How Omaha equity works
Equity is your share of the pot if all five board cards were dealt and nobody bet again. The calculator deals the rest of the board, scores every hand at the showdown and counts who wins. A tie gives each tied hand an equal part of the pot. With 40% equity in a 100-chip pot, your hand is worth 40 chips on average.
That number is what you compare with the price of a call. If you have to put in 30 chips to win a pot that will be 100, you need 30% equity to break even. The pot odds calculator does that part, and the pot-limit calculator shows the biggest bet anyone can make.
How Omaha differs from hold'em
- Four cards, exactly two used. Your hand is two of your four cards plus three of the five on the board. A hold'em player who holds one heart with four hearts on the board has a flush. An Omaha player doesn't.
- Six hands in one. Four cards make six different two-card pairs, and each pair can go with ten different sets of three board cards. So on the river the calculator checks 60 five-card hands for every player and keeps the best.
- Closer equities. With six two-card pairs each, hands hit more boards and have more draws, so big favorites are rarer. Aces are still the best start, just not by as much.
- Bigger draws. Four cards that work together can draw to a straight with 20 cards, where the best hold'em straight draw has 8. On the flop a big draw is often the favorite against a made hand.
Example: aces against a rundown
The same matchup, played both ways. Counting every possible board (1.7 million in hold'em, 1.1 million in Omaha):
| Game | Aces | Against | Aces win | Other hand wins |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hold'em | A♠A♦ | J♥10♥ | 78.3% | 21.7% |
| Omaha | A♠A♦7♣2♥ | J♥10♥9♣8♣ | 50.0% | 50.0% |
The aces are the same. In Omaha the 7♣2♥ add almost nothing, while J♥10♥9♣8♣ has four cards in a row and two suits, so it makes straights and flushes the aces can't beat. That's why Omaha players look for hands where all four cards work together, and why aces with two loose cards are a much smaller edge than they look.
Example: top set against a wrap
The flop is 9♠8♦2♣. One player has top set with 9♥9♣A♦K♠. The other has J♠10♥7♦6♣, a wrap: any queen, jack, ten, seven, six or five makes a straight, 20 cards in all. Counting all 820 possible turns and rivers:
| Game | Set | Draw | Set wins | Draw wins |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hold'em | 9♥9♣ | J♠10♥ | 74.1% | 25.9% |
| Omaha | 9♥9♣A♦K♠ | J♠10♥7♦6♣ | 45.6% | 54.4% |
In hold'em the straight draw has 8 cards (a queen or a seven) and the set is a big favorite. In Omaha the draw is ahead. The set can still win after the straight comes on the turn, if the river pairs the board and gives it a full house.
Give the drawing hand a flush draw as well, with J♠10♠7♦6♣ on 9♠8♠2♣ against 9♥9♣A♦K♦, and it goes up to 61.1%. Add a third player with A♣K♣Q♥Q♦ and the three hands come out at 39.3% for the set, 55.4% for the draw and 5.3% for the queens. A pair with nothing to draw to does worst of all in a three-way pot.
Example: what you really have
You hold 10♥3♣3♦8♠ and the board ends K♥Q♥J♥2♥7♣. Count the way you would in hold'em, with any of your cards, and you'd see a king-high flush. In Omaha you have to use two of your cards, and only one of them is a heart, so there's no flush. The 10♥ needs an ace or a nine beside it for a straight, and you have neither. Your best hand is a pair of threes. The calculator reads every hand this way, and the Omaha hand reader shows which two cards you're using and whether you have the nuts.
Before the flop
How good a starting hand is overall is a different question from its equity against one hand. To see where four cards rank among all 270,725 Omaha hands, and which seats should play them, use the Omaha starting hand checker. New to the game? Omaha for hold'em players covers the rules, the starting hands and the draws in a few short lessons.