|
With televised tournaments showing how to do it,
everyone knows how to play Texas Hold’em.
Hold’em is a great game, but what happens
if your tournaments start to get stale? Well,
even though Texas Hold’em is the style of
poker we see played in television tournaments,
there are a number of different variations of
poker that you can play. While the hands and their
order stays the same (pair, two pair, three of
a kind, etc), the betting and delivery of cards
can differ quite a bit.
Omaha is one of the more popular variations
on poker, and is very easy to learn for people
who know how to play Texas Hold’em.
The game starts off with all players being
dealt four cards face down instead of the two
normally given in Hold’em. After a round
of betting, the communal three-card flop is
dealt in the center of the table. Another round
of betting follows, and then the turn is dealt
(the fourth communal card), and then another
round of betting before the river is dealt (the
fifth and final communal card). Once all five
communal cards are on the table, there is a
final round of betting before players show the
best hand that they have.
Like Texas Hold’em, Omaha is usually
played with blinds. Betting starts with the
player to the left of the dealer and moves clockwise
around the circle. In the first three rounds
of betting, the minimum bet is equal to the
amount of the big blind, while in the last two
rounds, the minimum bet is equal to double the
big blind.
In Omaha, winning player has the best five-card
hand that can be made, using two cards from
the original four that were dealt each player
and three cards from the communal pot.
Just to give an example of how a hand can work
(and sadly you’ll rarely get one this
favorable). Let’s assume you have a King,
a Jack, and two Eights in your hand. On the
table there is an Eight, a King, two Jacks and
a Five. You have a choice of three Eights, three
Jacks, two Kings, and a Five. Your best hand
would be a full house, Jacks over Kings. That
uses the King and the Jack from your hand, and
the King and two Jacks from the table. While
you have three Eights, the Jacks are higher
and your better choice.
One thing to remember is that the different
distribution of cards will throw your instincts
from Texas Hold’em way off, because each
player in Omaha has four cards to start with
instead of two, so remember to account for those
extra two cards in each hand when you’re
trying to figure out what the other players
have.
Omaha is an easy game to learn for people who
have started with Texas Hold’em, and a fun
way to add some excitement to your personal poker
playing.
|
|
