Omaha shares many rules with Texas Hold'em, with a few important differences.

To begin the game, each player in Omaha is dealt 4 cards face-down, instead of 2 as in Hold'em. Players use their four face down cards and the five community cards that are eventually dealt in the middle to form their best poker hand possible.

That said, the way you form your best hand is another key difference between Omaha and Hold'em emerges. In Hold'em, you use any combination of your two face down cards and the five community cards to make your best hand. You can use one card from your hand and four from the board, two from your hand and three from the board, or play the five cards on the board.

In Omaha, though, you must use both of your hole cards when forming your best five card hand. You don't have the option of using just one. So if you hold the AhKd face-down and the board is 10h 9h 3h 2h Qs, in Omaha you only have an Ace high hand, and not a flush, since you must use both of your hold cards. In Hold'em, you have an Ace high flush with hearts, as you can use only one of your hole cards if you so choose, but that isn't the case in Omaha.

Omaha is also slightly different in that it's commonly played as a high/low split game (called Omaha HiLo or Omaha/8), in which the highest hand and the lowest hand split the pot.

Your Most Important Decision in Omaha Hi Lo

Omaha Hi Lo is a complex poker game and on every street you will have to decide if the hand is worth continue playing or not. But the most important decision you make in Omaha Hi Lo is whether to play a hand at all. This is probably the factor that will have the most impact on your overall results.

To see the flop with a mediocre hand might seem as a relatively harmless thing to do, but it will usually get you in trouble. Lots of times you will flop just enough in order to stay in the hand, which will prove costly in the long run when you have entered the pot with a hand you should have folded to start with.

In Omaha Hi Lo you should only play hands with a good potential to develop into the nuts. A good rule of thumb if you are an inexperienced in online poker then remember only play hands that contain at least one ace, preferable suited and accompanied by low cards like twos and threes.

A typical trouble hand in Omaha Hi Lo is a hand containing double suited medium cards. Say for example Ts9h7h6s. When you hit your flush, you will often find yourself beaten by a higher flush. And straights will also get you in trouble. If you get the low end of the straight you are easily beaten by a higher straight, and if you get the high end there will also be a possible low hand on the board and you will usually have to split the pot. So the best thing you can do is to avoid playing hands like this at all.

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