How do you play Omaha?

Introduction

Omaha is a community card game with the same structure as Hold'em - four betting rounds, one preflop, one on the three-card flop, one on the turn, and a final one on the river. See:  How do you play Texas Hold'em? Just as in Hold'em, action starts with two blinds posted by the players closest clockwise from the dealer button. Betting then continues clockwise with each player acting in turn, starting with the player closest clockwise to the big blind preflop, and with the player closest clockwise to the dealer button on all subsequent betting rounds.

The major difference between the two games is that instead of two hole cards, each player receives four per deal. They must then use exactly two cards from their hand, with exactly three from the five community cards to make their best five-card poker hand.  Click here to view hand rankings.

Player 1's best hand is a straight: Kh Qh (Jc Ts) 9s. The Ah on its own does not make a flush, as two cards exactly have to be used from a player's hole cards.

Player 2's best hand is a flush: Kh Qh (6h 2h) 5h, using the highest available card combination which still uses two from his hand and three from the community cards.

Fixed Limit and Pot Limit Omaha

Unlike Hold'em, the most popular versions of Omaha are played with either fixed-limit betting, or pot limit. The former has fixed betting increments - for example in a $5/$10 limit game, bets must be made in $5 increments on the first two betting rounds, and $10 increments on the second two. In limit Omaha, there is a four-bet maximum (one bet and three raises) per round. Once the third raise has been made, the betting is said to be 'capped' and players may not raise again on that round.

In the pot limit version, a player may bet any amount up to the size of the pot (including any call he has to make). So if on the flop a player faces a bet of $7, with $10 already in the pot, his maximum bet will be $31 ($7 to match the bet, plus $10 + $7 + $7 ($24) which is the full size of the pot after matching it). Playing online, however, just moving the slider up to the top, or clicking the bar saying 'pot' which appears when it's your turn to act will tell you how much a pot bet is.