Omaha Hi and Omaha Hi/Lo are two different poker games and often poker players will get this mixed up. I know a lot of poker players that think Omaha Poker is just one poker game and they don’t know that there are two different variants. If you’re going to play Omaha Poker then you need to make sure you know what variant you’re playing. Both of the games are very similar, but there is one very unique distinction between the two of them.
The different between the two games is that in Omaha Hi only the highest hand wins the pot whereas in Omaha Hi/Lo there is a possibility for both the high hand and low hand to split the pot. When you play Omaha Hi/Lo there will typically be a rule that the low hand needs to be eights or better. This means that your five card hand needs to be all cards 8 or under without having any pairs in your hand. If you have a pair in your hand then it doesn’t count towards your low hand.
If you have five cards fewer than 8 such as 8-7-6-3-2 then you have qualified for the low hand and you will win the low hand if nobody else has qualified with a better hand. If another player has a lower hand then you do then you will lose the low hand and you won’t win anything. The lowest hand that you can possibly have in Omaha Hi/Lo is A-2-3-4-5. Another rule you need to know when you’re playing Omaha Hi/Lo is that you don’t need to use the same cards in your hand for your high and low hand. This means that you can use 2 of your cards towards your low hand and your other 2 cards towards your high hand.
Since you can win part of the pot with a low hand on FullTillt in Omaha Hi/Lo your starting hand selection is going to be a lot different then if you were playing Omaha Hi. The best hands in Omaha Hi/Lo are when you have two high cards and two low cards that are preferably connected and suited. A hand such as an Ace of spades, King of clubs, 2 of clubs and 3 of spades is a premium hand to play in Omaha Hi/Lo. A-K-Q-X is also a good hand in Omaha Hi/Lo if the X is a 2-5. Since the ace can be used as both a high card and low card in this game having an ace is very powerful.
You will want to try and avoid chasing too many low hands when you play Omaha Hi/Lo. The most you can win when you’re chasing a low hand is half of the pot. There is also the possibility that you could split the low hand with another player which would mean you only get 25% of the money in the pot. If you put 33% or 50% of the money in the pot then you can see that the low hand isn’t always effective in making you money.
