In Omaha/8, which is often called Omaha hi-lo or Omaha high low,
half the pot is split when someone has a qualifying low hand. The
concept of a "low hand" is hard for some people to get their arms
around, and since it's something I'd like to learn, I decided to put
together an article that both explained the concept and that listed
the qualifying low hands in order.
Qualifying Low Hands
To have a qualifying low hand, you must be able to make a five
card hand with an 8 or lower as its highest ranked card. Straights
and flushes do not count against you when determining a low hand
though, although pairs and trips do count against you.
Ranking Low Hands
To determine who has the best low hand, you start by comparing
the highest card in the hand. So a hand with its highest card
being an 8 would not be as good as a hand with its highest card
being a 7. These hands would be referred to as an "8 low" and a "7
low" respectively.
If the two hands have the same high card, you then compare the
next highest card. And if those cards have the same ranking, then
you compare the next highest card, until you've compared all the
cards. The worst possibly low hand you could have would be
8-7-6-5-4, and the best possible low would be A-2-3-4-5.
To determine the best possible low hand in a game with community
cards, you would take the 3 lowest cards (8 or below) on the board
(the shared cards), then determine what the lowest 2 cards someone
could have in his or her hand that wouldn't pair the board. A lot of
times this will be A-2, but not always.
You shouldn't need to memorize the chart of low hands below, but
with any luck, it will be illustrative and interesting at the same
time. The table is in order of best low hand to worst low hand.
Qualifying Low Hands Chart from Best to Worst
| 1 |
A-2-3-4-5 |
| 2 |
A-2-3-4-6 |
| 3 |
A-2-3-5-6 |
| 4 |
A-2-4-5-6 |
| 5 |
A-3-4-5-6 |
| 6 |
2-3-4-5-6 |
| 7 |
A-2-3-4-7 |
| 8 |
A-2-3-5-7 |
| 9 |
A-2-4-5-7 |
| 10 |
A-3-4-5-7 |
| 11 |
2-3-4-5-7 |
| 12 |
A-2-3-6-7 |
| 13 |
A-2-4-6-7 |
| 14 |
A-3-4-6-7 |
| 15 |
2-3-4-6-7 |
| 16 |
A-2-5-6-7 |
| 17 |
A-3-5-6-7 |
| 18 |
2-3-5-6-7 |
| 19 |
A-4-5-6-7 |
| 20 |
2-4-5-6-7 |
| 21 |
3-4-5-6-7 |
| 22 |
A-2-3-4-8 |
| 23 |
A-2-3-5-8 |
| 24 |
A-2-4-5-8 |
| 25 |
A-3-4-5-8 |
| 26 |
2-3-4-5-8 |
| 27 |
A-2-3-6-8 |
| 28 |
A-2-4-6-8 |
| 29 |
A-3-4-6-8 |
| 30 |
2-3-4-6-8 |
| 31 |
A-2-5-6-8 |
| 32 |
A-3-5-6-8 |
| 33 |
2-3-5-6-8 |
| 34 |
A-4-5-6-8 |
| 35 |
2-4-5-6-8 |
| 36 |
3-4-5-6-8 |
| 37 |
A-2-3-7-8 |
| 38 |
A-2-4-7-8 |
| 39 |
A-3-4-7-8 |
| 40 |
2-3-4-7-8 |
| 41 |
A-2-5-7-8 |
| 42 |
A-3-5-7-8 |
| 43 |
2-3-5-7-8 |
| 44 |
A-4-5-7-8 |
| 45 |
2-4-5-7-8 |
| 46 |
3-4-5-7-8 |
| 47 |
A-2-6-7-8 |
| 48 |
A-3-6-7-8 |
| 49 |
2-3-6-7-8 |
| 50 |
A-4-6-7-8 |
| 51 |
2-4-6-7-8 |
| 52 |
3-4-6-7-8 |
| 53 |
A-5-6-7-8 |
| 54 |
2-5-6-7-8 |
| 55 |
3-5-6-7-8 |
| 56 |
4-5-6-7-8 |
Okay, I was right. Putting up this chart of
qualifying low hands in Omaha/8 did make the concepts more
understandable for me. I hope the chart above is helpful to you
also.
Other stuff of interest to Omaha players that's
available on this site:
Omaha/8 SnG Strategy - Learn to win sit and go tournaments.
Omaha SnG Strategy - Prefer Omaha high tournaments? This is
the article for you.
Poker hand rankings would also be a related subject.
This page was last updated on January 5, 2006.
