Omaha is a young game, relatively speaking, having only first been introduced in the early 1980s. The game was a relative rarity in poker rooms during those early years, although today has emerged as one of the most popular games played both online and in brick-and-mortar poker rooms.
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Historians have debated over the origins of poker, and while various theories have been proposed with regard to where the game actually started, most suggest that the game that eventually became poker likely started in China during the 9th or 10th centuries. The game played then actually used small blocks that resembled dominoes, though had some of the early features of modern day playing cards.
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Omaha poker was first introduced in Vegas cardrooms in the early 1980s.  It was 1983 when Omaha was first played at the World Series of Poker at Binion’s Horseshoe Casino.  The $1,000 buy-in limit Omaha event was won by noted poker author David Sklansky, who beat Perry Green heads up for the bracelet and the $25,500 cash prize for finishing first. Sklansky almost won back-to-back titles when he finished second in a $1,000 pot-limit Omaha event the following year to William Bennett.  That year (1984), the WSOP also included a $5,000 PLO tournament which was won by Dewey Tomko.

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While the origins of Omaha, that increasingly popular variation on Texas hold’em, are somewhat vague, most date its debut as occurring somewhere around the early 1980s.Poker player and author Bob Ciaffone was one of the first to write about the game, with the first version of his book Omaha Poker appearing way back in 1984.  In his book, Ciaffone mentions how the game was first played at the Golden Nugget Casino in the spring of 1982.  Indeed, for a time the game was called “Nugget hold’em” as it wasn’t being offered in any other casinos.

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Omaha poker is a variation on Texas hold’em, in which each player is dealt four hole cards instead of two.  Like in hold’em, five community cards are dealt in the same flop (three cards), turn (one card), and river (one card) sequence, and the player who makes the best five-card poker hand using two of his or her hold cards and three community cards wins the pot.  Unlike in hold’em a player <i>must</i> use two hole cards to make the hand.  In other words, one cannot use just one hold card and four community cards, or “play the board” by using no hole cards and all five community cards, as one can do in Texas hold’em.
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Like Texas hold’em, Omaha is a “flop” game, meaning one combines one’s hole cards with the community cards — dealt as a flop (three cards), turn (one card), and river (one card) — in order to create the best possible five-card poker hand.  Unlike in hold’em, in Omaha players are dealt four hole cards instead of two.  Also, players have to use both hole cards to make their hands, as opposed to using just one or none (as is the case in hold’em).
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