It combines the thrill of traditional Omaha with the added challenge of competing for both the highest and lowest hands, making it a captivating and dynamic game. Non aced hands can spell disaster unless the Ace presents itself on the flop. Any hand with a pair of aces would tend to fair better than most hands because the top seven best hands in Omaha poker contain aces. The 33 hand is slightly best overall, but the K hand has a bit bigger advantage over the 34 hand. . The best hand from our chart, A A K K, is 33% to win, 41% to tie, and 26% to lose to the second-best hand, A A T J. The first thing you’ll need for your hand to be playable, is an amazing Omaha high-low hand. 11% - that a player’s starting hand will have two pairs or three of a kind, respectively. Making the Low Hand So, how does a hand qualify for the low half of the pot in Omaha Hi-Lo? There are just a couple of requirements: The five-card hand can contain no pairs The. Check "folded hand" to indicate the given player is out of the hand. Examples of strong hands with scoop potential include those with an. In Texas Hold’em it was in post flop play that the winning hand was determined, although that has been overtaken now by the pre-flop all in. Cards that work together and have good potential of winning the entire pot. The main difference is that the pot is split between the high and low hands at the showdown. One of the best sports and esports betting sites. by Texas Holdem Poker Player | Nov 13, 2023 | Omaha Hi-Lo. After every player has two hole cards, the. Some of the best Omaha poker hands are known as “rundowns”. Best Starting Hands in Omaha Hi-Lo Poker. The purpose of this system is to provide a simple means of evaluating starting hands in Omaha poker. A-2-3-x 4. We are seeing a consistent pattern with speculative hands. 51%Best Starting Hand in Hi-Lo Explained. The reason for these hands being the best is because they have the best potential to scoop the pot. Hi! The best starting hands in Omaha Hi-Lo are **A-A-2-3 double-suited followed by A-A-2-4 double-suited. As the name suggests the lower value cards you hold, the strongest low hand you have. Adapt To 5-Card Preflop Ranges. Understanding the Basics of Omaha Hi/Lo. Mind you, in Omaha Hi-Lo, an ace can be the highest and the lowest-ranking hand at the same time. If limpers must act before of you, you can raise to approximately 4-6 the amount of the big blind. Key strategy considerations include being in control of the hands you do play at this stage. Ideally, the starting hand should be good for both good high and low hands. ”. Selecting Starting Hands in Omaha Hi Lo Poker. Best Omaha Poker Hands: Omaha High/Low. The apps offer 5-Card PLO for basically all stakes but can vary across individual clubs. Start with three low cards, three running cards, three suited cards, or pairs for the initial bet. Right! Let’s switch our attention to the inner mechanics of Omaha Hi-Lo game strategy. It shouldn’t be a surprise that the best starting hands in PLO involve 4-cards, Ten and higher. A-2-x-x 6. Now, click Process to find your Recommended Action. The kind of limit: pot-limit, non-limit, etc. When the flop comes high, A K Q J will tend to smash it and often get action from inferior hands, however it can get out for a minimum investment on low flops. As the full name suggests, Big O is actually a Hi/Lo version of 5 Card Omaha, meaning all players are dealt five hole cards, and the pot is split into half between the best high and the best low hand. The big hands people wait for are AA2xx, A23xx, AKQJ3, etc. However, this does not preclude dominating situations from occurring. Easy to beat – at low limits, the Pot Limit Omaha Hi Lo games are typically very loose. Make the best five-card low. The royal flush is the best hand available in poker. As a rule the small blind is rounded down to the nearest dollar. As we begin to look at specific Omaha Hi/Lo hands, remember the three questions you should ask about any starting hand: (1) Can I scoop the pot, (2) Do my cards work together and (3) Do I have multiple ways of winning. That still holds true in Omaha Hi-Lo but with one MAJOR caveat. Firstly the point count method identifies whether your hand qualifies as a ‘high only’ hand, the criteria for this are naturally very strict – with 4 cards 10 or above required plus some other features such as a pair + 2 suited cards, 2 pair or double-suited unpaired cards. Let's say a hand of Omaha hi-lo goes to showdown with the final board reading A♦6♣3♠K♦Q♦. 