Poker Omaha Hi Lo Pravila

Here you Learn Where and How to Play Omaha Hi Lo Poker Online. The poker game Omaha Hi/Lo may go under many different titles – Omaha Holdem 8 or better, Omaha high low split poker, Omaha 08 – but, no matter how it is referred to, it is quickly establishing itself as one of the most popular formats of poker played at online poker sites throughout the world.

• Omaha High is a popular variation of poker in Europe, especially in pot limit. PokerStars offers Omaha in pot limit for all of our players around the world. Omaha Hi/Lo, or Omaha Eight (played with an ‘eight or better’ qualifier for low), is offered in limit, pot limit and no limit action.
• Omaha Hi Lo Poker Starting Hands. Similar to PLO, Omaha Hi-Lo also has a huge number of starting hand combinations. But being a split pot game where a player's intention is to make a good high as well as a good low hand, thus some of the best decisions in this game are made pre-flop.

'Anytime you learn another form of poker, you'll learn how to play your best form better.'

That's what Bart Hanson said when we asked him to give us a reason to improve our Omaha hi-low game, and we couldn't have put it any better ourselves.

This year at the World Series of Poker, a total of 12 different games are spread, and only one of those doesn't have its own bracelet event. Badugi will be a part of the $50,000 Poker Players' Championship, but we don't discriminate and every single one of these games will have at least one, possibly more, strategy articles.

Today we're kicking things off with one of the most popular games at the WSOP, Omaha hi-lo. It's also commonly known as Omaha hi-low 8-or-better, Omaha-8, and Omaha 8-or-better, but it's all exactly the same game.

In case you've never heard of it, here is a brief explanation to get you up to speed.

Omaha hi-low is a flop game where every player gets dealt four cards. Just like with pot-limit Omaha, you have to use two cards from you hand, but the big difference is that you can use a different two for the high than you use for the low. On every single hand, the high will qualify, but since this game has an 'eight-or-better' qualifier, the low only comes in when a player has a combination of five unpaired cards lower than an eight.

Example hand:

If you hold on an board, then your high hand is for a four-of-a-kind, and your low hand is . In this example, you have 'nut-nut,' which is the two best possible hands, high and low.

For this first strategy piece, we spoke to the aforementioned Bart Hanson, who's very well rounded in all forms of poker. Hanson has live tournament results in many forms of the game, and six in Omaha hi-low. During the 2012 WSOP, Hanson had his best result in this game, placing seventh in the $5,000 Omaha hi-low event for $45,084. Here’s what he had to say.

'People play this game with different strategies,' he said. 'I really believe — and I'm from the Mike Matusow school of this game — that the correct style is to play a little bit defensive. It's very different from any kind of other tournament and the unfortunate part is that even if you get a good table draw, when players are aggressive it ramps up the variance so much for good players. This is a reason why I love the $10,000 Omaha 8-or-better tournament because guys are not just jamming it every hand, and because you get so many chips it's very hard for them to burn you. You'll be able to overcome that higher variance since you will see more spots and hands.'

Hanson also emphasized the importance of being able to scoop, which means winning both the high and the low portion of the pot.

'The low only comes in about 60 percent of the time, so sometimes high-only hands have value when the low bricks out,' he advised. 'However, you might run an amazing hand against a very trashy hand and it will only scoop about 60 percent of the time. If you can stay in there for cheap, it's good, but fundamentally you want to build on a low. Hands that include ace-deuce and ace-three are really powerful, because once you hit that low you're on a freeroll against high-only hands.'

As an example, Hanson uses the following scenario:

'Even if a guy has two kings on , which would be the current nut high, you could have or and sometimes even with a flush draw, so you are freerolling for the low with a chance to also make a better high hand on the river.'

He added, 'In tournaments, it's definitely good to play tight in this format, as it's more of a defensive game and saving bets is very important. Unlike, let's say no-limit hold'em, where you just get it all in and win or lose, it's a split-pot game and you're not getting knocked out all that frequently when you get it all in.'

Also in tournaments, Hanson was sure to point out the difference between how many players go to a flop versus when in a cash game, and this cane certainly change one's approach.

'In a tournament, this game is usually a lot more short-handed post flop, but in cash games you need to at least draw to the nuts in one way because there is so much multi-way action,' Hanson said. 'Fundamentally, it is good to draw to the nuts, but if you are in a heads-up pot you can absolutely play more than just the nuts.'

