Rules of Poker · Chapter 30 · 2026 edition
Omaha is dealt and bet like Texas Hold'em, but each player gets four hole cards. At showdown you must use exactly two of your own cards and exactly three from the board.
The sections below cover four-, five-, and six-card Omaha and double-board games. Omaha Hi-Lo is in Omaha Hi-Lo and Big O and Courchevel in Courchevel. Other shared rules follow Texas Hold'em (Texas Hold'em).
Omaha uses a standard 52-card deck and seats two to ten players. A full table of ten takes 40 hole cards; with five board cards and three burns that is 48, leaving four in the deck.
Source: pagat.com, Omaha, "Players and Cards"; Robert's Rules of Poker v11, Section 6, "Omaha" (introduction).
Each player is dealt four cards face down. The board then comes as in Hold'em: a burn and three cards for the flop, a burn and one card for the turn, a burn and one card for the river, with a betting round after each stage (20.3).
Source: pagat.com, Omaha, "The Deal and Betting"; Robert's Rules of Poker v11, Section 6, "Omaha" (introduction).
Omaha is usually played with two blinds and no ante. The player left of the big blind acts first before the flop, the big blind keeps its option to raise, and on later streets the first player still in left of the button acts first. Heads-up, the button posts the small blind (20.4 to 20.7). Robert's Rules says every Hold'em rule applies to Omaha except playing the board.
Source: pagat.com, Omaha, "The Deal and Betting"; Robert's Rules of Poker v11, Section 6, "Omaha" rule 1.
Omaha is most often played pot-limit, which is why it is so often called PLO (pot-limit Omaha): you may bet or raise up to the size of the pot. In a pot with 100-200 blinds, the first player to act can raise to 700: the 200 to call, plus the 500 that would then be in the pot. The TDA uses that very Omaha example for its pot-limit rule. How to work out a pot-sized bet in every case is Betting structures. Omaha can also be played fixed-limit.
Source: pagat.com, Omaha, "The Deal and Betting"; TDA 2026 (Version 1.1), Rule 56-B.
Your hand is always five cards: exactly two of your four hole cards and exactly three of the five board cards. Not one from your hand and four from the board, not three and two. You choose which two and which three, so with four hole cards there are six pairs to try against the ten possible sets of three from the board. The two cards you don't use play no part.
Source: Robert's Rules of Poker v11, Section 6, "Omaha" (introduction); pagat.com, Omaha, "The Showdown".
A board with four hearts doesn't give you a flush if you hold one heart. You can use only three board cards, so you need two hearts of your own. Example: the board is the king, nine, seven and four of hearts and the jack of clubs. A player holding the ace of hearts with three black cards has no flush. A player holding the six and two of hearts has a king-high flush: the king, nine and seven from the board with their six and two.
Source: Robert's Rules of Poker v11, Section 6, "Omaha" (introduction) and rule 1; pagat.com, Omaha, "The Showdown".
The same goes for straights. If the board is 5-6-7-8-K, one 9 or one 4 in your hand does nothing, because you can't use four board cards. You need two hole cards that fit with three board cards: 9-10 makes 6-7-8-9-10, and 4-3 makes 3-4-5-6-7.
Source: Robert's Rules of Poker v11, Section 6, "Omaha" (introduction); pagat.com, Omaha, "The Showdown".
The three-from-the-board rule also limits what a paired board gives you:
Source: Robert's Rules of Poker v11, Section 6, "Omaha" (introduction); pagat.com, Omaha, "The Showdown".
In Hold'em five board cards can be your whole hand (20.11). In Omaha that is impossible: every hand contains two of your own cards. So a board of A-K-Q-J-10 does not give everyone a straight; only a player holding two cards that make a straight or better with three of those board cards has one.
Source: Robert's Rules of Poker v11, Section 6, "Omaha" rule 1.
To win any part of the pot you table all four hole cards, not just the two you are using. The TDA's definition of tabling a hand names all four cards for Omaha, and Robert's Rules asks for the whole four-card hand. Show order, ties and splitting the pot are Showdown and Pots.
Source: TDA 2026 (Version 1.1), Rule 14-A; Robert's Rules of Poker v11, Section 6, "Omaha" (introduction); pagat.com, Omaha, "The Showdown".
The classic Omaha dispute is a player who turns over one heart on a four-heart board, or one card to a four-card straight, and claims the pot. The cards speak: the hand is read as exactly two plus three, whatever its player says, and the claim doesn't bind anyone (Showdown). The reverse mistake is as common: a player mucks a winning hand, such as a low full house, because they read it the Hold'em way. Table all four cards and let them be read.
Source: TDA 2026 (Version 1.1), Rules 13 and 14-B; Robert's Rules of Poker v11, Section 3, "The Showdown" rule 2.
Five-card Omaha deals five hole cards instead of four. Everything else is the same, including the exactly-two-and-three rule: you now pick your two from ten possible pairs. The extra card strains the deck. Nine players take 45 hole cards, which with five board cards leaves just two, not enough for three burns, so rooms that burn seat fewer. PokerStars, which added five-card Omaha online in 2013, spread it pot-limit on six-player tables.
Source: pagat.com, Omaha, "Five Card Omaha"; pokerfuse, "PokerStars to debut poker variants Five Card Omaha, Courchevel" (2013).
Six-card Omaha deals six hole cards, and the hand is still exactly two of them with three from the board. pagat.com gives it no rules beyond that, and rooms decide the rest themselves, table size above all: six cards each for seven players plus five board cards and three burns is 50 cards, so seven is about the most a 52-card deck can deal. pagat.com's note on Binglao, a mix that includes six-card hands, makes the same point about seven players.
In double-board Omaha the dealer puts out two separate boards, each with its own flop, turn and river, and there is one betting round per street covering both. You make a hand on each board separately from the same hole cards, exactly two of yours with three of that board's cards each time. A card on one board never combines with a card on the other. The usual form is pot-limit, four cards, sometimes five.
At showdown the pot is divided in two: half goes to the best hand on the first board and half to the best hand on the second. A player who wins both boards takes it all, called a scoop. A tie on one board splits that board's half. Side pots are each divided the same way (Pots). The rule for an odd chip between the boards is a house matter; give it to the first board dealt unless your house rules say otherwise.
Source: Card Player, "There's A Lot To Consider In Double Board Bomb Pot Pot-Limit Omaha"; Robert's Rules of Poker v11, Section 3, "Ties" rule 5(d).
A bomb pot is a home-game and card-room custom in which everyone antes, there is no pre-flop betting, and the hand starts on the flop. It is very often dealt as pot-limit Omaha, frequently with two boards. Card Player's example: eight players ante $10 each, so the pot is $80 and the first bet on the flop can be up to $80. Bomb pots in general are Home-game customs.
Source: Card Player, "There's A Lot To Consider In Double Board Bomb Pot Pot-Limit Omaha".
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