What Is The Nut Low In Omaha Hi Lo
Posted : admin On 4/2/2022There’s an old saying “Never let the odds stop you from doing in your heart what you know you should do.”
Up to a point, I like this saying. Poker is all about heart: Players with courage and conviction, plus the ability to read their opponents, are often the most successful. But as a maths guy, I also think that it helps to have a good understanding of the stats. If nothing else, you need to know the odds which you are disregarding! This is especially true in the limit games, where you can’t blast your opponent off a hand with a big raise.
Here there are three different low cards on board, so the nut low is simply the lowest two cards that are not on board. (In fact, these two cards will always be Five or lower when there are precisely three different low cards on board.) Hand A has the nut low hand here with 4-3 for a Six low: 6-4-3-2-A. The best that Hand B can manage is a Seven low: 7-6-5-2-A. Omaha Hi-Lo split is sometimes referred to as Omaha Eight-or-Better or FLO8/PLO8/NLO8 (depending on the betting structure). O8 is a split pot game meaning that all players compete for two pots at the same time, a high pot and a low pot. For the most part O8 is played as a pot-limit game like it's counterpart Pot-Limit-Omaha. Omaha Hi-Lo is also referred to as Omaha Eight-or-better. The 8 is the important bit - it means that only hands where all five cards are 8 can play as the low. The nut (best) low hand is. The best possible low hand on Omaha Hi/Lo (and Stud Hi/Lo) is 5-4-3-2-A, which is often known as the wheel (or bicycle). You will notice that the 'wheel' is also a Five-high straight on the high end of the board, which makes it a very powerful holding in Hi/Lo games. Hi: difference in variance? He would stay in the hand especially if he is drawing to the nut flush. Should be enough to see it, except you play only 2k+ reg, low, med+.
On this page I’m going to be adding various O8 odds and stats over the coming weeks. It’s quite a big project, so we’ll take it step by step. My main source is going to be the excellent site ProPokerTools. I also recommend Wikipedia’s Omaha Probability page. I will refer to other sources as appropriate.
A2 hands
A starting hand containing a bare A2 (with two high cards) can expect to make a low on the flop 7% of the time. This increases to 21% by the turn and 37% by the river. In other words, with a bare A2 you will make a low a little more than one third of the time when the hand is played out to the river.
Note also that when you make a low on the flop, you will be counterfeited (by another A or 2 falling on the turn or river) approximately one time in every four, in which case your hand could become worthless.
You can expect to have the nut low (whether on your own or shared) 25% of the time.
A23 hands
A starting hand containing A23x (where x is a high card) can expect to make a low on the flop 12% of the time. This increases to 31% by the turn and 49% by the river. You can expect to have the nut low on the river 43% of the time.
The significant advantage that A23 has compared against A2 is the protection against being counterfeited. On a flop of 678, for example, the A23 should only expect to be counterfeited by runner runner cards 2% of the time. On a flop of 458, a counterfeit A, 2 or 3 will of course make you a very welcome wheel.
The strong counterfeit protection afforded by A23 along with the increased wheel potential shows why this is generally regarded as a ‘capping’ hand pre flop.
What Is Omaha Hi Lo
A single suited Ace
Omaha 8 is all about scooping, and nothing provides better scooping potential than a suited A2. So how often can we expect to make a flush with a suited Ace?
With a single suited Ace, you can expect to flop a flush just under 1% of the time. You will make a flush 3.3% of the time by the turn, and 7% by the river. For those who like playing your flush draws strongly (a particularly good idea when you also have a low draw), you should expect to flop four to a flush (e.g. one card needed to make a flush) 13% of the time.
Double suited Aces
With double suited Aces, the probability of making a flush by the river is (not surprisingly) twice that of the single suited ace. So you will flop a flush 2% of the time, make a flush on the turn 6.7 of the time, and make a flush on the river 14% of the time. If your hand also has decent low potential (with another wheel card) you should certainly be looking to cap the pot pre flop if you can.
Bare Aces
If you’ve read my book Winning at Hi Low Poker then you’ll know that I think bare Aces are the most over-rated hands in Omaha 8. Aces with wheel cards, or holding single or double suited Aces gives you more than one way to win a hand. However bare Aces such as AA78 or AA99 are asking for trouble. The problem is that unimproved Aces will find it difficult to hold up in a multi-way pot, and their scope to improve is limited. For example:
– There is only a 10% chance that AA78 will make a full house or better by the river.
– If the hand is unsuited, then there is only a 21% chance that it will make a straight or better by the river.
In a heads up pot this may be sufficient, but multi-way you will often find yourself second or even third best. For example, against two other opponents with random hands, AA78 unsuited holds only 44% equity. AA99 unsuited has a deeply unimpressive 35% equity against two other players with random cards.