Using an example of this, Hanson elaborated with the following:

'If I defend my blinds and flop a jack-high flush draw and the third nut low draw, I will go with it,' he said. 'It's very unlikely in that scenario that he's beating me both ways, but in the early levels it's different. When it gets limped around seven ways, and I have and the flop comes down with two clubs, I'll just fold that hand. The third nut low draw and the third best flush draw are not very good in multi-way pots, so I would say that the more multi-way the pots are, the more you need to be drawing to the nuts.'

There are plenty of tournament options at the WSOP if you like this game, but usually it's easier to find some cash-game action, especially if you want to test the waters there are lots of tables all over Vegas that spread Omaha hi-low. Based on experience we can say that Omaha hi-low is the second most popular cash game in Las Vegas behind no-limit hold'em.

For remaining WSOP Omaha hi-low events, check out the following schedule:

If you have any more questions about Omaha hi-low strategy, you can find Hanson on Twitter at @BartHanson.

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Table Of Contents

What is Omaha Poker?

Omaha poker is one of the most popular poker variants. For many poker players who start out learning how to play Texas hold'em, Omaha is often the next game they learn to play, in part because Omaha poker is somewhat similar to hold'em in the way the game is played.

There are different types of Omaha poker games, the two most popular being pot-limit Omaha (which we are focusing on here) and Omaha hi-lo. You can read about Omaha hi-lo poker rules here.

If you know the rules for Texas hold'em, you are more than halfway to knowing how to play Omaha poker. However, let's first sort out how the two games are different.

What is the difference between Omaha and Texas hold'em?

Like hold'em, Omaha is a 'flop' game that uses community cards. Just like in hold'em, players are dealt their own hands face down — their 'hole cards' — and use those cards in combination with the five community cards (the flop, turn, and river) to make five-card poker hands.

However, there is one big difference between Omaha and hold'em. Whereas in hold'em players are each dealt two hole cards, in Omaha they are dealt four hole cards. From those four cards, players must choose two of their hole cards to go along with three of the five community cards in order to make their five-card poker hands.

Note how that also marks an important difference between Omaha game rules and hold'em. In Omaha, players must use exactly two of their hole cards and three of the community cards to build a poker hand. That's different from hold'em where players can use both of their hole cards (and three community cards), just one hole card (and four community cards), or no hole cards (and all five community cards, which is called 'playing the board').

In pot-limit Omaha, the hand rankings are just the same as in Texas hold'em. Like hold'em, pot-limit Omaha or 'PLO' is played as a 'high-hand' game, which means the hands go (from best to worst): royal flush, straight flush, four of a kind, full house, flush, straight, three of a kind, two pair, one pair, high-card.

How To Play Omaha Poker

Beginning players who have only been introduced to Omaha poker rules often make mistakes when it comes to building five-card hands, forgetting the rule about it being mandatory to use two of the four hole cards along with three community cards to make a hand.

For example, a new player holding A♥Q♣7♦6♦ might look at a board of 9♥4♥2♣J♥Q♥ and think he has made the nuts with an ace-high flush.

The problem is, you cannot make a hand using only one hole card (in this case the A♥) and four community cards (the four hearts on the board). In fact, this player only has a pair of queens, not a flush at all. Meanwhile any player with two hearts would have a flush, which means the player should certainly fold this weak hand to any bets on the river.

Betting in Omaha poker works exactly like it does in Texas hold'em, with a small and big blind as well as a rotating button, and four betting rounds following each round of dealing — preflop, flop, turn, river. See 'How to Play Texas Hold'em Poker' for an overview of how the game is dealt and the order of play during the betting rounds.

Hand values in Texas hold'em versus Omaha poker

Pot-limit Omaha (or 'Omaha high') is known as an 'action game' which is one reason why it is popular among high-stakes players. Since players start with four hole cards in Omaha instead of two, they can make a much wider range of hands. For that reason, hand values tend to be higher in Omaha than in hold'em, with players making 'the nuts' or the highest possible hand much more frequently.

If you think about it, in PLO players aren't dealt just a single two-card combination (as in hold'em), but six different two-card combinations (among the four hole cards) from which to choose the best hand. It isn't surprising, then, that players tend to make much better hands at showdown in Omaha poker.

In Texas hold'em making two pair or three of a kind can be a very strong hand, but in Omaha there will often be better hands out there to beat those holdings.

