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Omaha Hi-Lo (also known as Omaha 8 or better) is commonly viewed as one of the most complicated but favored poker variations. It’s a variation that, even more than normal Omaha poker, aims for action from all levels of players. This is the chief reason why a once irrelevant variation, has increased in popularity so rapidly.

Omaha Hi-Lo starts exactly like a normal game of Omaha. 4 cards are handed out to every player. A round of betting follows where gamblers can wager, check, or fold. Three cards are dealt out, this is referred to as the flop. Another sequence of wagering happens. After all the players have either called or folded, a further card is revealed on the turn. Another round of wagering follows at which point the river card is revealed. The gamblers will have to make the best high and low five card hands using the board and hole cards.

This is where a few entrants often get flustered. Contrasted to Hold’em, where the board can make up every player’s hand, in Omaha hi-low the player must use precisely 3 cards from the board, and precisely two hole cards. No more, not a single card less. Contrary to regular Omaha, there are 2 ways a pot could be won: the "higher hand" or the "lower hand."

A high hand is just what it sounds like. It’s the strongest possible hand out of every player’s, regardless if it is a straight, flush, full house, etc. It is the identical notion in nearly all poker games.

The lower hand is more difficult, but certainly opens up the play. When figuring out a low hand, straights and flushes do not count. A low hand is the weakest hand that could be made, with the worst being made up of A-2-3-4-5. Considering that straights and flushes don’t count, A-2-3-4-5 is the worst possible hand. The low hand is any five card hand (unpaired) with an eight and smaller. The lower hand takes half of the pot, as does the higher hand. When there’s no low hand available, the high hand wins the entire pot.

While it seems difficult initially, after a few hands you will be agile enough to pick up on the basic subtleties of the game with ease. Since you have people betting for the low and wagering for the high, and since such a large number of cards are being used at once, Omaha 8 or better offers an amazing range of betting options and because you have many players battling for the high, along with a few battling for the low hand. If you enjoy a game with a plethora of outs and actions, it’s not a waste of your time to participate in Omaha/8.