Cold Omaha Rules

Cold Omaha was contributed to pagat.com by Brett Johnson. It follows the rules of Omaha Hi-Lo (Omaha eight or better) except as stated here.

Five to ten players may take part. A minimum of five is needed, because the discards must supply the five board cards.

The game uses a standard 52-card deck with no jokers and no wild cards. High hands rank according to the standard poker hand rankings; low hands are ranked ace-to-five and must be eight or better, as in Omaha Hi-Lo.

Forced bets are posted as in Omaha Hi-Lo, or as the dealer announces before the deal.

The dealer deals five cards face down to each player, one more than in standard Omaha. The rest of the deck is set aside and takes no further part in the hand.

Each player looks at their cards and discards one of them face down to the centre of the table, keeping four.

The dealer gathers the discards and shuffles them. They become the stock from which the whole board is dealt.

With exactly five players, every discard will appear on the board. With more players, some discards will not be used.

Betting on each round follows the rules of Omaha Hi-Lo.

The source does not mention burn cards. With only five players the stock holds exactly five cards, so no card can be burned; the dealer shall announce before the deal whether cards are burned with larger tables.

Each player still in the hand makes a high hand and, if they can, a low hand, each using exactly two of their four cards and exactly three board cards.

The best high hand wins half the pot and the best qualifying low hand wins the other half. If no hand qualifies for low, the best high hand wins the whole pot.

Every player knows one card that may reach the board: their own discard. With five players it certainly will, so the discard can be chosen to help one's own hand.

A player dealt three cards of one suit, or three of a kind, can discard one of them and so keep a chance that it returns on the board.