Omaha is not only the largest city in the State if Nebraska, but it is also the name of a form of poker that uses community cards similar to the more famous relative Texas Hold’em Poker. Omaha is located in the Midwestern State of the US, alongside the Missouri River, but the name has no ties to the history of the game itself, unlike Texas Hold’em, which derives its name from Robstown, Texas.
Omaha is a form of Hold’em and in fact the game was originally known as Omaha Hold’em. More recently online poker players are more likely to name the game after the type of Omaha you play e.g. Pot Limit Omaha is known as the acronym PLO. There is no recorded reasoning as to where the name Omaha comes from and it seems just purely coincidental that the US has a state of the same name. The professional poker player and World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner Robert “Chip Burner” Turner introduced the game into the mainstream during the 1970s. At the time William “Bill” Walter Boyd (also a professional poker player) was Director of Operations at the Golden Nugget casino and Turner approached Boyd with the game and it was introduced at the tables of the casino under the name Nugget Hold’em.
Omaha is a game played all over the world including the realms of cyber-space. There are multiple derivatives of the game including Omaha hi-low split-8 or better, Pot Limit Omaha and No Limit Omaha. The game is most commonly played with each player being dealt four cards with five community cards shared by all players. Hands have to be made by using three community cards and two of the four cards held by each player.