Omaha Poker has its own vocabulary, acronyms and phases. Our handy Omaha Poker Glossary has collected these into one place for your easy reference – bookmark this page now for future reference.
A-A-x-x : Refers to any Omaha Poker Starting Hands containing 2 aces and 2 other unrelated cards. This can be used for other combinations too, for example K-K-J-x or A-2-3-x (in Omaha Hi-Lo) The ‘x’ indicates an unconnected or unimportant card in the hand.
Bare Aces: Omaha hands which contain 2 aces but no other cards which would be expected to help your winning chances. For example A-A-7-2 of different suits, bare aces are potential trouble hands in Omaha poker.
Bare Ace Bluff: Making a bluff to represent the nut flush while you hold only the ace of the suit in question. Many opponents will fold non-nut flushes to a big bet, making this a positive equity play in the right circumstances – not recommended for lower limit online PLO games.
Blockers: When you hold 2 or 3 of the key cards needed for your opponents to make a straight or flush your hand is said to contain blockers. For example you check in the blinds with J-J-J-3 and the flop comes 10-Q-K you have 3 cards needed to make straights which your opponents are likely drawing to. See Blockers In Pot-Limit Omaha for more details.
Bet The Pot: In pot limit Omaha the bet sizes range from the size of the big blind to the size of the current pot. Betting the pot assumes you have already called your opponents bet. For example if the pot were $10 and your opponent bets pot for $10 more, your pot size bet assumes you called his $10 first – the new pot sized raise is thus $30.
Cap-Limit Betting: Currently unique to the Full Tilt Poker Omaha game selection. Cap Limit games specify a maximum that can be bet on each hand, this leads to strategy adjustments as you can easily run out chips to bet by the turn.
Coordinated Starting Hands: With 4 Omaha Hole Cards, 2 of which must be used at showdown together with 3 from the board – there are 6 potential 2-card combinations. Coordinated starting hands have cards close in rank and of 2 suits which give the maximum number of ways to hit the flop, increasing their strength.
Counterfeited / Counterfeiting : This is common in Omaha Hi-Lo 8-or Better games, and usually occurs with the low side of the pot. For example you have A-2-K-K and the flop comes 4-5-8, here you have the best low hand with A-2-4-5-8. However, any ace or two on the turn or river may counterfeit your low, giving someone with A-3 the nut-low instead. For this reason the very best Omaha Hi-Lo starting hands have back-up for the low in the form of another card below 5.
Dangler: A card which does not work well with the 3 other starting cards in your hand. For example J-10-9-2 contains a ‘dangler’ in the form of the 2, this greatly reduces the potential strength of your starting hand.
Double Suited: Omaha starting hands which contain 2 suits are said to be ‘double suited’, they have the potential to make 2 different flushes by the river. Double suitedness, particularly with the ace of each suit, adds a lot of value to Omaha hands. See our analysis on ‘How Much Difference Do Double Suited Cards Make?’ for more information.
High-Only Hand: This refers to a hand played in Omaha Hi-Lo which has no potential to make a low. 30% of Omaha Hi-Lo hands will have no low hands possible, meaning it is possible to scoop with a high-only hand such as A-A-K-J.
‘HA’ : A Mixed Poker game involving equal rounds (10 hands each is common) of Pot-Limit Texas Holdem and Pot-Limit Omaha.
‘HO’ : A Mixed Poker game involving equal rounds of Fixed-Limit Holdem and Fixed-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo, for more information see our guide to HO Poker At Full Tilt.
HOSE: Mixed game involving rounds of Holdem, Omaha Hi-Lo, 7-Card Stud and 7-Card Stud Hi-Lo.
HORSE: Same as HOSE but includes a round of Razz (lowball 7-card stud).
Killer Card: A card which will leave an opponent drawing against you dead, usually describes the situation in which you are an underdog with a made hand and wish to calculate the number of outs (for example to a full house) which would ‘kill’ your opponents draw. See our Omaha Killer Cards article for more.
OOP: Out of Position. This means you are acting before your opponents after the flop – a huge disadvantage in all forms of Omaha Poker.
Omaha Hi-Lo Split 8-or-Better: The full title given to Omaha High-Low! The 8-or better is specified as the original ‘hi-lo’ split poker games did not have a qualification rule for the low. See our Omaha Hi-Lo section for strategy articles.
Omaha Indicator: Leading Omaha Software tool which acts as both an odds calculator and real-time advisor, providing stats on your opponents to help you decide how best to play against them. Read more in our Omaha Indicator Review
PLO: Acronym used for Pot-Limit Omaha High, this is the most popular form of Omaha Poker at Online Omaha Poker sites.
PLO8: Acronym for the Pot-Limit version of Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or better. Gaining in popularity, this form of Omaha Poker sees some huge pots compared to the size of the initial stakes.
Quartered: Specific to the Hi-Lo game this describes the situation in which you share one side of the pot, with the other side going to an opponent. This usually happens when the low side is split (for example 2 players both have A-2 for the nut low). Avoiding getting quartered can greatly improve your Omaha Hi-Lo profits. See our article on How To Avoid Being Quartered In Omaha Hi-Lo for more.
Scoop / Scooping: In Omaha Hi-Lo the objective for every hand you play should be to ‘scoop’, this involves winning both the high and low sides of the pot with the same hand – for example a flush (for high) along side the nut-low. Read our article on Scooping In Omaha Hi-Lo for more.
Short-Stacking: A system of playing Pot-Limit Omaha made famous by Rolf Slothboom, involves buying in for the minimum and looking to check-raise all-in against deep stacked opponents. See our guide to Short-Stacking In PLO for more information.
Wheel: This term actually describes a specific hand A-2-3-4-5 in Omaha Hi-Lo, this is the best possible low hand, and is also a small straight which can often win the high side of the pot.
Wrap: Describes a straight draw several outs more than a traditional ‘open-ended’ straight. For example if you hold 6-7-10-J on a flop of 2-8-9 then there would be any 5, 6, 7, 10, J or Q as an out for the straight (whether this is the nuts is a different question).
