Low hands in Hi/Lo games

[Graham C]

I'm a little confused by the high/low games such as omaha and stud.   I played in a stud freeroll one recently and thought I'd have had the low hand but it never seemed to happen.  As it goes, I did ok by just playing the high hand but how does the low hand work and are there certain times when the low hand doesn't apply?

Ta

[AdamM]

lowest five cards under 9. A,2,3,4,5 is best followed by A,2,3,4,6 through to 4,5,6,7,8

[winkie]

I had the same problem when I started playing hi-lo too...

Bascially, to make a low hand you need to have 5 (non-pairing) cards that are 8 or lower. The nut lo hand is A-2-3-4-5, with the next best being A-2-3-4-6 and so on.

A simple way of remebering (if playing omaha hi-lo) is if there are not 3 (non-pairing) cards on the board that are 8 or lower, then there cannot be a lo hand and the pot will go to the hi hand only.

Hope this helps...

[matt674]

At the end of the day there will always be a high hand but there wont always necessarily be a low hand. You have to try and find a balance of hands that it will be possible to win both halves of the pot (or scoop as it is commonly referred as). It is because of this that you shouldn't chase non-nut draws whereever possible as you may end up chasing a draw where its only possible that you can win half the pot.

This game can be a lot trickier for beginners as you have two lots of pot odds calculations to work out each time - the odds of winning the high side of the pot and the odds of winning the low side.

I have to admit i'm a hold'em monkey but i do play the occasional omaha h/l or very very occasionally a stud h/l game just for a change to keep the old grey matter from going stale. Knowing what i should be doing and putting it into practice can be difficult in a game i'm not that familiar with!!  

[Royal Flush]

It's true its a tricky game for the newbie. However i think it takes a lot less time to become a winning player in this game, so many people play it badly and don't think they do!

1 book read, 1 small page of notes for you to look at and you can be a winner at this game, i would go so far as to saying you can be a winning player at this game by the time you play hand 1!

[NoflopsHomer]

Far too many people in Omaha Hi/Lo will call down just chasing the nut lo hand.

[Graham C]

 

Cheers guys.  I quite enjoyed it and did get the nuts low once but  I couldn't work out why I got it, but I was too busy working out stud to bother too much with low hands.  All those cards are hard to remember for poor old me.

[redsimon]

The key thing to get a grip of is that the "nut low" can be in others hands as well as yours and if you get too frisky with a low only hand you will end up doing your money...other key  is to scoop or 3/4 others

[madasahatstand]

ive also wondered about the rules of high low and this is a great explanation. in fact i think ill have a game