How to play Omaha Hi Lo

Pot Limit Omaha Hi-Lo is a complicated game, and is definitely easier to understand after some practice. Due to the complication of the game, the game is usually awash with dead-money due to players who don’t play the game optimally, and who are unaware of good starting hand requirements.

Why is it called omaha hi lo?

The game is called omaha hi-lo because there are sometimes two pots which can be won: half the pot for the “low hand” (best hand using three community cards and two hole cards, all smaller than eight, but which may contain an ace)and half for the “high hand”.

Just like standard omaha-hi, players must use two of their hole cards and three from the board, so for a low to qualify there must be three different cards below eight on the board (community cards).If not, there is no qualifying low hand, and the best high hand wins the whole pot.

The best low hand is the wheel A-2-3-4-5 (referred to as ’the wheel‘ or the nut low).Straights and flushes don‘t count against low hands. Also it’s essential to note that playerrs may use different cards to form both their high hand and their low hand. It is essential to try to win both pots (low and high), and to avoid winning half of one of the pots (”getting quartered”)

Omaha Hi Lo Starting hands

Correctly assessing the strength of all your hole cards is essential to maximise your potential to make the best low and high hands. The best starting hand is double-suited Ace-Ace-2-3 and you should get as much money into the pot preflop with this hand as you have massive equity against any other hand combination. All of the best poker rooms support omaha variants, including Omaha Hi-Lo.