Omaha¶

Omaha Poker is a community card game similar to Texas Hold’em, except that each player is dealt four hole cards and must use exactly two of them. During the play of the hand five community cards are dealt in the middle of the table. Each player can see those cards and use them to form the best possible five card poker hand by combining exactly three of them with exactly two of their hole cards.

Omaha Pot Limit is an exciting form of poker that has gained in popularity in recent years. Its fast pace and large pots have made it popular especially in Europe where it is easily the second most played form of poker after Texas Hold’em No Limit.

How to Play¶

Unibet Poker uses six handed cash game tables. When three players join the table, a hand will start.

Not each player can be seated immediately since there might not be enough players to start a new table. In such cases these players are put into queue and provided with the corresponding information. They are allowed to leave the queue any time they want, but in the majority of cases they’ll just have to wait for a few seconds.

A random player is given a “Dealer button”, it marks where the betting rounds start and blinds are posted. The two next players clockwise from the dealer button post a “Small Blind” and a “Big Blind” – mandatory bets of fixed size. Exception: If only two players play at the table (heads-up situation), the dealer gets the Small Blind and Big Blind goes to another player.

Four cards are dealt to each player.

A new player can choose to wait until they are dealt into the Big Blind position or they can choose to post a Big Blind out of position to get a hand immediately. The hand starts when there are minimum three players at the table who are not sitting out. Exception: If the previous hand had three or more players but this hand only has two, the hand will start anyway.

After that, there is the first betting round, starting from the player immediately clockwise from the Big Blind.

Next, three community cards called the “flop” are dealt, and there is a betting round (starting from the first player clockwise from the button, as in all of the following betting rounds).

One more community card (the fourth overall) called the “turn” is dealt, and there is a betting round.

One last community card (the fifth overall) called the “river” is dealt, there is a betting round and a showdown.

Betting Round¶

During a betting round, every player who still has cards and is not “all in” gets to act at least once, in clockwise fashion, starting from the player after the Big Blind in the first (i.e. preflop) betting round, and from the player after the dealer button during following rounds.

The betting round starts with every player acting once. If any player bet or raised during the round, the round continues clockwise until all the players still in hand have matched all the bets made, or have folded. The last player to act will be the first active (i.e. not folded, not all in) player before the one who made the last bet or raise.

During their turn the player has some of the following options:

Fold¶

Forfeit the hand. The player is no longer part of the deal, he or she has no cards, cannot win any part of the pot, and doesn’t need to make further decisions.

Check¶

The player passes his/her turn without betting. Only possible if there was no bet/raise made on this betting round. Exception: The player who posted the Big Blind can check in the first (i.e. preflop) betting round if nobody raised.

Call¶

The player matches the bets/raises that have been made so far, and continues in the hand. This is only possible if there is a bet or raise on this betting round. Exception: It is possible to call-in the first (i.e. preflop) betting round if nobody has raised because the player is calling the amount of the Big Blind.

Bet/Raise¶

These two are the same action – making/increasing the bet. The term “bet” is used when there was not an earlier bet on the same round, “raise” is used when there is an earlier bet.

The player can select the amount he or she bets/raises with certain limitations:

• If there was an earlier bet/raise, the new bet has to be at least as much more. For example, after bet 5, raise to 15, next raise has to be to minimum 25, as the largest raise has been 10 more.
• Bet/raise has to be at least the size of the Big Blind
• There is an exception when the bet would put you all in, as explained in the next section

All In¶

Players have some special options when the money they have in front of them isn’t enough to make a full call or a legal raise.

A player who is “all in” no longer participates in betting rounds, but gets to see the hand to the end, and during showdown can win all the money that he/she was able to match. Money in the pot is divided into a “main pot” (the pot which all players who still have cards can win) and a variable amount of side pots (consisting of bets that only some of the players could match all in). For example, if player A and B bet and call 1000 during a hand, and player C is all in for 100, there is a main pot of 300 that A, B or C can win, and a side pot of 1800 that only A or B can win.

