Omaha Hi/Lo (Commonly referred to as Omaha 08) is another variant of the popular poker craze, the traffic for these games are much lower, and less frequent as players commonly do not understand the game to make a decent profit.  Another reason Hi/Lo isn't as popular as Omaha Hi or even Texas Poker is that this game requires extreme patience, as there is a Hi pot, and a Lo pot.

The game itself is played the same way as Omaha Hi, the main difference is every hand has two possible pots, meaning split pots (one winning the high & one winning the lo) are very frequent; and often this makes the games last a lot longer.

As I have already explained Omaha Hi, I am not going to cover this again, if you do not have a basic understanding of Omaha Hi please read my post here before continuing.

 The Lo

Basically, the lo side of Omaha means the lowest hand possible; the best lo hand being the wheel (A2345) which is very powerful as it is also a hi hand.  Any five cards between an ace and an eight is classified as a low hand, obviously you want to aim at achieving the nut lo; here are some examples of lo hands:

A2346
A3456
A4678
A2578

So now that you understand what a lo hand is, how do we apply it to Omaha?  Quite often there will be no lo hand in a particular pot leaving the best Hi hand to scoop the whole pot; more then often one player will hold the nut high and another will hold the nut lo, resulting in splitting the pot down the middle.

Note: This aspect of the game can be very risky to your bankroll if you play cash games, if you happen to get heads up with another player, you hold the lo and he holds the hi and are betting into each other; the only winner will be the casino or poker room as those pots have rake taken from them; another important reason to have rake back. (If you don't have rake back or under stand it click here)

Your main aim as a Omaha 08 player is to scoop the pot, this means winning both the Hi and the Lo pots, this is achieved by drastically changing your preflop playable hands; in almost any strategy you read it is said firmly you should never enter a pot with out an Ace and one other Lo card; here are some examples of good starting hands:

AA23
AA24
AKQ2
A246
AQ45

The above are only basic examples, but should give you the right idea of what we are trying to achieve.  When starting with hands such as these our aim is to achieve the best lo & hi hand, commonly you will win the lo pot, and split the hi pot with another player.

Omaha 08 is a fishy game, too many players aim for just the lo, or just the hi and bet hard while doing so; this is where our patient profiles work their magic, waiting for the perfect moment when it has the nut low and a nut high draw, or any other similar situation you can think of., here is an example:


You: Ac Kc 2s 4d

Board: KsKh3c 7c 4h

Opponent One: Kd Jd 3d 4c

As you can see above, both players have a full house, if the pot was 6000 chips, 3000 chips would be split in half between the opponents as they both have the hi hand, however the other 3000 chips would be shipped to you as you also have the nut lo hand.  Pretty cool huh?

In this game you often find yourself in multi way pots where players are drawing to a lo, or a hi; but rarely both which is what you should be doing.  The other aspect of this game is the betting, normally betting preflop is quite passive, players want to see flops, however if there are big raises you can be sure the have AA or an A2; but often donkeys come in raising with hands like KQJT, or QQKJ – which will end up cannon fodder for strong players like our profiles.

The other difference is the limits, Hi/Lo comes in fixed limit, pot limit and no limit; and all the normal games apply (Cash, SnG & Mtt's).

This small basic introduction does not cover all aspects of Omaha Hi/Lo, so if you have questions please by all means ask them.

In parting words, although there are less players playing this game, there are even less players who know how to master the game, making it a bot haven and a rather easy way to increase your bankroll; of course you will still have variance and swings; however they will not be as severe as Hold-em or Omaha Hi.

There is a lot of money to be won in this game; especially in the large tournaments like FTOPS at Fulltilt poker.

I hope this small basics guide has helped, if anyone would like anything else explained or posted, jest let me know :)

Royal