Omaha Hi Low: General Outline

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Omaha Hi-Lo (also known as Omaha 8 or better) is commonly viewed as one of the most difficult but favored poker games. It’s a variation that, even more than normal Omaha poker, aims for action from all levels of players. This is the chief reason why a once obscure game, has grown in popularity so quickly.

Omaha 8 or better starts exactly like a regular game of Omaha. Four cards are dealt to each player. A round of wagering follows in which players can bet, check, or drop out. 3 cards are handed out, this is called the flop. One more round of wagering ensues. Once all the gamblers have in turn called or folded, another card is revealed on the turn. Another round of wagering ensues and then the river card is revealed. The gamblers will need to put together the best high and low five card hands based on the board and hole cards.

This is the point where many entrants can get baffled. Contrasted to Texas Holdem, in which the board can make up everyone’s hand, in Omaha hi/lo the player must use precisely 3 cards on the board, and exactly 2 cards from their hand. Not a single card more, not a single card less. Contrary to normal Omaha, there are 2 ways a pot might be won: the "higher hand" or the "low hand."

A high hand is just how it sounds. It’s the strongest possible hand out of everyone’s, it doesn’t matter if it is a straight, flush, full house, etc. It’s the same concept in almost all poker games.

The lower hand is more complicated, but certainly free’s up the play. When deciding on a low hand, straights and flushes don’t count. A low hand is the worst hand that can be made, with the lowest being A-2-3-4-5. Seeing as straights and flushes don’t count, A-2-3-4-5 is the smallest value hand possible. The low hand is any 5 card hand (unpaired) with an 8 and lower. The low hand takes half of the pot, as just like the high hand. When there’s no lower hand presented, the higher hand wins the whole pot.

It may seem difficult at the start, after a couple of rounds you will be agile enough to get the basic subtleties of the game easily enough. Since you have people wagering for the low and wagering for the high, and since such a large number of cards are being used at once, Omaha 8 or better provides an amazing array of betting choices and owing to the fact that you have many players battling for the high, and many battling for the low hand. If you love a game with a considerable amount of outs and actions, it’s not a waste of your time to compete in Omaha 8 or better.