Omaha Hi Lo Poker Hand ranking

Once you have learnt How to Play Omaha Hi/Lo, it is important to understand the Hand Rankings. In Omaha Hi/Lo, the regular poker hand ranking is followed for the high hand whereas a set of rules are defined for making the low hand.

Hand Ranking for the High Hand:

Royal Flush  A royal flush is an ace high straight flush.
Straight Flush  Five cards of the same suit in numerical order.
Four of a Kind (Quads)  Quads are four cards of equal rank/any suit.
Full House or Full Boat  Three of a kind and a Pair.
Flush  Five cards of the same suit.
Straight*  Five cards in numerical order.
Three of a Kind / Set  Three cards of the same rank.
Two Pair  Two different pairs.
One Pair  Two cards of the same rank.
High Card  The hand with the highest card(s) wins.

* You can make 10♥ J♦ Q♣ K♠ A♥(ten-to-ace straight) or form A♠ 2♥ 3♦ 4♠ 5♦ (ace-to-five straight) with an Ace. But you cannot form K♠ A♣ 2♦ 3♠ 4♥ (King-to-four straight)

Criteria for making a Low Hand:

A low Hand is any combination of five cards (2 hole cards + 3 community cards) of value equal to or less than 8. In simple terms, A, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 forms the Low Hands where A is taken as of value 1.

1. There must be 3 community cards of value less than or equal to 8.

2. None of the cards in a Low Hand can be paired. E.g. A♠ 2♣ 2♥ 4♣ 8♠ can’t be a Low hand because of the pair 2♣ 2♥.

3. Low hands are counted from the top to down. Lower the card denominations, stronger the Low Hand. For example: If player A has 5♥6♦9♥K♣ hole cards and player B has A♠5♠9♦Q♣ hole cards and the community cards are 2♠3♣4♥10♠9♣, then player B with A♠2♠3♣4♥5♠ will win over player A with 2♠3♣4♥5♥6♦.

4. Flushes and straights are not considered for the low hand, meaning the best possible low hand is A-2-3-4-5 regardless of suits.

5. Suits do not count for a low hand. Hence, the players making the same low hand equally split the low half of the pot. (Winning half of the Low pot, and nothing from the High pot is known as being quartered.)

To help understand the rankings of low hands, a list of 10 qualifying low hands (not a complete list of all low hands) is given below from the least powerful to the most strong.

1. 8-7-6-5-4
2. 8-7-6-5-3
3. 8-6-4-2-A
4. 8-4-3-2-A
5. 7-6-5-4-2
6. 7-6-5-2-A
7. 7-5-4-3-2
8. 6-5-4-3-2
9. 6-4-3-2-A
10. 5-4-3-2-A

A low hand is named as per its highest card. Let’s have a look at some specific low hands:

In case, two or more players make a low hand with same denomination high card, the 2nd highest card is evaluated to determine the best low hand. For example-  7-5-4-3-2 (Seven-Five-Low) will beat 7-6-5-2-A (Seven-Six-Low).