EPoker Network

Very little is known about the origins of this particular variation of Hold’em Poker, but it obviously it shares almost all of its traits with Texas Hold’em.  Omaha uses the same deck of cards, most of the same rules, and the same type of community cards and betting patterns.  We can trace Omaha back through Texas Hold’em,  and of course throughout all the centuries of card playing.  The only fact that we DO know presently is that it was NOT invented in Omaha, Nebraska…at least not officially…though in the future it might be found that it was first played in a basement or garage there.

As far as time periods go, Omaha is relatively new, and as such, there is very little history on it at all.  In fact, we can really only document back to the early 1980’s.  Although the exact origination of the game is unknown, casino executive Robert Turner first brought Omaha into a casino setting when he introduced the game to Bill Boyd, who then offered it as a game at the Las Vegas Golden Nugget Casino (calling it "Nugget Hold'em".)  According to Turner, he was talking to a woman from Seattle about a game that he used to play with four cards. She also happened to play a game with four cards, and they started comparing the differences.  (According to some sources, she was known only as “The Dragon Lady”…a professional player of the time). Robert took it to Bill Boyd, the director of poker operations, and talked to him about spreading the game.  In turn, it was submitted to and cleared by the Nevada Gaming board.  The casino spread the game under the name of "Nugget Hold'em"…and that, my friends, is the earliest records of the game we now know as Omaha Hold’em. 

Other independent sources corroborate that a 4 hole card version of Hold ‘em was popular among a group of “home players” in Seattle.  According to this legend, they were in the Golden Nugget and asked if they could play 4-card Hold’em,…and the dealer said that as long as the whole table agreed, they could play whatever they wanted (smart dealer).  The game goes on for a while…some locals sit in and learn it... some lose, some win.  According to this version, Bill Boyd comes along and notices it, thinks it has legs, and decides to replace the fixed 2-card Omaha with this version.  However, comparing it to some quotes and other sources, it is Robert Turner who comes along, notices the excitement and action at the table, and ends up striking up a conversation with one of the players.

Considering the one aspect of the creation in Seattle and how it came to be in Vegas…then comparing to what we do know from other verifiable sources, it lends credence to the whole story overall.  It was invented as a home game and played in Seattle and its vicinity around 1978-1982, then brought by these same players to Vegas at the Golden Nugget around 1980-1982.  Robert Turner did indeed discuss his rememberances of a 4-card game with a lady from Seattle…and he in turn took it to Bill Boyd, who may then have come down to see what all the fuss was about. 

At the time there was a version of Texas Hold’em that was called just Omaha.  It was a rare game and not well received, as you were required to play BOTH your hole cards using only three from the board.  This rare game today for some unknown reason is called “Greek Hold’em.  Since the name Omaha was already in use, and signified the player must use two of his hold cards to make up his or her hand, it was transferred to the new version now called Omaha Hold’em. They still had to use two cards from their hand, but were given additional hole cards to make for greater game play options.  Over the years, the name has shortened again to *usually* just being called Omaha.  Some abbreviate. if further, calling it HA