Rules of Poker · Chapter 31 · 2026 edition
Omaha Hi-Lo, also called Omaha eight or better or O8, is Omaha (Omaha) with the pot split in two: half to the best high hand and half to the best low hand, as long as someone has a low of eight or better. Big O is the same game with five hole cards. Both are dealt and bet as Omaha; what changes is reading the hands and dividing the pot.
Ace-to-five low rankings are in Hand rankings; split-pot rules are in Pots.
Omaha Hi-Lo uses a 52-card deck, four hole cards each and the same board as Omaha: flop, turn and river (30.1, 30.2). Robert's Rules says every Omaha rule applies to the hi-lo game except where it says otherwise, which is only in how the pot is won.
Source: Robert's Rules of Poker v11, Section 7, "Omaha High-Low" rule 1; pagat.com, Omaha, "Omaha High-Low Eight or Better".
Blinds, who acts first on each street, and the four betting rounds are exactly as in Omaha and Hold'em (30.3, 20.4 to 20.7). Nothing about the deal tells you yet whether there will be a low; that depends on the board (31.7).
Source: Robert's Rules of Poker v11, Section 7, "Omaha High-Low" rule 1; pagat.com, Omaha, "The Deal and Betting".
pagat.com describes Omaha Hi-Lo as usually played fixed-limit: the small bet before the flop and on the flop, the big bet on the turn and river. In a 100/200 game, the first two rounds are bet in 100s and the last two in 200s. Fixed-limit Omaha Hi-Lo is the "O" in HORSE and other mixed games (Mixed games).
Source: pagat.com, Omaha, "Omaha High-Low Eight or Better"; PokerNews, "WSOP Mixed Games Strategy: Limit Omaha Hi-Lo Split (Eight-or-Better)" (Ken Lo, 2018).
Pot-limit Omaha Hi-Lo, often written PLO8, is widely played too. The World Series of Poker runs a $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo Championship (Event #36 in 2025). The pot-limit maximum is worked out as in any pot-limit game (Betting structures).
Source: PokerNews, "2025 WSOP Day 15: Phil Ivey Among the Leaders in the $10K PLO8" (June 2025).
To win the low half, a hand needs five cards of different ranks, none higher than an eight. The ace counts as low, and straights and flushes don't spoil a low. Lows are compared from the highest card down, so the lower top card wins: 7-5-4-3-2 beats 7-6-3-2-A, and 8-7-6-5-4 is the worst low that qualifies.
Source: Robert's Rules of Poker v11, Section 7, "Omaha High-Low" rules 2 and 3; pagat.com, Omaha, "Omaha High-Low Eight or Better".
Both your high and your low must each be exactly two hole cards and three board cards (30.5). But the two you use for the high don't have to be the two you use for the low, and the same goes for the board cards. Example: you hold A-2-K-K and the board is 3-4-8-K-Q. Your high is K-K with K-Q-8, three kings. Your low is A-2 with 3-4-8, an eight-four low. You may win both halves with different cards.
Source: Robert's Rules of Poker v11, Section 7, "Omaha High-Low" (introduction); pagat.com, Omaha, "Omaha High-Low Eight or Better".
Since a low uses exactly three board cards, the board itself must show at least three different ranks of eight or lower. On a board of K-Q-9-8-3, only the 8 and the 3 qualify, so nobody can make a low, whatever they hold, and the whole pot goes to the high hand (31.10).
A-2-3-4-5, the wheel, is the best possible low, and the same five cards are a five-high straight for high. That makes it one of the few hands that can win both halves at once. It loses the high half to any better straight or better hand.
Source: pagat.com, Poker hand ranking, "Ace to five"; DeucesCracked, "Omaha Hi-Lo" (2026).
Your low card is counterfeited when the board pairs it, so the board now supplies that card to everyone. Example: you hold A-2-Q-J and the board after the turn is 3-6-K-7. Your best low is 7-6-3-2-A, better than an opponent's A-4, which makes 7-6-4-3-A. The river is a 2. The board's 2 does nothing for you, since it pairs your deuce, so your low is still 7-6-3-2-A; but your opponent can now play A-4 with 2-3-6 for 6-4-3-2-A and wins the low.
Source: DeucesCracked, "Omaha Hi-Lo"; pagat.com, Omaha, "Omaha High-Low Eight or Better".
If nobody has a low of eight or better, there is no low half: the best high hand wins everything. Each side pot is settled separately, so a side pot can have no low even when the main pot has one (Pots).
Source: Robert's Rules of Poker v11, Section 7, "Omaha High-Low" rule 2, and Section 3, "Ties" rule 5(d); pagat.com, Omaha, "Omaha High-Low Eight or Better".
A player with the best high and the best low takes the whole pot, called a scoop. The high and low may use different hole cards (31.6).
Source: Robert's Rules of Poker v11, glossary, "Scoop"; DeucesCracked, "Omaha Hi-Lo".
Players who tie for one half share that half. With a common low hand like A-2 that happens often, and a player who ties for low while someone else wins the high gets only a quarter of the pot, called being quartered. Example: a $200 pot. Player A has the best high and A-2 for low; player B also has A-2 for low. The high half, $100, goes to A; the low half is split, $50 each. A collects $150 and B $50.
Source: DeucesCracked, "Omaha Hi-Lo"; pagat.com, Omaha, "Omaha High-Low Eight or Better".
When a pot can't be split evenly between high and low, the extra chip goes to the high half: a $101 pot pays $51 to the high and $50 to the low. Both the TDA and Robert's Rules say so. An odd chip between tied players within one half is awarded as in any other split (Pots).
Source: TDA 2026 (Version 1.1), Rule 21-C; Robert's Rules of Poker v11, Section 3, "Ties" rule 5(c).
The commonest misread is a player with three low cards counting a low the board doesn't allow. Example: you hold A-2-3-K and the board is 4-5-J-Q-K. You have no low: only two board cards are eight or lower, and you can't use three of your own. As always the cards speak, and whatever a player announces, the hand is read as it really is (Showdown).
Source: Robert's Rules of Poker v11, Section 7, "Omaha High-Low" (introduction), and Section 3, "The Showdown" rule 2; TDA 2026 (Version 1.1), Rule 13.
In a cards-speak game, announcing that you're playing for high only, or failing to notice your low, doesn't cost you the low half. If your cards make the best low, you win it. The exception is a declaration game (31.17), where what you declare is what you play for.
Source: Robert's Rules of Poker v11, Section 3, "The Showdown" rule 2; pagat.com, Poker betting, "The Showdown".
Big O is Omaha Hi-Lo with five hole cards, almost always pot-limit. The exactly-two rule is unchanged, so you now choose your two from ten pairs, for the high and the low separately. It has appeared at the World Series in the Dealer's Choice, Omaha Mix and Big Bet Mix events. The name isn't fixed: pagat.com notes that "Big O" is sometimes used for five- and six-card Omaha in general, not only the hi-lo game.
Source: PokerNews, "How to Play Big O Poker"; pagat.com, Omaha, "Five Card Omaha".
Some home games play hi-lo with a declaration: before the showdown each player says whether they are going for high, low or both, either in turn or all at once by hiding chips in a closed fist (none for low, one for high, two for both). A player who declares both must win both halves to win anything. Card rooms play Omaha Hi-Lo cards speak, with no declaration and an eight-or-better qualifier. If your game declares, say so in your house rules.
Source: pagat.com, Poker betting, "Split pots and declaration"; Robert's Rules of Poker v11, Section 3, "The Showdown" rule 2, and Section 7, "Omaha High-Low" rule 2.
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