The Complete Guide › Module 5: Mixed Games — Omaha, Stud & Lowball

How to Deal Omaha Hi and Omaha Hi-Lo

True Poker Dealer · Module 5, Lesson 1

Mechanically, dealing Omaha is almost identical to dealing hold'em — same burns, same board, same betting rounds. The entire difference is four hole cards instead of two, and one rule that governs how every hand gets read: exactly two cards from the hand, exactly three from the board, every single time. Get comfortable with that rule and Omaha stops being intimidating.

The rule that runs the whole game

A five-card Omaha hand must use exactly two cards from the player's hand and exactly three from the board — never three and two, never four and one. This matters most at showdown, where it's the dealer's job to read hands correctly and catch a player who thinks they have a hand they don't. A player might swear they have a flush because four of their hole cards happen to be the same suit, but if they can only legally use two of them, that flush may not exist at all. Know this rule cold, because explaining it clearly and calmly is a routine part of the job, not an edge case.

Reading a qualifying low

In Omaha hi-lo (also called high low split, eight or better), half the pot goes to the best low hand — but only if a qualifying low actually exists. A qualifying low needs five cards of different rank, all eight or lower, using the same two-from-hand-three-from-board rule as the high hand. If the board can't produce three cards eight-or-under of different ranks, there's no possible low on that board at all, and the entire pot goes to the high hand even in a hi-lo game.

When a low does qualify, compare hands the same way every time: look at the highest card in each low hand first, and whoever's highest card is lower wins that comparison; if it's tied, move to the next-highest card, and so on. The best possible low is five-four-three-deuce-ace (called a wheel); the worst qualifying low is eight-seven-six-five-four. A hand needing five different ranks means a player with an eight paired against their own board card doesn't have a low at all — they're one card short of five distinct ranks.

Splitting the pot

When a hand chops between high and low, split the pot by denomination, not by dividing a single stack in half. Start with the largest chip denomination and split that in half first, closest to you; if there's an odd chip in that split, it goes to the high hand. Then add an equal amount of the next denomination behind it, and finally cut the remaining smaller chips into two even stacks. Announce and push the high half first, then the low half — never push the whole pot to one player and ask them to hand part of it back, even if local custom allows it. If you read the hand wrong, that mistake is now much harder to undo cleanly.