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Introducing this great game to your home and online play 

In the past ten years Texas Hold’Em poker has seen an amazing rise in popularity and caused a literal poker boom across the world.

Hollywood movies, the promise of a big pay day and the proliferation of poker on television all have helped to fuel the poker boom. One reason Texas Hold’Em has become so popular is because of the community nature of the game in which players share five common cards on the board. This stunningly simple change in game play brings some truly great action and strategy to poker. Because community style poker games have become the game of choice for many players, many other community based games have become popular.

 

Enter

Omaha High Low, a truly great community card poker game! 

If you are looking to broaden your horizons beyond Texas Hold’Em and are looking to take on a different game, then you need to try Omaha High Low. It is like Texas Hold’Em in that there is a flop, a turn and a river, but that’s pretty much where the similarities end.

 

Omaha High Low poker is actually a variation of a simpler game named

Omaha. In both

Omaha and Omaha High Low, players are dealt four face down cards as opposed to the two we normally see in Texas Hold’Em. Because of each player having four cards, the rules on how those cards can be played is slightly different. In both

Omaha games a player is only allowed to use two of the four cards from their hand and they must use three out of the five cards on the board. This can be a little confusing so here are some examples:

 

1. If you have AA7Q and the board is QQ22K your best hand is QQQAK or three of a kind queens with an ace kicker. Remember, you can only use exactly three from the board and two from your hand. It might look like you have queens full of twos, but you can only use one other card on the board in addition to the two queens.

 

2. If you have KKK9 and the board is QQ9A5 your best hand is KKQQA or two pair, kings and queens with an ace kicker. You unfortunately do not have three of a kind Kings, simply because you can only use two from your hand. You learn quickly in Omaha that being dealt three of one card is not a good thing. If a king were to hit on the board, then you would have three of a kind kings but being that you have three already in your hand, the chances of another one falling are slim.

 

If you can understand the rules regarding how many cards you can use from your hand and from the board, you will have no problem picking up

Omaha or Omaha High Low quickly.

 

So what exactly is

Omaha High Low? 

Omaha High Low is a fun and challenging game in that players battle to win the pot by playing both their best high poker hand and their best low poker hand. Now this might all sound quite confusing, but you’ll have it figured out in no time. In each hand of Omaha High Low, the pot is split into halves. One half goes to the player with the best high poker hand, and the other half of the pot goes to the player with the best low poker hand and yes it is possible for the same player to win both halves of the pot!

 

The best high hand is just that, it is the best poker hand as in any other game. A straight or a flush could win the high half of the pot just like they would in Texas Hold’Em. The low hand is what can be a tad confusing and might take a little getting used to. In the low hand, players are trying to make their best five card hand that has the lowest value. In order for a hand to qualify for the low, all cards in it must be under eight. In addition all five cards in the low hand must be different, meaning pairs and trips would not qualify. A straight or a flush does not affect a low hand. If you have five cards under eight, but they are all hearts, that is fine, you simply don’t take the flush into account in terms of the low hand. Here is the best part though, if you do have five cards under eight that are all hearts you might win both the low half and the high half of the pot! Why you ask? Well because you have an eight high flush in hearts to contend for the high half of the pot, and you have five different cards all under eight that could win you the low half of the pot.

 

So how do the low hands rank? 

The best possible low hand one can make is called The Wheel. It is A2345 and in addition to being the best low hand you can make, it is also a five high straight and is a fierce competitor for the high half of the pot. Anytime you get the wheel, you have a good chance of winning the whole pot.

 

Ranking the low hands beyond the wheel can be overwhelming at first, but eventually you will be able to figure them out in a snap. We will cover the basics here, but for an in-depth look at how to figure out low hands, read Learning The Low in Omaha High Low.

 

The best way to figure out which low hand is the best is to figure out which one has the lowest ranking high card. For example, a hand of 23467 would be a better low hand than 23468. Another way to do it is simply read the cards out loud as if they were a five digit number and treat any ace as a one. For example, if the showdown was between A2467 and A2368, the hands would read “twelve thousand four hundred and sixty seven” and “twelve thousand three hundred and sixty eight”, whichever number is less represents the winning hand. So in this example, A2368 would be the winning low hand.

 

Putting it all together 

So now you understand the difference between high and low hands and how the pot can be split but you might still be a little confused as to just how you can make both a high and a low hand with your five cards and with the community cards. Its really quite simple, you just have to remember the rules discussed earlier in that you can only use two cards from your hand and exactly three cards from the board. The most important thing though is that you can use two different sets of two cards from your hand for each your low and high hand. You may also use two different sets of three cards from the board for each your low and high hand. Here is an example:

 

1. Your hand is A267 and the board reads 77349. For your high hand you can use your Ace and your Seven to make 777A9 for three of a kind sevens with an ace kicker. For your low hand you will use your Ace and your Two to make A2347 for your low hand. Note how in each your low and high hand you still followed the two from your hand three from the board rule, but you used different cards for each the low and high hand.

 

2. Your hand is AJQ3 and the board reads 89T25. You will use your Queen and your Jack to make 89TJQ or a queen high straight for your high hand. You will use your Ace and your Three to make the wheel or A2345 for your low hand.

 

 

Suggested limits and ways to play

Omaha High Low 

Whether you decide to introduce Omaha High Low to your home poker game or you decide to try it out online, you should know what types of limits and games are the most popular first. Most online poker rooms offer Omaha High Low in both limit and pot limit games, but pot limit is usually more popular. No limit Omaha High Low is played, but it is not as popular as pot limit.

 

If this will be your first time playing online, it is definitely a good idea to get your feet wet with some limit play first. Pot limit and no limit

Omaha are both extremely fun games, but they can get really wild really fast. Make sure you know your stuff and have plenty of money before you dip into pot limit Omaha High Low.

 

Playing Omaha High Low in your home poker game is a great way to add some excitement to the night and there are many fun limits you can throw in to make it more interesting. A great way to play Omaha High Low at home is actually half pot limit. In half pot limit, players get the excitement of making increasingly larger bets, but it stays a bit more controlled and is less likely to bust a lot of players out of your game early. Another thing you can do to try pot limit or half pot limit Omaha High Low is to enforce a cap on the amount of a bet. For example, you could play half pot limit, with blinds of fifty cents and one dollar and cap the maximum bet at five dollars. Experiment with different levels and limits until you find one that fits the character and bankroll of your home game.

 

 

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