10. In regular Omaha games, players are dealt 4 hole-cards, and must use only two of those five, along with three cards from the community board to form the best hand. Texas Hold'em Starting Hands; Poker Games; Odds for Dummies; 10 Tips for Winning Online; How Much Money Can You Make Playing Poker? How to Play Poker. Starting hands. Tips for Omaha High-Low. the second-best combination - AAJTds (ds stands for double suited). There is a game even at high limits. 2nd Worst. In this variant of the game, the pot is equally split between the best “high” and the best “low” hands. It was developed in several steps: First, Mike Caro's Poker Probe software was used to determine the win percentage for various four card combinations when played against nine opponents. Before we wrap things up, a quick word about Omaha Hi-Lo. But what about a hand such as A 2 4 7 that has very limited high potential; how much. Worst Starting Hands in Omaha Hi-Lo. Avoid Playing High Hands. Omaha has 16,432 starting hand combinations if we ignore the suits. board are often split between two or more players. But have no fear, simply using these ten tips can keep you out of trouble. Hands like those described above can be quality starting hands in Omaha High but not in Omaha Hi/Lo Split. 1. The best high hand takes half the pot, and the best low hand takes the other half. The A2 and the A3 combinations give you the opportunity to capture the best possible low hand. Omaha Hi/Lo is a complex game that requires strategic decision-making and a thorough understanding of poker rules and concepts. Pairing your low cards is a bad thing in Omaha. Best Starting Hand in Hi-Lo Explained. While AAKK double suited is the best hand in PLO, you want some low cards in addition to your high ones in Omaha Hi-Lo. Both Omaha High and Omaha Hi-Lo (or Omaha 8 or better) are popular and distinctly different rule sets. There is a much lower probability - 4. Making strong hands is relatively easy in PLO, so it is preferable to play hands that can make the nuts relatively easily. Back in the late 90s, Dr. In the previous two lessons we examined the good (and great) starting hands in stud high/low. Forget about even the hi-lo aspect of it, and realize that instead of the 169 starting hand combos in Holdem, in Omaha poker there are over 16,000. Sticking to the starting hand requirements or betting strategy which succeeds in a full ring game could actually be very expensive here. Based on 1010300000 ring games (10 players, no one folds)Here’s a classic example of a horrible Omaha Hi/Lo hand where your cards do not work together well: K-10-3-4. Everyone is used to playing a hand of poker where the winner with the best hand wins the pot. You’re premium hands in Omaha 8 look like your Ace-2-3-4s, your hands that contain an Ace-Deuce and another wheel card and then a Broadway card, something like that. Hand. Omaha Hi-Omaha Hi-Lo, also known as Omaha High-Low, O8 and Omaha 8-or-Better, is one of the most popular and entertaining forms of. Omaha Hi-Lo Starting Hand Strategy Look-Fors. Joined Apr 1, 2007 Total posts 85 Chips 0 Apr 6, 2007 #1 What starting hands are you looking. Knowing if a player has two pair, or is just chasing a flush draw, is vital. Hand #2: 10-8-7-6-5. The next lowest possible hand would be 6-4-3-2-A. The best high hand wins half of the pot, and the best low hand wins the other half of the pot. In Texas Hold’em it was in post flop play that the winning hand was determined, although that has been overtaken now by the pre-flop all in. "If you want to play your hand, you put down a bet that's exactly twice the amount of your ante. Check "folded hand" to indicate the given player is out of the hand. Check our list of the best starting hands for Omaha here:. Similar to PLO, Omaha Hi-Lo also has a huge number of starting hand combinations. That's why hands like A23, A24 are much better than those with "naked" A2--the extra low card is "counterfeit protection",Pot Limit Omaha Starting Hands. Omaha Hi Lo Starting Hands Best Starting Hands in Omaha Hi Lo. The top ten starting hands in Omaha are; A-A-K-k; A-A-J-T; A-A-Q-Q; A-A-J-J; A. Hands like K-Q-9 are not good, since they have no chance to win the low. Straights and flushes do not apply to low hands; therefore, the best possible low hand is A, 2, 3, 4, and 5 (called a “wheel”). In 5-Card PLO, the best hands are those where all five cards work together, such as Ah AsKs Qh Jc. e. A234: this hand has a lot of wheel potential, look for it to be double suited for even more profitability. Worst Starting Hands in Omaha Hi-Lo. 1. In this version of the game, there are two winning hands in each round: the high winner and the low winner. Examples include A-A-2-3, A-2-3-4, A-A-5-6, A-2-5-6, and 2-3-4-5. Speculative hands become less playable during the middle