The games · Coolhand Poker

Six-Card Omaha

Omaha with six cards in hand and fifteen pairings to choose from, so made hands run big.

18+ · Nothing to win but the hand.

Players: 2 to 7
Family: Flop Games
App: Coolhand Poker · iOS and Android, soon

How it goes

Six cards face down in your hand, five shared cards face up in the middle, and a round of offers at each stage (tokens into the pool, matched or passed). The rule is Omaha's: your final hand is exactly two of your own cards plus exactly three from the middle. With six cards there are fifteen ways to pick your two, which is what makes it a different game. Somebody almost always has something big, and the highest hand at the reveal takes the pool.

A good hand

Only the very best hands: the top flush, the top full house, four of a kind. With fifteen pairings in every hand at the table, somebody usually holds the best possible hand the middle allows, so that has to be you. A merely good hand is about to be shown something better. Play for the top of whatever the middle makes possible.

The usual mistake

Chasing the second-best version of anything. A king-high flush feels huge and loses more often than not, because someone with fifteen pairings has usually found the ace. A run is rarely the best hand when two cards in the middle share a rank or three share a suit, since a full house or a flush is likely out there.

Played differently where you are?

Card games change from table to table, and we researched some of these games instead of playing them. If Six-Card Omaha goes differently where you play it, tell us. That's one of the things the closed beta is for.

The closed beta is by invitation. How to ask to join.