How to win at No Limit Omaha Hi/Lo Poker

By Randall S. Smith, author of Willful Women. www.willfulwomen.info

Let me start out by saying I’ve only experienced this game with play money. There’s no doubt it would be much different with real coin on the line, but with all the U.S. laws against real-money internet poker, I’ve become addicted to play-money poker and this is the game with which I’ve invested the most time. I do all my gaming at PokerStars, a popular international site that seems to average several hundred thousand players logged on at any given time. They are from all around the world, which gives added flavor to the experience. It’s not uncommon to have opponents from Spain, Romania, the Netherlands, Italy, Canada, the United Kingdom, Columbia, Germany and many Asian locations. Poker is a universal language. Players use all kinds of avatars for their seat from their pet dog to a photo of one of their kids. I use a partial image of my book cover for “Willful Women”. I long ago hit the 20,000,000 play money limit (God only knows why they have that, I certainly don’t), so I end up giving away lots of chips rather than let PS have them back. I’ve had so much fun seeing how happy the unexpected play money windfall makes people, I’ve come to suspect it really is better to give than receive. I win with play money; I’d probably lose with real money, but I don‘t know.

Omaha Hi/Lo is a game in which each player gets four cards and five cards are dealt onto the middle of the table, called the board. Players get dealt their four cards. Bets are made. The first three board cards come together and are called the flop. More bets are made, then comes the fourth card, known as the turn. More betting, then comes the final card known as the river. To figure what your hand is for the game, you use the most favorable three cards on the board and two from your hand. Both high hand and low hand win and split the pot. There is always a high hand winner, not always one for low. Ace, two, three, four, five is known as a wheel. If you win both hi and lo, you have scooped the pot.

To win low, all cards must be eight or less, pairs don’t help. What is a good low hand? If you don’t have an Ace-Deuce or an Ace-Three for your lowest cards, forget about it generally. If you catch the lowest hand possible, it’s called the nut low. The highest possible hand is the nut high, nut flush, etc.

To win high, you’ll usually need a full house (three of a kind with a pair), also known as a boat. You can win with less, and two pair sometimes does it. Don’t bet the house on it though. With so many cards, you will also see a lot of quads (four of a kind) and some straight flushes. The best hand preflop is AA22, double suited; that way you’re strong for both hi and lo going in.

Have you ever played bridge? I’ve come up with a point system similar to the one used in that game. I won’t be generous enough to give you the specifics, but each hand gets a total count of zero to eight based on face cards, and straight, flush and low potential. You can easily come up with your own counting system which would probably be better anyway. Unless the hand has at least five points, I won’t do more than call a bet before the flop (preflop). If less than three points, fold. Seven or eight points is worth a bet preflop. Don’t get greedy though, but rather suck opponents in at first. Let them get what they think is the winning hand. Play into their greed. Get more aggressive toward the end. Vary your approach so as not to be predictable. Never go all-in with the nut low, as you'll merely end up splitting the pot at that level and might even get quartered (split the low half). Work at building the pot.

No one succeeds for long at poker without learning to bluff. It’s essential. When do you bluff? In this game, it’s best when it’s apparent that there will be no low hand winner, less chance someone is sandbagging (being sneaky and pretending they have garbage). The next important thing for a successful bluff is to only try it when there are no more than three people in the hand. If they fold, never show them your hand if you don‘t have to.

If you play online and have the opportunity to make notes, do so! You never know when you might be playing this person for real money some day. People are creatures of habit. If a player passes on a chance to bluff you, make a note of it. This can easily come in handy at a later time when you’re wondering if he has it. If he goes all-in and shows a hand of crap, make a note of that, too. If he/she goes all-in and shows a hand worth six or seven points, that is certainly noteworthy as well.

Okay, let’s play a few hands. These will be actual hands as I play them on the site. You and I will play as a team (no one has to know). We find a No Limit Omaha Hi-Lo table and buy in for 40,000 play chips. The minimum bet is 200, with a small blind of 100. One player always goes in blind with the minimum bet, the player next to him goes in with a bet half as much. This obligation rotates around the table with each hand.

For the first hand we’re dealt A-A-10-4 with 2 diamonds. I rate this hand as five points, pretty good all in all, and worthy of calling a large bet if necessary, but arguably not good enough to initiate a big bet. A lot of players will totally disagree with that. Someone bets 3,000 and we call. Four or five others give chase. The flop is A-2-8, no suit for a flush. This gives us trip aces with a possibility of a decent low. There is some modest betting; we call. The river is a 3. This is great news for us as we get the nut low A-2-3-4-8. The problem with getting the low hand is that you’re likely to have to split it with someone else, therefore ending up with only a quarter of the total pot. I call it getting quartered, others call it sliced and diced. Fearing a low hand split, I bet only 50% of the now 30,000 chip pot. We win low, increasing our stack to 61,000.

The second hand is dealt K-Q-9-4, double suited. It’s another five pointer in my book, our luck is holding for now. Bets are minimal and the flop is 2-2-10 with no prominent suit. A board pair is generally lethal to a win chance with what we have as it probably gives someone else a full house and we have no chance for low. We promptly go from a strong preflop hand to a weak post-flop one and fold.