stages of a fixed-limit Omaha Hi-Lo tournament. Suited babies have a lot of potential to win low pots and scoop pots by either hitting a flush/straight, or by putting pressure on high hands to fold the winner through aggressive betting. Second nut hands in Omaha lose much more often than in Hold'em and can be very expensive. In Hi-Lo Split 8 or Better,. Additional comment actions. Poker Tilt Tips : Your Guilty Conscience. To illustrate this point, we are going to follow the fortunes of three players – Good George, Viable Victoria, and Speculative Sam – in a hand of Omaha Hi-Lo. Double-suited AK32 or A432 are strong. Each player in a Texas Hold’em game is dealt two hole cards. To win a hand of Omaha Hi Lo poker, a player has two options: Make the best five-card high hand. " Indeed it does have a little potential – very little. E. They are not as strong as the very best starting hands but offer lots of straight and flush potential. The best place to play Omaha Hi Lo from the US and the rest of the world. Best Starting Hands in PLO Hi-Lo August 28, 2023 August 14, 2023. Here are some examples of the best-starting hands in Omaha Hi-Lo poker: High/Low Split Hands. But being a split pot game where a player's intention is to make a good high as well as a good low hand, thus some of the best decisions in this game are made pre-flop. This hand is known as the “nut low” and the suits of the cards don’t affect the strength of the hand. One key thing to remember while playing Omaha is every starting hand has to improve in order to win. Double suited hands (where the four cards are comprised of two of one suit and two of another), hands which hold three cards to a nut straight or nut wheel (Ace-Five straight) and. Poker-hand rankings: from strongest to weakest. ”. A-A-3-x 3. As per the Omaha Hi Lo starting hands point system, when playing a pot limit Omaha online game, it takes 25 points to call, 40 points to raise and above 50 to re-raise. That is to say,… Read More »To excel in Omaha Hi-Lo, consider the following strategies and tips: Starting Hand Selection: Pay attention to hands that have the potential to form both a strong high hand and a qualifying low hand. e. However, calling too many bets chasing a low can be costly in the long run. Therefore, the best starting hand is A, A, 2,. Worst Starting Hands in Omaha Hi-Lo. The single most common reason for losing money in this game. 00. Omaha Hi Odds Calculator. Omaha Hi-Lo Preflop Hand Values. Ideally, the starting hand should be good for both good high and low hands. It is not less than being lucky. . Omaha Hi/Lo, also known as Omaha 8-or-Better, is a popular and exciting variant of poker that offers a unique twist on the traditional game. On the same lines, a hand consisting of 2222 is usually considered the worst starting hand in Omaha. The key Limit Omaha8 concept is playing appropriate starting hands. This is an excellent Omaha/8 starting hand because you have four low cards offering double counterfeit protection coupled with straight draws and the nut flush draw. The best starting hands in Omaha Hi-Lo poker can win both the high and low halves of the pot. The pot is divided between the highest and lowest hands (hence the ‘Hi-Lo’), with the low hand requiring five unique cards all 8 or lower. 000795: Four of a Kind: 2225270496: 0. 2-to-7 Low: As explained above the best hand possible on 2-7 is 2-3-4-5-7. Texas Hold’em; Omaha; Omaha Hi-Lo; Badugi. The dealer begins each game by distributing these cards one at a time to each player, starting with the player in the small blind position. Aces are low and straights and flushes count. AAKK is still a playable starting hand in Omaha hi lo, because sometimes the. This is very important to remember. Helmuth comments that A-2-3-x will win a piece of the pot more than 40% of the time. So in addition to the aforementioned factors, you also need to maximise your chances of taking both halves of the pot. . For this reason the very best Omaha Hi-Lo starting hands have back-up for the low in the form of another card below 5. The best hand from our chart, A A K K, is 33% to win, 41% to tie, and 26% to lose to the second-best hand, A A T J. In Omaha, there are 16,432 different possible unique starting hands you can be dealt. For now, consider playing Texas Hold'em, Omaha, or Omaha Hi-Lo. The crème de la crème of Omaha hands. Repeat for each card. Player. Starting Hands for Omaha 8- Hi/Lo. Say, for example, you have a starting hand like 9s-8d-7s-6d. The Hi-Lo version needs you to have two cards that qualify you for the low-hand stand-off. 9 7 6 4 . Being selective with Omaha hi-lo starting hands is important – but more important