Hi-lo poker: how to read low hands and split the pot

In hi-lo poker the pot is split in two: half goes to the best high hand, half to the best low hand. In the usual “eight or better” version, a low is five different cards ranked 8 or lower, aces count as low, and straights and flushes don’t spoil it. If nobody has a qualifying low, the best high hand takes the whole pot.

The rules are simple; reading low hands correctly is where new players lose money. This guide covers how lows are ranked and compared, when the board makes a low possible, how splits and quartering work in real chips, and how Omaha Hi-Lo and Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo differ.

How a hi-lo pot is split

Every hi-lo hand is two contests at once. The high half is decided by the normal poker hand rankings. The low half goes to the lowest qualifying hand. One player can win both halves, which is called a scoop, or the two halves can go to different players.

• Scoop: you win high and low, or win high when nobody qualifies for low. You take the whole pot.
• Split: one player wins high, another wins low; each takes half.
• Tie for a half: two players with the same low (or the same high) share that half.

The “8 or better” part is the qualifier. Without it, someone would always have a low, and the pot would always be split. With it, a board full of high cards means no low exists and the high hand gets everything.

The name is written several ways: hi-lo, high-low, hi/lo, and “eight or better”, often shortened to O8 for Omaha and Stud/8 for stud. They all mean the same split-pot rules.

What counts as a low hand

A qualifying low has five cards of different ranks, none higher than an eight.

• Aces are low for the low half and still high for the high half. A♠ in your hand helps both.
• Straights and flushes don’t count against you. A-2-3-4-5 is a perfect low and a straight at the same time. Five hearts below 9 are a flush and a low.
• Pairs ruin a low. 7-5-5-3-2 isn’t a low, because two of the cards share a rank.
• Nothing above 8. 9-5-4-3-2 doesn’t qualify.

The best possible low is A-2-3-4-5, called the wheel or “bicycle”. The worst qualifying low is 8-7-6-5-4.

Two mistakes come up all the time. Players think 8-4-3-2-A beats 7-6-5-4-3 because most of its cards are smaller, and players forget that a pair, even a pair of aces, kills a low. Read the cards from the top, not the overall look of the hand.

How to read and compare low hands

Low hands are named and compared from the highest card down. That sounds backwards at first, so here’s the method, step by step:

1. Throw out every card above 8 and any card that pairs one you already kept.
2. If five cards are left, sort them from highest to lowest.
3. Name the hand by its top cards: 8-6-5-4-3 is an “eight-six low”.
4. To compare two lows, check the highest cards first. The lower one wins. If they’re equal, move to the next card, and so on.

The table below shows close comparisons that trip players up. In each row, the hand on the left wins.

The third row is the one that surprises people. 8-4-3-2-A has four tiny cards, but its eight makes it worse than any seven-low, including 7-6-5-4-3.

When a low is possible: the board rule

In Omaha Hi-Lo you must use exactly three cards from the board, so a low is only possible when the board shows at least three different ranks of 8 or lower. On 2♠ 2♦ 8♣ K♥ Q♠ there are only two low ranks, the 2 and the 8. Nobody can make a low, and the high hand scoops.

How often does the board allow a low? Counting every possible five-card board:

• By the river, a low is possible about 60% of the time.
• On the flop, three different low ranks show up only 16% of the time.

So on most flops the low is still a draw, and a fair share of hands end with no low at all. That’s why hands that can only win the low lose money over time.

What the flop already shows tells you how likely a low is by the river. Counting only the unseen deck, and ignoring the cards in players’ hands:

• Two different low ranks on the flop, such as 4♦ 7♣ K♠: a third low rank arrives on the turn or river 76.6% of the time.
• One low card, such as K♠ Q♦ 3♣: you need two more different low ranks, which happens only 31.1% of the time.
• No low cards at all: a low is impossible, because only two cards are left to come.

Can a nine ever count for the low? No. In eight-or-better games a low hand can’t contain a card above eight, even if the other four are A-2-3-4. The nine just doesn’t play for the low; the hand needs another low card instead.

The best low possible, the “nut low”, changes from street to street. To see how, take a flop of 2♣ 5♦ 7♠. The nut low is A-3 in your hand, making 7-5-3-2-A. If the turn is K♥, nothing changes. If the turn is 3♥ instead, A-4 becomes the nut low (5-4-3-2-A), and A-3 drops to 7-5-3-2-A, because its 3 now duplicates a board card. Our guide to the nuts covers the same idea for high hands.