Hand number three gives us 9-9-K-Q with 2 cards suited. I count five points. Someone bets the minimum 200, we call. The flop is J-J-Q with no dominant suit. Again the board pair is deadly to our win chances. A 10 would give us the str8, but that’s no good against a probably full house (aka boat). No chance for any low hand. The bet is 3600. The face of a poodle stares back at us as we promptly fold. I love the no-brainers.

The next deal is J-9-3-5 with two high clubs, a so-so hand at best. No big betters and the flop is 8-2-4. Everyone checks. This gives us an open-ended str8 (straight) 2 thru 5. An A or 6 would

be nice, with the A giving us the nut low. The turn (4th card) is a 5, not much help. We call a minimal bet of 200 and await the river card. It’s an A! We have the nut low once again. The betting is modest and we have to split the low this time, getting quartered and actually losing a few chips this time because of it. A flush wins the high.

Our stack is still around 60,000 as the next hand is dealt. It’s 7-8-9-J with two cards hearts. Bets are minimal and the flop is 2-7-5, leaving us with a weak pair of 7s. Betting remains light and the turn card is a J. We now have 2 pair, a slight improvement. The pot is 2000. The river card is a Q. Our hand looks weaker. No one bets and we lose the hand. Our stack is 59,991 chips.

Needing some added diversion, I click on my bookmarked youtube music-video of Lady Gaga performing “Poker Face”. She looks so hot in that blonde wig and it goes oh-so-naturally with a round of poker. I love you, Gaga!

We decide to leave after the tenth hand as the seventh one is dealt. It’s 7-7-6-J. The 6 and 7 are suited, giving us a total of a weak 3 points. We sigh from boredom and curse the hand. No one else seems to have anything either and we soon get the flop of 7-2-9. We suddenly have a promising hand with trips. The pot is 1200 so we match that amount with a bet of 1200. If we went all-in, we might force everyone out of the hand and we don’t want that. There are four callers and the pot grows to 7200 chips. The turn card is a deuce! This time the pair on the board helps us and gives us a full house, sevens over deuces. Yea! Again, we don’t want scare anyone out by betting too much, so we go with a pot bet of 7200, increasing it to 14,400. There are 2 callers and the pot grows to 28,800. The river card gives someone a potential low hand and we bet 25,000. There are a few callers that go all-in with small stacks putting the pot in the mid 50s. We win high (hooray!) and split the pot for a win of over 20,000 chips, increasing our stack to 73,000.

Hand #8 is A-Q-J-3, nothing suited and worth four points. The bet is the minimum, we call. Flop is 8-10-8. Oh no, another nasty board pair. We have a weak hand and lose to trip 8s. There is no low hand this time.

Hand #9 (we’re almost done) is K-K-J-10 with two cards diamonds, for a score of five points, not bad. No one bets much, we just call. The flop is 7-5-A. Our once not-so-bad hand is now a weak one. Our neighbor bets 4400. We fold.

It’s time for our last hand. You’ve had too much to drink and need to make a pit-stop. Dealer gives us Q-7-10-A with two cards hearts. You rate it at four points and call a 200 bet. Flop is 9-Q-K, nothing suited. We have a weak pair of Q's. Everyone else seems to have a weak hand too and we all check. Next card is an A. That’s slightly better, we have 2 pair, As & Q's, good enough for a modest bet. With the K-Q-9 on the board, there’s a good chance someone has a str8. A bet hit’s the table for 5600. We have no shot at low, and an unfavorable shot at a full house against the probable straight. Our 2 pair is not strong enough for a 5600 bet, the risk-reward ratio is unfavorable. In the long run, it’s all about playing the odds. Everyone else feels the same and they fold all around the table. We leave with 72,000, a profit of 32,000. We

congratulate one another and agree to meet in the bar.

A lot of players get so excited when they catch a great flop and end up with a really strong hand that they go all-in right away. This is a probably a mistake. The only players that will call such a bet are those with other sure things and they end up simply splitting pots rather than building them. The better way to play it is to bet enough so that it’s to the other players’ disadvantage to call (to your advantage if they do), but not so much that they need to fold. A lot of players will call a bet against bad odds, at least in play-money poker, just so they can stay in the hand or simply because they have to see what you had or what they would have gotten. Sometimes you’ll loose against odds strongly in your favor, it happens, but in the long run you’ll come out way ahead. Ergo, my always having to give away chips to avoid going over the 20 million limit.

If you enjoyed this reading, you may also enjoy my adult fiction collection, “Willful Women”, available at www.willfulwomen.info, www.amazon.com, on the Kindle, and for order at your favorite bookstore. If you or any of your friends have an e-reader, look for some of my other stories:

About Sam – a fast-paced story of a housewife who secretly is an agent for Homeland Security.

That Old House on Delaney Street – a scary story centering on a demented older couple who keep a pair of teens prisoners for fun and games in the basement of their old, haunted-looking home.

Polar Opposites – Two women meet while each is masquerading as someone else. Should they be best of friends or worst of enemies? Interesting plot twists along the way in this engaging tale.

Lost in Space-Time – If you like sci-fi, this one is based on things that could be true, with romance and adventure.

The Sinclair Affair - A young orphan woman survives an assassination attempt to discover she may have a twin. She ventures off to the big city to find her, having many adventures along the way.

Just Rewards – Set in the sixties, a tale of bank robberies and revenge.