In the so-called Hi/Lo games (or Eight-or-better, Split games), half of the pot is being won by the strongest Hi-hand and the other half - by the so-called Lo-hand. If there isn't a player with lo-hand then the whole pot is being won by the Hi-hand like in Texas Hold'em or Omaha Hi.

What hands are valid for the Lo-pot:

In order for you to have a valid Lo-hand you need to make a combination of 5 cards and each of them should be lower than 9. There are a few main things you have to know:

• The ace is the strongest card but in the same time - it can be the lowest one equal to 1.
• All 5 cards need to be from different strength. For example 2♦ 4♥ 4♣ 5♥ 7♠ is not a valid hand!
• The sequence of the cards (straights) and their suits (flushes) doesn't matter for the Lo-hand at all!

Lo-Hands' strength and lo-hands comparison

As lower the highest card from a lo-hand is so stronger the hand itself is. If the highest cards from 2 lo-hands are equal then the second strongest cards are being compared. If the second ones are equal then the third ones are being compared and so on. The strongest Lo-hand in Omaha Hi Lo is the so called "wheel" hand which is: A2345 no matter what the suits of the cards are.

Example1:

Which one from the following hands is stronger: A♠ 2♣ 3♠ 6 ♣8♥ or 2♣ 3♣ 5♣ 6♠ 7♥
Answer: The winning hand is the second one as it is 7-lo. The first hand is 8-lo. As mentioned above the hand with the lower strongest card is stronger.

Example1:

Which one from the following hands is stronger: A♠ 2♠ 5♠ 7♠ 8♥ or 2♥ 3♥ 5♠ 7♣8♠
Answer: The stronger hand is the first one as it has the lower highest card. So we start from back to front - both hands have eights as strongest cards. As they are equal we compare the second strongest ones which in this case are 7. The third strongest cards are also equal and they are equal to 5. The fourth strongest card in hand 1 is 2 but in hand 2 it is 3 which means that hand 1 has the lower strongest hand and it is the winner.