Omaha High-Low Practice Poker Hands

Work through the following three practice hands to form the highest and (if possible) lowest five-card Omaha hand from the board and the assigned hole cards. Once you’ve determined the best hands you can create using your hole cards, try to figure out the best possible poker hands you could create using any set of hole cards.

The first hand appears in Figure 1.

The best possible poker hand you can create using exactly two your hole cards and three board cards is an Ace-high flush, A♠2♠4♠6♠T♠. It’s not the nuts, though, because the pair of Tens on the board makes full houses possible (quad Tens is not possible because you have one in your hand).

With regard to possible low hands, there are three cards ranked Eight or below on the board, and you have two hole cards (the A♠2♠) you can use to create a five card poker hand where every card is unpaired and ranked Eight or below. That hand, 8♣6♠4♠2♠A♠, is the lowest possible hand given the three board cards, so you have the nuts on the low side.

The second practice hand appears in Figure 2.

Figure 2 What are the best high and (if possible) low hands
you can create with your hole cards? With any set of hole cards?

The best possible poker hand you can create using exactly two of your hole cards and three board cards is a full house, Q♣Q♦Q♠3♠7♣. There is no possible straight flush on board. Your full house has the highest possible trips, but you can lose to a player who has the Q♥ and the 7♦, the7♠, or the Queen and another Five.

Unfortunately, you can’t make a low hand using two of your hole cards and three board cards. Your 3♣ pairs the 3♠, and the 9♠ isn’t an Eight or lower, so you can’t make a five-card hand where every card is unpaired and ranked Eight or below.

The third practice hand appears in Figure 3.

Figure 3 What are the best high and (if possible) low hands
you can create with your hole cards? With any set of hole cards?

You’ve got the absolute nuts on the high side of this hand: a Five-high straight flush in spades (A♠2♠3♠4♠5♠). No one can touch you on the low side, either, though that fact may not be obvious at first. Your A♣, 3♥, and 5♠ all pair cards on the board, but remember that the object is to make the best five-card hand using two of your hole cards and three of the board cards. Your Five-high straight flush is also the best possible low hand. Figure 4 shows a similar situation, where all of your hole cards pair board cards, but you can still create the nut low hand.

Figure 4 Yes, you can create a low hand even though
each of your hole cards pairs a board card.

To create the nut low hand, take the A♣2♠ from your hole cards and combine them with the 3♠4♠5♣, or take your A♣3♥ and combine them with the 2♦4♠5♣, and so on. Of course, anyone with two unpaired hole cards ranked Five or below will also have the nut low hand, but beginning players may think that their paired cards can’t be used to make a low and throw away their hands on the turn. How do we know beginners can make that mistake? Because Ronald made that mistake when he started playing Omaha high-low.