If you don’t know what a hi/lo poker game is, it’s basically a game where high hands and really crappy hands both have a chance at winning a pot. On the high side, the rules are just like they would be for any poker game. On the low side, disconnected cards of 8 or lower can be considered. That means that you can’t have any pairs, trips or quads and your cards have to be valued at 8 or lower. Aces count. The rules in this case are similar to Razz, but the cap on the cards being 8 does make it so that there isn’t always a low hand in play.
Working with a hi/lo situation does have its advantages. Of course, the most obvious one is that you have a chance to win a pot, even if you have a crappy hand. If you get dealt crap, you still have a chance to play it and win half of a pot. You can’t win the whole thing unless the other person is going for a low hand, but you can split what’s out there.
The down side to playing like this is that monster hands often only collect half pots because of the low hands on the table. Quad kings only get half the money if the wheel (A2345) is in someone else’s hand. If you’ve put a ton of effort into winning a big pot and find out you’ll have to split it with someone else, the result can be shear frustration. That’s just the art of h/lo though. Take it with a grain of salt and try to kick ass in the next hand.
Tags: hi/lo, omaha hilo, razz
