Omaha Hi Lo Poker

Omaha Hi Lo, played with nine cards, is a poker game with a dealer. It involves blinds and community cards. This game is also called Eight or Better. Omaha Hi Lo is similar to the regular game of Omaha Poker, except that there are two pots in each game. The money is divided between the highest and the lowest hands in the game. No card may be higher than an eight. As in Omaha Poker, each player has to offer a combination of two cards from his or her own cards, and three cards from the community cards on the board.

The basic aim of Omaha Hi Lo Poker is to get both parts of the pot – this is called scooping the pot. You can, of course, try to get either the high pot or the low one, rather than both – this is called quartering. This kind of strategy is not a wise one in this game since you are likely to decrease your bankroll rapidly by quartering.

Let us take a look at the process involved in a game of Omaha Hi Lo Poker. To start with, each poker player at the table is dealt 4 cards face down – these are called hole cards. Five community cards are placed on the table in all. After the players get their hole cards, the pre-flop and the first round of betting take place. Then three community cards are dealt on the flop. After the second round of betting, comes the turn, when the fourth community card is placed on the board, and then the third round of betting takes place. On the river, the fifth and final community card is dealt, and the fourth round of bets is placed. Play proceeds in a clockwise direction, with the two players to the left of the dealer posting blinds.

For the best hand in Omaha Hi Low Poker, you must use two of your hole cards and three community cards to form either a low hand, with no card with a higher value than eight (Ace low); or a high hand. Bear in mind that straights and flushes are not counted when assessing a low hand. So the best possible low hand would be an Ace, two, three, 4 and six, rather than five. Aces in Omaha Hi Lo Poker can be considered as either high or low.

Basically, all the rules of Omaha Poker apply to Omaha Hi Lo Poker as well, with the exception of two pots instead of one. All high-low split games have a qualifier of 8 or better for low. If there is no low hand that qualifies, the best high hand will take both parts of the pot.