Omaha hi-lo can be a dizzying game if you are not used to it. With two opposing, possible winning options and trying to build a hand from four hole cards and five community cards, you have to keep your wits about you at all times.

Here we endeavour to make life that little bit easier, providing some helpful hints at what Omaha hi-lo hands are worth playing, and which hands are absolute poison that should be avoided like the plague. The greatest weapon in a game of poker is knowledge and once we’ve broken down what’s what you will confidently be able to traverse the seemingly daunting and sinister world that is Omaha hi-lo split.

The best low hand (or lowest hand) is based on the highest card of your 5-card low hand, where 'high' is bad. In other words, 5 low cards that are no higher than 7 is better than 5 low cards where one of them is an 8. 5-minute poker hand analysis wrap-up. Hand analysis is the bread and butter of your off-table work, and repeating this quick method will undoubtedly make you a much stronger player. If you are serious about getting better at poker, I think you should analyze at least one hand every day to keep your skills sharp and your trajectory upward. Eliminating identical hands that ignore relative suit values leaves 6,009,159 distinct 7-card hands. The number of distinct 5-card poker hands that are possible from 7 cards is 4,824. Perhaps surprisingly, this is fewer than the number of 5-card poker hands from 5 cards because some 5-card hands are impossible with 7 cards (e.g. One pair is a poker hand that contains two cards of the same rank, plus three unpaired cards. It is better than any high-card, no-pair hand, but it is worse than two pair. Pairs of the higher rank defeat pairs of the lower rank. If two hands have the same rank of pair, the ranks.

The Best Hand

While every thoroughbred Omaha player may have their own personal favorite hand, A, A, 2, 3 (double suited), is the best hand to be armed with in Omaha hi-lo.

Now let us just have a look at what makes this such an effective hand, baring in mind that in Omaha hi-lo, each player must use exactly two of their hole cards and three community cards to construct either a winning hi hand or a winning lo hand, Aces are high and low, and a lo hand can only quality with an 8-7-6-5-4 or lower.

  • You are sporting a pair of Aces, which is primo no matter which poker derivative you are playing.
  • Double suited gives you two possible flush draws.
  • A-2 or 2-3 gives you two possible straight draws which can result in a hi win and a lo win.
  • Having the baby cards of A-2-3 has you in a very good position to also take the Lo pot.

Other strong hands

Generally speaking, Aces are premium, considering they are high and low and can help you win either side or both sides of a possible hi-lo pot.

What

Double suited low cards such as an Ace and Three of Hearts and a Deuce and Five of Clubs has you primed for two possible flush draws, a low straight flush, a low straight and a look at splitting the pot and taking the lo hand.

A combination of low cards and high cards can be advantageous too, because then you are covering both ends of the spectrum. A hand like A-K-4-2 with two of those cards suited would have you sitting pretty with a plethora of possible hands.

What

Bad Hands

Unsuited middle hands can be an absolute grenade in Omaha hi-lo. J,9,8,6 unsuited is a train wreck. Sure you might be able to struggle a straight out of it, but there is nothing really on here. No flush. No high pair. No real lo winning hand. You should fold mid-range hands like this with extreme prejudice.

As odd and unlikely as it might sound, having quads (four of a kind) is the worst possible hand in Omaha hi-lo (the lower the four same ranked cards the worse, with four Deuces being the absolute worst). The best you can do with four of a kind is create a pair, so it is impossible to make the hand low. It is also not possible to make three or four of a kind, you have no chance for a flush, and any player with any matching card to the board automatically makes a higher pair than you.

So as special as it may look to be clutching a quad, give it a miss, even four Aces. Also, four suited cards (each card with the same suit), makes it less likely to create a flush.

Obviously, notes pointed here are not written in stone. A win can sometimes be manufactured outside of the cards you are concealing from the rest of the table. Can you bluff you way to a win? Can you be bluffed out of a win? What are the community cards? Who are you playing against? These are just some of the things you must take into account when playing Omaha hi-lo split.

Where to play Omaha hi-lo split online

Omaha hi-lo is available to play at cash tables, sit ‘n go tables or in tournaments with the following trusted poker sites. Each site’s sign up or welcome bonus is included for your convenience.

  • 888Poker.com offers up to $888 in bonus cash when you register.
  • PokerStars.com offers up to $600 in matched deposit bonuses.
  • FullTilt.com offers up to $600 in matched deposit bonuses.
curtmack
I was very bored today.

