Unlike the standard game of Omaha, Omaha Hi-Lo has the possibility of a split pot, with half going to the best traditional, or ‘high’ hand, and the other half going to the best ’low’ card poker hand. Note that there will always be a high hand—this is where your poker hand rankings cheat sheet will come in handy. High hands are the same as in Hold’em and PLO—but there won’t always be a qualifying low hand. The low hand only comes into play if the final bet is called and there is a showdown.

You can use different combinations of two cards from your hand to make your high hand and your low hand. However, in each hand you must have two from your hand and three from the community cards to make up your five-card hand. If a player has both the best ‘low’ and ‘high’ hands, the player will win the whole pot.

But we shouldn't get ahead of ourselves, no siree. The rules are as follows and will require your full attention. Why? Well, the low hand requires a little more explanation, especially if you’re a split-pot or hi-lo newbie.

Much like its Pot-Limit cousin, the goal in Hi-Lo is to make up the best five-card hand. BUT here’s the twist: because the pot is split, players have to make up the best five-card high hand and the best five-card low hand, using exactly two hole cards and three community cards.

In Omaha Hi-Lo Poker, each player is dealt four private cards. Only that player can use those particular cards. In addition to those four cards, five community cards are dealt in the middle of the table for all players to use.

As with standard Omaha poker, players are required to use two of their four hole cards, in addition to three of the five community cards to form the best five-card hand.

Omaha Hi-Low poker is however a little different to Pot-Limit Omaha, in that two hands share the pot, provided the rules have been met. For the high hand, 8 or better serves as a qualifier, and for the low hand the 5 cards must rank 8 or lower. If these conditions have not been met, the high hand will win the whole pot. The strongest possible low hand—the nuts—in Omaha Hi-Lo is 5, 4, 3, 2 & Ace. Note that Aces are counted as 1 according to the California system for hand rankings.
You can see the high and low hand rankings listed below.

LOW HAND POKER RANKINGS

To qualify as a low hand, all five cards must be ranked 8 or below, and be of different denominations. Straights and flushes don’t affect the value of a low hand, provided the cards are all ranked 8 or below. Aces can be used for both low and high hands. If nobody has cards that qualify for the low hand, then the pot will not be split and the player with the best high hand wins the entire pot. A low hand is always ranked from the highest card downward.