still is choosing those starting hands with potential to scoop the whole pot. These are hands that hold’em players, especially, will overplay. Omaha Hi-Lo split is sometimes referred to as Omaha Eight-or-Better or FLO8/PLO8/NLO8 (depending on the betting structure). Basic Strategy Tips for Omaha Hi-Lo. Omaha High Hand. To justify entering a pot at Hi/Lo, those two other cards have to be. Omaha Hi-Lo Tips and Hints 💡. In the Omaha hi-lo variant of poker, ace-deuce suited and ace-three suited are known to be the best starting hands. A-2-3 suited is the absolute best starting hand. Part II. The best starting hands in Stud 8 are 2 small cards that are connected, suited, or both. A-A-2-5 DS. The low hand must "qualify" with at least five cards below 8 in. Which Cards to Discard:. Mixed PLO Hi-Lo/"Big O"/Omaha Hi-Lo: 74: July 9-11: $1,500: Bounty Pot-Limit Omaha 8-Handed ($500. As a beginner, when you first start playing poker you may be tempted to play every hand you're dealt. As per the Omaha Hi Lo starting hands point system, when playing a pot limit Omaha online game, it takes 25 points to call, 40 points to raise and above 50 to re-raise. Omaha Hi Lo Winning Hands. Of course being suited or (even better) double-suited adds value to every hand. This table shows the pre flop values of the 16,432 differnt hole card combinations in Omaha Hi-Lo Holdem. The software is designed both for beginners and more experienced players. Omaha Hi-Lo Poker Starting Hands. The best hands in Omaha Hi-Lo can help win a player both the. In Omaha AAAA is not. These should be played strongly before the flop, especially from position. Click on any card and it will be used in the position indicated by the yellow frame. We are seeing a consistent pattern with speculative hands. Additional Best Omaha Starting Hand Questions: What hand would be the winning low hand with these two hands: Hand #1: 10-9-4-3-2. Texas Hold’em; Omaha; Omaha Hi-Lo; Badugi; Open Faced Chinese; Video Poker; Poker Hands. not full of experts). Avoid playing these hands except for very specific situations. A-A-x-x It is crucial to consider how these hands vary in strength, based on. You must take any two cards from your hole cards, and any three cards from. rank: higher cards are better and applies to. Pot-Limit Omaha. That's a hundred-fold increase. The Secrets of Basic Blackjack Strategy. In regular Omaha games, players are dealt 4 hole-cards, and must use only two of those five, along with three cards from the community board to form the best hand. . It goes back to the rules of the game and what the end goal is. In Omaha Hi-Lo, 8-7-6-5-4 is the. Here are some examples: A♠A♦K♠K♦ - This hand is the best possible double-paired starting hand. The best starting hands in Omaha Hi-Lo are A-A-2-3 double-suited followed by A-A-2-4 double-suited. Note that this is also a double-suited hand which is a nice bonus. A hand like A-A-2-X double-suited gives you the chance at the nut-low and the nut flush (high hand) draws. The latter means that players can split the pot, with different high- and low-hand winners. Hands with pairs, suited connectors, and high-ranking cards are generally considered strong starting hands for the high pot. Seven-Card Stud Hi/Lo is nothing like as popular as Omaha Hi/Lo. 2. 47JJ, 56TK, etc. PLO is a game of making the nut-hand and busting players who do not have the discipline or knowledge to fold 2nd-best hands. You may click on any valid card to move the frame there. 'Omaha Hi-Lo Eight or Better can be a very confusing game. Most any hand with three wheel cards is worth playing, even if you have A-4-5-K. 17 Nov 2023 strategies for selecting and playing specific starting hands in Omaha Hi-Lo poker, emphasizing the importance of card coordination, the value of the ace as a key card, and the considerations for both high and low hand possibilities. Pot-Limit Omaha Hand Quiz. This is actually one of the best starting hands in Omaha aside from AsAdKsKd, which is typically considered to be the best. That means playing for the low as well. Having the three and four suited does not add value as a four high flush with three of that suit on the board is really a liability and not an asset. AAKK is still a playable starting hand in Omaha hi lo, because sometimes. No real lo winning hand. Aces are also good for starting hands, when not clubbed with other pairs. This is an excellent Omaha/8 starting hand because you have four low cards offering double counterfeit protection coupled with straight draws and the nut flush draw. As odd and unlikely as it might sound, having quads (four of a kind) is the worst possible hand in Omaha hi-lo (the lower the four