Titan Poker Omaha
The Strong Appeal Of Omaha Poker
Omaha is the second most popular form of poker online these days, second only to Texas Holdem. Omaha has been growing in popularity over the last few years as the play at Texas Holdem has tightened up and a lot of players sought a form of poker that is of the looser variety, as Texas Holdem used to be.
Now this isn’t to say that you can’t do well at Texas Holdem these days, and you certainly can, but it’s become much more of an aggressive game of taking down a lot of pots. There is a lot of folding that goes on and its often the last player standing that wins the pot. Some players absolutely love this type of poker.
With Omaha though, due to the nature of this game, it is generally a much looser affair with more players in the pot and more hands that end up being decided at showdown. With Omaha, players get four hole cards instead of two, where they must use exactly two of them and three community cards to make up the best 5 card hand they can.
So these extra hole cards definitely open up more possibilities as far as the potential for players to make good hands, and therefore you see less tossing of cards both before the flop and after. This means that you see more action at Omaha, and if you like action, as many players do, this is the game for you.
Learning To Play Omaha
If you already know how to play Holdem, you can easily learn how to play Omaha, as the two are very similar. The only real differences are the four hole cards and the need to use two and only two from your hole cards. Other than that the game is exactly the same.
Even if you don’t know how to play Texas Holdem yet, both Texas Holdem and Omaha are easy games to learn. Plus, once you learn to play one, you can easily learn the other one. Since these are by far the two most popular games at Titan Poker and at all other poker sites these days, it’s definitely good to try both out.
Players start out by posting the blinds, where the player to the immediate left of the dealer posts the small blind, and the player to his or her left posts the big blind, generally twice the size of the small blind. You will see the amount of the blinds listed as small blind/big blind when you view the stakes played at a particular table.
This isn’t something that online players need to worry about as the blinds are posted automatically for you. Then the cards are dealt and you first need to decide if you want to play on or fold.
Then, the community cards get dealt, first by having three dealt at the same time, called the flop, followed by a betting round, and then the final two cards are dealt, called the turn and river, with a betting round following each.
After the conclusion of the final round of betting after the river card is dealt, the hand is over and players show their cards, where the winning hand or hands claim the pot.
Different Forms Of Omaha
Omaha Hi, or simply Omaha, is the standard game, although Omaha Hi/Lo is also very popular. Before you sit down at the table and play Omaha though, it is important to know what variation the table is playing, and also to have an idea of the difference between them.
Omaha Hi, like Texas Holdem, is a best hand affair where the best hand among the players still left in the pot after the cards are all dealt and the betting concludes wins the pot.
Omaha Hi/Lo, or Omaha 8 as it is also called, is a split pot game by nature, where at showdown the best hand claims half of the pot, and the worst hand so to speak claims the other half, if there is a qualifying low hand presented that is.
In order for a hand to qualify for the low component of the share of the pot, its highest card must not be higher than an 8. Straights or flushes do not count here, but pairs, three of a kind, or four of a kind do.
This is similar to the game of lowball in fact which has been around for a very long time, where the high component is similar to all of the rest of the forms of poker where the best hand wins. Omaha Hi/Lo combines both of these elements into a single format, which makes things really loose and exciting.
Both forms of Omaha are generally played in the pot limit format, where your bets are limited to what is already in the pot plus your bet or raise. This is quite similar to no limit with the biggest difference being that it is not so easy to get all of your chips in early in the hand, which tends to promote hands to be played a little longer and therefore also promotes more action.
Omaha is also offered in Fixed Limit, with the betting proceeding the same way as other fixed limit games, where bets and raises must be made according to the limits set forth in the stakes.
Regardless of whatever Omaha game type you choose, and what type of betting you select, there’s no better place to play it on the internet than Titan Poker. There’s all kinds of Omaha games running there both day and night, and the relative softness of the competition will ensure that you will have the maximum amount of fun playing Omaha.
So if you don’t have an account at Titan Poker yet it is high time that you did. They have a great welcome bonus just waiting for you to collect, and all you have to do in order to claim it is to enter in our bonus code of PBC2000, make your first deposit, and then simply give them a try. I know you will really enjoy yourself here.