Courchevel Poker Rules: Omaha With a Face-Up Card

What if you could see one flop card before betting? That is Courchevel. It’s five-card Omaha where the first card of the flop is dealt face-up before the pre-flop betting round — so you start every hand already knowing one of the five community cards. Everything else is Omaha: you get five hole cards instead of four, and at showdown you use exactly two hole cards plus three board cards. It’s spread both high-only and hi-lo split, eight-or-better.

The name comes from the French ski resort where the game caught on. That one exposed card is the whole point — it’s the only flop variant that hands you real information before you’ve put a chip in.

How a hand runs

1. Blinds are posted.
2. Each player is dealt five hole cards face down.
3. One community card is turned face-up in the center.
4. Pre-flop betting, with that card visible to everyone.
5. Two more flop cards are dealt, completing the three-card flop.
6. Flop betting, then the turn and betting, then the river and betting.
7. Showdown: best five-card hand — and best qualifying low, in hi-lo — using exactly two hole cards and three board cards.

Playing the exposed card

The up-card is public, so it doesn’t make your hand stronger than anyone else’s on its own. What it does is change which starting hands are worth playing. Say the face-up card is A♠ and you’re dealt K♠ Q♠ J♦ 10♦ 2♥. Your K♠ Q♠ now have a nut-flush draw that’s already one card in — you need two more spades from four board cards rather than three from five. On top of that, K♠ Q♠ J♦ 10♦ is a double-suited broadway wrap that flops straights and flushes constantly. This is a hand you’d raise, because the visible ace has materially upgraded it before the flop is even complete.

Hi vs. hi-lo, and where it fits

High-only Courchevel plays like Pot-Limit Omaha with a head start: nut flushes and full houses win the big pots, and the up-card tells you early whether flush or straight textures are coming. Hi-lo Courchevel overlaps heavily with Big O — five hole cards, split pot, eight-or-better low — and the exposed card matters even more, because a face-up low announces that half the pot will be fought over for low, while a face-up ten or picture card kills low development and pushes everyone toward high-only scoops.

Whichever format you play, the two Omaha traps still apply: use exactly two hole cards every time, and hunt the nuts, because second-best flushes and rough lows bleed chips. Courchevel slots naturally into mixed-game rotations once the up-card reads feel automatic — and if this is your first five-card Omaha game, the hand rankings both halves depend on are worth a refresher.