Omaha Split Fundamentals

A lot of hi poker players prefer the split game. For many years the most popular game for hi-lo poker players was seven-card stud poker. The situation has changed since Omaha turned into one of the main forms of poker. Now Omaha hi-lo has become the main form of hi-lo poker. Frankly, Omaha high-low has become more popular than just Omaha-high.

As in other forms of poker with split pot it’s better to play Omaha with eight-or-higher qualifier for low combination. The presence of qualifier for low-combination adds balance to the game and allows players decide while choosing starting hands whether they aim at high or low. Nowadays there isn’t almost a single game without qualifiers, in every form of poker the game strategy is aiming at low-combination.

Omaha high-low rules allow players to use any cards in any direction. So a player can use the same two cards for both high and low combinations, two cards for high combination and two for low or any other four-card combination.

Thus any high-low game strategy is about winning the whole pot and not winning in only one direction. If you win in your direction the prize is relatively small. In major games the pot is usually divided among three players, meaning that in order to get back your money you have to win two third of the pot if you don’t take the whole pot sometimes.

There are two ways of taking the whole pot in Omaha split

The usual one is not to have the lowest combination at all because there are only two or fewer legal small cards. (It is extremely seldom that nobody falls under the low hand qualification even if small cards are on the board.) There are 8 small and only 5 high cards in the pack, so in most deals small cards appear on the board. But even under these circumstances there are deals when low combinations are not possible. If nobody has the qualifier for low combination then the high hand takes the whole pot.

Another way to take the whole pot is to have nut low and nut high combinations. Typically it happens in the presence of a wheel – straight from five (nut low combination) or nut high and nut low combinations. With such a hand one typically wins three quarters of a pot giving of course good income.