Rules «Omaha Hi»

The objective of the game is to collect the highest combination from 5 cards among all other players.

Players must use two pocket cards and three community cards to make up their hand.

The game starts with a dealer. The dealer is marked by a sign «D» at the game table. The dealer moves clockwise from a player to a player.

Game rules

Two players sitting to the left of the dealer bet both blindly (before cards deal). A player sitting to the left of the dealer bets a Small Blind. And the player sitting next to him bets a Big Blind. As a rule, small and big blinds are related as 1/2, 1/3 depending on the stakes value. The big blind stake is equal to the bottom game limit and the small blind stake is equal to the half of the big blind.

After that the dealer deals four face down cards to each player.

For simplicity of understanding the game will be divided into 5 stages:

1. Preflop - players are betting basing on their four cards. Stakes are done clockwise and the first betting player is the one who sits to the left of the big blind. Each player has the right:
   • To fold - cards without doing stakes;
   • To call – the stake needs to be not less then the big blind;
   • To check – not to bet but to stay in the game. It is possible if a player in the current betting round did already a stake equal to the last stake done before him;
   • To raise - if one of players decided to raise then form that moment for all players wishing to continue the game, the size of this raise is a checkpoint for the following game stage. Players need to call or to re-raise or fold.
   
   All players act like this before the blinds. If the small blind decided to play then he simply calls (equalize his blind up to the big blind). Big blind automatically passes to the following game stage if there was no raise. Otherwise, the player on a big blind needs to call (equalize his blind up to the raise) or fold.
   Betting is going on until all remained in the game players equalize their stakes. Betting is usually goes on not more than three rounds. Last action has a player who bet a big blind.


2. Flop - after equalizing the stakes go to the pot and three cards are dealt face-up on the board. These three cards are available to all players still in the hand. The betting options are similar to pre-flop – a player sitting to the left from the big blind starts. All actions are similar to pre-flop round. Betting round is repeated, stakes are equalized, pot is formed.


3. Turn - one more card is dealt face-up on the board. All actions are similar to pre-flop round.


4. River - last card is dealt face-up on the board. All actions are similar to the previous rounds.


5. Showdown - those players who passed all previous stages show their cards and compare their combinations. The player with the best five-card hand wins the pot. If all players folded then the last left player wins.

Versions

There are two versions of «Omaha Hi» differing with stake limits:

1. Limit Poker - there is a certain limit of stakes in every betting round.
2. Pot-Limit poker - players can bet any available money at any betting round. The stake limit shouldn’t be bigger then the pot. When raising the equalising stake (call) is summed up to the money in the pot. Stakes structure for Pot-Limit Omaha Hi is similar to Pot-Limit Texas Holdem). In Pot-Limit game, the player who left the table with a sum that excess of the amount at the time of boarding, can sit at the same table or with the same amount (at the time of leaving the table), or an hour later with a smaller amount.

Cards ranking can be seen on a page «Poker hands».