maha Hi is a version of Texas Hold'Em where players are dealt four hole cards instead of two. 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. It's an aggressive, flashy, excited and unpredictable game that gets the dollars on the table and changing hands like no other form of Poker.

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. The rules of Hold'Em are similar to the Texas Hold'Em rules. However, the player is dealt four hole cards and makes their final hand from two of the four hole cards and three of the five community cards.

The Seats
he dealer is marked by a disk called the button. For each hand the button rotates to the left. Players are identified by their seat position. The dealer is seat one, the player to the dealer's left is seat two and so on, clockwise around the table to the player on the dealer's right.

Casino Omaha has a fixed dealer and the button rotates around the table simply to mark the rotation of theoretical dealer. Betting position significantly affects a player's opportunities so the button's position in not simply symbolic.

Beginner Omaha games typically starts with $1-$2 or $2-$4, but the highest can be as much as $500-$1000 or even more. Instead of a small ante in 7-Stud, Omaha uses two forced bets, the blinds, to get Bets on the table right from the beginning of the game.

The Open
he first player to the dealer's left - seat two - is the small blind and must kick in half the lower limit, $5 in a $10-$20 game. Seat three is the big blind and must kick in the full value of the lower limit or $10 in a $10-$20 game.

The deal rotates clockwise around the table beginning with the player to the big blind's left. Each player is dealt their first card in turn, then their second, and so on.

Since the blinds opened with their forced bets, seat four, the player to the big blind's right, bets first. They Call by matching the big blind ($10, the lower limit) and may also Raise by kicking in the big limit, $20 in the $10-$20 example game. In this round Checking is not permitted. The blinds in Omaha are live in that they can Call, Raise or Fold.

The Flop
nce the first betting round has completed, the dealer lays out the first three community cards in the center of the table. This is called the flop. This betting round begins with the blinds, or the first remaining seat on the dealer's left. Checking is permitted now and for the rest of the hand. Bets are placed at the lower limit ($10).

A fourth community card it dealt onto the table. Betting begins with the blinds, as before. Now, and for the rest of this game, Bets and Raises are at the high limit ($20). The turn becomes the first expensive street.

The fifth and final community card is dealt. This is also an expensive street: Bets and Raises are all at the high limit ($20).

The Showdown
s in 7 Card Stud, the best 5 card hand wins. Players may form their final hands from any combination of the table cards and their own pocket cards, even ignoring the pocket cards and using only the table cards.

In Omaha Hi any player has option to see another player's pocket cards once they've been mucked. Provided the requesting player has Called or Raised the last Bet made, they simply ask the dealer and the mucked cards will be retrieved and shown.

Where to Play Omaha Games
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see Omaha Hi Strategy