Best Omaha Poker Sites and Omaha History
Omaha is the second most popular form of poker played online, and the same is probably true live as well. For those not familiar with Omaha, it's a community card game played much like Texas Hold'em. The difference is Omaha has players starting with four hole cards and at showdown they must use exactly two of their four hole cards and exactly three of the five community cards to make the best five card poker hand.
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Split Pot Omaha, known as Omaha Hi/Lo, Omaha Eight or Better, or simply O8 is also popular both live and online. In this version the pot is split between the high hand winner, and the player making the best low according to "eight or better" lowball hand rankings. The best possible low hand is A-2-3-4-5 as in this ranking system straights, nor flushes, are considered when analyzing a low hand. The worst possible qualified low is 4-5-6-7-8 as this would lose to any other qualified low hand. For a hand to qualify it must consist of five unique cards under eight. When more than one hand qualifies we examine first the highest of each player's five cards, if they are the same we then look at the second highest, so on and so forth until it is determined who has the lowest hand. If no hand qualifies for low the entire pot will be won by the high hand winner. Also, it is important to note: a player can use a different combination of hole and board cards to compete for each pot, or can use the same in cases such as straights or flushes involving low cards.
Play Omaha Online
If your plan is to put a serious effort into multi-tabling Omaha online then you have only a couple choices of Omaha Poker sites. The best poker sites for Omaha are PokerStars (#1) and Full Tilt Poker #2 as these are the only sites with enough volume to support a player looking to multi table Omaha. To give an idea of the traffic on 11:30PM Eastern Time on a Friday night in late 2025 here is a snap shot of the traffic.
PokerStars Omaha Traffic:
Pot Limit Omaha (PLO): 1158 players spanning 212 tables.
Fixed Limit Omaha Hi/Lo: 343 players spanning 47 tables.
Pot Limit Omaha Hi/Lo: 419 players spanning 71 tables.
No Limit Omaha Hi/Lo: 188 players spanning 25 tables.
Full Tilt Omaha Traffic
Pot Limit Omaha (PLO): 638 players spanning 130 tables.
Rush Poker Omaha: 255 Players in 3 Rush Pools.
Fixed Limit Omaha Hi/Lo: 78 players spanning 14 tables.
Pot Limit Omaha Hi/Lo: 155 players spanning 20 tables.
No Limit Omaha Hi/Lo: 65 players spanning 13 tables.
If you're a recreational player and enjoy the games with a $25-$100 max buy-in we strongly suggest sportsbook. The poker games at sportsbook are probably the softest online, unfortunately the volume is rather low and tops out around the $100 buy in game ($0.50/$1.00 blinds) where only one or two tables run. We do stress though you'll be hard pressed to find an easier game to beat.
One other site with low volume and soft games is Bodog. Here however you'll generally always find $400 and $600 buy-in games running. So if you like soft games and higher stakes and can deal with the lower player volume then Bodog would likely be the best poker site for you.
Once again those serious about multi-tabling Omaha poker online can get start at pokerstars.
Now that we've covered where to Play Omaha online we'll get into the history of Omaha Poker.
Omaha Poker History
Despite being a relatively new game, when compared to others, the origins of Omaha Poker are not well known. From memory when I studied this topic several years ago, I learned it was played in private backroom games during the 1970's, made its way to Las Vegas in the 1980's, and 1984 WSOP Main Event champion Jack Keller helped get the game spread in London's Victoria Club which then led to it being popular throughout Europe.
When Google searching this topic, I found additional information posted by Shirley Rosario on a Robert Turner Bio. She claims years ago while working from the Golden Nugget a female player from Seattle started talking to Turner about a game she played with four cards. He then went to the director of poker operations Bill Boyd and talked to him about spreading the game. Once approved by the Nevada Gaming board it was spread at the Golden Nugget under the name "Nugget Hold'em".
Both stories tie together once I read an archived Card Player article by Bob Ciaffone dated April 26, 2025. Ciaffone shares having played a variation of the game in Michigan during the 1970's called "two by three" that had the community cards dealt one at a time as opposed to using a flop. He first heard of Omaha in Las Vegas in 1982 just after the World Series had ended, he is not clear in his article if this was at the The Golden Nugget or not. He does mention Bobby Turner and an Asian female player from Seattle named Gwen (nicknamed "The Lady Dragon") played it heads up for a while at the Golden Nugget and eventually it became a regularly spread game. According to Ciaffone the Golden Nugget tried branding the game as Nugget Hold'em but the game was already known with players from Oregon and Washington calling it "nine-card", those from the south having regional names, but the regulars in Vegas all called it Omaha.
The story of Pot-Limit Omaha (the most commonly played version) is also shared by Bob Ciaffone. This game developed very shortly after the Nugget Hold'em game when in Jan 1983, early into a tournament Blackey Blackburn hosted a the Stardust Hotel and Casino called the Stairway to the Stars a $5-$10-$25 blinds no-limit Omaha was spread. Blackey was the best player in the game having apparently played a fair amount of in Oklahoma. This game caught on and money changed hands by the thousands. After a few days there were several No-Limit Omaha games to choose from at the Stardust, and a week or so later it was decided the game would be better as Pot-Limit. Most players agreed and there you have it, this is the most credible story to Pot-Limit Omaha origins and will remain the one told unless someone has a legit challenge to it.
As far as Omaha's history at the WSOP, the first ever Omaha WSOP event was at the 1983 World Series. This was a $1,000 buy-in fixed limit event which was won by David Sklansky. In 1984 the first Pot-Limit Omaha event was hosted and Dewey Tomko picked up his third career bracelet and second of the series when he won that event taking home $105,000 and the title as the first ever Pot-Limit Omaha World Champion. In 1985 there were three Omaha tournaments on the WSOP schedule and the championship event saw Amarillo Slim capture the title. Omaha Hi/Lo was added to the WSOP schedule in 1990 was a big success and remained an event each year thereafter.
To play Omaha online, get started at pokerstars