Scoops, splits and getting quartered

Splitting a pot sounds harmless. In multiway pots it can lose money even when you “win”. The easiest way to see it is with chips.

Three players each put $40 into a $120 pot. Player A wins high. Players B and C have the same low and split the low half.

• A takes the high half: $60, a $20 profit.
• B and C share the low half: $30 each. Each put in $40, so each loses $10.

Getting a quarter of the pot is called being quartered. With four players and $160 in the pot, the two players sharing low get $40 each, exactly what they put in. Heads-up it’s worse: if you tie the low and lose the high, you get $20 back from your $40.

When the pot can’t be split evenly, the odd chip usually goes to the high hand. That’s the standard in most casino rules; home games sometimes decide differently, so agree on it before you deal.

Putting in raise after raise with a hand that can only win half the low is one of the costliest habits in hi-lo. If another player may hold the same low, three-way action can turn your “winning” hand into a loss. Push hard with the nut low only when you also have chances at the high, or when you’re sure nobody can share the low.

Omaha Hi-Lo

Omaha Hi-Lo uses the same deal as regular Omaha: four hole cards each, five community cards, betting before the flop and on every street. It’s played as fixed limit or pot limit (PLO8). The one rule that matters most: for each half of the pot, you use exactly two cards from your hand and exactly three from the board.

You can use different hole cards for the high and the low. With A♠ 2♦ K♥ K♣ on a board of K♦ 7♠ 4♥ 3♣ J♣, you use K♥ K♣ for a set of kings as your high and A♠ 2♦ for a 7-4-3-2-A low. Our Omaha rules guide explains the two-card rule in full.

Reading a three-way showdown

Reading both halves at once is the skill that takes practice. Here’s a full showdown to work through. The board is K♣ 7♦ 4♠ 2♥ 8♣, and three players turn over their hands.

Start with the high. Ben uses 6♠ 5♣ with 4♠ 7♦ 8♣ from the board for a straight, which beats Carl’s set of eights. Carl’s set looked like the winner until the straight was read.

Now the low. All three qualify, because the board has three low ranks: 7, 4 and 2. Anna uses A♠ 3♦ for 7-4-3-2-A. Ben’s best low uses A♥ 5♣ for 7-5-4-2-A. Both start with a 7; on the second card Anna’s 4 beats Ben’s 5, so Anna wins the low. Carl’s 8-7-4-3-2 is a qualifying low that loses to both.

Ben takes half the pot with the high and Anna the other half with the low. Notice that Ben couldn’t combine his straight cards and his low cards into one better hand: each half is chosen separately, two cards from the hand each time.

The betting structure changes how these hands are played. In fixed-limit Omaha Hi-Lo every bet is a set size, so players see many flops and the main skill is reading who holds what. In pot-limit (PLO8) the bets grow quickly, and getting quartered or scooped in a big pot costs far more. Most online sites run both.

Hands that scoop vs hands that split

The best starting hands work for both halves: A-2 with another low card and a suited ace, such as A♠ 2♠ 3♦ K♦. They can make the nut low and the nut flush or a straight at the same time.

Big pairs and high cards, like K♠ K♦ Q♥ J♣, play for the high half only. They’re best when the board comes high and no low is possible. Hands made of middle cards, such as 9-8-7-6, are the trap: their lows are rarely good and their straights are often the low end. Our PLO strategy guide and the guide to Omaha wraps cover the high side.

The numbers explain why A-2 alone isn’t enough. Holding A-2 with two picture cards, you’ll be able to make a low by the river only 36.5% of the time. A-2-3 with one high card reaches a low 49.5% of the time, and A-2-3-4 53.1%, because the extra low cards protect against duplicates on the board.

Counterfeiting

Your low is counterfeited when the board pairs one of your low cards, so you can no longer use it to make a low. The extra low card on the board kills the value of your own.

To see how fast it happens, here’s a $1/$2 pot-limit hand. You open to $7 from the cutoff with A♠ 2♦ K♥ Q♣, and the big blind calls. The pot is $15.