Moral of the story: If you hold bare Aces, then try to get the pot heads up if you can. Strongly consider discarding the weakest Aces, especially where the pot is multi-way or has already been raised and re-raised.
Coming next
Next I’ll be covering marginal hands, including Kings and wheel cards e.g. 2-3-4-x. Any other requests, let me know.
Online Poker » Poker Strategy » Omaha » Omaha vs Omaha Hi/Lo
Although they may share the same name and most of the same rules, many players will mistake Omaha and Omaha Hi/Lo for the same when they are in fact two different games that require different approaches in strategy.
To find out more about what makes these two games so different, please continue reading below.
Omaha Hi
Omaha 'Hi' is played in a similar fashion to Texas Hold'em in terms of the overall goal being to make the best five-card poker hand possible. The key difference of course from Omaha from Hold'em is that players will start with 4 hole cards; and from those 4 cards, players must make 2 of their hole cards, no more and no less, work with 3 of the community cards to make the best 5-card hand possible.
Starting hands will resemble those from Hold'em as well with pairs of Aces and Kings, preferably double suited, being the best hand in Omaha Hi. Here are the top 5 hands for Omaha Hi:
1. A-A-K-K double suited
2. A-A-J-10 double suited
3. A-A-Q-Q double suited
4. A-A-J-J double suited
5. A-A-10-10 double suited
The biggest approach to strategy in Omaha Hi is to focus on playing hands that will give you multiple opportunities to draw (re-draw) to the 'nuts.' For example, playing A-A-K-K can give you a straight on a board such as Q-J-10, but this is hand is much better if the A-K is suited allowing it the opportunity to 're-draw' to a better hand; in this case the better hand being a nut flush.
If the pot has not been won due to a player betting all the other players out pre-flop, on the flop, on the turn or on the river, then the remaining players will then go to showdown and the player with the best 5-card poker hand will win the pot.
Omaha Hi/Lo
Omaha Hi/Lo, also known as Omaha 8 or better or Hi/Lo split, is virtually the same game as Omaha except that there are potentially two pots for every hand, the high pot and the low pot. This means that players can actually win one-half of the pot by winning the best 'hi' 5-card poker hand or the other half of the pot by winning the best low hand. Low hands in Hi/Lo must have 5 card all of which must have values of 8 or lower with a wheel, A thru 5, being the nut low hand. Players can also 'scoop' the pot if they happen to have the best Hi and the best Lo hand or if there happens to be no qualifying low.
Starting hands are going to vary a bit from those of the Omaha Hi game because now players must be concerned with trying to draw to a low hand as well to try and 'scoop' the pot. The following are the top 5 Omaha low starting hands:
1. A-A-2-3 double suited
2. A-A-2-4 double suited
3. A-2-3-4 double suited
4. A-2-4-5 double suited
5. A-3-4-5 double suited
As you can see, the idea that they are double suited is similar to playing Omaha Hi. This will ensure that players have more than one hand to draw to and allow them to re-draw to a better hand.
Another thing that you may notice is the fact that these are all baby cards with no face cards. There is a reason behind the madness though. In Omaha Hi/Lo, players need to focus on scooping the pot and while Hi cards can win a 'Hi' pot, there is no way for them to win a low pot. However, low cards such as the ones we listed above can win the low pot but can also win a high pot in the case that the player draws to a wheel or draws to a flush. This makes playing smaller cards such as these a bit more sought after to play.
Aside from just splitting the pot in Omaha Hi/Lo, players can also 'quarter' the pot which means split one of the two pots amongst someone else. For example, if there were 3 players in a $600 pot and one player won the high hand, he would win half the pot for $300. If the other two players had the same lo hand, then they would split the remaining $300 between themselves for $150 each. This can be a negative proposition over the long run if a player isn't careful.
Lastly, a big difference between the two games is the ability to bluff. In Omaha, players are only shooting for the Hi hand so there is a bit of room for maneuvering for a bluff attempt. However, in Omaha Hi/Lo it is just too likely that a player has at least the low pot and will call you down to be sure to get it. Not saying it is impossible, just that it is very difficult to bluff in Hi/Lo.
Differences/Similarities - Omaha vs Omaha Hi/Lo
What Is The Nut Low In Omaha Hi Low
Although there are more differences than similarities, players should know that these two games do have a few things in common. One, Omaha is a 'nut' game which means that players should be going for the nuts only when attempting to enter a pot. This is because there are so many draws out there that the best hand on the flop can easily be drawing dead on the turn. Additionally, most hands that tend to win in games like Hold'em such as pairs and two pairs tend not to hold up in Omaha or Hi/Lo. Again, because of all the draws more premium hands go to showdown such as straights and flushes while trips are mediocre at best.
What Is The Nut Low In Omaha Hi Long Range
In closing, these two games are very different but not so different that a player would have a difficult time moving from one game to the other as long as they realized that each game had their own nuances and as a result, had their own approach to winning.