, you must play two of your hold cards, not one, three or four, so if you have four Aces, you really have, at best, two Aces. If you have four suited cards, you aren’t one away from a flush, you’re still three away. Even worse, if two flush cards flop, you have worse odds than normal to make the flush since there are only seven cards left to help you instead of nine.

There are several versions of Omaha, including Omaha High and Omaha Hi-Lo, also known as Omaha 8 or better. The game can also be dealt with standard limits, as a pot limit game or as no-limit. No limit Omaha is extremely rare. Omaha High is just like it sounds, the best one hand takes the pot unless there’s a tie that splits the pot. Probably the most popular form of Omaha High is Pot Limit, where you can raise only the amount in the pot, limiting the action pre-flop and on the flop but turning the turn and river into potentials for all-ins.

In the Hi-Lo version of the game, the pot can be split between the best high hand and a qualified low hand. So what’s a qualified low? In most games it’s what we call 8 or better, which means you need to have five cards that are all equal or less than eights and no numerical duplicates. In reading the low hands, it is simply the lowest five cards and suits and straights are ignored. For example, the worst low hand would be 8-7-6-5-4 and the best would be A-2-3-4-5 followed by A-2-3-4-6, etc. Hi-Lo is most often a limit game but can also be pot limit or no limit.

As you can imagine, these games are challenging for dealers. Not only do they have to track split pots for Hi-Lo but they also have to keep track of the pot size and with four hole cards and the board – reading hands can be more complex than in Hold’em or Stud.

So why is Omaha a great game? Simply put, there tends to be a ton of action. With four hole cards, almost any player can envision something to draw to if the flop comes right. Unlike in Hold’em, hands tend to have less value with four of a kinds, nut flushes and full houses being much more common. For example, a player flopping trips with AD KD 3H 3S and a flop of 3H 7C JS has a fairly weak hand in Omaha, but if the turn and the river come hearts and don’t pair the board, the player has a well-disguised backdoor flush that could easily be paid off by players who flop trip Jacks or river straights.

The pot limit nature of the game also draws action. Since the cost to see flops is controlled and low relative to the ultimate pot size, you get more players who want to see than flop than you might in Hold’em. In the Hi-Lo game, players have strategies to win highs and lows, so you also get players who may chase lows. In Hold’em, if you miss the flop, you can easily fold. In Omaha, it’s likely the flop hits everybody a little, so it then becomes a matter of who it helps the most. It’s a great game. Keep an eye out for it at Golden Gates and Ameristar.

Mark B. Lasser is Denver writer and international poker player. He regularly plays in Colorado, Arizona, California, Missouri and Nevada. You can hear him talk about gambling and casinos every Friday at 5 PM on KEZW AM 1430. Readers can send questions and comments to him at ColoradoPokerMark@comcast.net.