same ranked cards the worse, with four Deuces being the absolute worst). the player with the best high hand gets half the pot and the two. I have even had it said to me by an experienced on-line poker player that any starting. If there is no qualified low hand then the best high hand will win the pot. A-A-2-x 2. This is. Stud Hi-Lo is a split pot game. Some other popular poker games based on Omaha include 5-Card and 6-Card Omaha. He describes premium hand. Lo Omaha hands do not take straights or flushes. So being suited or even double-suited adds value to each hand. Ideally, they will be high-ranking cards, since they'll be more likely to make the highest 5-card hand. ’Here are the top 10 starting hands in PLO (Pot Limit Omaha) Poker. ) 2-3-4-x (fold if there is no Ace on the flop). Aces suited with other cards in your hand are the best starting hands to do this with, since they can make flushes at the same time as the best low. The best low hand gets half the pot and the best high hand gets the other half. J 10 8 6. In Omaha Poker there are 16,432 combinations of starting hands and in Omaha 5 Card, there are 134,459 combinations of starting hands!This Omaha Hi/Lo beginner’s guide aims to introduce you to the fundamentals of the game and set you on the path to becoming a proficient player. Frequency of 7-card poker hands. The best starting hands have a combination of the above. Why Play. To get the best low hand, all five cards have to be of the value 8 or lower (no pairs). Slow playing On the Flop in PLO — Slow playing isn’t always advised in PLO due to the high chance of getting out drawn. An Ace is treated as one. In this lesson we examine the remaining starting hands: when you have the bring-in and the trash hands. The first hand can make three high straights while the second hand can make only one. As far as the main question goes, the ultra-premium hands should be things like: - AAKKx/AAQQx/AAJJx types ds to both aces, and preferably with the other card being very nearby. You can throw the standard 9-out flush draws and 8-out straight draws out the window. Omaha hi/lo starting hands. Which Cards to Discard:. If limpers must act before of you, you can raise to approximately 4-6 the amount of the big blind. Omaha Hi-Lo Poker Starting Hands. 5 babies is ideal. The high hand in Omaha/8 is the identical to a winning hand in Omaha high. Each player is dealt 4 starting cards, making it easier to make (and chase) more draws. Remember, only hands with an 8 or less will count as a low hand, so here are some of the best starting hands you can have in this game variation: Ace-Ace-2-3, suited or double-suited; Ace-Ace-2-4, suited or double-suited; Ace-Ace-2-5 double-suited; Ace-Ace-3-4 double-suited; Highest Ranking Omaha Hi-Lo. 2. Board 3h 6c 5d Jh Td. A-3-5 is also a good starting hand. It gives you a strong pair of aces for the high hand and the potential for a low hand with the A-2 combination. In Omaha Hi-Lo, the best hand (the Hi) takes half the pot, and the worst hand (the Lo) takes half the pot (assuming that there is a qualifying lo). To make your decision easier, the following list represents the best starting hands in Limit Seven-Card Stud poker: 1. It doesn’t matter if you have the best possible starting hand, the odds of winning the pot without improving is very low. It features five consecutive cards, all of the same suit, in order of value. However, in Omaha hi-lo, one must first count the highest card in your low hand. In Omaha you have the same draws but, because each player gets 4 cards to choose from, the number of flushes and straights runs rampant. In the Postion – Situation: drop down box, select your position on the table along with the action that occurred prior to your turn. Texas Hold'em! If Hold'em is the carefree, brash youth of poker, Omaha Hi-Lo is its crazy aunt or uncle. The junk aces: Examples include A-A-6-6; A-A-7-7 and A-A-m-m. The best possible Omaha hi lo starting hand is AA23 especially if you have suited cards. Omaha Hi-Lo (also known as Omaha 8 or Better) is a community card poker game similar to Texas Hold’em, where each player is dealt four cards and must make his best hand using exactly two of them, plus exactly three of the five community cards. The best Omaha hands rarely have a chance at taking the Draw hand so a high Omaha starting hand is typically just a one-way hand. The best possible low hand on Omaha Hi/Lo (and Stud Hi/Lo) is 5-4-3-2-A, which is often known as the wheel (or bicycle). The 3rd Part. The dealer deals three cards face-up in the center of the table. Firstly notice that the hand has exactly 2 cards of each suit. The best possible low hand on