• If a player is facing a bet or raise larger than their remaining stack, they can call with all the money that they have left, and are considered all in afterwards
• If betting all the money that the player has left is a legal bet (more than the minimum raise), and the player can legally bet/raise, they can choose to bet/raise all in. The bet/raise is treated normally and the player is treated as all in afterwards.
• If a player has more money than is needed to call, but less than the legal minimum bet/raise, they can still bet/raise all in. This raise doesn’t “reopen” betting, which means that when the betting round continues only because players haven’t matched this bet, they only have the option to call or fold, not raise further. For example, player A checks, player B makes legal bet, player C calls, player D makes an undersized all in. Now player A has all the normal options (because he is also facing the “legal” bet from B), but if he folds or calls, player B and C only have the option to call or fold to D’s bet.

A special case¶

If there are multiple undersized all ins in succession, with no calls between, and they add up to a legal raise, then the last undersized raise reopens the betting. For example, player A bets 10, player B calls, player C raises all in to 18. This raise (8) is under 10, so it doesn’t reopen the betting. Now player D raises also all in, to total 25. There were no calls in between, and raises in total (8+7) are over the 10 minimum, so D’s raise now reopens the betting, and A and B will have the option to raise on their turns.

Showdown¶

After the final betting round (i.e. the river), players who still have cards (players who are all in or have matched all bets and raises) show their hole cards, and the best poker hand wins. The main pot and each side pot is dealt out separately, each given to the best poker hand between players who formed that pot/side pot and are still in the hand. It is possible for multiple players to have the same five-card poker hand. If that is also the best hand, the pot is divided evenly between the best hands. Uneven cents are given out clockwise starting from the player first from the button.

The best five card poker hand is picked by using exactly two of player’s four hole cards and three of the five community cards.

The Poker Hands section describes the poker hand ranking hierarchy.

Common mistakes in reading Omaha hands¶

There are certain types of Omaha hands that players familiar with Texas Hold’em but new to Omaha often misread, typically trying to use only one hand card. Two cautionary examples follow:

Hand: A♣ K♦ T♦ 8♥

Board: K♣ 9♣ 6♣ 6♥ Q♣

New players often think that they have a flush here, but flush cannot be made in this hand when using exactly two hole cards. The best hand formed from these cards is K♦ K♣ 6♣ 6♥ A♣.

Hand: T♥ 9♥ 7♣ 6♣

Board: K♠ K♣ T♣ T♦ 5♦

New players often see a full house here, but the best hand using exactly two hole cards is actually only three of a kind, T♥ T♣ T♦ K♠ 9♥

Sitting out¶

If a player wants to take a break, he/she go into sit out mode. In sit out mode the player will continue sitting at the table, but will not be dealt cards and won’t pay any blinds. The player will remain in sit out mode until he/she decides to get back into the action.

If the player remains in sit out mode for longer than 10 minutes, he/she will be removed from the table and returned to the lobby.

Rejoining a cash game table¶

If you leave a cash game table and then try to rejoin the game you'll be seated at a table randomly, favouring tables you have played before and tables with the least number of players.

Ratholing¶

Players leaving a cash game table who are then seated at the same table when they return within 30 minute will be subject to the following buy-in rules:

”-“ no control needed.

“Ratholing counter”: How many times a player has left a cash game table with 100 Big Blinds or more and then sat back down within a 30 minutes period at the exact same table. The counter will reset every day at 00:00 UTC and will count across all stakes and formats.

No ratholing (leaving the table and rejoining with smaller stack) is allowed in Omaha Shortstack.

In case of problems¶

If a player loses connection to the game server when action reaches them, the server will first wait until the normal time allowed for decisions is over and then gives 20 seconds extra time for player to reconnect. If the player hasn’t reconnected by that time, the decision is made automatically for them. The automatic decision will be check if possible, otherwise fold. The player is also set as sitting out at the end of the hand.

In the unlikely case of server error preventing the hand from finishing, the hand will be cancelled and all bets returned to players. Every undecided and unresolved bet in incomplete games will become void after 90 days and will be forfeited to charity.