Note that, as exactly three community cards must be used to create your final hand, the board must have three unpaired cards ranked eight or below for a low hand to be possible. The best low hand, therefore, is A-2-3-4-5 of any suits (also known as ‘The Wheel’). That’s it! Aces count as low cards when making a low hand, and straights and flushes don’t count against you.

The hand can contain no cards higher than an 8 (hence the name ‘eight or better’).

The five-card hand can contain no pairs.

So, how does a hand qualify for the low half of the pot in Omaha Hi-Lo? There are just a couple of requirements: That’s just half the story when it comes to Omaha Hi-Lo, though, because half of each pot goes to the lowest hand – if it qualifies! Making the Low Hand Our guide to poker hands is a useful page to bookmark for new players – why not leave it open the next time you’re playing online poker? These follow the same rules as most other poker games: a royal flush is the best possible hand, while a hand with no pairs, straights or flushes (known as a ‘ high card’ hand) is the worst. Making the High HandĮvery hand of Omaha Hi-Lo awards at least half the pot to the best traditional five-card poker hand. This is where the ‘hi-lo’ in the name comes from, and why poker games of this type are often called ‘split games’. Where Omaha Hi-Lo – also known as Omaha Hi-Lo Split, Omaha 8/b (‘eight or better’) or simply O8 – differs from traditional Omaha is that half the pot is awarded to the lowest qualifying hand.

Exactly two hole cards, plus three community cards, must be used to create your five-card poker hand.

Players all receive four hole cards instead of two.

If you’ve read the rules to Omaha poker, you’ll know that it plays identically to Texas Hold’em – some even call it ‘Omaha Hold’em’ – with the following exceptions:

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