Poker Hands What's Better For You

Poker Hands What
Poker traditionally has to be played with one deck. When you have more than one deck, the entire face of the game changes - more hands become possible, the probability of some hands changes drastically, and so on.
To demonstrate this, I decided to analyze poker with two decks of cards. As I calculate it, this is the correct ranking of hands:
Royal flush
Five of a kind
Straight flush
Flush with two pair
Four of a kind
Flush with one pair
Flush with no pairs (1)
Full house
Unflushed straight
Three of a kind
Two pair
One pair
High card
Note 1: You could, if you liked, join a flush with one pair and a flush with no pairs. Then, a full house would beat them. Flush with two pair is rare enough that it should stay separate, though.
All ties are handled in the same way they would be in normal poker.
Some notes:
  • I tried to stick to the framework of basic poker hands as best I could. Because of this, five of a kind and flushes with pairs seemed like necessary additions. You could add all kinds of other spiffy hands if you wanted to (i.e. does having a suited pair make it better?), but that's beyond the point of my analysis.
  • The Royal flush being top dog seemed like something players would expect, so I included it. If you preferred, you could consider the Royal to be a straight flush, with five of a kind being better. As long as the Royal flush is considered separately, however, it wins: there are 128 Royals and only 728 fives-of-a-kind.
  • With five decks, the Royal flush gets dethroned as the best hand, because a flushed five of a kind (with only 52 possibilities) would be king. I'm not sure how adding more decks would affect this, however.

For the curious (and peer review), here are my actual calculations for each hand. 'C' means combinations, e.g. 8C3 is the number of combinations for drawing 3 items out of a list of 8, derived from the formula nCr = n! / ( (n-r)! * r! )

Poker Hands What's Better Vegan

Edit: I forgot to account for flushed vs. unflushed pairs. Embarrassing! The new numbers are correct.
Royal flush:
4 different suits to flush in
2 different ways of getting each card in the royal flush
2
2
2
2
128 different Royal flushes
Five of a kind:
13 different ranks
8C5=56 different ways of getting five cards of that rank
728 different fives-of-a-kind
Straight flush:
4 different suits to flush in
9 different high cards (since Ace high gives royal flush)
2 different ways of getting each card in that particular straight flush
2
2
2
2
1172 different straight flushes
Flush with two pair:
4 different suits to flush in
13C2=78 combinations of ranks for pairs
11 different ranks for fifth card
1 combination for first pair in suit
1 combination for second pair in suit
2 cards possible for fifth card in given rank
6884 different flushes with two pair
Four of a kind:
13 different ranks for four-of-a-kind
12 different ranks for fifth card
8C4=70 combinations for four-of-a-kind
8 different cards of rank for fifth card
87360 different fours-of-a-kind
Flush with one pair:
4 different suits to flush in
13 different ranks for pair
12C3=220 combinations of ranks for extra cards
1 combination for pair
2 ways of getting each extra card in chosen rank and suit
2
2
91520 different flushes with one pair
Flush with no pairs:
4 different suits to flush in
13C5=1287 combinations of ranks for five cards
2 ways of getting each card in chosen rank and suit
2
2
2
2
164738 different flushes with no pairs, including straight flushes
Subtract 1172 straight flushes
163566 different flushes with no pairs or straight
Full house:
13 different ranks for three-of-a-kind
12 remaining ranks for pair
8C3=56 combinations for three-of-a-kind
8C2=28 combinations for pair
244608 different full houses
Unflushed straight:
10 different high cards for a straight
8 ways of getting each card in the straight
8
8
8
8
327680 different straights, including straight flushes
Subtract 1172 straight flushesPoker hands what
326508 different unflushed straights
Three of a kind:
13 different ranks for three-of-a-kind
12C2=66 combinations for ranks of extra cards
8C3=56 combinations for three-of-a-kind
8 different cards for fourth card
8 different cards for fifth card
3075072 different threes-of-a-kind
Unflushed two pair:
13C2=78 combinations of ranks for pairs
11 different ranks for fifth card
8C2=28 combinations for first pair
8C2=28 combinations for second pair
8 different cards of rank for remaining card
5381376 different hands with two pair
Subtract 6884 different flushes with two pair

Poker Hands What's Better Exercise


5374492 different unflushed hands with two pair
Unflushed pair:
13 different ranks for pair
12C3=220 combinations of ranks for extra cards
8C2=28 combinations for pair

Poker Hands What's Better Hard


8 different cards for each remaining extra card
Poker Hands What8
8
41000960 different hands with one pair
Subtract 91520 different flushes with one pair
40909440 different unflushed hands with one pair
High card:
13C5=1287 combinations of ranks with no matches
8 ways of getting each card
8
8
8
8
42172416 different hands that do not contain a pair, three-of-a-kind, four-of-a-kind, or five-of-a-kind
Subtract 327680 different straights (including straight flushes)
Subtract 163566 different flushes with no pairs (not including straight flushes)
41681170 hands that contain no other hand
DJTeddyBear

I was very bored today.

