5 Card Omaha Rules

Where to Play 5 Card Omaha

Site		5 Card Omaha	5 Card Omaha Hi/Lo	Rating	Bonus
	Ignition Casino				100% up to $1000
	Americas Cardroom				100% up to $2000

5 Card Omaha is an Omaha poker variant. The same rules apply as in regular Omaha however, in 5 Card Omaha games, all players are dealt five cards before the flop but there still is the requirement to use two of your hole cards as well as three of the community cards to make the best five-card poker hand.

Pot Limit Games

5 Card Omaha Pot Limit games are the most popular form of this variant, which basically entails that players can bet up to the size of the pot plus the active player’s bet. As an example, if the pot is $100 a player bets $20 then the next player has the option to either fold, call or raise. To call is to match the amount of the previous player’s bet. For players to raise in a Pot Limit 5 Card Omaha game they have to match the previous bet plus increase the bet with an additional raise amount, up to the size of the pot. So, using the same example, a player can raise to $140 ($100 + $20  + $20).

No Limit Games

5 Card Omaha No Limit games are a little different from Pot Limit games since players can bet any amount they want during any betting round, solely dictated by how many chips they have in front of them. So there is potential for pots to get a lot bigger in no limit games.

How to Play 5 Card Omaha

In 5 Card Omaha the size of the game and buy-in is determined by the size of the blinds. As an example, a $0.50/$1 Pot Limit 5 Card Omaha game has a small blind of $0.50 and a big blind of $1. The minimum buy-in is usually 20-40 big blinds and the maximum is 100 big blinds.

Like all positional games, the game uses a dealer button in order to guide the betting action of the game. After each hand is completed the dealer button is then moved to the next active player to the left. Before the hand either the live dealer, or the virtual random number generator for the online poker room, shuffles the 52-card deck for the next hand.

The First Betting Round (Pre-flop)

After every player gets their five hole cards each player involved in the hand has the option to play their hand by choosing to either call the big blind bet or raise. If they don’t like their hand, and don’t want to play it, they can choose to just fold pre-flop. Action then proceeds clockwise around the table until each player has had the chance to act and placed equal bets into the pot.

The Flop

After the pre-flop betting round the three community cards are dealt into the centre of the table. They’re referred to as community cards because they’re visible to all players and can be used to make the best five-card poker hand. Unlike the previous betting round, the action actually starts with the player to the left of the dealer button in the small blind. Play will also start with the active player immediately to the left of the button for all other rounds of betting that will proceed the flop too. Then another round of betting takes place.

The Turn

Once all the betting has occurred on the flop in 5 Card Omaha, the dealer will reveal the fourth card face up, also known as the ‘turn’ card on the board, another round of betting takes place.

The River

Once all the betting has occurred on the turn in 5 Card Omaha the dealer will reveal the fifth card face up, also known as the ‘river’ card, on the board. This is the final community card and the final round of betting takes place. The same betting principles apply as on the flop and turn, once all bets have been completed and called in this round each player will have to show their cards in order to determine who has the winning hand.

The player who is holding the best five-card poker hand wins the pot – based on regular poker hand rankings. Novice players must remember that they are required to use two of their own cards to make the best hand. In situations where two or more players have the same hand, the pot will be split and equally divided between the players with the best hands.

Keep in mind that 5-Card Omaha is a flop game. So, starting hand selection is very important and you should throw away your hand on the flop when you’ve missed and don’t have nut draws.