OMAHA: THE RULES
This is a game that is very similar to Texas Hold 'Em. The difference is that each player is dealt 4 hole cards rather than 2, and they must use 2 of them to make up the best five card hand. Notice that in Hold 'Em players can use just one or even none of their cards as part of their hand, whereas with Omaha they must use exactly 2 of their hole cards as part of the hand.
THE DEALER BUTTON
The position of the dealer button dictates the betting position of each of the players in the game for that hand. The hand is dealt as if the player with the dealer button had actually dealt out the cards. After every hand the button is moved round to the next player in clockwise direction. It is usually simply known as the button.
THE BLINDS
Before any cards are dealt the blinds are put into the pot. This is to get the betting going, so no-one can go into the second betting round without having put any money into the pot. Firstly is the small blind posted by the player to the immediate left of the dealer button, and also the big blind by the player 2 seats to the left of the button. In a fixed limit game the big blind will be the same size as the small bet and the small blind will usually be half of the big blind.
THE CARDS
Once the dealer button and the blinds are in place the cards can be dealt to all the players in the hand, the first being dealt to the player in the small blind position and then clockwise round the table until each player has four 'hole' cards. After the first round of betting 3 more cards are dealt face up in the middle of the table, known as the 'flop', which are community cards that anyone can use to make their best 5 card hand. Then comes another betting round, followed by the fourth community card which is known as the 'turn'. Another round of betting follows and then comes the fifth and final community card, which is the 'river'. This is followed by the final betting round.
THE BETTING
The first round of betting happens when the players have got their first two hole cards, known as 'pre-flop'. Betting starts with the player to the left of the big blind. He can decide to fold, call or raise. The betting moves round in a clockwise direction. Each player must at least match the current bet to stay in the hand (unless he doesn't have enough chips in which case he must put them all in to continue). Each player has the option to fold, call or raise.
The second round happens once the flop has been dealt. Because the blinds are not present for this round, the betting starts with the player to the left of the dealer button, and progresses in the same way as the first.
The third round happens in the same way after the Turn card has been dealt.
The fourth and final round happens in the same way after the River card has been dealt.
If there are still 2 or more players in the hand after this final betting round then the hand goes to the 'Showdown', where the cards are shown and the player with the best hand wins the pot.
FIXED LIMIT
The stakes of these games are expressed as 2 amounts, known as the small bet and the large bet. For example £5 / £10.
The first two betting rounds you must use the first amount (in this example, £5) and the third and fourth rounds use the second amount (in this example, £10). Any bets or raises must be in increments of the amount appropriate for the current round.
The big blind is the same size as the small bet (so £5) and the small blind is usually half of that amount (£2.50).
There is a limit of 4 bets per round, so if a player bets out it can be raised, re-raised and then 'capped' with another re-raise. Once it has got to this level players must either call to carry on in the hand, or fold.
The exception to this is if there are only 2 players left in the hand, in which case there is no limit to the amount of re-raises. This is not the case on all sites.
POT LIMIT
In pot limit poker, any player can raise by a maximum of the current pot size, once their call has been made. Therefore if the pot is already £10 and a player bets into the hand with another £10, the next player can call the bet (£10) and raise by the pot size (£30), making it £40 in all.
NO LIMIT
No limit poker is exactly as it sounds. At any point any player can bet all of his chips when it is his turn to act. No-limit stakes are known by the size of the blinds, so in a £5 / £10 no limit game the small blind is £5 and the big blind is £10.
The player who bets first in each round must bet at least the size of the big blind.
Any raises must be at least the size of the previous bet or raise. So if a player bets £50, and an opponent wants to raise, it must be a raise of at least £50.
