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Omaha Hi/Lo Strategy - By: Alex Norton, Posted on: 2008-04-02

Omaha Hi/Lo (8 or better) quickly became the most popular split-pot game played in land-based casinos and online poker rooms across the world. While Omaha is very similar to Texas Holdem Poker, many novice players are confused with the fact that they can use only 2 pocket cards out of 4 dealt preflop – that’s why it is important that you learn and understand the rules and basic strategy of Omaha before playing Omaha Hi/Lo.

The basic rules of Omaha Hi/Lo are very similar to the rules of Omaha Hi. The only difference is that in Omaha Hi/Lo the pot is split between the highest and the lowest hand. The lowest hand shouldn’t include any card higher than 8, so if there isn’t a low hand at the showdown, then the whole pot goes to the high hand.

In Omaha Hi/Lo your goal is to win the whole pot. However, winning just half of the pot is better than nothing, although large profits come from winning unshared pots. In order understand how to win unshared pots, you must learn to win the low side of the pot and understand what hands are good starting hands.

The low hand.

Most beginners get confused with determining the best low hand. In Omaha Hi/Lo the straights and flushes won’t affect the low, so the nut-low hand is a wheel (5432A). Moreover, it is essential that low hands are valued based on the highest card, which means that a player holding 9432A (a 9 low) would be losing to a player holding 87654 (an 8 low). This fact appears to be most confusing for many players, who think that the first player must win due to his A is the lowest card.

In case if there’s no possible low hand, or if no one has the low hand, then the player holding the highest hand wins the whole pot. Check out the following examples for better understanding of some low situations:

1. Say you hold A of hearts, 3 of clubs, K of hearts and 5 of clubs, your opponent has Q of spades, 5 of spades, 4 of diamonds and 2 of clubs and the board is A of clubs, A of diamonds, 3 of spades, 8 of hearts and 6 of hearts.

In this case it is obvious that the pot will be split between you and your opponent, since you win the high side of the pot with AAA33 and your opponent wins the low side of the pot with his 6432A. Another interesting fact about this example is that your opponent holds the nut low hand, which means that nobody could possibly beat him, perhaps only tie. Your low is 8653A, so you would use A5 from your pocket cards and 368 from community cards, or 35 from your pocket cards and A68 from community cards.

2. Say you have A of spades, 2 of spades, Q of hearts and 8 of hearts, your opponent holds J of diamonds, 6 of diamonds, 3 of clubs and 2 of clubs and the board is 7 of spades, 5 of spades, 4 of hearts, A of clubs and J of diamonds.

In this case you get a nut-low hand using 754 from the flop, but your nut-low hand is counterfeit on the turn. This happened because an Ace, which appeared on the turn gave other players an opportunity to have an A for low. At this point your opponent’s got 5432A for a low, which means that your 7542A is now beaten. Therefore in this case, your opponent grabs the entire pot.

3. Say you have A of hearts, K of clubs, Q of diamonds and J of spades, your opponent holds K of hearts, J of hearts, 7 of clubs and 2 of clubs and the board is 10 of spades, 9 of diamonds, 8 of spades, 5 of hearts and 4 of clubs.

In this situation the flop puts your opponent in trouble, since he flopped the second-nut straight with his pocket J and 7, while you’ve flopped the nut straight with your pocket Q and J, which put you in position for winning a nice pot off your opponent. However, the turn and the river rescue your opponent from the scrape putting him up against your for a half of the pot at the showdown. Together with 854 community cards, your opponent can use his pocket 72 to build a low hand worth half the pot. Sometime a miraculous situation happens that saves a player from losing plenty of money with a bad high. This example shows the importance of having two cards to a low: something you didn’t have with a treacherously weak AKQJ.

4. Say, you have A of hearts, A of clubs, Q of diamonds and Q of spades, your opponent holds A of diamonds, 2 of clubs, 3 of clubs and 4 of diamonds and the board is K of diamonds, K of clubs, Q of hearts, 5 of spades and 6 of hearts.

In this case you grab the whole pot with a full-house (KKQQQ) and there is no low hand in the game. Considering that there are just 2 low cards on the table, you can conclude that nobody can build the low hand, since everyone are ought to use three community cards. That’s why although it seems that your opponent holds an outstanding low hand, he in fact holds nothing at all.

Good starting hands.

It is essentially important to hold a good starting hand in Omaha Hi/Lo games. Your goal is to have a hand that is capable to win the whole pot. That’s why many hands valuable in Omaha Hi lose most of their value in Omaha Hi/Lo due to their inability to make a low hand.

Generally, the tightest player is likely to be a winning player at any Omaha Hi/Lo table. Right selection of good starting hands refers to patience, which means that patience is probably the most important skill in this game. Therefore hands like A4910 that may seem tempting to play should be folded without any doubt, since their potential of making a non-nut low.

Hence, the best starting hand in Omaha Hi/Lo would be double-suited AA33. The second group of playable hands with high potential includes AAxx, A234, A2xx, A36K, A345, KQ23 and 2345. Many successful Omaha Hi/Lo players treat hands like A3xx very carefully, since this hand is not nearly as good as it may seem and it usually leads to a loss of several bets after making the second-nut low.

It is important that you shouldn’t underestimate the value of Aces in Omaha Hi/Lo. Aces are best cards on both ends of the deck. Ace is the key card for building a nut low and is a very important card in the high side of the pot due to its value as a high kicker. Many world poker champions say that an Omaha Hi/Lo hand is worthless, unless it includes an Ace. Although this may seem a little extreme, but all beginners should consider it wise to develop a habit of playing hands that do contain ace and fold those, which don’t.

In Omaha Hi/Lo your position is just as important as it is in Texas Holdem, so most borderline hands like JJ24 must be folded, unless you are in the late position in an un-raised pot.

Flop play tips.

Generally, it is a weak decision to draw to a low after the flop, unless you already hold the best four to a nut low. For instance, after a flop of A5K, you shouldn’t draw for the low, unless you already hold 23xx. This concept has another side: you can win a lot of money squeezing plenty of chips out of weak players drawing to non-nut low hands, since drawing to a non-nut low in Omaha Hi/Lo is an almost guaranteed way to disaster.

Another common beginner mistake is drawing to a running low. For instance, the majority of players with A2xx tend to enter the pot hoping to make the nut-low. Nevertheless, if the flop comes 8KQ, such players become reliant on building a running low-draw just to win ½ of the pot. If you appear in the same situation, you must fold to any bet. It would be definitely a bad move to be purposefully drawing to two cards for a low.

Quartering.

Quartering is another very key concept of Omaha Hi/Lo. Take a look at the following example, where a player is eligible for only a quarter of the pot:

Say, you have A of hearts, 3 of hearts, K of spades, 9 of spades, your opponent holds A of clubs, 3 of clubs, 10 of diamonds and 8 of diamonds and the board is 7 of diamonds, 4 of clubs, 2 of hearts, K of spades and J of hearts.

In this case both players can use their Ace-3s to build the nut-low, which means that the low end of the pot is split between you and your opponent. Nevertheless, on the high end of the pot, your pair of Kings beats your opponent’s Ace high. Hence, you get a half of the pot earned by the best hi hand and an additional quarter of the pot. Quartering your opponents is a very important concept on your stairway to success in Omaha Hi/Lo.

What is more important is your ability to keep the pot small, when you clearly realize that you may be quartered by your opponents. For instance, if you replace your opponent in the last example, then you need to realize that you may stand just for a quarter of the pot. Hence, when your opponent bets, you shouldn’t raise or re-raise with your nut-low – just call thus keeping the pot as small as you can.

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