Omaha H/L (8 or Better) - Intermediate

If you have never played Omaha before you probably want to begin by familiarizing yourself with the basic game of Omaha before you look at the H/L or 8oB version of the game. You can read more about Omaha here.

Omaha H/L is one of the fastest growing poker games world wide (behind Texas Holdem) because it combines much of the strategy of Texas Holdem with some of the more exciting elements of a good home game. One of the main features of this game is the possibility of two different people winning part of the pot on a regular basis. This means you get to play more flops than in Holdem. Any good Holdem player knows that a significant number of times he is going to simply fold before the flop since only a small selection of his hands will be playable. This can be rather boring since you are spending most of the game observing rather than actually playing a hand. What happens next is the bad players get bored and start playing questionable hands and losing their money. Don't let this be you.

If you don't have the patience to play Holdem correctly then maybe Omaha H/L is the game for you. Since you are given four hole cards you have a greater possibility that you have something worth playing. Not only do you have four cards to choose from you also have two different kinds of pot to bet at, the high pot and the low pot. This means on any given hand you have many different legitimate reasons for playing the hand, unlike in Holdem.

The golden rule in Omaha is to understand that you must play two and only two of your hole cards. If there are four spades on the board and you hold only one spade you do not have a flush. For Holdem players this can be difficult to remember. If a straight comes on the board and you do not have two cards in your hand that contribute to the straight you do not have a straight. For me, one of the attractions of the game is that so many people misunderstand the rules or overplay what they think is a winning hand it produces huge pots which can easily won with a little skill.

In Omaha H/L the added dimension to the game is that at the end of the hand any players who are still involved in the game (have not folded) show their cards and a determination is made as to whether a low hand exists. A low hand is defined as five cards from Ace to Eight with no pairs, trips or four of a kind. So a low hand could be A 2 3 4 6 or 3 4 6 7 8 or A 4 5 7 8. A low hand cannot be A A 2 3 4 or A 2 2 2 5. For a ranking chart of acceptable low hands click here.

So in Omaha H/L at the end of the hand the dealer checks to see if a low hand exists and awards half the pot to the lowest hand. Next the dealer looks to see who has the best high hand (see regular poker hand rankings here). The other half of the pot goes to the high hand winner. It is possible for the high hand and the low hand to be one and the same. For example, someone might have a wheel (A 2 3 4 5) and since that is the best low hand they will win the low pot. If no other player has a straight or better then the same player would win the high pot with a five high straight. Another example would be if a player held A 2 5 6 7 of diamonds and this hand could potentially be the low hand AND an ace high flush for the best high hand. As you can see, there are various scenarios to win one or both of the pots in any given hand. Of course, given that the game features community cards it is also possible for two players to tie. For example, if two players hold an A 2 and the board is 3 4 5 K Q then the low pot (and possibly the high pot) would be split equally between the two players holding A 2.

In the game of Omaha H/L there are a lot of different things to watch for, which is why the game is not ideally suited for beginners. On the flip side there are many weak players who play Omaha so there is often not much competition to beat you. The important thing to do is to fully understand what makes a good low hand and what is a good starting hand.

Omaha H/L Starting Hands

Given that you are given four hole cards in Omaha H/L you have a variety of ways to make the best overall hand. Of course, everyone has four cards also so don't think that your King high flush is going to be a killer because at a full table the chances are good that someone has the Ace and another of the same suit in their hand. A flush is not quite as strong as you might consider it in Holdem either. If the board pairs another player has a good chance of making a full house with a pair of his hole cards. In a game of ten players forty of the fifty two cards are going to be in play in the hole cards alone and with five on the board there are only seven cards not in play. In Holdem the number is more like twenty five cards from fifty two are in play. This fact certainly alters the likelihood of certain hands popping up. I've had two royal flushes in Omaha and never one in Holdem, despite playing Holdem more often.

So what makes a good starting hand? Well it depends what book you read and how you try to play the game. Even among experts there are a number of theories and concepts to learn. In H/L poker you are needing to check your hole cards for good potential low and high hand hands. This is a lot to evaluate successfully especially at the speed of an online poker game.

With any of these Omaha H/L starting hands suit is quite important.  Take the strongest hand, AA23.  Now if the A and 2 were of one suit and the A and 3 were another suit the hand becomes even stronger.  At this point you have all the power of a hand that is likely to win the low part of the pot, but being suited you have two different chances to win the high pot too by getting an ace high flush.  All it takes is three cards of that suit on the board and no pairs and you probably have the best possible high hand.  If three cards on the board are eight or below then you have a good chance of having the best possible low hand with your A 2 or A 3.

If you are just getting in to this game try some play money games on PokerStars.com.  If you play premium and strong hands only in the no-limit low stake tables you will make a LOT of play money.  There is an abundance of bad players who do not understand the game that just like to go all in on every hand just to see if they hit the jackpot.  But don't let it bother you, just keep taking their money.

Annie Duke just won the Omaha H/L world championship in 2004.  On her website she has a number of great articles on this interesting game.

Further Reading (Omaha H/L)