Omaha High-Lo: a difficult game
If you are looking for a fun game and the potential to make good money, why not trying the less
well-understood Omaha High-Lo, usually played in the pot-limit variation?
Omaha High/Low is a more complex version of
Omaha poker
then Omaha High, and it requires deep strategic understanding, even more than in Omaha High, already a difficult game.
Like any High/Low variation, it means that each pot is split in half: one half for the highest hand, one half
for the lowest hand. This introduces additional complexities into the game, making it paradisiacal waters for
the long-toothed sharks seeking some fish deveived by their own luck.
Indeed this is one of the games where you may encounter the most fish and make the most money, because chance and
variance will mask the rigor of the necessary strategic moves, to all except the most advanced players. And the fish
may think that they have mastered the game after they have digested the rules, which after all are not that
difficult to grasp.
Omaha Hi-Lo Tips
An important notion is that as the pot is split in half, if you call big bets but only aim at the high or
low hand, you will only get half the pot even though you paid 100% percent of your bets each time. Therefore note
that the most profitable type of hands that you should focus on getting involved with are the ones when you win the
entire pot.
You can win the entire pot either if you have both the high and low hand, or if there is no low hand. These
two points deserve some explanation.
In general the low hand must be made of cards eight or lower, and it can be the case that there is no possible low
hand if the board only has high cards (remember that you must use 3 cards from the board and 2 from your hole cards
to make your hand). In such cases, the pot is not split and only the high hand counts.
This shows two things. First the high hand is statistically more powerful and deserves more attention than the
low hand, which may not occur. Also if the board looks like there will be no low hand, than this is going to be a more
valuable pot to win if you have the high hand, twice as valuable indeed.
Another problem with the low hand is that it is more often shared than the high hand, leading to only winning
a quarter of the pot. This is because one needs 5 different cards from the group {A,2,3,4,5,6,7,8} in order to win
the low hand, and this limits the number of possibilities especially if both players have an ace. Conversely the
high hand often results from a race and hence is not shared.
The other scenario is when you attack both the high and the low hand at the same time. Omaha High-Lo specialists
know how to do that by implementing a disciplined starting hand selection. In fact the fish may be very loose with
their pre flop requirements given that almost any four card may lead to a winning hand. But the key is to play the
starting hands amenable to winning entire pots, such as AA23 double suited.
If you want to play Omaha Hi Lo online, it is not usually included in US or
UK Internet Casino games. But you can play the game at one of the major
online poker rooms such as Full Tilt Poker.
For starting hands requirements, check the article about
starting hands in Omaha High Low.
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