Four cards instead of two. The betting rounds and hand rankings are the same as hold'em; what counts as a good hand changes a lot. Seven short sections, each with something to try and a place to practice. Tap any underlined word for a quick definition.
You get four instead of two. Your hand is always exactly two of them plus exactly three from the board. Never one, never three.
Most early Omaha mistakes come from reading a hand the hold'em way. Try the four examples: the last three look like big hands and aren't.
Four cards make six different two-card pairs, so it's like holding six hold'em hands at once, each of which must use three board cards. That's why winning hands are so much bigger in Omaha (see Why pairs shrink).
Lime outline: the five cards that play, always two of yours and three from the board.
Good hands have four cards that work together: pairs, two suits () and cards close in rank for straights, like a . A that fits with none of the others is close to dead weight.
Aces shrink. In hold'em, AA wins 85% against one random hand. A♠A♥7♦2♣ gets 61%, and 29% against three hands, so the coach folds it . Open about the top 15% of hands there, up to 40% on the .
Hands here are ranked by equity against three random hands, because Omaha pots are often multiway and heads-up numbers overrate weak aces. Even the best hand, A♠A♥K♠K♥, has only about 70% against one random hand, so nothing is a big favourite before the flop. Three of a rank is bad: one card is wasted and it blocks your own sets.
Loading the table of all 270,725 hands…
Ranked by share of the pot against three random hands, since Omaha pots are often multiway. The seat ranges are what the coach uses at a six-player table.
In , the most you can bet is the size of the pot. To raise the most, call first, then raise by the whole pot after your call.
At $1/$2, a pot raise from UTG is to $7: the $3 of blinds plus your $2 call makes $5, then raise $5 more. In a coached game the Pot button does the math, and you only see an All-in button when your whole stack fits under the pot limit.
A first raise before the flop can be at most 3.5 big blinds, so with 100 big blinds the stacks go in over several raises or streets, not in one shove. Pots still grow fast: a pot raise to $7 and a re-raise to $24 already put $34 in the middle at $1/$2. Shortcut when you have nothing in yet: raise to 3 × their bet + the pot before it.
Before the flop. The blinds are in: $1 + $2 = $3. Nobody has raised, so the bet to match is the big blind, $2.
Shortcut when you have nothing in yet this round: 3 × their bet + the pot before it. 3 × $10 + $20 = $50.
is the best possible hand on the board. With four cards each, someone usually has a strong hand, and big pots tend to go to the nuts. The costly hands are second-best straights and flushes.
Before you put a lot in, ask: what's the best hand possible here, and do I have it? If not, who beats me, and would they bet like this?
Read the board in order. A paired board makes full houses and four of a kind possible. Three of a suit makes a flush possible. Three cards within five ranks of each other make a straight possible. Then find the top version of each. Hands just below the nuts, like top set or the , win big pots too, because they can improve to it.
In hold'em, one pair wins a lot of pots. In Omaha it almost never does: with four players to the river, one pair or less wins about 2% of the time, against 25% in hold'em.
Even an is a small hand. Kings on a 9-6-2 flop win only 47% against J-10-8-7. and the best draws are what win big pots.
Top set is usually the best hand on the flop, and it still isn't far ahead of a big draw: 9♣8♥5♦4♠ on 7♥6♣2♦ wins 51% against a set of sevens. So sets and big draws bet and raise, while one pair keeps the pot small or folds to real pressure.
4 players who all stay to the river, 200,000 random deals each. Real pots have folds, so treat this as a picture of what you're up against, not exact odds.
Four cards can hold several straight draws at once. A puts three or four of your cards around the board and has 13 to 20 , against 8 for a hold'em open-ender.
Count the outs that make the best hand. A flush draw without the ace, or the low end of a straight, can hit and still lose.
The rule of 4 runs high with this many outs. With 45 cards you can't see on the flop, 20 outs hit by the river about 70% of the time, not 80%: 1 − (25 ÷ 45 × 24 ÷ 44). Outs that pair the board are worth less when someone could have a set.
J-10 on 9-8: a plain open-ended straight draw, the same 8 outs as in hold'em. Your other two cards add nothing.
Outs here are cards that make a straight or better. Lime: the best possible hand. Amber: a straight or flush that something else can beat. Faded: cards you can see. 45 cards are left; "by the river" assumes the same outs on both cards.
A is a card in your hand that nobody else can have. Hold the ace of spades on a board with three spades, and no one has the ace-high flush.
That makes it a good hand to bluff with: they can't hold the best flush, and your bet says you might. It works for calls too: if you hold cards the nuts needs, they're less likely to have it.
Blockers change the odds, not the result. With the A♠ nobody has the ace-high flush, but a smaller flush can still beat your bluff when they call. Use them to choose which hands to bluff with, not as a reason to call off your stack.
Three spades on the board. Only a player with the ace of spades and one more spade has the ace-high flush. Hold the A♠ yourself and nobody can, even though you have no flush at all.
Share of every four-card hand one opponent could hold that makes an ace-high flush, counted exactly from the cards you can't see.