ohama 8? 8 means what?

[smbruin22]

curious what the 8 means in omaha-8? ... vs. the high in omaha high/low? or simply omaha? does something have to be better than 8?

thanks in advance!!

[hockeyplayer33]

In Omaha you get dealt four down cards instead of 2. There are still blinds, and what not. There is still a flop, turn, and river. You take the best 5 card hand, but you can only use two out of the four down cards to make your hand. I don't know if you knew this already but you said simply omaha. Anyway Omaha high/low is say its high, then the person with the highest spade will split the pot with the winning hand. If its low, then the person with the lowest spade, will split the pot with the winning hand. Maybe people can add to this, but this is how I was taught to play High/Low. I don't like it, because for me it gets confusing. I would just play straight up Omaha. But my main game is NLHE.

[smbruin22]

[ QUOTE ]
In Omaha you get dealt four down cards instead of 2. There are still blinds, and what not. There is still a flop, turn, and river. You take the best 5 card hand, but you can only use two out of the four down cards to make your hand. I don't know if you knew this already but you said simply omaha. Anyway Omaha high/low is say its high, then the person with the highest spade will split the pot with the winning hand. If its low, then the person with the lowest spade, will split the pot with the winning hand. Maybe people can add to this, but this is how I was taught to play High/Low. I don't like it, because for me it gets confusing. I would just play straight up Omaha. But my main game is NLHE.

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i appreciate the response. although i know how omaha works and how high/low works "generally".... was wondering what omaha 8 means? specifically the 8.... from the internet, suggests omaha 8 is actually omaha high/low but the low has to be worse than 8, i guess 5 cards under 8 (or maybe 8 and under??)... can anyone clarify?

i do agree that omaha is really confusing to the new player.

[Some_Guy]

You are correct when you say that the low must be 5 cards 8 and lower.

Any time I have played Omaha Hi/Low online the low had to be 8 and lower. (which is not say that somewhere it is'nt played differently)

JP

[NTProdigy]

the 8 is referred to as '8 or better' in omaha hi/lo

[NTProdigy]

Omaha 8 or Better is the Hi-Lo version of Omaha. It is a "split pot" game. That means the pot is split between the highest hand at the table, and the lowest "qualifying" hand. If you happen to win both the high and low portions of the hand, you "scoop" the whole pot.

Players each start with four hole cards. They share five "community" cards (which are dealt face-up in the center of the table). You MUST use two of your four "down" cards with three "up" cards to form your hand. There is no qualifying on the "High" side - the best high hand automatically wins half the pot. To win the "Low" side of the pot, however, your hand must "qualify".

It takes a five-card hand with different numerical values from Ace through eight (with the Ace being the lowest) to qualify for the "Low" half of the pot. The best "Low" hand is A, 2, 3, 4, 5 (also known as the "wheel" or "bicycle"). The winning "Low" hand goes to the player with the lowest high card. The simplest way to determine this is to arrange the cards into a number. If the high cards are the same, the second highest cards are compared.

A simple tip, and credit Steve Badger for this one, is to simply arrange the cards into a number, highest card to lowest. So a hand of 8,5,4,2,A makes the number 85,421. A hand of 8,7,3,2,A makes 87,321. Lowest number wins.

[smbruin22]

thanks for the all the responses, much appreciated!!

i assume (and remember asking before) that low straights don't count. i.e is 5432A or 6432A the best low hand? i assume the straight doesn't play.

[SplawnDarts]

[ QUOTE ]
thanks for the all the responses, much appreciated!!

i assume (and remember asking before) that low straights don't count. i.e is 5432A or 6432A the best low hand? i assume the straight doesn't play.

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5432A is the best low. It's also a strong high sometimes. Split games are almost always played A-5 low (rather than A-6 low or 2-7 low) because it makes it easier to scoop, and that's the whole point of the game.

[AKQJ10]

Building on the responses so far -- NTProdigy's has been particularly on-topic to your response -- it might help to know just a bit about how lowball works.

In traditional draw lowball, or in razz (7-stud lowball), the best hands are of course no-pair hands. Whereas in high-hand poker an unpaired hand with highest card king is called, "king high," in lowball it would be called "king low." (In a seven or nine-card game, it's the highest card of the five cards you use to make up your poker hand.)

The "eight or better" means that only an eight-low or better is entitled to win half the pot. Combined with Omaha's strict hand + board rules, this means that if the board doesn't have three unpaired cards eight or lower (including aces), no one can win the low half of the pot. This is in contrast to something like stud 8/b, where each player can independently try to catch five unpaired cards eight or lower.

The 8/b part is great because bad Omaha 8/b players will try to catch half the pot with non-nut lows all the time. You shouldn't be drawing to half the pot very often, and then it should be with something like A2 or A3 (with a deuce and another low card on board) where you know you'll have the nut low if you make a low. Even so, if there's a good chance someone else has another A2 or A3, you need to be prepared to release your claim at 1/4 of the pot.

Ability to get away from dubious low draws is critical to success at low-limit O8.

[SplawnDarts]

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curious what the 8 means in omaha-8?

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Over/under on nits/table.