Omaha Hi/Low: General Overview
Omaha Hi-Lo (also known as Omaha/8 or better) is commonly seen as one of the most complicated but popular poker games. It’s a game that, even more than normal Omaha poker, aims for action from all levels of players. This is the main reason why a once irrelevant game, has expanded in popularity so amazingly.
Omaha hi/low begins exactly like a normal game of Omaha. 4 cards are dealt to every player. A sequence of betting follows where gamblers can wager, check, or fold. Three cards are given out, this is known as the flop. One more sequence of wagering ensues. After all the players have either called or dropped out, another card is flipped on the turn. a further round of betting ensues and then the river card is revealed. The gamblers will have to put together the best high and low 5 card hands using the board and hole cards.
This is the point where some entrants get baffled. Contrasted to Holdem, where the board can make up everyone’s hand, in Omaha hi lo the player must use precisely three cards from the board, and exactly 2 cards from their hand. No more, not a single card less. Unlike regular Omaha, there are two ways a pot might be won: the "high hand" or the "lower hand."
A high hand is exactly how it sounds. It is the strongest hand out of every player’s, whether that is a straight, flush, full house, etc. It is the same notion in almost every poker game.
The lower hand is more complex, but certainly free’s up the action. When determining a low hand, straights and flushes don’t count. the lowest hand is the worst hand that might be made, with the worst being made up of A-2-3-4-5. Considering that straights and flushes do not count, A-2-3-4-5 is the lowest value hand possible. The low hand is any 5 card hand (unpaired) with an 8 and below. The lower hand takes half of the pot, as does the high hand. When there’s no low hand presented, the high hand takes the whole pot.
It may seem complicated at first, after a couple of hands you will be agile enough to get the basic nuances of play easily enough. Seeing as you have individuals wagering for the low and wagering for the high, and since such a large number of cards are being used at once, Omaha 8 or better offers an amazing assortment of betting options and owing to the fact that you have many individuals trying for the high hand, as well as a few trying for the low. If you like a game with all kinds of outs and actions, it is not a waste of your time to play Omaha 8 or better.