How to Play Omaha Hi-Lo
Written February 6, 2008 by Jack Jones
Omaha HI/Lo is a variation of poker were each player is dealt 4 cards face down (their hole cards) and then has to make the best 5 card poker hand possible on based on their 4 hole cards and the 5 community cards that are dealt onto the table as the game progresses. Unlike hold’em in which any combination of the board and hole cards can be used, in Omaha you must make the best 5 card poker hand using 2 of your hole cards and 3 of the board cards. You must use these exact numbers and as a result hand selection is very important in Omaha. Omaha uses a standard 52 card deck and uses the same hand ranking as normal poker. For more information on how Omaha is played please read the article on Omaha poker.
Unlike normal Omaha, both the highest and the lowest hand split the pot. The high is the best overall hand based on the poker ranking of hands. So for example a flush would beat three of a kind. The low hand is lowest possible hand with all of the cards being below an 8. Straights and flushes are ignored so the best possible low hand is A, 2, 3, 4, 5. The second best would be A, 2, 3, 4, 6. A low hand can only occur if all of the cards are below 8 so that at least 3 cards on the board must be an 8 or below. So for example a low hand can occur on a board of A,K,8,9,6 but not on a board of A,K,K,10,2. If no low hand occurs then the high hand wins the entire pot.
The aim of Omaha Hi/Lo is to attempt to win both the high and low hand in a pot. For example if you hold A,K,2,5 in your hand the board is showing 3,4,K,5,8 you have the nut low with A, 2, 3, 4, 5 and also have a straight which is more then likely to also win you the high pot. If you win both the high and low pot in a hand this is known as ‘scooping’.
Just to clarify, your hand is eligible for both the high and low pot but you can only organize 1 hand per round. For example, you cannot create a full house to win the high pot and then create an ace high straight to win the low pot as well. You can only choose one hand for the round and so it is best to create a hand that can win both the high and low pot.
Just like in Omaha, the round can end before all of the community cards are dealt if one person bets enough to force all of the remaining players to fold their hands. If this occurs, that person wins the pot and the game proceeds to the next hand.
Omaha Hi Lo can be played as either a limit, pot limit or no limit game. In a limit game, the players are forced to bet under a fixed structure. For example in a $1/$2 game, the bets in the first round preflop would be $1, $2, $3 and $4 (the games are normally capped at 4 bets per round). On the flop the bets are the same but on the turn and the river, the bets are $2, $4, $6, $8. (See the example below for more information on how this works). An example is the first person to act in an initial round could call the $1 BB or raise it $2. If it was raised, the next person could raise it to $3 or call the $2 or fold.
In a pot limit game the maximum bet is the size of the pot. For example if $10 exists in the pot then you can bet up to $10 on your turn. A no limit game is similar to a pot limit game expect that there is no maximum bet, the player can bet and raise whatever they want.
I hope you have found this article useful in learning about Omaha Hi Lo poker and how to play it.
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