Embarassing question - which hand is lower?

[nolanfan34]

Here's a hand that came up in a home game this past Saturday. O/8 was a new game to most of the people there, and although I've played it online a little, I don't really know what the hell I'm doing either.

So, here's the essense of what came up:

- By the river, the board read xx872

- One player had a 43, for an 87432 low.

- Another player had a A5, for an 8752A low.

An argument then ensued, about which hand was lower. The guy with the Ace thought that he had the lower hand. We tried explaining that essentially you have to start at the 8 and count down, and that the guy with the 4 had a better low, but he wasn't understanding.

My question is, does anyone have a good analogy or way to explain this to a new player? I want to encourage this game in our home games, but I had a hard time getting this guy to understand how the low works.

[DMBFan23]

ask him who would win in a showdown if the game were for high and aces were low.

[nolanfan34]

[ QUOTE ]
ask him who would win in a showdown if the game were for high and aces were low.

[/ QUOTE ]

Excellent. One sentence, that's perfect. The fact that there were 5 people trying to explain it at the same time, combined with the fact that some of us MAY have been drinking just a little bit made the whole thing more complicated than it should be.

[Klak]

most people can understand this way:

just imagine the hands are numbers with ace counting as one.

87,432 is a lower number than 87,521.

[nolanfan34]

[ QUOTE ]
most people can understand this way:

just imagine the hands are numbers with ace counting as one.

87,432 is a lower number than 87,521.

[/ QUOTE ]

That's even better, thanks.

[FeliciaLee]

That's the best way to do it, Nolan. I saw it posted on RGP a few years ago, and have adopted it to explain to newbies ever since. Whole numbers work every times, in Razz, A-5, TDL, O8, Stud 8, etc. The only time more explanation is necessary is if one is playing 2-7.

Felicia /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[Tevyee]

Counting is the best method. Here's a good link that gives a good overview of Omaha/8:
http://www.playwinningpoker.com/omaha (http://www.playwinningpoker.com/omaha/)