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When you take a look at a lot of the games that are available out there for the poker gamer looking to expand their repertoire beyond Texas Hold ‘Em, what you will find is that Omaha is the natural choice for most. The reason for this is that it is the second most popular poker variant internationally behind Hold ‘Em and in fact there are areas in Europe where Omaha is actually the bigger game. More people means more money to make and that is why most players looking for a break from Hold ‘Em naturally gravitate towards Omaha.
If you are interested in playing Omaha, the first thing that you should do is put your poker skills to good use and come up with a brainstorm for the biggest differences between Hold ‘Em and Omaha. This starts by recognizing the two biggest differences. The first is that every player gets two hole cards instead of three and the second is that each player has to use exactly two cards from their hand and three from the board in order to make their five card poker hand. As a knowledgeable board player (the board being the five community cards), what can you learn about the game right away from knowing these two rules?
For starters, you should know right away that Omaha is a game of big hands when compared with Hold ‘Em. In Hold ‘Em, you will often find people winning hands with pairs and high cards, but this rarely happens in Omaha. When you have nine total cards in each player’s potential pool of use, it is a lot harder to find an overall hand where no player is able to make more than a pair between those nine cards. Omaha is therefore a game where straights and flushes become the low end of what you will usually see.
Speaking of straights and flushes, have you noticed that you need to have three cards from the board in your hand? This means that if you don’t see three cards to a straight or a flush on a five card board, neither is possible. The same is true for non-paired boards as only two cards from the hand can be used.
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