A Spot of Omaha Hi-Lo

Having recently finished working off a number of re-deposit bonuses, I thought I might divert my attention to playing some SNGs (Sit-n-Go Tournaments of, typically, 9-10 players in which the top three places get paid). I played a mixture of Limit and No-Limit Holdem games. I had a run of 5 consecutive 4th place finishes, which was a little frustrating, but a couple of 3rd places and one 1st brought me about even for the day.

I decided to play one last game before bed and in my haste to register for one of the last few places available, I inadvertantly clicked on the wrong game and ended up registering for an Omaha Hi-Lo game! Before I coulde de-register the game had started and I wasn't left with much choice but to play.

I've only ever played Omaha for 'play money' and I've never played any Hi-Lo at all. I spent the first few hands of the tournament frantically searching for some rules on the internet!

Omaha is similar to Texas Hold'em in that there are 5 communal cards face up on the board. In Omaha, however, you have 4 cards of your own (rather than two) and in choosing your best 5 cards you must use 2 from your hand and 3 from the board. Omaha Hi-Lo is a 'split pot' game. The best 'High' hand wins half the pot and the best 'low' hand wins half the pot. High hands are the best hand as in every type of poker. To qualify as a low hand, all the cards must be 8 or lower and must contain no pairs, trips etc, but the low hand may be a flush or a straight. Therefore the best low hand is A,2,3,4,5. This is called the wheel and is often good enough to win as both the low and the high hand, since it is a straight. If there are no low hands then the best high hand wins the whole pot.

Anyway, the long and short of it was that somehow I managed to bluff and blunder my way to a 3rd place finish and even had a Wheel along the way!

I might just go away and learn how to play it now!