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Omaha 8 Rules & Information
Omaha Hi/Lo (aka: ‘Omaha High Low’, ‘Omaha H/L’, ‘Omaha/8’ or ‘Omaha 8-or-better’).
Deal: Each player is dealt four hole cards. Five community cards are dealt face-up on the board as in Hold’em. All players use exactly two cards from their four hole cards and exactly three cards from the board to make the best five-card poker hand possible.
Winning: The pot is divided between the best hand for high and for low. You may use two different cards or the same two cards from your hand to make your high and low hand. The Scoop is making a qualifying low that is also a straight or a flush that wins both high and low
Low Qualifier: Five cards ranked 8 or lower to be eligible to win the low portion of the pot. If there is no qualifying low hand, the high hand wins the entire pot.
Ranking Low Hands: ‘Ace to Five’ or ‘California’ system for ranking low hands. Straights and flushes do not count against a hand, and Aces are always low in reading the low hand. The best possible hand is a "wheel": 5, 4, 3, 2, A.
Sample Ranking of Low Hands (worst = 1 to best = 10):
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8, 7, 6, 5, 4 (8 Low)
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8, 7, 6, 5, 3
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8, 6, 4, 2, A
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8, 4, 3, 2, A Always ranked from its highest to lowest
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7, 6, 5, 4, 2
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7, 6, 5, 2, A Straights and Flushes do not count in Low Hands
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7, 5, 4, 3, 2
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6, 5, 4, 3, 2 2 cards from your hand and 3 on the board
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6, 4, 3, 2, A
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5, 4, 3, 2, A (5 Low)
Types of Omaha Hi/Lo Games
Omaha Hi/Lo can be played in the following formats:
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Limit Omaha Hi/Lo - Specific betting limit applied in each game and on each round.
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Pot Limit Omaha Hi/Lo - Bets are limited to the amount of chips in the pot.
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No Limit Omaha Hi/Lo - A player can bet all of the chips he has available.
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Mixed Omaha Hi/Lo - The game alternates between rounds of Limit and Pot-Limit. The blinds are increased when the game switches from Pot-Limit to Limit, to ensure that the stake levels are consistent.
Specifics of Game Types
Omaha Hi/Lo starts same as hold’em and rules remain the same for Omaha Hi/Lo No Limit, Pot Limit and Limit poker games, except:
No Limit Omaha Hi/Lo
Minimum bet is the big blind up to all chips.
Pot Limit Omaha Hi/Lo
Minimum bet is the big blind and up to the size of the pot.
Max Bet Example: Pot size $100, First raise of $100, Second calls $100 and can raise $300.
No cap on the number of raises allowed.
Limit Omaha Hi/Lo
In a $2/$4 Limit game the small blind is $1 and the big blind is $2. In a $15/$30 Limit game, the small blind is $10 and the big blind is $15.
Pre-flop and Flop: all bets and raises equal to the Small Blind (for example, $2 in a $2/$4 game).
Turn and River: all bets and raises double (for example, $4 in a $2/$4 game).
Up to four bets per round: (1) bet, (2) raise, (3) re-raise, and (4) cap (final raise).
