Poker Lesson 38: Scooping in Omaha Hi/Lo

Scooping is, quite simply, the act of winning both the Hi and Lo halves of a Hi/Lo pot. In short, having it all. This is actually the prefered scenario for Omaha players. It is not a matter of visceral greed, but actually a point of survival. Winning the half the pot is not going to make the player any real money. For that reason, you need to play hands that not only have very strong Lo potential but that also have good chance of winning the Hi side of things.

Hands that contain pairs, straight wraps and suited aces are excellent scooping hands. High hands are also excellent scooping hands. Many people will avoid playing high-only hands in Omaha 8 but this is a big mistake. Obviously the flop will frequently come down low and you will have to fold these hands. There will be those times, though, when the final board consists of three or more high cards, and then there is no low possible. It is in this situation that your cards have excellent chances of scooping the pot with a strong high hand.

On the surface, scooping seems to be twice as good as splitting the pot. In reality, it is actually a good bit better. This is because of the ratio of your bets to the final size of your portion of the total pot. For example, if the final pot is $200 and you have contributed $50 of that money to the pot, then if you get half the pot ($100), your winnings are $50, but if you scoop the whole pot ($200), your winnings are $150. In the first case you are getting even money on your bet for a split pot and for a scoop you are getting 3:1 odds on your bet, a massive improvement.