Online poker gambling takes many different forms

One of the biggest changes in our gambling habits brought about by the introduction of online casinos has been the resurgence of poker gambling in Ireland. Some would say that the popularity of gambling on poker started when tournament poker began to be televised, but most now believe that the biggest boost to poker as a mainstream gambling pursuit came with the increasing availability of casino gambling online. Tournament poker is generally confined to the Texas Hold’em poker format using community cards and multiple betting rounds to boost the pot and improve the quality of the hands, but Texas Hold’em is not the only community card poker gambling format available online. In fact online casino gambling offers a wide variety of poker gambling games ranging from that old favourite of American westerns, Draw poker to 5-card and 7-card Stud and then to another community card poker format called Omaha poker. Although similar in many ways to Texas Hold’em poker, gambling on Omaha poker does have its own quirks particularly when assessing the potential for a winning hand. We have detailed the rules and some strategies associated with Omaha poker gambling on our casino games pages, but there are two major differences between the two poker formats. Firstly, when gambling on Omaha poker each player is dealt four cards face down instead of two, and they must use two and only two of those cards in their final showdown hand. It is this second criteria which has the greatest influence on how to play Omaha poker. Take for example a situation where a player is holding three of a kind, but only two of these can be used in the final hand and there is only one left in the deck as a possible community card, so the hand may not be as good as it appears. Those new to gambling on Omaha poker should also be aware that there is no chance of two flushes of different suits in the showdown, because three of the community cards must be used in every hand. Omaha poker gambling is great fun, but beware the fundamental differences between these two community card poker formats.