Omaha Hi Low: General Summary
Posted in Poker on 03/31/2018 08:25 am by Valerie
Omaha Hi-Lo (also known as Omaha/8 or better) is often times seen as one of the most difficult but well-loved poker variations. It is a variation that, even more than normal Omaha poker, invites action from all levels of players. This is the chief reason why a once invisible game, has expanded in popularity so rapidly.
Omaha Hi-Lo starts just like a normal game of Omaha. Four cards are handed out to every player. A sequence of wagering follows in which gamblers can wager, check, or fold. 3 cards are handed out, this is known as the flop. One more round of wagering ensues. Once all the players have in turn called or dropped out, an additional card is flipped on the turn. an additional round of betting ensues at which point the river card is revealed. The gamblers will have to make the strongest high and low five card hands using the board and hole cards.
This is where a few entrants can get baffled. Contrasted to Hold’em, in which the board can be every player’s hand, in Omaha hi/lo the player has to use precisely three cards from the board, and precisely 2 cards from their hand. No more, no less. Unlike regular Omaha, there are two ways a pot could be won: the "higher hand" or the "low hand."
A high hand is just how it sounds. It is the strongest possible hand out of every player’s, it doesn’t matter if it is a straight, flush, full house. It’s the very same concept in nearly all poker games.
The lower hand is more complicated, but certainly opens up the play. When determining a low hand, straights and flushes don’t count. the lowest hand is the weakest hand that can be made, with the lowest value being made up of A-2-3-4-5. Considering that straights and flushes don’t count, A-2-3-4-5 is the lowest value hand possible. The lower hand is any five card hand (unpaired) with an eight and lower. The lower hand wins half of the pot, as just like the high hand. When there is no low hand presented, the high hand wins the complete pot.
It may seem complicated at the start, after a few hands you will be agile enough to get the base subtleties of the game easily enough. Since you have players wagering for the low and betting for the high, and since so many cards are being used at once, Omaha High-Low offers an exciting range of betting options and seeing that you have several players shooting for the high, and several trying for the low hand. If you enjoy a game with all kinds of outs and actions, it’s not a waste of your time to play Omaha 8 or better.