Over the last 40 years, Omaha poker’s popularity has surged as a poker variant. While Hold’em might be the “Cadillac of Poker,” there are plenty of other cars on the road.
Omaha poker offers players more variety, particularly in online cardrooms when you need a break from two-card variants. Feeling tilted from too many bad beats in Hold’em? Shake things up with Omaha poker. With four hole cards, Omaha often boasts bigger pots and a very different playstyle.
But where did Omaha poker actually come from?
The Murky Origins of Omaha Poker and a Nebraska-Based Name That Doesn’t Quite Add Up
If Texas Hold’em is from Robstown, Texas, then Omaha poker must be from Omaha, Nebraska, right? Well, not quite. As much as the name conjures up an image of Wild West card tables, Omaha poker is actually a fairly new variant, and the name is more of a coincidence than a fact, according to poker historians.
Casino executive Robert Turner, widely credited as the game’s creator, introduced Omaha poker to Las Vegas through the Golden Nugget card room in the early 1980s. Poker Hall of Famer Bill Boyd managed the card room, and liked Turner’s game so much he began to offer it to his players. Boyd called it “Nugget Hold’em,” but somehow the name “Omaha” stuck.
The exact reason isn’t entirely clear. According to Turner, it’s because one of Boyd’s most frequent Nugget Hold’em players was a guy from Omaha, Nebraska. Somewhere along the way, the name stuck to the game, despite there being no other connection.
Around 1983, the Stardust Casino also started offering official Omaha tournaments, and the game took off from there, building a fanbase of dedicated players who enjoyed it.
The Origins of Omaha Hi-Lo
Omaha Hi-Lo is a split version of the standard Omaha game. The pot is divided between the best high and best low hand. This variant also comes from that same circle of Vegas card lovers. Around 1983, Turner ran a fourd-card split-pot game at the Super Bowl of Poker in Lake Tahoe, backed by another Poker Hall of Famer, Fred “Sarge” Ferris. Turner later brought another version of the split game to a card club in Gardena, California, in 1986.
From that point on, both Omaha High and Omaha Hi-Lo variants spread through California’s card rooms, swept across the country, and eventually appeared in online casinos around the globe.
By 1984, Pot-Limit Omaha was a regular addition to the World Series of Poker schedule, and it’s remained there every year since. In fact, it’s remained a WSOP staple for over 40 years running.
Notable Names in Omaha History
There are a few player names that stand out in Omaha. Boyd and Turner get most of the credit for getting Omaha off the ground, but others really shaped the game’s rise from there.
Chris “Jesus” Ferguson won the $1,500 Omaha Hi-Lo Split event at the 2001 WSOP, and Todd Brunson (son of two-time Main Event champion Doyle Brunson) added an Omaha Hi-Lo bracelet of his own in 2005.
With famous players like that contending for the top spot in the game, others started to see it as a serious test of skill and wanted to get in on the action. This helped it move out of the shadow of Hold’em and into the light.
The game has also had its share of underdog moments that helped build its reputation as a game that skilled amateurs could win. It wasn’t just for specialists. For example, in 2012, 71-year-old Alabama businessman Herbert Tapscott managed to beat a field with nearly a thousand players to win the WSOP $1,500 Omaha Hi-Lo bracelet. This sparked the dream for all kinds of hobbyists and grinders.
More recently, the PLO boom has produced its own stars. One of the top dogs at the time of this writing is Dylan Weisman, a two-time WSOP Pot-Limit Omaha bracelet winner, who just climbed to No. 2 on the all-time PLO money list after a deep run at a Triton Poker event in Montenegro in 2025. Indeed, he has said that “a lot of large cash games are PLO now and not Hold’em.” That’s a significant shift from prior years.
What’s the Draw of Omaha? Why Did It Grow?
The core appeal of Omaha poker is simple: the hands are bigger. With more hole cards, players tend to hit bigger hands. This means fewer pairs at showdown, and more straights, flushes, and full houses. This amps up the action, boosts the pot size, and just makes the game feel a lot “fuller” than a Hold’em game where people are trying to bluff each other with a high card. Really, a common strategy in Omaha is “nut peddling,” where players are chasing the best possible hand. Second-best straights and flushes are always a little bit suspect in poker, but they lose even more money in Omaha than in Hold’em due to the increased appearance of players holding the very best hands.
This also leads into how bet sizes are structured. A lot of players prefer Pot Limit Omaha so that they can keep a lid on things. PLO tends to produce more calculated decisions across betting rounds rather than the shove/fold style that is sometimes associated with no-limit Hold’em. If you’re good at Hold’em, but you’re craving a fresh strategic challenge, with more math, hand-reading, post-flop complexity, Omaha delivers.
Omaha Poker Variants
- Omaha Hi-Lo (Omaha/8 or Better). This game splits the pot between the best high hand and the best qualifying low hand (eight-high or better). It’s one of the mixed-game staples featured in H.O.R.S.E. and remains a mainstay of the WSOP schedule.
- Five-Card Omaha (“Big O”). This variation deals players five hole cards instead of four, adding even more combinations. Often, it is played Hi-Lo. It has become a regular game at the WSOP and is a favorite in some card rooms.
- Six-Card Omaha. Innovators just won’t stop adding cards to this game. To be on the cutting edge of poker, where things are honestly getting a little bit crazy, check it out.
- Courchevel. This game is popular in parts of Europe. It’s a five-card Omaha variant where the first flop card is dealt face-up before the pre-flop betting round even finishes.
From Late-Night Side Game to Respected Tournament Mainstay
Omaha’s growth didn’t happen overnight. For years it was treated as a niche alternative, more popular in European card rooms and mixed-game rotations than in official events. That’s shifted considerably since the 80s. Pot-Limit Omaha is now always available at the WSOP and WSOP Europe schedule.
There are dedicated bracelet events in both Omaha High and Omaha Hi-Lo. Omaha poker has become one of the signature games of high-stakes televised poker, featured prominently in major festivals around the world.
Perhaps the clearest sign of Omaha’s momentum is what’s happening in the highest-stakes cash games, who often lead the way in bringing the game to new places. A
growing share of the largest private and streamed cash games now run PLO instead of Hold’em. Recreational players who once stuck strictly to two-card poker have increasingly grown comfortable with Omaha.
It’s unlikely PLO will overtake No-Limit Hold’em anytime soon, but its trajectory over the past decade has been incredible.
