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Table Of Contents

For many poker players who start out learning how to play Texas hold'em, Omaha poker is often the next game to discover.

If you are thinking to explore this poker variant and you would like to learn how to play Omaha poker, this beginner's guide to the game gives you everything you need.

Continue reading to find:

1. What is Omaha Poker?

The more you play poker, the more you keep hearing how Omaha poker is the game to play to get the best action and challenge the best players.

In the past 10 years or so, Omaha poker became one of the most popular poker variants. Some go as far as to say that Omaha poker (PLO, specifically) it's on a trajectory to surpass Texas hold'em and become the most played game in the world.

Part of the game's success has to do with its rules. Like most poker games, the basics of Omaha poker are the same as those in Texas hold'em - meaning that if you know how to play one, you are in a good spot to play the other.

When it comes to Omaha poker, there are different sub-variants out there, each with its specificities and dedicated players base.

The two most popular types of Omaha poker (i.e. those you'll find at every major poker site) are:

• pot-limit Omaha (PLO)
• Omaha hi-lo

This guide on how to play Omaha poker focuses on pot-limit Omaha (PLO) poker, one of the most played games of the year and probably the easiest version of the game to learn as a beginner.

If that's not what you are looking for or if you are already fluent in PLO poker, you can read about Omaha hi-lo poker rules here.

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While free games are excellent to practice PLO and learn how to play Omaha poker, these three sites offer also exciting real money games you should not miss. The first bonus is on us!

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2. How To Play Omaha Poker

To play a game of Omaha poker you'll need a 52-card deck of French cards. Also, unless you are in for an old-fashioned game with beans, buttons, and pennies, you'll need also some poker chips, a dealer button, and two blinds buttons.

A game of Omaha poker needs two to ten players to begin.

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Like in other poker games, the action of a hand of Omaha poker includes several betting rounds and a combination of private ('hole') and community cards ('the board).

The first thing you want to remember when it comes to learning how to play Omaha poker is the name of the different phases that compose a hand.

• The pre-flop: The initial betting round. Some players (the 'Blinds') are obliged to place a bet while the others can decide wether to call, fold, or raise.
• The flop: The second betting round. The players still in the hand decide how to act once the dealer places the first three community cards on the board, face up.
• The turn: The third betting round. The players still in the hand decide how to act once the dealer places the one more community card on the board, face up.
• The river:The last betting round. The players still in the hand decide how to act once the dealer places the last the five community cards on the board, face up.
• The showdown: The players still in the hand reveal their cards.

Preflop Action

The Big Blind (BB) and the Small Blind (SB) place their bets on the table so the action can start.

The dealer distributes four cards to each player, all face down. As we will see later, this is one of the key differences between Omaha and Texas Hold'em poker.

As soon as all the cards reached the respective players, the first betting round begins. The first player to act is the one at the left of the Big Blind (table position: 'Under the Gun' or UTG).

The action continues clockwise until it reaches the Big Blind.

All players have the following options:

• Call: They place a bet equal to the size of the Big Blind (or to the highest bet that was placed before them, in case someone in the hand decided to raise).
• Raise: They increase the bet making it more expensive for other players to stay in the hand.
• Fold: They give back the card and leave the hand.

The Flop

The dealer places three cards on the board, all face up. These are the first of a series of five that the players need to use to build their final poker hand.

As soon as the three cards are on the table, a new betting round begins.

The Flop betting round is identical to the previous one.

The Turn

The dealer places one more card on the board, again face up. All the players still in the hand enter a new betting round that develops exactly as the previous one.

The River

The dealer places the last community card on the table, face up, and a new betting round follows.

If there are still two or more players in the hand, the action continues to the final chapter (the 'Showdown). It most player fold, the hand goes to the last-one standing.

The Showdown

The players in the hand turn at least two of their private cards and use them in combination with any of the five on the board to build a five-card poker hand.

The player with the highest poker hand is the one who wins the hand and takes down the pot.