I'll say! This reminds me of some of the stuff that floats around the internet. It's entertaining, but always leaves me thinking 'Somebody has a lot of free time.'
Quote: curtmack

i.e. does having a suited pair make it better?

Yes.
It's no different than the suited five of a kind in five deck poker that you mentioned.
Similarly, many Black Jack side bets pay X for specific cards, but pay more if they are suited.
I invented a few casino games. Info: http://www.DaveMillerGaming.com/ ————————————————————————————————————— Superstitions are silly, childish, irrational rituals, born out of fear of the unknown. But how much does it cost to knock on wood? 😁
curtmack
Quote: curtmack

i.e. does having a suited pair make it better?

Yes.
It's no different than the suited five of a kind in five deck poker that you mentioned.
Similarly, many Black Jack side bets pay X for specific cards, but pay more if they are suited.
Well, the flushed five of a kind is a special case: it's a flush, and it's five of a kind. Same with a straight flush (or for that matter, a Royal) in normal poker. You certainly could say that suited pairs are better, but keep in mind that there's a difference between, say, a suited pair of aces, and a flush with a pair of aces.
JB
Administrator
I didn't check all of your figures, but I disagree with your Two Pair / Three of a Kind result:

Three of a Kind
trips ..... combin(13,1)*combin(8,3) = 728
kickers ... combin(12,2)*combin(8,1)*combin(8,1) = 4224
total ..... 728 * 4224 = 3,075,072 (this agrees with your total)
Two Pair
pairs .... combin(13,2)*combin(8,2)*combin(8,2) = 61152
kicker ... combin(11,1)*combin(8,1) = 88
total .... 61152 * 88 = 5,381,376 (this is much higher than your total)

The above Two Pair figure does not subtract the counts for suited Two Pair hands if they are deemed to be higher in rank than other Two Pair hands. Nevertheless, the figures show that Three of a Kind is still a better-ranking hand than Two Pair.
curtmack

I didn't check all of your figures, but I disagree with your Two Pair / Three of a Kind result:

Three of a Kind
trips ..... combin(13,1)*combin(8,3) = 728
kickers ... combin(12,2)*combin(8,1)*combin(8,1) = 4224
total ..... 728 * 4224 = 3,075,072 (this agrees with your total)
Two Pair
pairs .... combin(13,2)*combin(8,2)*combin(8,2) = 61152
kicker ... combin(11,1)*combin(8,1) = 88
total .... 61152 * 88 = 5,381,376 (this is much higher than your total)

The above Two Pair figure does not subtract the counts for suited Two Pair hands if they are deemed to be higher in rank than other Two Pair hands. Nevertheless, the figures show that Three of a Kind is still a better-ranking hand than Two Pair.


Yeah, that looks right. I'm not sure where my mistake was, but it seems to be in punching numbers into my calculator. How I made the exact same mistake more than once is a bit weird, but whatever. I'll change it.
JB
Administrator

Yeah, that looks right. I'm not sure where my mistake was, but it seems to be in punching numbers into my calculator. How I made the exact same mistake more than once is a bit weird, but whatever. I'll change it.


I think you missed the last factor of 8, which corresponds to the suit of the kicker. You listed it, but forgot to include it in the calculation.Wizard
Administrator
Thanks for this post from:
I have a table for poker combinations with 1 to 8 decks here. Scroll down to 'Multi-Deck Probabilities.'
It's not whether you win or lose; it's whether or not you had a good bet.
Ibeatyouraces
deleted
Zcore13
The Casino I work at is getting a 6 deck Texas Hold'Em table game next month. 5 of a kind suited is the best hand. It's called Texas Shootout. It's reviewed on the Wizard of Odds site and looks pretty cool.
I am an employee of a Casino. Former Table Games Director, current Pit Supervisor. All the personal opinions I post are my own and do not represent the opinions of the Casino or Tribe that I work for.
DJTeddyBear

The Casino I work at is getting a 6 deck Texas Hold'Em table game next month. 5 of a kind suited is the best hand. It's called Texas Shootout. It's reviewed on the Wizard of Odds site and looks pretty cool.

Here's the Wiz's page on it: http://wizardofodds.com/texasshootout
Looks kinda interesting.
Where do you work?
On a side note: Would that be advertising? Nah. I'd bet that the Wiz wouldn't want you to mention your casino in every post, but since this is tied to the thread's topic, I doubt he'd mind a quick plug.
I invented a few casino games. Info: http://www.DaveMillerGaming.com/ ————————————————————————————————————— Superstitions are silly, childish, irrational rituals, born out of fear of the unknown. But how much does it cost to knock on wood? 😁
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