Flush royal is often regarded as the strongest conceivable combination of cards, and justifiably so. However, this only applies to traditional poker varieties in which the best hand wins.

The phrase “high” refers to the most powerful hand conceivable. This hand is known as a flush royal in versions including as Texas Holdem and Omaha. On the contrary, “low” is the weakest possible hand, and there are specific rules on how a player should collect it:

A low cannot include cards worth more than 8; the ace is regarded the lowest card in this scenario; straights and flushes cannot create a low.

When a single hand is both high and low, the player holding that hand wins both half of the pot.

High-Low Omaha is the most common poker variant in which high-low is incorporated. The major attraction of high-low games is how the pot is divided among the players. The pot is split between the person who has the best conventional high hand and the one who has the lowest hand. If no player collects the low hand, the pot is won by the player with the highest hand, exactly as in traditional poker versions.

The draw and betting function similarly to conventional versions, however the way the pot is split significantly changes the strategy. For example, collecting the “wheel hand” (A-2-3-4-5, also known as ace-to-five low) may let you to win both half of the pot.

In high-low split games with more than five cards, each player selects five of his cards to play as his hand.