And here's where most beginners get in trouble.

Players that are just starting to learn how to play this game and are not too familiar with the Omaha poker rules tend to make a lot of mistakes when it comes to building five-card hands.

The most common PLO poker mistake people make when they learn how to play Omaha poker is to forget they need to use at least two of the four hole cards to build their final hand.

Let's look at one example.

A player holding A♥Q♣7♦6♦ looks at a board of 9♥4♥2♣J♥Q♥ thinking he has made the nuts with an ace-high flush.

That's a mistake.

The Omaha poker rules do not allow you to make a hand using only one hole card (A♥) in combination with four community cards (the four hearts on the board).

In fact, this player only has a pair of queens, not a flush.

How to Bet in Omaha Poker

Another factor to consider when it comes to Omaha rules is how betting works. And that's because there are some key differences between Omaha poker and Hold'em — and not being aware of them could cost you a lot of precious chips.

Like in hold'em, the minimum bet allowed in Omaha is always the equivalent of the big blind.

In a $1/$2 PLO poker game, the minimum a player can bet is $2.

However, while in no-limit hold'em player can always bet all their chips at any point, the maximum bet allowed in PLO is the size of the pot.

Calculating what exactly is a 'pot-sized' bet can be trickier and it often needs the help of the dealer.

If the pot is $10 and a player is the first to act, the calculation is easy: the maximum possible bet is $10.

However, poker is never that easy. You need to be prepared for different types of situations and calculations if you don't want the other players to take advantage of your lack of experience.

Let's use an example to understand how betting works in PLO poker.

In this fictional PLO poker hand, there are $10 in the pot when a player bets $5. The next player, however, decide to up their game and announce the intention to 'raise pot'.

How much is that?

Based on the previous bets, the most that player can bet is $25.

This number is calculated by adding the $5 to call plus the $20 that would be in the pot after the call ($5 + $20 = $25).

When you play Omaha at a casino, the dealer will take care of the math for you should you announce you wish to bet the pot.

Things get even easier when you play online because the calculations appear right on the screen, automatically.

3. The Hands in Omaha Poker

Pot-limit Omaha (or 'Omaha high') is known as an 'action game' which is one reason why it is popular among high-stakes players.

Since players start with four hole cards in Omaha instead of two, they can make a much wider range of hands.

For that reason, hand values tend to be higher in Omaha than in hold'em, with players making 'the nuts' or the highest possible hand much more frequently.

If you think about it, in PLO players aren't dealt just a single two-card combination (as in hold'em), but six different two-card combinations (among the four hole cards) from which to choose the best hand.

It isn't surprising, then, that players tend to make much better hands at showdown in Omaha poker.

In Texas hold'em making two pair or three-of-a-kind can be a very strong hand, but in Omaha there will often be better hands out there to beat those holdings.

Let's look at two more examples.

Example 1.

Yu have been dealt 10♠9♠8♥7♥ and by the river the board is 7♠9♥K♥J♣2♦.

Using the ten and eight in your hand along with three community cards, you have a jack-high straight.

The problem is that any opponent holding Qx10xXxXx would complete a higher, king-high straight and defeat you.

If the betting gets heavy on the river, that's probably exactly what is happening.

Example 2.

You hold J♠J♣9♠9♥ on a board of 9♦K♠Q♥5♦3♦.

You have a set of nines, which would be a nice holding in Texas hold'em. But Omaha poker is a different game and there are several hands that could beat yours.

Anyone with KxKxXxXx or QxQxXxXx would have a higher set, and an opponent with Jx10xXxXx would have a straight.

There is also a flush possibility, meaning anyone with X♦X♦XxXx (two diamonds) would make a flush.

Due to the nature of so many better hands, an opponent may just be calling your bets with a set of kings or queens as they may fear a straight or flush, so even if you are not facing any immediate aggression, you could still be beaten so proceed with caution.

4. Differences Between Omaha and Texas Hold'em?

Like hold'em, Omaha is a 'flop' game that uses community cards.

