Omaha Poker Hi/Lo

By Wagercomms

The Game

Omaha as Hi/Lo game, also known as 8 or Better Poker. The game is played exactly as its source of origin, but when the last round of betting is over and the showdown determines the rounds winner, there can be two winners splitting the pot, high hand winner and low hand winner.

With straights and flushes out of the low hand ranks, the challenge and excitement in playing Hi/Lo is to recognise starting hands as good hands, hands that we at any other time would fold in a regular game of poker.

The best low hand is 5, 4, 3, 2, A. Straights and flushed excluded on low hands, no wild cards are used and Ace counts as 1. The highest low hand is 8, 7, 6, 5, 4.

How to Play Omaha Hi/Lo

Omaha poker is about getting the highest five card poker hand from a total of nine cards dealt each player. From the nine cards there are five community cards that are being shared among the players, four cards dealt face down to each player and five community cards.

Playing Omaha Hi/Lo compared to Omaha (Omaha High) is the possibility of qualifying for a low hand as well. Qualifying for a low hand means that your five cards must be of value 8 or lower. Hence at the showdown either the high hand will win the entire pot or it will be equally split between the “high hand” and the “low hand”.

Split-Pot Game

Hi/Lo is a split-pot game. The best high hand wins half the pot, and the best low hand wins the other half of the pot, with no card being higher than eight. As mentioned straights and flushes are excluded for low hands and the ace can be used as the lowest card. It is possible for one player to win both the high- and low-hand, known as scooping the pot. Scooping the pot can be said to be the primary object in playing a Hi/Lo game. As in regular Omaha you must use two cards from your hand and three cards from the board (community cards). However your high hand can be a different five-card combination from that used to build your low hand.

Hand Rank

The game outcome is determined per the following poker hand ranking.

Royal Flush             A, K, Q, J, T in same suit

Straight Flush         Five cards in sequence, same suit

Four of a Kind         Four cards of the same rank 

Full House                Three of a kind and one pair 

Flush                         Five card of the same suit

Straight                    Five cards in sequence, no suit

Three of a Kind       Three cards of the same rank

Two Pairs                 Two different pairs

One Pair                   One pair plus three odd cards

High Card                Five cards, nothing of the above

In the event of a tie, the lower second-highest ranking card wins the pot for low hand rank. If needed third-, fourth- and fifth-highest cards can be used to break the tie.

Example: 6, 4, 3, 2, Ace wins over 6, 5, 4, 2, Ace.

The Showdown

The action is completed and the players remaining in the game wanting to claim the pot will perform a showdown, showing their hand using the pocket cards and the five community cards to build the strongest poker hand. Players will use any two, only two, of its pocket cards and any three, only three, of the community cards to build its high five-card hand.

The five-card low hand will be built the same way and eight (8) is the highest ranking card that can be used, hence 8 or Better. The lowest high-card determines the best low hand. If two or more players have the same low high-card, the next lowest high card is used.

There will always be a high hand for the pot first but the pot can in 8 or Better be split with a low hand, if available. The high hand always wins half the pot in a split situation. If two low hands or more have tied there is a re-split of the low hands half pot.

Example: The pot is 100 and there is one (1) high hand winner and two (2) low hands that tied. The pot will split 50 to the high hand and 25 each to the low hands.

For complete game rules, please see Omaha Poker.