Omaha Hi/Lo is one of the most played variants of Omaha poker which has cultivated a loyal band of followers through the decades, both on and offline. There’s a clever alternative take on classic poker gameplay, where the pot is usually won by the player with the highest-ranked poker hand. We’ll go into more detail about this and the rise of Omaha Hi/Lo below in this article charting the roots of this fascinating poker format.
Omaha Hi/Lo is also labelled within the poker community as Omaha Eight or Better. You’ll find out why shortly. It’s a spin-off from the original version of Omaha, which shares the same poker hands ranking as Texas Hold’em, as well as Seven Card Stud and Five Card Draw. In Omaha Hi/Lo there’s also an Ace to Five “Lowball” hand ranking to consider.
The game was conceived in the 1980s in the heart of Las Vegas’ poker scene. There are few bigger things to come out of Las Vegas than casino gaming, except for The Killers, who recently released a new track.
The mastermind behind Omaha Hi/Lo is said to be Robert Turner, a Californian poker professional, who demonstrated the game to the iconic Golden Nugget Casino card room manager, Bill Boyd. Boyd was so taken by the concept that he asked Turner if he could run the game, marketing it as “Nugget Hold’em”.
It didn’t take long whatsoever for poker players to dabble with Omaha variants like Omaha Hi/Lo, wanting to enhance their skillsets by mastering a dual-reward pot system.
Exploring the rules of Omaha Hi/Lo
That’s right, in Omaha Hi/Lo, only 50% of the pot is reserved for the player with the highest-ranking poker hand. This is adjudged using the conventional poker rankings that Texas Hold’em and Omaha Hold’em lean on. However, the remaining 50% of the pot is ring-fenced for the player with the lowest five-card poker hand.
The best possible “low” hand you can make in Omaha Hi/Lo is a “Five Low”, also known as a “Wheel”. This is a straight from five to ace. Aces are always low when it comes to measuring a low hand. Meanwhile the worst possible “low” hand you can make is an “Eight Low” – a five-card poker hand with an eight as the highest-value card.
In terms of the gameplay and hand construction, Hi/Lo mirrors original Omaha Hold’em. Players receive four hole cards – double the amount of Texas Hold’em – and must use two of their hole cards and three community cards to make a high or low hand.
What’s the appeal of Omaha Hi/Lo poker?
The split-pot dynamic is a fun twist for traditional poker players. In most other poker formats, the aim of the game is to land the entirety of the pot. However, in Omaha Hi/Lo, you get two bites of the cherry. In many ways, this helps to create a more even playing field, with players able to win with hands at both ends of the ranking spectrum.
With more calculations to be made across two pots, Omaha Hi/Lo isn’t quite the brute force that is No Limit Texas Hold’em. With double the number of hole cards in play, coupled with two high and low pots at stake, there’s greater importance on being selective.
In essence, Omaha Hi/Lo ticks all the right boxes for poker fanatics that don’t have an aversion to deep-thinking and strategic card games. It’s less confrontational and certainly more cerebral than most other poker variants.
More recently Omaha Hi/Lo has become a staple inclusion in some of the world’s biggest live poker circuits. The World Series of Poker (WSOP) plays host to several Omaha Hi/Lo events during the summer, with fixed-limit and pot-limit tournaments on the schedule.
A fixed-limit Omaha Hi/Lo event has a ceiling at which all players can bet during any round of betting. A pot-limit Omaha Hi/Lo event caps how much you can bet or raise to the current size of the pot, thereby preventing aggressive all-in shoves and such like.
The meteoric rise of Omaha Hi/Lo from the back rooms of smoky Las Vegas poker rooms to some of the world’s most historic poker events is a testament to its intricacies and appeal.