Just like in hold'em, players are dealt their own hands face down — their 'hole cards' — and use those cards in combination with the five community cards (the flop, turn, and river) to make five-card poker hands.

However, there is one big difference between Omaha and hold'em.

Whereas in hold'em all the players receive two hole cards each, in Omaha they get four hole cards.

Of those four hole cards, players must choose two to be used in combination with three of the five community cards to build their five-card poker hands.

Yes. In a game of Omaha poker, each player must use two of their hole cards and three of the community cards to build a poker hand.

That's different from hold'em where players can use:

• both of their hole cards (and three community cards),
• just one hole card (and four community cards),
• or no hole cards (and all five community cards, which is called 'playing the board').

In pot-limit Omaha, the poker hand rankings are just the same as in Texas hold'em.

Like hold'em, pot-limit Omaha or 'PLO' poker is played as a 'high-hand' game, which means the hands go (from best to worst):

• royal flush
• straight flush
• four-of-a-kind
• full house
• flush
• straight
• three-of-a-kind
• two pair
• one pair
• high-card.

Other Omaha Poker Tips

The Importance of 'Position'

Just like in hold'em, poker positioning is an important element in Omaha.

Many consider this aspect of the game to be even more important in Omaha poker. That's due to the the pot-limit betting format and all the combinations a player can make with an Omaha hand.

When you have 'position' on your opponents, you can follow their actions and base your decisions on the information you received.

When you are out of position, it becomes much harder to make the correct decisions. The lack of information can lead to wrongful assumptions and push you to take risks that are not justified by the value of the cards you hold.

Another benefit of being in position is that you have a better chance of controlling the size of the pot, which is often based on the strength of your hand and your overall goal in the pot.

Being out of position to one or more opponents gives them the ability to control the pot size and also capitalize on the added information of knowing your actions first.

Bluffing in Omaha Poker

Because Omaha is so focused on the nuts, it might seem like bluffing plays an important role in the game.

A player can represent a wider range of hands in Omaha, and also open up with a bit more with so many more semi-bluffs available.

In fact, experienced Omaha players will often bet big draws heavily on the flop, since in some cases those draws are actually mathematical favorites versus made hands.

All of which is to say players do bluff in pot-limit Omaha, but with so many possible hands out there you have to be judicious when deciding when it is best to bluff.

The more you learn about the game, the easier it will become to pick up on these spots and determine how to proceed against various opponents.

Be Wary of the Blockers

Relatedly, blockers also become much more prevalent in Omaha than in Texas hold'em.

Blockers are those cards you hold in your hand that prevent an opponent from making a specific hand.

For example, if a board reads K♠10♠5♥2♠4♦ and you hold the A♠ in your hand but no other spades, you may not have a flush, but you know your opponent cannot make the nut flush.

This gives you added power in the hand being able to push your opponent off certain hands as your opponent is guaranteed to not contain the nuts.

5. Where to Play Omaha Poker Games Online

Like you would expect for a popular game like Omaha poker, you'll find PLO games at all the major poker sites online.

All the 'must-have' poker rooms listed below offer a very good selection of PLO games, with plenty of beginner-friendly free games.

Pick one of them, register a free account, and use the PokerNews-exclusive welcome bonus to pay for your first real money games of Omaha poker online.

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No self-respecting poker player would dream of playing the game without a basic knowledge of strategy. Yet many players think nothing of sitting down at a poker table and risking prodigious amounts of money without understanding the human side of the game. Comprehending what goes on inside the minds of our irrational, flesh-and-blood opponents is just as important to winning as any mathematical formula. What’s more, the ability to look inward and recognize how your own thoughts and feelings influence the way you play, both for good and for ill, is crucial if you want to win at this game in the long run.

Having a feel for the psychology of the game helps you in two ways. First, the better you can read your opponent’s thoughts and feelings, the better you can read his cards. But even more important, a deeper awareness of your own personality enables you to play at your absolute best and side-step common pitfalls such as tilt. Opponents come and go, so we begin with the one player you can never get away from: you.

