How to play Omaha Hi-Lo

[SpaceMage]

Hi,

I am looking for some help playing Omaha Hi-Lo.

I believe I understand the hand rules for the Hi part. Same hand ranking as in Hold-em but you must take two cards from your four hole cards and three from the five community cards.

I've not been able to find an adequate description of hand ranking for the lo part.

Is A2345 suited (a straight flush - good in hold-em) better is worse than A2345 un-suited (a straight).

I take it that A2345 is better than a straight starting from 2 upwards until the highest number is eight.

what about the other rankings. Is a 2,2 pair better than a 3,3 pair etc.

Could someone please explain the rules of this game to me.

 

[orchidra]

Hi,

I am looking for some help playing Omaha Hi-Lo.

I believe I understand the hand rules for the Hi part. Same hand ranking as in Hold-em but you must take two cards from your four hole cards and three from the five community cards.

I've not been able to find an adequate description of hand ranking for the lo part.

Is A2345 suited (a straight flush - good in hold-em) better is worse than A2345 un-suited (a straight).

I take it that A2345 is better than a straight starting from 2 upwards until the highest number is eight.

what about the other rankings. Is a 2,2 pair better than a 3,3 pair etc.

Could someone please explain the rules of this game to me.

Welcome to Cardschat.

Is A2345 suited (a straight flush - good in hold-em) better is worse than A2345 un-suited (a straight).
Answer - The same value. Suits do not matter for the low hand.

I take it that A2345 is better than a straight starting from 2 upwards until the highest number is eight.
Answer - Yes for the low hand but not the high hand. A2345 is the best possible low hand. For the high hand 23456 beats A2345. For the high hand the A2345 is a 5 high straight and the 23456 is a 6 high straight.

what about the other rankings. Is a 2,2 pair better than a 3,3 pair etc.
Answer - Pairs are not relevant for the low hand. For low hands, you must have five different cards, 8 or under.

The low hand is ranked from the highest card downwards. An Ace is treated as one.
Some examples (best at top)
5432A - Best possible low hand.
6432A
65432
75432
7652A
76542
8432A
8642A
87653
87654 - Worst possible low hand.

Note:- If the is no qualifying low hand, the high hand wins the entire pot.

 

[Collin Moshman]

Great post from Orchidra.

I know this wasn't your question, but a couple of quick strategy tips as you get started out

** Play tight pre-flop, looking for hands where you have potential to scoop (win both halves of the pot)

** Be very careful about drawing to second-best hands

** Value bet your strong hands aggressively against opponents with one-way hands or taking weak hands too far

 

[Bl1962-1]

Who wins if
87521
85321

 

[monkeytilter]

Who wins if
87521
85321

You count from the top down. So 8 vs 8 is a tie, next card 5 vs 7, 5 wins.

As easy way to think of it is read the whole thing as a number.
Which is the smaller number 87521 or 85321?
85321 is so wins!

Don't count from the bottom up, it leads to mistakes!
Changing your example a bit..
87321
85421

the 85.. still wins, if you look at the bottom part though.. 321 vs 421 you'll get the wrong answer!

 

[ebazynski]

Don't go all in pre-flop when you have A2 thinking you have the low nailed. As soon as the flop comes KK9 (or any 3 hi cards), you're screwed for low . Unfortunately this seems to be a common play in the Friday variant game @Replay.