Practical Poker Math

5. Odds in Omaha Hi-Lo
In a 10-handed game of Omaha High or Omaha Hi-Lo, by
the time the hand has been dealt, 45 of 52 cards are in play.
This means that in many cases, any nut hand that is possible
has a very good chance of happening. For example, in
Hold’em the odds of any player getting a pair of Aces in the
hole is 220 : 1 but in Omaha it is 39 : 1.
In a 10-handed Hold’em game some player at the table will,
on average, have Aces in the hole only once in each 22 hands,
but in Omaha, on average someone will have rockets once
every 4 hands.
Conventional poker wisdom notes that Omaha, whether
High or Hi-Lo, is as much about “nut-peddling” as it is about
anything else. The player should either have the best possible
hand or be drawing to it.
One pitfall of Hi-Lo is that you can have the nut Low hand and
still lose money. Consider a pot that is contested heads-up.
Each of you has invested $500 in a $1000 pot. You have the nut
Low, but your opponent has a hand that matches your Low
and beats your High. You win $250 and your opponent takes
$750. You end the hand with a $250 loss. Being “quartered” or
worse in Hi-Lo sends many naive players to the rail.
147