Omaha Hi/Lo (and Stud Hi/Lo) is 5-4-3-2-A, which is often known as the wheel (or bicycle). Texas Holdem: Starting Poker Hands. Until you get experienced, fold hands that aren’t connected. i. 11% - that a player’s starting hand will have two pairs or three of a kind, respectively. While two-pair or three-of-a-kind might be considered very strong hands in Hold’em, in Omaha they can be extremely weak and tend to get newer players into a lot of trouble. Therefore, the best starting hand is A, A, 2,. At adda52. This hand is very strong as it puts a player in contention for both the high hand and low hand. You are looking for hands that can easily make the absolute nuts, therefore the more co-ordinated your hand is pre-flop, the more potential. The high hand winner is the player with the highest value winning hand – the same as in. suits: having 3 suits (especially Ax of a suit) connectedness: cards that are in order (ex. Starting Hands – Some of the hands that are decent starting hands in Omaha-hi are actually. Omaha, with its 4 hole cards instead of just the 2 with Hold’em, already is an action packed game, with many more people seeing the flop and beyond, but when you add. Get your chance to win, twice, by learning the Omaha Hi-Lo rules to the game in 8 easy-to-follow steps. Here, we will dive into the Omaha poker hand rankings for my favorite version of the game, Omaha high/low. The small blind is equal to half the lower stake. The highest/worst possible qualifying low hand is 87654 -- or 87,654. Keep in mind the following basic rules:. All of these hands will rarely win, especially when unsuited. Omaha is about drawing hands with strong pairs. For example, if two players go to showdown and one shows a flush and the other shows a 7. A-2-3-6 or A-2-4-6 also have great potential, as they can make a wheel and a six high straight. Three cards to the wheel, plus a pair of aces to boot. But in Omaha it’s still the percentage chances of winning, especially in Hi-Lo, that is founded in the starting hand. These hands have the very best chance of scooping both sides of the pot. A-A-x-x While the chart above gives you a general outline of the. A-2-3-x 4. Omaha Hi Odds Calculator. In this variant of the game, the pot is equally split between the best “high” and the best “low” hands. The best starting hands in PLO aren’t the same as the best-starting hands of PLO Hi-Lo. However, this does not preclude dominating situations from occurring. In Omaha Poker there are 16,432 combinations of starting hands and in Omaha 5 Card, there are 134,459 combinations of starting hands!Hands like As-Ac-Ks-Kc are powerhouse hands in Omaha Hi. 32o. A-2-3 suited is the absolute best starting hand. Instead, it is rounded of to the lower dollar, so the small blind would. Starting with (A-A) A and on down. In Omaha Hi-lo, a player is dealt with four hole cards has to form the best five card hand using two hole cards and three community cards. Worst Starting Hands in Omaha Hi-Lo. 8. Thread starter ketz; Start date Apr 6, 2007; Post reply K. Omaha Hi-Lo Starting Hands. The best possible starting hand in Omaha Hi/Lo contains a pair of Aces, just like Hold’em or Omaha; it also contains a Deuce and a Three, and those two cards are suited to each Ace, giving. In Omaha Hi, a hand like 8-9-Q-J double-suited is a great. This is also used in Omaha Hi-Lo. Also known as 7 Card Stud Hi/Lo and Stud 8, Stud Eight or Better is essentially a mix of Stud and Razz. Works with Limit, NL/PL Omaha Hi and Omaha Hi/Lo games, ring/cash games and tournaments. Big O. You will not become rich playing hands that can win either high or low. We can play this holding from any. Here are some basic numbers for some of the various scenarios in Omaha Hi-Lo, starting with the probability for each type of hand. Combo Hands. Each pot will be split evenly between two winners. Starting hands in Omaha are where your chances of winning is based. This poker calculator will give you the odds of a win, loss, and tie for each player in Omaha or Omaha Hi/Lo 8 or better. The goal of Omaha Hi/Lo is to make two hands- one the highest 5 card combination and another lowest 5 card combination. Best Starting Hand in Hi-Lo Explained. – Oliver Goldsmith. This is because there is a high chance of winning both, high and low hands with these cards. In Omaha Hi/Lo, players will want to keep in mind that they will want to try to ‘scoop’ the pot, so their starting hands must reflect this. This also brings into relief the ongoing dangers of starting off betting a pot with a hand holding A 2 and two middling cards. It is always important to have a strong starting hand in which a play can ‘scoop’ the pot.