Knowing Yourself

Poker players are some of the most delusional people on the planet. We don’t play too many hands, we just like to see flops. We didn’t raise at the wrong time; it was the opponent’s fault for not folding when he was supposed to. For every mistake we make at the poker table, there is an equal and opposite rationalization to explain it away. And when all else fails we can blame bad luck.

Competition and Ego

Competition brings out the fragile ego in all of us, but there is something about poker that makes losing even harder to take. Nobody enjoys losing money, but something even more important than money is at stake: pride. Poker is steeped in machismo, and to admit your opponent might be stronger, smarter, or just plain better than you is to admit a terrible weakness. The poker mind will go to incredible lengths to avoid such a revolting thought.

Make no mistake, confidence is essential. You can’t be a winning poker player without it. To withstand the brutal swings you must have faith in yourself. But when does confidence cross the line to become overweening pride? That’s where self-knowledge comes in. At the poker table, the ability to be uncompromisingly honest with yourself is worth its weight in gold.

Easier said than done, of course. Losing hurts, and to couple that hurt with the realization that the loss was your own fault is like pouring lemon juice on a cut. It will always be easier to blame a tough loss on a luckbox opponent than to contemplate the possibility we didn’t play the hand right.

Tilt and Poker Self-Delusion

Easy Poker Games To Play

No discussion of poker self-delusion would be complete without discussing tilt. When an otherwise intelligent, educated poker player begins to play below his skill level because of emotion, he is on tilt and almost invariably destined to lose a lot of money. Players on tilt throw their money away – by the handful or in a steady parade of small losses – because they’re making decisions based on anger and frustration instead of thinking things through. Tilt is the ultimate expression of poker self-delusion because players on tilt almost never admit that anything is wrong.

Step one is recognizing that you’re on tilt. This is no small task. A big part of accomplishing this is learning to recognize your tilt triggers, those irksome things that upset you enough to put you on tilt. A trigger can be anything from an obnoxious opponent to a particular type of loss – anything that gets under your skin and stirs up your emotions in a negative way.

Step two in overcoming tilt is to leave the game. Even if it’s just for a short while get up and do something else, anything else, so long as it doesn’t involve throwing your money away in a poker game. If you learn nothing else about yourself as a poker player, figuring out what puts you on tilt – and how to get away from the table when you are tilting – will save you a fortune over the course of your poker career.

Your Own Playing Style

To delve deep into your poker psyche, you need to think about your own poker playing style. It comes down to why you play poker in the first place. Do you play to socialize? Because you enjoy the thrill of competition? To prove something? Whatever the reason, or combination of reasons, your style of play is going to reflect that.

Self-honesty is the silver bullet. It does you no good to learn correct poker strategy if you won’t use that knowledge when it counts. You can read books, study hand histories, buy fancy software to calculate percentages for you – but nothing and nobody will ever make you into a first-rate poker player but you.

Knowing Your Opponent

Between the recreational player who thinks nothing of losing money so long as he can have fun doing it, and the hard-core nit who hangs onto every chip for dear life, there’s a staggering variety of poker players out there. If you want to play the game at a higher level, you must be able to read them all. Only by reading your opponent can you put him on a range of hands, and only by putting him on a range of hands can you hope to make the correct decision most of the time.

The Four Basic Poker Playing Styles

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The psychology of reading your opponents is as much as art as a science. Sure, we have the four major categories:

• Tight-passive
• Loose-passive
• Tight-aggressive (TAG)
• Loose-aggressive (LAG)

These groups are also commonly known as the rock, calling station, shark and maniac. The majority of your opponents can be pigeonholed into one of these groups. It’s crude, but it’s a place to start. Yet there’s much more to reading your opponent than just slapping a label on his forehead.

