Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better Starting Hand Guide

The key to any hi-lo game is putting yourself in a situation to win both the hi and the lo. Imagine four players play a hand all the way to the end; the final pot is $100, with each player having contributed $25. First let’s imagine you’ve won half the pot, you take $50, but have only won $25 ($25 was yours). But if you win the hi and the lo, which is called sweeping, you take, $100, $75 of which is profit. Compare $75 to $25, your profit hasn’t doubled, it’s tripled.

So you should play the hands that give you a chance to take the whole pot. For the lo, the best two card combination is A2. Almost any hand with A2 in it is playable, but the hand is much better if you also have a 3 or 4 with it. Without a third good low card, it is easy to get counterfeited. Getting counterfeited is when an A or a 2 comes on the board, and you can no longer use the one in your hand. Even better yet is when you also have good hi possibilities as well. Another card suited to your A is great, a pair of aces even better. A hand like AKQ2 is strong because you have a good lo chance and a good hi chance, either with a straight or a full house (when you do make a full house, it will be the highest one, which is very important).

Remember that you will often need the nuts or close to it to win in Omaha Poker; with each player dealt four cards someone’s usually got a monster. For that reason ace high flush possibilities are much better than king high ones, and a queen high combination or lower doesn’t add much value to your starting hand.

When there is no lo possibility on the board, the hi hand takes the entire pot, which makes certain hi-only hands worth playing. A poker hand like AAKJ is valuable because when it does hit, there is often no lo possibility, and it wins the whole pot.

When you’re deciding whether to play or not before the flop, always ask whether your hand has a legitimate shot at winning the whole pot. Play hands with flexibility hi and lo, and make sure that you’re always playing for the nuts: the high end of the straight, the ace high flush, the big full house, the nut low.