Omaha Hi Lo Poker - Overview

Omaha Hi Lo is very similar to regular Omaha Poker, but unlike a regular Omaha Poker hand, in Omaha Hi Lo Poker the pot is split in half between the high hand and low hand.

Omaha Hi Lo introduces the incentive for the lowest hand and so your strategy changes a great deal from Omaha Poker, your starting hand now has different requirements and it's now important to look for hands that give you the chance to win the whole pot by winning both high and low.

If you're looking for an introduction to mixed poker games or a more intellectual game then Omaha Hi Lo Poker is one of the best places to start.

When playing Omaha Poker, you are only fighting over one pot, but as mentioned above, in Omaha Hi Lo Poker the pot is split into two - half of the pot for the highest hand and half of the pot for the lowest hand.

As with a Omaha Poker hand you must use two cards from the four hole cards dealt to you and three from the community cards. In Omaha Hi Lo Poker however, these two hole cards do not need to be the same for the high hand and the low hand, you can use any combination of two cards for each of the hands and may use one of the cards twice or both cards twice.

The high hand part of the pot plays as it would in Omaha Poker, with the player with the best Omaha Poker hand winning that part of the pot. The new twist to the the game is the low hand and to qualify for the low hand your 5 cards (2 hole cards combined with 3 community cards) must be 8 or lower and contain no pairs. The low hand part of the pot is worked out by counting back from the highest card first. So if you hold the cards 7,5,4,3,2, you would beat your opponents low hand of 8,4,3,2,A even though your opponent has the lowest card (the ace), it is the 7 that is key. Straights and flushes aren't counted for the low hand, taking into account that aces can count as low, the best low hand is therefore A 2 3 4 5.

If during the game there is no hand that qualifies as a low hand then the player with the best high hand takes the whole pot.

Like Omaha Poker, Omaha Hi Lo Poker has 4 rounds of betting with a maximum of 10 players able to take part in a hand. The objective of the game is to finish with the best combination of Poker Hands that enable you to win both Hi and Lo Pots.

At the start of every Omaha Hi Lo Poker hand the button is placed in front of a player, and signifies who is the dealer for that hand and the blinds are posted. The blinds are bets placed by the two players to the immediate left of the button before they have see any cards. The first player posts the small blind and the second player posts the big blind. The small blind is generally half the number of chips of the big blind although in Omaha Hi Lo it is not uncommon for both the blinds to be identical in cash games. After each hand the button progresses one place to the left, and so do both the blinds.

Each player is dealt 4 cards. These 4 cards are known as Hole Cards and can only be seen by the recipients of these cards. Once the Hole Cards have been dealt the first round of betting takes place.

Once you have received your hole cards, you have your first decision: to play or not to play. You must decide if you are in or out of the hand, and you do this by either matching or raising the bet that stands when the action reaches you. You always have the option to fold any time it is your turn. Betting goes in sequence starting from the first player to the left of the dealer, and continue round the table sequentially in a clockwise fashion until all bets have been matched.

The possible actions available to you are to Fold, to Call or to Raise.

As the action moves around the table, if you wish to remain in the hand you will have to at least call the big blind bet, or if a previous player has raised the bet then that bet will have to be at least called to remain in the hand.

If there has been no raise when the betting round returns to the big blind player, that player will still have the option to raise if they want to. Any money put into the pot by a player before any cards are dealt counts as part of their overall bet. So for example, if the blinds are $2 (small blind) and $4 (big blind) and there is no raise before the action gets to the small blind, then they will only have to put an extra $2 into the pot to match the $4 as they already have $2 in the pot in the form of the small blind.

Once all bets are matched the flop is dealt.

After this first round of betting the dealer lays down the The Flop, which consists of 3 cards, all dealt face up in the middle of the table. These 3 cards are Community Cards and are shared by all players at the table.

Once the Flop has been dealt by the dealer, another round of betting takes place between all the players left in the game, starting from the player to the immediate left of the button and continuing clockwise around the table.

Once again you have the option to to Fold, to Check, to Call or to Raise.

To Check is a situation where there is currently no bet that stands which you would have to match, so you can decide to continue that by checking. Betting then continues in a similar method to the first round of betting until all bets are matched and all players have contributed equally to the Pot (or else there's a winner and the hand is finished).

Once this happens the Turn card is dealt. The Turn card is a fourth Community Card which is dealt face up. Another round of betting then happens in the same fashion as above and any players who are still in the hand after this round of betting will then see the final card.

The final Community Card is then revealed - The River - and placed alongside the other Community Cards, again face up. The River Card is sometimes known as the Money Card as it often makes the difference between winning (money) or losing (money)! After the river you now have all the cards that are available to you and you have to make the best five-card poker hand from the nine available (two, and just two, of your hole cards and the five community cards).

Once again betting resumes once the River is dealt and each player left in the hand attempts to win the Pot on the strength of their cards. Once all betting has been completed the players who remain show their cards.

If there was betting on the last round then the player who made the last positive action (last player to make a bet - not to call one) will show first, if the last round of betting involved all players 'checking' then it will be the player to the immediate left of the button who will show first then clockwise from there.

When all the cards are shown, the player with the highest hand wins half the pot and the lowest low hand wins the other half. The same player can have both the best high and low hands. However, if nobody has a low hand, then the highest hand wins the entire pot.

The button moves to the next player and the fun starts again.

Want to learn more about Omaha Hi Lo Poker? Click here for Omaha Hi Lo Strategies and Tips.