omaha

omaha — noun

1. a card game in the poker family where each player is dealt four private cards fa

1.nounC2
Definition

a card game in the poker family where each player is dealt four private cards face down and must build a hand using exactly two of them together with three of five shared cards turned face up in the middle of the table.

Example

Minho prefers omaha to Texas hold'em because four hole cards open more winning lines.

comparison: omaha vs Texas hold'em

On Friday night the four friends played omaha at the kitchen table until almost two.

collocation: play omaha

Common collocations
  • play omaha
  • a hand of omaha
  • an omaha table
  • pot-limit omaha
  • omaha hi-lo
Synonyms
  • Omaha hold'em

    the full formal name; 'omaha' is the everyday short form

  • PLO

    stands for 'pot-limit Omaha', the most popular betting format among serious players

Grammar Patterns

play omaha

a hand of omaha

Usage Note

Often capitalised as 'Omaha' because the name comes from a place. The full label is 'Omaha hold'em', and the most common variants are 'pot-limit Omaha' (PLO) and 'Omaha hi-lo'. Always uncountable when naming the game itself, but countable in phrases like 'a hand of omaha' or 'an omaha table'.

Common Mistakes

I played an omaha last night.
I played omaha last night.' or ✅ 'I played a hand of omaha last night.
the game name itself is uncountable; use 'a hand of' or 'a game of' to count rounds.
In omaha you can use any number of your hole cards.
In omaha you must use exactly two of your hole cards.
this two-card rule is the defining difference from Texas hold'em.

Word family

  • Omaha hold'em
    nounC2
  • PLO
    nounC2

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

All four are well-known poker variants, but they differ in how cards are dealt and which hand wins. 'Omaha' gives each player four private cards and requires using exactly two of them with three shared community cards — the four-card start makes huge hands more frequent than in other games. 'Texas hold'em' is the most famous variant: only two private cards, and players may use any combination of their hole cards and the five shared cards, which keeps the maths simpler for beginners. 'Seven-card stud' has no community cards at all; each player builds a five-card hand from seven dealt to them, some face up and some face down. 'Razz' is a stud variant where the lowest hand wins instead of the highest. Casual players usually start with Texas hold'em, then move to omaha for bigger swings, and try stud or razz once they want a change of rhythm.

omaha ↗texas hold'emseven-card studrazz

Common collocations

Nouns

Phrases

  • pot-limit omaha
  • omaha hi-lo
  • play omaha
  • a hand of omaha
  • an omaha tournament

Prepositions

  • of (a hand of omaha)
  • at (play at the omaha table)

Etymology

Siouan (Omaha-Ponca)American English

The poker game takes its name from the city of Omaha, Nebraska, although it was not invented there. Card-room lore traces an early form of the game to Detroit and later Las Vegas in the 1970s, where the variant 'Omaha hold'em' was named — possibly in tribute to gamblers travelling the Omaha route, possibly just as a flavourful Midwestern label. The city name itself comes from the indigenous Omaha people of the Missouri River valley; in their own Siouan language the word relates to a phrase meaning roughly 'those going against the current'. Once the casino label stuck, English speakers shortened the game name to plain 'omaha'.