To being with, try thinking of these categories not so much as four separate boxes but rather as points on a spectrum. Or to be more precise, two spectrums. One spectrum runs the gamut from ultra-milquetoast passive to chip-spewing aggressive, while the other spectrum begins with the tightest of rocksand ends in loosey-goosey land. Job one is to figure out where each of your opponents weighs in on the passive-to-aggressive and tight-to-loose scales.

Everything we do – the way we move, speak, dress, groom ourselves, adorn ourselves, etc – says something about our personality. Aggressive players tend to be very forceful in every aspect of their lives: dressing in bright colors, speaking loudly, using language that’s harsher and more blunt, buying in for excessively large amounts. These players want to intimidate. They need to be the center of attention. And in a poker game nobody is more intimidating or attention-grabbing than a maniac. Easy to spot, tricky to play against, maniacs have a singular talent for putting their opponents on tilt.

Conversely, passive poker players refrain from conflict. Social by nature, they’d rather not rock the boat or rub anybody the wrong way – a considerable disadvantage in a game where the object is to take your opponent’s money. Tight players tend to be very deliberate and conservative in everything they do, dressing moderately, stacking chips neatly, talking seldom. Loose players are more freewheeling and impulsive, liable to be impatient, chatty, and sloppy with chips.

Beware of stereotyping, however. Few players will fit neatly into any given category. As for stereotyping according to age, gender, race etc, that’s a dangerous trap. While it’s probably true that the average 21-year-old male is going to play a lot more aggressively than the typical 50-year-old female, there are always exceptions and you should never lose sight of that.

Adjust Your Play Accordingly

Once you’ve got some sort of psychological read on your opponent, put that knowledge to use and adjust your play accordingly. Against a maniac, know there will be some wild financial swings in your future if you remain in this game. If you can’t handle that, leave. If you can, tighten up, reraise with your good hands, and above all don’t let him put you on tilt. If your opponent is too passive, be more aggressive. If your opponent is too loose, value-bet more and bluff much less. For every flaw, there’s an optimum way to exploit that flaw and it’s your job to find it.

Putting it Together

Once you have a good understanding of yourself and your opponent, the real psych-out games can begin. This involves higher levels of thinking. Level 1 players only think about their own cards, while level 2 players at least ponder what their opponent is holding. Playing at level 3 means you consider what your opponent thinks you have. Obviously this is impossible without having a read on your opponent and more than that, a grasp of how your opponent is reading you.

Your Table Image

You must be aware of your table image. Then if you can put yourself in your opponent’s shoes, figure out how he’s making decisions – and not how you would be making decisions if you were in his place – you’re ready to play poker at a higher level. To go even higher, level 4 asks the question: “What does he think I think he has?” Assuming your opponent is also playing at a high level of thinking, the mind games between the two of you can go on almost indefinitely.

Poker’s Ultimate Mind Game is the Bluff

There are several factors that play into a successful bluff, but ultimately the bluff lives and dies based on the player it’s aimed at. If he senses what you’re up to, if he’s got a stronger hand than you figured, if his confidence is inflated by a few recent wins, you’re done. It’s not just about bluffing weak players; it’s about bluffing players who are feeling weak in that moment.

Some of this is purely tactical. Before pushing out any bluff you should always consider position and stack sizes. But part of knowing when and who to bluff is pure psychology. Any time you get the sense that your opponent’s spirit is weakened – because he just endured a tough loss, perhaps – that’s often a good time to strike. By the same token, be aware that any time you’re in a sheepish frame of mind and playing more passive, opponents are more likely to aim bluffs in your direction.

Conclusion

Psychology is no substitute for cold hard poker math. But psychology can add an incredible depth to your game, and to your wallet, when it’s used in conjunction with solid poker strategy. It creates a one-two punch that is virtually unbeatable. By opening up your eyes to the human side of the game, even as you continue to calculate odds, there’s no reason you can’t have the best of both worlds.

By Barbara Connors

Barbara lives in the Coachella Valley of Southern California and became a serious student of poker in 2001. She particularly enjoys writing about the psychology of the game.