Omaha has 4 Hole Cards instead of 2
The biggest difference between Omaha and Texas Hold’em is with how many hole cards players are dealt. In Texas Hold’em, players receive two hole cards while Omaha players are dealt 4 hole cards. As you might expect, this alters the strategy between the two games quite a bit.
Omaha involves a lot more three-of-a-kinds, straights, flushes, and full houses since players have two extra hole cards in their hand. This being the case, top pair and two-pair are rarely ever the best hand in Omaha. Contrast this to Texas Hold’em where you can win a decent amount of pots on the river when you’re holding top pair or a two-pair.
Omaha Players must use Two Hole Cards
Texas Hold’em rules state that players can use any combination of their two hole cards and the five cards on the board to make a hand. Omaha, on the other hand, forces players to use two hole cards (no more, no less) and three cards from the board.
This rule is a problem for a lot of Omaha beginners since they mistakenly assume that they can use 4 or 5 cards from the board to make a hand. For instance, someone might think they have a straight if the board reads K-J-10-9-4, and they have a queen in their hand. But in reality, they only have four cards to a straight.
Omaha is a Drawing Game
As mentioned before, hands will be much stronger in Omaha than they are in Texas Hold’em. For this reason, players are always trying to draw for the best possible hand they can form. So you normally don’t see a lot of heavy pre-flop betting or raising by people with pocket aces or kings.
In fact, pocket aces and kings aren’t really that great of hands in Omaha since pairs are rarely worth anything. Experienced Omaha players are usually attempting to turn their hand into a straight or flush by the river.
