Poker Room at Getminted.com

OMAHA POKER

How to Play

Omaha poker is similar to Texas Holdem in that each player makes the best poker hand drawing from the cards in their hand and the community cards dealt face up on the table. Unlike Holdem, each player is dealt four hole cards, and the final hand must consist of two cards from the player's hand and three cards from the table.

Joining a Table

To begin playing, join the table by clicking any available seat. If you are already logged in to the poker room, you will be prompted to log in with your casino username and password. If you have not logged in yet, you will be prompted to log in twice: once with your poker username and password, and once with your casino username and password. Your casino account must be active in order to play poker (if you can't log in to the casino site, you won't be able to log in to the poker room). After you login, you will be prompted to specify how much you want to buy-in for.

The "buy-in" is the amount of money you want to bring to the table, and the minimum buy-in in a limit game is typically ten times the minimum bet for the table. Different tables may have different minimum and maximum buy-in amounts. You can choose to buy-in with any amount you like within the minimum and maximum. When you submit your buy-in, the buy-in amount is transferred from your casino account to the table. When you leave the table, your remaining chips are automatically transferred back to the casino account.

If you need more chips, you can buy-in for more money at any time by clicking the Get Chips button on the bottom right-hand corner of the poker table window. Your total chips on the table cannot exceed the maximum buy in amount.

Playing Omaha

After you've taken a seat at a table and bought in, as long as there is at least one other player sitting in at the table, the game will begin (unless you are playing in a scheduled tournament, in which case you will wait until the designated start time). The player to the dealer's left must post the small blind, and the player two seats to the left of the dealer must post the big blind (the white disk, or button, on the table indicates the dealer position).

Hole Cards

After the blinds are posted, four cards are dealt face down to each player in clockwise manner, starting with the player to the left of the dealer button. Omaha is played with a single deck of cards, shuffled every game. You can see your cards, but not anybody else's.

The player to the left of the player who posted the big blind starts the betting. The player may call the big blind, raise any amount within the raise limit guidelines for the game, or fold and surrender his hand. The betting proceeds clockwise around the table and continues until all players have either bet the same amount of money or folded. In Limit games, bets and raises are restricted to one bet and three subsequent raises per round (on the initial deal, the big blind is counted as the first bet). If no player raises the big blind by the time the betting returns to the player who posted it, the player that posted the big blind can either check his own blind, raise, or even fold if he wants.

If no player calls the big blind amount, the player who posted the big blind wins the pot.

Flop

After the hole card betting round completes, the first three community cards, or the flop, are dealt face up on the table. All players can see these cards. Betting begins again with the first active player to the left of the dealer. All players may raise, call, or fold.

When all players have either folded, called the last raiser, or put all of their chips in the pot, the betting round is complete and the cards are dealt for the next round.

Turn

After the flop betting round completes, one more card is dealt face up on the table, called the turn card. All players can see this card. Betting begins again with the first active player to the left of the dealer. The betting process is the same as after the flop, except in Limit poker all bets must be made at the higher bet limit.

When all players have either folded, called the last raiser, or put all of their chips in the pot, the betting round is complete and the cards are dealt for the next round.

River

After the turn betting round, one last card is dealt face up on the table, called the river card. No more cards are dealt. All players can see this card. Betting begins again with the first active player to the left of the dealer. The betting process is the same as after the flop, except in Limit poker all bets must be made at the higher bet limit.

When all players have either folded, called the last raiser, or put all of their chips in the pot, the betting round is complete and the cards are dealt for the next round.

After betting concludes the showdown occurs.

Showdown

After the final betting round ends, the showdown occurs to determine the winner. Each player must make a hand consisting of two hole cards and three community cards. Any player earning a portion of their pot must display all of their hole cards.

The last winning player who raised displays his cards first - if no players have raised, then the first active player to the left of the dealer displays his cards first. All losing players have the option of choosing whether or not to display their hole cards.

The winning player receives the entire pot, less a small fee charged by the poker room, called a rake. Rake is charged as a small percentage of each pot and is based on the pot size and the number of players at the table. The amount of rake taken from each pot is displayed in the middle of the board, along with the pot size. For more information on rake, see the Rake page.

Last update 19 May, 2004