Omaha Hi/Lo Poker is a community card poker variant, also known as Omaha High Low, Omaha H/L, Omaha/8 or Omaha 8-or-better. It sits in the poker family alongside Texas Hold'em and Stud Hi/Lo, and it has built a global following online.
Each player receives four private cards, called hole cards, while five community cards are dealt face-up on the board. Four cards in your hand sounds like a lovely bit of luxury, right up until you learn you are only ever allowed to use two of them.
The name comes from the split: the pot is shared between the best high hand and the best qualifying low hand.
Bets, Payouts & Rules
A marker known as the button, or the dealer button, shows who is the nominal dealer for the current hand. The player clockwise from the button posts the small blind, and the next player clockwise posts the big blind. Blinds vary depending on the structure being played.
Hole cards are then dealt, and action moves clockwise, beginning with the player under the gun, immediately clockwise from the big blind.
How A Hand Unfolds
- Pre-Flop: after looking at their four hole cards, each player may fold, call the big blind or raise. The big blind counts as a live bet on this round.
- The Flop: the first three community cards are dealt face-up, followed by another betting round starting with the active player clockwise from the button.
- The Turn: the fourth community card is dealt face-up, then betting resumes in the same order.
- The River: the fifth and final community card arrives face-up, and a final betting round follows.
- The Showdown: the last player to bet or raise shows their cards first. If there was no bet on the final round, the player immediately clockwise from the button shows first.
Betting on each round continues until all players still in the hand have matched one another.
Splitting The Pot
- Every player must use exactly two of their four hole cards with exactly three board cards. Not one, not three, no exceptions.
- Different pairs of hole cards may be used for your high hand and your low hand, as long as each uses precisely two from your hand.
- The best five-card high hand takes one half of the pot, and the best qualifying low hand takes the other half.
- Identical hands share the relevant half of the pot equally.
- If no hand qualifies for low, the best high hand takes the whole pot.
- Once the pot is awarded, the button moves clockwise and a new hand begins.
Features & Bonus Rounds
The 8-or-Better Qualifier
Omaha Hi/Lo is played with an 8-or-better qualifier. A low hand needs five different cards ranked eight or lower to be eligible for the low half of the pot. Lows are read exactly as they are in Stud Hi/Lo.
Ace to Five Low Rankings
The game uses the Ace to Five system, also called California. Straights and flushes do not count against a low hand, and Aces always play low when reading it, so the strongest possible low is a wheel: 5, 4, 3, 2, A.
A low hand is always read from its highest card downwards. A hand headed by a Six is a Six-low, one headed by a Seven is a Seven-low, and so on. Closer hands are separated by working further down the ranks, so a Six-Four low beats a Six-Five low.
Sample qualifying lows, from the weakest of the group to the strongest, sometimes called the nuts:
- 8, 7, 6, 5, 4
- 8, 7, 6, 5, 3
- 8, 6, 4, 2, A
- 8, 4, 3, 2, A
- 7, 6, 5, 4, 2
- 7, 6, 5, 2, A
- 7, 5, 4, 3, 2
- 6, 5, 4, 3, 2
- 6, 4, 3, 2, A
- 5, 4, 3, 2, A
The Scoop
Because straights and flushes are ignored when reading a low, a qualifying low that also happens to be a straight or a flush is a seriously strong holding, capable of taking both halves of the pot. That is known as a scoop, and it is the sort of hand that makes the rest of the table suddenly find the ceiling very interesting.
Table Formats
- Limit Omaha Hi/Lo: structured, pre-determined betting on each round, with bets and raises doubling from the turn onwards. Up to four bets are allowed per player per round: bet, raise, re-raise and cap.
- Pot Limit Omaha Hi/Lo: bets are limited by the size of the pot, and there is no cap on the number of raises.
- No Limit Omaha Hi/Lo: a player may commit the chips they have in front of them, again with no cap on raises.
- Mixed Omaha Hi/Lo: the game alternates between rounds of Limit and Pot Limit play.
In Pot Limit and No Limit, a raise must be at least as large as the previous bet or raise in that same round.
Taste & Feel
Omaha Hi/Lo has a rhythm all of its own. Four hole cards mean more possibilities to weigh up, and the split pot means two separate contests are quietly running side by side on the same board.
The board does love a bit of drama, too: a flop of low cards can rewrite the whole shape of a hand in one go.
It takes a little getting used to compared with Hold'em, and that is part of the appeal. Many players find the two-halves structure a genuinely different sort of puzzle, and it slots in nicely as a change of pace among poker variants. Have a read of the rankings, take your time at the table, and let the hands unfold at whatever pace suits you.