Poker Strategy - Quartered In Omaha Hi Lo

Omaha Poker Strategy Articles

The Risk of Being Quartered in Omaha Hi-lo Poker

Being quartered, historically, was punishment for treason. The English would chop off your head, cut your body into four quarters and publicly display the remains all over the city. Ouch! Being quartered in Omaha hi-lo is another story.

What Does It Mean?
In Texas Holdem, when you win a pot, you usually win a whole pot. That’s not the case in high-low poker games.

Being quartered in Omaha hi-lo poker happens when you tie with another player for half of the pot, and the other player wins the other half of the pot. In other words, you win 25 percent of the pot (quartered) and your opponent wins 75 percent.

Two possible scenarios could create this occurrence. If two players tie for the high side of a pot and only one player qualifies for the low hand. This would give one player 50 percent of the pot, and two others 25 percent, or a quarter each. The same situation unfolds when two players have the same low hand, and one of those two has a higher hand. One player would receive 75 percent of the pot, while the other would receive 25 percent, or a quarter.

What's the Risk?
Winning 25 percent of an Omaha hi-lo pot could result in a loss, but not always. In loose games with many players where the pot is big, don't

worry about being quartered. It's rarely costly in limit games. Besides, instead of worrying about the risk of being quartered, you should be concentrating on how to win 75 percent of the pot. If you are preoccupied about getting quartered, do the math to compute how much of a loss you're facing if the incident occurs, then continue in the face of risk knowing if it is worth it. If the risk of being quartered is too high, then you should fold. Admittedly, this might be a bit awkward when playing the fast paced games of online poker but at least give it a try.

Relax and Think of the Long Run
In general, being quartered in Omaha is not that much of a loss, especially if there are many players in the game. To win 25 percent of a big pot with good pot odds is better then winning nothing. In addition, the more situations where you have a chance of winning 75 percent of the pot, the better for your bank roll.

In other words, if you factor in the money you will win when you are not quartered and win 75 percent of the pot, you will see in the long run that the risk is worth it.

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