Omaha Poker – Tips for Real Money Players
Omaha Poker is a direct descendent of Texas Holdem Poker, played in the exact same manner with only two distinct adaptations to the rules, involving the number of cards a player has to work with, and the precise manner in which a hand must be developed. We’ll get to those in a moment; first let’s go over the basic rules of Omaha Poker.
Omaha Poker provides seats for 2 to 10 players at a table. A standard 52-card deck is used, as well as standard poker hand ranks. After a brief blind betting round, players are dealt a total of four cards each, face-down (as opposed to only 2 cards in Texas Holdem). These are the hole cards.
A series of community cards are dealt between each full betting round. The first three community cards are dealt together as the “Flop”. The fourth community card is the “Turn”, and the fifth is the “River”. These cards are used on conjunction with a player’s hole cards to develop a final hand.
The most significant difference in Omaha Poker, compared to Texas Holdem, is the rules of hand development. Because a player has 4 hole cards, it seems the final hands would be a lot stronger. However, hand development rules in Omaha Poker strictly require a player to use only 2, and exactly 2, of those hole cards, combined with exactly 3 community cards. In this manner, a player will develop the strongest possible 5 card poker hand. The strongest ranking hand wins the pot.
Tips for Real Money Players
If you’re an avid Texas Holdem player just starting out at the Omaha Poker tables, the best advice we can give you is to practice playing a while before getting into a real money situation. It can take some time for a player to get used to the hand development rules of Omaha Poker after spending a great deal of time playing Holdem.
No matter what level of Holdem player you may have been, when you start playing real money Omaha Poker, it’s best to start at a lower grade of competition (lower stakes). Integrating an Omaha Poker strategy is very different. The most common winning hand in Omaha Poker is at least a Straight, if not a Flush or Full House. A set of Aces may look pretty, but often times falters at second best.
When calculating the Nuts, know that an opponent is far more likely to be holding them in Omaha Poker, especially if they are suddenly betting in an aggressive style. The ability to read your opponent’s is crucial in Omaha Poker. This is why so many professional poker players have made the transition from Texas Holdem to Omaha Poker, finding that it presents more of a challenge, less worthy competitors in the mix and a lot more action on the felt.
If you want to be a consistently successful Omaha Poker player, you’ll need to devote a lot of time to the development of your poker strategy, and the psychology aspect of Omaha Poker.
-
Recent Tips for Real Money Poker Players:
