Omaha / 8 has been called the game of the future, and for good reason. Any given game of Omaha has the potential for much more action than Texas Hold’em, and while the game may be a bit more complicated or mentally challenging than Hold’em, anyone who can play one of the games can play the other, since the two are so similar.
The primary visible difference between Omaha and Hold’em is that the players in Omaha are each dealt four cards, rather than two. This results in the perceived confusion of the game. However, in Hold’em, you can use both, one, or none of the cards in your hand with the community cards on the table to make the best five card hand. In Omaha, you must use exactly two of the cards in your hand with three community cards to make your five card hand.
There’s also more action in Omaha; some players are trying to make the highest hand, while others are trying to make the lowest, and some may be trying to take down the whole pot. With so many card combinations, it is easy to see why more players find a hand that they feel is worth playing, resulting in more chips on the table.
Omaha is certainly a lot like Hold’em, its closest cousin. The play and the betting continue in the same fashion, but in the end, the pot is split between the highest and lowest hand. (There are variations on this game, eg. Omaha High, in which the pot goes to the highest hand only, but these are not played nearly as often.) To make the lowest hand, a player must fit two unpaired cards in their hand with a rank of 8 or lower with three unpaired community cards with a rank of 8 or lower. A player can also take the whole pot by making both the highest and lowest hands. That is—fitting two low cards in their hand with low cards on the board, and making a high hand with the other two cards.
No doubt this sounds very confusing, but finding hands worth playing gets easier over time. Furthermore, beginner players often have a better chance in low limit Omaha games, simply by playing better starting cards than their opponents. The best thing to remember at the start of a hand is the simple phrase, “fit or fold”, if you cant fit your hand with the flop, throw it away. There’s no sense in waiting, only to drown in the river.