For example, say you have been dealt 10♠9♠8♥7♥ and by the river the board is 7♠9♥K♥J♣2♦. Using the ten and eight in your hand along with three community cards, you have a jack-high straight. The problem is any opponent holding Qx10xXxXx would complete a higher, king-high straight and defeat you — and if the betting gets heavy on the river, that's probably exactly what is happening.

Another example would be holding J♠J♣9♠9♥ on a board of 9♦K♠Q♥5♦3♦. Yes, you have a set of nines, which would be a nice holding in Texas hold'em, but in Omaha poker there are several hands that could defeat you here. Anyone with KxKxXxXx or QxQxXxXx would have a higher set, and an opponent with Jx10xXxXx would have made a straight. There is also a flush possibility, meaning anyone with X♦X♦XxXx (two diamonds) would make a flush.

Due to the nature of so many better hands, an opponent may just be calling your bets with a set of kings or queens as they may fear a straight or flush, so even if you are not facing any immediate aggression, you could still be beaten so proceed with caution.

Omaha Poker Rules

Another factor to consider when it comes to Omaha rules when playing the most popular pot-limit Omaha version of the game is the pot-limit betting format, which is another way PLO can play differently than no-limit hold'em.

Like in hold'em, the minimum bet allowed in Omaha is always the equivalent of the big blind. For example, if the game is $1/$2 PLO, the minimum a player can bet would be $2. However, while in no-limit hold'em a player can always bet all of his or her chips at any point, in Omaha the maximum bet allowed is the size of the pot.

Calculating what exactly is a 'pot-sized' bet can be trickier than it might seem at first glance. If the pot is $10 and a player is first to act, $10 is the maximum bet that player can make — simple enough. However, if there has already been a bet and a player wishes to 'raise pot,' that gets a little tricky.

Say there is $10 in the pot and a player bets $5, then the next player wants to 'raise pot.' The most that player can bet would be $25, a total calculated by adding the $5 to call plus the $20 that would be in the pot after the call ($5 + $20 = $25).

In fact, preflop the blinds are considered forced bets, so once again a bit of math has to be done in order to figure out how much a player can raise even when acting first. In a $1/$2 PLO game, the maximum a player can open-raise is $7, the total coming from adding $2 or the equivalent of the big blind to $5 or the size of the pot after calling the big blind ($2 + $5 = $7).

When playing in a casino, the dealer will take care of the math for you should you announce you wish to bet the pot. Meanwhile, when playing online poker the calculations are automatically made right on the screen.

Other Omaha Poker Tips

Just like in hold'em, position is an important element in Omaha. Many consider it to be even more important, both because of the pot-limit betting format and because of all the possible combinations a player can make with an Omaha hand. When sitting in position, you can follow the actions of your opponents and make your decisions based on the information you received. When out of position, it is much harder to make the correct decisions because you are dealing with incomplete information more often.

Another benefit of being in position is that you have a better chance of controlling the size of the pot, which is often based on the strength of your hand and your overall goal in the pot. Being out of position to one or more opponents gives them the ability to control the pot size and also capitalize on the added information of knowing your actions first.

Because Omaha is so focused on the nuts, it might seem like bluffing plays an important role in the game. A player can represent a wider range of hands in Omaha, and also open up with a bit more with so many more semi-bluffs available. In fact, experienced Omaha players will often bet big draws heavily on the flop, since in some cases those draws are actually mathematical favorites versus made hands.

All of which is to say players do bluff in pot-limit Omaha, but with so many possible hands out there you have to be judicious when deciding when it is best to bluff. The more you learn about the game, the easier it will become to pick up on these spots and determine how to proceed against various opponents.

Relatedly, blockers also become much more prevalent in Omaha than in Texas hold'em. Blockers are those cards you hold in your hand that prevent an opponent from making a specific hand.

For example, if a board reads K♠10♠5♥2♠4♦ and you hold the A♠ in your hand but no other spades, you may not have a flush, but you know your opponent cannot make the nut flush. This gives you added power in the hand being able to push your opponent off certain hands as your opponent is guaranteed to not contain the nuts.

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Conclusion

Hi Lo Omaha Poker

Omaha poker is a game of action, but it can also be a game of big swings. Many players first learn Texas hold'em before taking up learning the rules of Omaha. Having a good knowledge of fundamentals in Texas hold'em helps a lot when making the transition into Omaha.