Omaha Hi/Lo Rules

The game of Omaha is like a great car, it comes with options. One of the most popular options that players opt for is the Hi/Lo version of Omaha Hold'em. In this version of the game the pot is split evenly between the player with the highest hand and the player with the lowest hand.

For low hand, for those of you who are unfamiliar with the concept, is not simply a lackluster five-card poker hand. In other words, if you try to grab half the pot while sporting only a pair of twos and a Cheshire cat grin the rest of the table is liable to administer some quick and painful justice. To qualify as the low hand, the player must use five different cards that are all less than 8 (the normal rules of Omaha apply. Your low hand must be created with two of your hole cards and three community cards). In other words you cannot have a hand of 2-2-4-5-6. In that hand the 2 is used twice. Because the 2 is replicated in this hand, it does not qualify as a low hand. Some examples of hands that do qualify as "low" are as follows:

- 2-3-4-5-6
- 3-4-6-7-8
- 2-4-5-7-8
- Ace-2-3-4-5 (this is the best possible low hand)

The hands above are just examples of the type of cards you are looking for in a low hand. Straights and flushes are irrelevant in a low hand, and an ace can be used as a 1 card for a low hand. In fact the Ace is actually vital to a low hand when you take into consideration that the best low hand is Ace-2-3-4-5.

The problem with split pot games is that making money is very difficult. Add to this the emotional strain of watching half the pot go to one of your competitors, and you have game that can quickly send you sprinting for the Mylanta bottle. What you should be striving for as a player is a hand that qualifies as the best high hand as well as the best low hand. This is called "scooping" the pot. As we mentioned earlier, the best low hand is an Ace-2-3-4-5. This not only gives the player the 5 lowest cards that are less than eight, but it also gives them a straight. This hand has a good chance of winning the high part of the pot as well as a being an automatic winner of the low part of the pot. Luck, as always is a factor, and there are times when it smiles on you. If you have the best high hand, and nobody has a qualifying low hand, than you win the entire pot default. For example, if you are holding an AAQJ while another holds KK23 and the board is KT998, then you would win both halves of the pot because neither your opponents can make a qualifying low hand with that that combination of overcards and 9's.

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