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Omaha Hi/Lo: General Overview
Omaha Hi-Lo (also known as Omaha 8 or better) is often times seen as one of the most difficult but well-loved poker variations. It is a game that, even more than normal Omaha poker, invites play from every level of players. This is the primary reason why a once invisible variation, has grown in popularity so quickly.
Omaha/8 begins like a normal game of Omaha. Four cards are handed out to each player. A round of wagering follows in which gamblers can wager, check, or fold. 3 cards are handed out, this is referred to as the flop. A further round of betting ensues. After all the gamblers have either called or folded, a further card is revealed on the turn. a further sequence of betting follows and then the river card is flipped. The entrants must attempt to make the strongest high and low 5 card hands using the board and hole cards.
This is the point where some players often get baffled. Contrasted to Hold’em, in which the board can make up every player’s hand, in Omaha hi-low the player has to use exactly three cards on the board, and exactly 2 hole cards. No more, not a single card less. Unlike normal Omaha, there are two ways a pot might be won: the "high hand" or the "low hand."
A high hand is just what it sounds like. It is the strongest possible hand out of every player’s, it doesn’t matter if it is a straight, flush, full house. It’s the very same notion in almost every poker game.
A low hand is more difficult, but certainly opens up the action. When determining a low hand, straights and flushes don’t count. A low hand is the weakest hand that can be put together, with the lowest being A-2-3-4-5. Since straights and flushes don’t count, A-2-3-4-5 is the worst possible hand. The low hand is any 5 card hand (unpaired) with an eight and smaller. The low hand wins half of the pot, as does the high hand. When there’s no low hand presented, the higher hand takes the entire pot.
It may seem complicated at the start, after a couple of hands you will be agile enough to get the base subtleties of the game simply enough. Since you have individuals betting for the low and betting for the high, and since such a large number of cards are being used at once, Omaha Hi-Lo offers an exciting collection of betting possibilities and seeing that you have many players battling for the high, and many battling for the low hand. If you like a game with all kinds of outs and actions, it’s not a waste of your time to play Omaha 8 or better.