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Differences Between Omaha Hi Lo Poker and Texas Holdem

How Omaha 8 Differs from Texas Holdem

Poker games can be divided into a few categories:

Holdem games
Stud games
Draw games

Those are the 3 main categories. Omaha hi lo and Texas hold'em both belong to that first category, holdem games. But they're not the same game. I thought it would be fun to include a page here that summarized the differences between the two games in a table format.

	Texas Hold'em	Omaha hi lo
Number of hole cards	2	4
Number of hole cards you're required to use in your hand	0	2
Who wins the pot in a showdown?	The highest standard poker hand.	Half of the pot goes to the player with the highest standard poker hand. The other half goes to the player with the lowest possible poker hand.

Now I'll elaborate on each of the differences.

Number of Hole Cards

The number of hole cards is the number of cards that you get personally. The other cards in both games are community cards--the flop, the turn, and the river cards.

The only difference between Texas hold'em and Omaha hi lo in respect to how many hole cards you get is the number of cards. In Texas hold'em, you get 2 hole cards. In Omaha hi lo, you get 4.

Number of Hole Cards You're Required to Use

This is THE big difference between Texas hold'em and Omaha hi lo, and it's also the difference that trips up new players.

In Texas hold'em, you can use ANY combination of cards in your hand and on the board to make your hand. That means you can use any of the following combinations:

0 cards from your hole cards, and 5 cards from the board
1 card from your hole cards, and 4 cards from the board
2 cards from your hole cards, and 3 cards from the board

In Omaha hi lo, you must use 2 and exact 2 of your hole cards along with 3 and exactly 3 cards from the board. Misunderstand this aspect of the game, and you're screwed.

Who Wins the Pot at the Showdown?

In Texas hold'em, the pot is won by the person with the highest standard poker hand.

In Omaha hi lo, the pot is split between the person with the highest standard poker hand and the person with the lowest qualifying low hand.

For purposes of determining the low hand in Omaha hi lo, all cards must be ranked below 8, and flushes and straights don't count. Pairs do count though, so the low hand must be unpaired.

The best possible low hand is A2345. The words possible low hand is 45678.

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