ONLINE POKER REVIEWS

Omaha Hi/Lo is a variant of Omaha. The betting, blinds, and postings are exactly the same as in Omaha. If you’re not familiar with Omaha, click here for a quick lesson. At the showdown, the pot is split between the holder of the highest hand, and the holder of the lowest hand, if the low hand qualifies.

To qualify for a low hand, you must have five distinct cards (no pairs), with no card higher than an 8. Remember, since you have to play two cards in your hand, the two cards in your hand and three on the board all need to be 8 or lower. Straights and flushes do not count against you. The best 5-card low hand is A-2-3-4-5 of any suit. The hand is “ranked” by starting with the highest low card. 7-4-3-2-1 would be considered a 7-low, and would lose to 6-4-3-2-1, a 6-low. If two players each have low hands with the same highest card, the next highest card determines the winner. 7-5-4-3-2 loses to 7-4-3-2-1. If there is no qualifying low hand, the high hand wins the entire pot.

Just as in the high version of Omaha, each player starts with four hole cards, and then the dealer places five cards face-up in the center of the table. These community cards are part of each player’s hand, so each player has access to seven cards. The difference between Omaha high and Omaha Hi/Lo, is that in Omaha Hi/Lo each player can potentially have two different hands: a high hand and a low hand.

Each player forms a five-card high hand by using only two (no more, no less, but they can be any two) of his hole cards together with only three (no more, no less, but they can be any three) of the five community cards. Each player forms a five-card low hand (if possible) by using only two (no more, no less, but they can be any two) of his hole cards together with only three (no more, no less, but they can be any three) of the five community cards. Both the high hand combination and the low hand combination can use the same set of cards, but they don’t have to; in fact, usually they would not.

Because of the qualifier restriction, if at least three cards 8 or lower do not appear among the community cards, a low hand is not possible.

Subscribe to our newsletter

Omaha Poker, or Omaha Hi, is a variation of Hold ‘em played with four hole cards instead of two. At showdown, the best five-card hand using exactly two of your hole cards and three cards from the board wins. Unlike Hold ‘em, you may not use more than three cards from the board. The betting and blinds are exactly the same as in Hold ‘em.

At the beginning of each hand, each player is dealt four hole cards. There is a small blind, a big blind, and a round of betting.

In Pot Limit, a player can bet any amount from the minimum bet to the size of the pot. In a $5/$10 pot-limit game, the small blind is $5 and the big blind is $10. The first player can call the big blind (in this case, $10), or raise to any amount up to the size of the pot. A raise must either equal or exceed the previous bet or raise. In this case, a pot-sized raise would be $25 ($5 small blind + $10 big blind + $10 call), meaning that, in total, player three can bet up $35. Supposing player three makes a pot-sized raise, the total pot is now $50.

If the next player wants into the hand, they must call $35, which is the size of player three’s bet. If they want to raise the maximum, they would bet $120, which equals the size of the pot ($50) plus a $70 raise ($35 call + $35 raise).

Once the first round of betting is complete, the dealer then puts out a three card flop, just as in Hold ‘em. There is a round of betting. In the above example, the minimum bet would be $10 (the size of the big blind), and the maximum bet would be the size of the pot.

All raises in all remaining rounds behave as described above.

The dealer then puts out a fourth (or turn) card, followed by a round of betting.

The dealer then puts out a fifth (or river) card, followed by a round of betting.

The winner is the player who makes the best possible five card hand using exactly two cards from their hand and three cards from the board.

This is important. Unlike Hold ‘em, in Omaha Hi Poker you cannot use just one card from your hand, nor can you play the board.

For example:

Your hand: Ah Kc Qc Jc The board: 3h 4h 5h 6h 7h

You DO NOT have an ace-high nut flush, nor can you simply play the board for a straight flush. Using two cards from your hand, your best hand is:

Ah Kc 7h 6h 5h

In other words, you should have folded.

Subscribe to our newsletter