In the history of poker, there's of course the familiar Texas Hold'em, which became popular in Las Vegas before gradually gaining worldwide renown thanks to the WSOP from the 1970s onwards. But even if this remains the most famous poker game, it's certainly far from the only one!
What about the second most played poker variant in the world, Omaha poker? The least we can say is that this four-card poker game, which is enjoying growing success both online and in gambling establishments, has rather... obscure origins.
Much speculation... little certainty!
Let's face it, there's a lot of confusion about the origins of Omaha poker. For some, the name suggests that it originated in the Wild West, and owes its name to the town of Omaha on the plains of Nebraska.
For most, however, this is just a coincidence, and this poker variant is in fact much more recent. The history of Omaha dates back only to the very early 80s, in ... Las Vegas, and is therefore far more modern than the razz and badugi forms of poker, for example. In its early version, the maximum number of players was eight, and they were dealt five hole cards, before becoming more popular in its current four-card version.
Its origins could be linked to the game Twice Three, which was played in Chicago and Detroit at the time, but again, this is purely speculative. Omaha was even known by other names such as "Fort Worth" in Dallas, "Nine Cards" in Seattle and "Oklahoma Two by Four" in the city.... of Oklahoma, as you might have guessed!
Las Vegas, ever-present in poker history
So it was in Sin City that Omaha poker really took off. Legend has it that Robert Turner, winner of a WSOP bracelet in seven-card stud, introduced the game to William "Bill" Walter Boyd in Vegas. Boyd, who was then card room manager at the famous Golden Nugget Casino, officially introduced Omaha to the casino under the name "Nugget Hold'em".
It was at the Stardust casino, another Las Vegas gaming heavyweight, that the first Omaha poker tournaments were held in 1983. Such was its success that it was even dubbed "the game of the future". Traditional PLO has come a long way since then, and today there are even numerous variants, such as Omaha High Low, the no-limit version, five-card Omaha (the Big O), Courchevel and others.
An ever-growing success
In the end, success is hardly surprising, given the amount of extra action this variant brings compared with NL Hold'em poker. And as Robert Turner himself said, "In Hold'em, you never know if your hand is strong enough, in Omaha you know exactly where you stand".
Numerous players have contributed to making Omaha an integral part of the poker family, including Phil Ivey, Sammy Farha, Howard Lederer, Viktor Blom and, of course, Frenchman David "Napoleon" Benyamine, thanks to a string of memorable pots on $200/$400 limits.
Today, Omaha has become a very popular poker game, and is increasingly in demand both on online poker sites and in gaming clubs. The Club Pierre Charron understands this, as we offer Omaha on our tables every day. So if you're one of the many fans of four-card poker, you know where to go to play poker in Paris!
