Exchange Omaha Hi!

Over the past few years Omaha Hi has rapidly risen the ranks of popularity to contend with the Hold'ems of this World. The reason? It's just so damn exciting! The swings are massive and because of your extra two hole cards, the kind of hands that look like premiums in Hold'em often won't cut the mustard in this game!

How did Omaha come about? It seems that there's no clear answer to this. It is thought that the game was derived from adapting variants of poker and borrowing elements of several other ancient card games.

Omaha Hi is commonly called a game of "the nuts" (the nuts: the strongest possible hand in a given situation). It is also a game where players can have drawing possibilities to multiple different types of outcomes (e.g. a hand may have a draw to a flush and a full house at the same time using different combinations of the cards on offer)

Omaha Hi tips

• Connecting cards are helpful. A hand like JT98 is a very good Omaha Hi hand because it affords the player with so many straight opportunities. Holding JT98 is far superior to holding QJ56 because you can build many multi-way straight possibilities with JT98. However, you cannot with QJ56.
• Low and mid pocket pairs are close to worthless. A hand like 5588 belongs in the muck. Even if you hit a set, you can easily lose to a higher set, straight, or flush.
• High pocket pairs are good. This is because they have the chance at building a big full house. If you do not hit a set with a big pair, the pair is essentially worthless.
• Suited cards should be treated with caution. One can call and draw to an ace high flush. However, drawing to any non-nut flush can be very foolish. Having non-ace high suited cards is only helpful for redraws, multiple draws (i.e. also having a straight draw), or back-door flush draws. One should never draw to just a flush that is not a nut flush.

Exchange Omaha Hi

Firstly here are a few brief points about Exchange Games:

• All four hands are visible at the table which makes it easier to choose the hand that you think will win or lose
• You can use your betfair account to play
• Join a game at any time of the day, all games are available 24 hours a day 7 days a week
• Watch a few games and see how quickly the odds can change
• When you're comfortable aim to lock in a guaranteed profit before the game has ended
• Each game only goes for about 2 to 4 minutes
• Bet on more than one hand at any one time
• Bet while the game is being played (In-play)
• Other games are available; Exchange Hold'em, Exchange Blackjack, Exchange Baccarat and Exchange Hi Lo

Here's how Exchange Omaha Hi is played. Four hands are dealt four cards face up (as opposed to two in Exchange Hold'em); these two extra cards increase the amount of possible winning outcomes for each hand. These extra possibilities create huge swings in the market which gives you a greater chance to lock in a guaranteed profit. In total there are up to four betting rounds per game (deal, pre-flop, flop, turn). Each betting round lasts for about 30 seconds which gives you plenty of time to place your bets.

So if you're keen to try a game or two, visit Betfair Games for all the action.