Any 4, 6, 7 or 8 gives you the nut low, and you have backdoor chances at a high hand. Against a typical calling hand such as A♥ 4♣ 8♦ 9♦, a draw to the second-best low, you get 68.5% of the pot on average. You bet $10, he calls, and the pot is $35.

The 2♥ looks like a great card for a low hand. It isn’t for yours. You can’t use your own 2 alongside the board’s 2, so your A-2 now needs one more low card on the river just to make a low. Meanwhile his A-4 makes A-2-3-4-5 with the board: the wheel, which is both the nut low and a straight for high.

Your share of the pot drops from 68.5% to 3.7%. You only tie on a river 4, which gives you a wheel too. Facing a pot-sized bet, you fold.

If you’d called and the river came 8♥, you’d finally have a low, 8-5-3-2-A, and it would lose to his wheel. He’d scoop. This is why players value A-2-3 so highly: with a third low card, a 2 on the board still leaves you a low.

Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo

Stud Hi-Lo, also called Stud/8, uses the deal of normal seven card stud: two cards down and one up, then four more streets, with the last card down. There are no community cards, so each player uses any five of their own seven cards for the high and any five for the low. The two hands can share cards.

A few rules differ from Omaha or need a closer look:

• Bring-in. On third street the lowest upcard pays the forced bring-in. For this purpose an ace counts as high, and ties go by suit: clubs lowest, then diamonds, hearts and spades.
• Who acts first. From fourth street on, the best high hand showing acts first, as in regular stud.
• Betting. Stud/8 is almost always played fixed limit.

Good starting hands in Stud/8 are three cards that can go both ways: three low cards with an ace, such as A♠ 2♦ 4♣, three low cards to a straight or flush, such as 3♥ 4♥ 5♥, or a pair of aces. A hand like K♠ Q♦ J♣ plays for high only and is worth much less than in regular stud, because half of most pots it plays for is the low. If you start with three low cards and pair one of them on fourth street, your low has taken a hit even though your high improved.

Because you can see four of each opponent’s cards by the end, reading who’s going for low is easier than in Omaha. Three low upcards tell you a lot. The full deal and betting order are in our seven card stud rules.

Hi-lo vs Razz and 2-7 lowball

Hi-lo isn’t the only game where low hands win. In lowball games the whole pot goes to the lowest hand, with no high half. The rules for what counts as low differ, as the table shows.

In Razz the best hand is the wheel, and any five unpaired cards make a low, even K-Q-J-T-9. In 2-7 the ace is high and straights and flushes count, so the best hand is 7-5-4-3-2, and A-2-3-4-5 is just a high-card ace. Our guides to Razz, lowball poker and Badugi cover the other low games. In mixed games such as HORSE, Omaha Hi-Lo and Stud/8 are two of the five rounds.

Cards speak or declare?

Casinos and online sites use “cards speak”: you show your hand, and the dealer or software awards each half to whoever holds the best cards. You don’t announce anything.

Some home games use a declaration instead. Before the showdown, each player secretly holds chips in a closed fist to declare high, low or both; a common convention is no chip for low, one for high and two for both, but it varies by table. You can only win the half you declared, and declaring both usually means you must win both outright or get nothing. If you play declare at home, settle the details before the first hand.

Mistakes that cost hi-lo players money

Most losing hi-lo players make the same few errors. Each one gives away half pots, or whole ones.

Playing hands that can only win the low. Even when they hit, they get split or quartered, and a high board leaves them with nothing.

Treating A-2 as unbeatable. Any 2 or ace on the board counterfeits it, and you need a third low card to stay in the race.

Using three of your hole cards in Omaha. A♠ 2♦ 3♥ with 4♣ 5♠ on the board doesn’t make a wheel: you must use exactly two cards from your hand.

Confusing a low with a straight. 8-7-6-5-4 is the worst possible low, even though it’s a straight for the high half.

Winning players count their outs for each half separately before calling a big bet. A draw to the nut low plus a flush draw can be worth chasing in a big pot; a draw to a non-nut low alone rarely is, because even when it hits it may be beaten or split. Our guide to counting outs shows the method for the high side.

The better habit is simple to state: prefer hands that can win both halves, and slow down when you can only win half of one. Our guide to types of poker shows where the hi-lo games sit among the other variants.

Hi-lo poker FAQ