3-2-1

It’s like Omaha Hi-Lo, except the board comes in three flops, two turns and one river

You know Omaha Hi-Lo: four hole cards, exactly two from your hand and exactly three from the board, half the pot to the best high, half to an 8-or-better low. 3-2-1 deals a lot more board: three separate flops, then two turn cards, then one river card. That’s 12 board cards. You still build a normal five-card Omaha hand, but you get to pick which flop and which turn go into it. The river is shared.

The name is the board: 3 flops, 2 turns, 1 river.

30-second cheat sheet

• Four hole cards, blinds, preflop betting.
• Flop: three separate flops (nine cards, three rows of three). Betting.
• Turn: two turn cards. Betting.
• River: one river card. Betting. Showdown.
• Your hand uses exactly two hole cards and exactly three board cards, taken as one flop + one turn + the river. Together that’s a normal five-card board, and there are 3 × 2 = 6 of them to choose from.
• High and low can come from different flops, different turns, and different hole pairs.
• Low: five different ranks, all 8 or lower, aces low. No qualifying low means the high takes the whole pot.
• Some tables add the touching rule, which limits which flops and turns you can combine. Ask before you play.

Full rules

The deal

Blinds, four hole cards each, and a round of betting. The Card Player Lifestyle (CPL) version is limit Omaha Hi-Lo with up to eight players (their example is $4/$8 with $2/$4 blinds).

The flop, turn and river

• Flop: the dealer burns a card, then deals three flops: three rows of three cards, nine cards in all. A betting round follows. In limit, this uses the small bet.
• Turn: the dealer burns a card, then deals two turn cards, each in its own spot beside the flops. Betting round, with the big bet in limit.
• River: one river card, then a final betting round, also with the big bet in limit. CPL doesn’t say explicitly that there’s a burn before the river. We’d expect one, as in normal Omaha, but that’s our inference.

Building your hands

CPL’s rules say players “must utilize any flop + turn + river combo of three cards along with two of their hole cards.” We read that as: pick one of the three flops and one of the two turns, add the single river, and you have a normal five-card Omaha board. Then your hand is exactly two hole cards plus exactly three cards from that board. PokerNews, describing the PokerStars version, says the same thing. Players choose which flop to use, choose one of the two turns, and share the river.

Because the choice is free, your high hand and your low hand can use different flops, different turns and different hole-card pairs.

• High: the best five-card poker hand.
• Low: five different ranks, none above 8, aces low, straights and flushes ignored. The wheel is the nuts.
• No qualifying low means the high wins the whole pot. One player can scoop both halves.
• Tied hands split their half, so you can be quartered. The odd chip goes to the high hand in a hi/lo split under the WSOP’s general rule. The WSOP’s rule sheet doesn’t list 3-2-1, so that’s the standard convention and not a 3-2-1 rule.

The touching rule

CPL describes an optional house rule it calls an “added challenge”: you may only combine boards that touch. The middle flop can pair with either turn, but the top flop can’t use the bottom turn and vice versa. That leaves four playable boards instead of six.

Rooms disagree

• Hi-lo or high only. The PokerStars version at EPT Prague 2016 was PLO 3-2-1, high only, pot-limit, per PokerNews. CPL’s Mixed Game Festival version is Omaha Hi-Lo, limit. This page follows CPL’s hi-lo version, as the other pages in this family are split games.
• Touching rule: optional or standard? CPL’s festival rule list gives the free version (any flop, any turn) and says the touching rule is optional. The BARGE Rulebook calls this exact game by its original name, Four Card Chowaha (created by Mike Chow, name dating to the 1990s, “also called 3-2-1 Omaha”), and makes the contiguous rule standard. Bill Rini’s 2005 write-up agrees that you can play four different boards. This page uses the free version, so confirm which rule is in force.
• Two-card Chowaha. BARGE also has a plain “Chowaha” with two Hold’em-style hole cards on the same 3-flop, 2-turn, 1-river board, with the same contiguity rule and exactly two hole cards plus three board cards. BARGE says it “became two-card when played at BARGE” to deal fewer cards. “Casino Chowaha” is the high-only version, per Bill Rini. That’s a separate game from this one.

How you’ll embarrass yourself

• Treating the nine flop cards as one big board. You pick one flop, one turn, and the lone river for any given hand.
• Never folding the flop because there are “nine cards.” CPL jokes about this, and warns that you’ll often be playing for half a pot at best.
• Forgetting that a low still needs five distinct cards 8 or lower from the board you chose plus two hole cards.
• Playing the touching rule when the table doesn’t, or not playing it when the table does.
• Assuming “3-2-1” means the same thing everywhere. At PokerStars it was high-only pot-limit.

Lore and reputation

CPL author Alec Rome calls 3-2-1 a Mixed Game Festival staple, and a CPL tweet from 5 October 2021 asks “Where else can you play 3-2-1?” CPL’s rule list puts it among the Mixed Game Festival flop games. The festival has run at Resorts World, Bellagio and Westgate.

PokerNews reported on 6 January 2017 that PokerStars introduced PLO 3-2-1 at the final EPT Prague stop of 2016. Matias Knaapinen won and Benny Glaser finished third.

On the older history, the BARGE Rulebook claims the game started as Chowaha, created by Mike Chow, and that the name dates to the 1990s. That’s BARGE’s account, and we haven’t cross-checked it. Bill Rini wrote in 2005 that Chowaha was a BARGE and RGP favorite but that “you likely won’t find Chowaha spread at any casino.”

We found no evidence of 3-2-1 in the WSOP live-action rules, or in Bellagio’s or Commerce’s Dealer’s Choice lists. Evidence of play is festivals and the PokerStars event.