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Omaha Poker -
How to play Omaha Poker
 When
Jenny thinks of Omaha, two things come to mind:
Steaks and "Thank God for Miami". Now that I'm
a poker girl, there is Omaha Poker and your girl
Jenny is going to attempt to show you how to play
Omaha Poker.
Is this where I segway into my High School story
about "cow tipping" in Pensacola?
Ok edit here.
When last I left you,
we discussed:
Online poker cheating
and
No Limit Texas Holdem.
Sorry if I'm all over the map here. Speaking
of maps....
Here is a brief history lesson as my editor always
encourages Jenny to offer cultural teachings in my
writings. Omaha is the largest city in Iowa
with a population of close to 400,000. The
Pawnee and Otoe tribes had inhabited the region for
hundreds of years by the time the Omaha tribe had
arrived from the south in the early 1700s.
The Omaha
speak a Siouan language. Hence, we got Sioux
City, Iowa.
In pre-settlement
times, the Omaha had a very intricately developed
social structure that was closely tied to the
people's concept of an inseparable union between sky
and earth. This union was viewed as critical to
perpetuation of all living forms and pervaded Omaha
culture. The tribe was divided into two moieties,
Sky and Earth people. Sky people were responsible
for the tribe's spiritual needs and Earth people for
the tribe's physical welfare. Each moiety was
comprised of five clans.
WTF? I wish my
editor would put down the peace pipe! He made
me write this ****.
Delete.
All right, now onto
Omaha Poker and how to play it.
Omaha poker is a very popular game resembling Texas
Hold’em except for that fact that there's not much
holdin' going on.
Each
player receives four cards called “hole”, “pocket”,
or “down” cards. Now we're talking!
There are also five “community cards” that are dealt
face up on the table.
The fundamental Omaha poker rule is that
a player must use two of their hole cards
and three community cards to form their hand.
Because Omaha poker gives each player nine cards
from which to build a winning hand, a weak opening
hand has a greater win potential than in other
games. This can make for many dramatic turns.
WHOA! My
ADT is kicking in!
Learning how to play Omaha poker is easy as long as
you remember a few catchy terms: small blind, big
blind, the flop, the turn, the river, and showdown.
Ok, three of these positions I tried this past week
alone hehehe.
These operate in every hand of Omaha poker and
follow a ten-step sequence, including four betting
rounds, described below.
Before dealing, the small and big blinds are placed
in the pot. The player to the left of the dealer
places the small blind, which is equal to half the
lower stake. The player to the left of the small
blind places the big blind. The big blind is equal
to the lower stake limit. Once these blind bets are
placed, the dealer distributes four “hole” cards to
every player. The player to the left of the big
blind may at this point fold, call, or raise. Each
player then chooses to fold, call, or raise in
clockwise order.
After the first round of betting the dealer places
the first three community cards face-up in the
middle of the table. This is “the flop”. After the
flop the player to the left of the dealer initiates
the remaining betting rounds. If no bets are
present, a player may check or bet. If there are
bets or raises the player must call, raise, or
fold.
With the second betting round complete, a fourth
community card, “the turn”, is dealt face-up. The
third betting round now commences.
The dealer then turns over the last community card,
called “the river". There is a final round of
betting after which comes the “showdown” where the
best hand wins the pot. With the hand finished the
dealer position rotates one player to the left.
It is important to note that in Omaha poker the last
two betting rounds are always double the stake limit
of the first two rounds. Say the table’s stake limit
is $1 for the first two betting rounds. The stake
limit will then be $2 for the last two. These are
usually referred to as the lower and higher stake
limit.
Omaha poker is sometimes played
high/low, where the
highest and lowest hands split the pot. In such
cases, the goal is to win all the pot. This means
hands that can win both high and low (such as a
straight with low numbers) are better than those
that can win only high or low.
Now that you know
how to play Omaha Poker, let's review some
Omaha Poker Strategy
real quick
Here.
Also see more
Poker Tips and Strategies
from Jenny Woo
Here
Where to Play Omaha Poker
The Jenny Woo Blog
----
Jenny Woo,
www.gambling911.com
Originally
published July 15, 2006 7:47 pm EDT |
