Fixed Limit Omaha Hi/Lo

Omaha Hi/Lo is the second most popular variant of poker, trailing only Texas Holdem. The game is actually played quite similar to Holdem, and when it was first spread in casinos during the 1980’s, it was actually named “Omaha Holdem”. The major difference between Omaha Hi/Lo and Holdem is that Omaha Hi/Lo is a split pot game using eight or better rules, and in Omaha a player gets four hole cards as opposed to two, and must use exactly two of their hole cards and three of the community cards to form a five card poker hand.

Play Omaha Hi/Lo Online at Full Tilt

If you’re not familiar already with all the rules and strategy behind Texas Hold’em, we strongly encourage you to learn and practice Hold’em first, prior to getting into Omaha Hi/Lo. If this is the case, start by reading our web page: Limit Holdem. If you’re already well versed in Hold’em, continue reading for Omaha Hi/Lo rules and strategy.

Common Mistake: Players new to Omaha Hi/Lo often make the mistake of thinking that they can use any combination of the four cards in their hand and the five community cards on the board. This can be quite embarrassing and costly when a player holding a naked Ace on a (non flushed / non paired) T-J-Q-K board starts betting it as if they had the nuts. Keep in mind in Omaha Hi/Lo you MUST use EXACTLY two of your four hole cards to make a five card poker hand; this likewise means that you must use exactly three of the community cards on the board.

Omaha Hi/Lo Hand Rankings

In Omaha Hi/Lo there are two sets of hand rankings. A player can use a different combination of their hole cards and board cards to compete for each set (high and low) simultaneously. For example, if a player has KdQdAs2c in their hand on a board that reads 9d Td 3c 4h 6d, this player can use the A-2 in their hand along with the boards 3-4-6 to make the nut low towards the low pot, and can use the Kd Qd from their hand along with the 9d, Td, 6d to make the second nut flush for the high hand. In Omaha Hi/Lo there is always a high hand, but there is not always a low hand. In such cases where there is no low, the entire pot will go to high hand.
Ranking Omaha Hi hands are simple, as it is the same as any other poker game. Where players get confused is with the low eight or better lowball rankings. In order for a hand to be eligible to compete for the low pot, it must contain five cards that are not paired and are all eight or under. Straights and flushes are not penalized, so the best possible low hand is A-2-3-4-5 of any suit, and the second best low hand is A-2-3-4-6. When two or more hands qualify for low, the player with the lowest hand wins the pot. To determine which hand is lowest, we first look at the highest of the five cards to determine which hand is the lowest. If the highest card is the same, we then look at the next highest, so on and so forth until the lowest hand is determined. To see more specific examples, see our page 7 Card Stud Hi/Lo which is another split pot game using eight or better rankings.

Optimal Omaha Hi/Lo Strategy

Omaha Hi/Lo strategy is quite complex. This, like other flop games, is a game of position. If you’re the last player to act, you’re in better shape to see the action in front of your prior to making your decision. If you play a lot of hands from early position, you’ll more than often find yourself in quite expensive drawing situations where you’re sandwiched between two raisers. Other reasons it is a game of position is that with certain hands you’ll want a lot of players in the pot, and in other spots you’ll need to know how to play your position to get the maximum amount of money into the pot. Most of the position strategy is second nature. The biggest thing you’ll want to remember is that in Omaha Hi/Lo under most conditions you’ll want to be drawing only to hands capable of winning both the high and the low pot, or ones that are likely to scoop, which sometimes might be a high only pot.

For players versed in both 7 Card Stud Hi/Lo and Texas Hold’em, picking up Omaha Hi/Lo probably requires just a little practice at small stakes as you slowly move up in limits. For those completely new to the split pot form of poker, we strongly suggest picking up a few books on the topic and using that to improve your Omaha Hi.Lo game.

Omaha Hi Lo Books

Our recommended Omaha Hi/Lo books are as follows:

* Hi Lo Split Poker for Advanced Players, by Ray Zee
* Super Systems 2, by Doyle Brunson (Read Bobby Baldwin’s chapter).

Omaha Hi Lo websites

For website content, you could start by plugging “Omaha Hi Lo Strategy” into your favorite search engine such as Google, Yahoo or Bing, or you can head over to playwinningpoker.com where Steve Badger has some sound Omaha Hi/Lo Startegy.

Practice Online

A good place to learn the game is to start off at the lower limit tables at Full Tilt Poker and then work your way up. If you’ve never had an account at Full Tilt Poker before, you can claim a 100% up to $600 sign up bonus when you register with Referral Code: TILTME600.