Big Easy

It’s like Big O, except the dealer decides how many cards you get

Big O is Omaha Hi-Lo with five hole cards. Big Easy is Big O where five is only the minimum. According to the WSOP rules, every player gets at least five, and the dealer can hand out more depending on how many people are dealt in, as long as everyone gets the same number. Everything else is Omaha Hi-Lo: exactly two from your hand, exactly three from the board, half the pot to high, half to an 8-or-better low.

30-second cheat sheet

• Same rules as Omaha Hi-Lo and Big O, with five or more hole cards, same number for every player.
• Exactly two hole cards and exactly three board cards, no matter how many you’re holding.
• Low: five different ranks, all 8 or lower, aces low, no penalty for straights or flushes. No qualifying low means high takes the whole pot.
• Five cards give you 10 two-card combos, six give 15, seven give 21, eight give 28. At that point, nearly everyone has a draw to something.
• Eight players maximum (WSOP). The WSOP doesn’t specify a betting structure; pot-limit is how the Big O family is normally played.
• This is a rare game. You’ll mostly see it as a Dealer’s Choice option.

Full rules

The deal

Dealer button, blinds or antes as in any Omaha game. The dealer deals every player the same number of hole cards, at least five. The WSOP text says more is allowed “based on the number of participants dealt into the hand,” but doesn’t say who chooses the number.

Here’s the deck math, which is ours and not the WSOP’s: with three burns and five board cards, 8 non-hole cards come out of the deck. That leaves room for five cards up to 8 players, six cards up to 7 players, seven cards up to 6 players, and eight cards up to 5 players. That fits the idea that the card count goes up as the table shrinks.

After the deal there’s a betting round, then burn and flop, betting, burn and turn, betting, burn and river, betting. Four rounds total.

Building your hands

Exactly like Big O: two cards from your hand plus three from the board, one set for high and one for low. They can use different pairs from your hand. The extra cards don’t loosen the two-and-three rule. They just give you more pairs to choose from.

• High: best five-card poker hand. A flush needs three suited board cards plus two suited hole cards.
• Low: five different ranks, none above 8, aces low. The wheel is the nuts.
• No qualifying low means the best high takes the whole pot.
• Ties split that half; the odd chip usually goes to the high half.

Rooms disagree

• How many cards. The WSOP says at least five, same for everyone. A 2012 Two Plus Two thread, which we could only see in a search snippet, says Big Easy at the Rio that summer was PLO8 where the button picked 4, 5 or 6 cards. That contradicts the WSOP’s “at least five.” This page follows the WSOP. Neither source says how the count gets chosen, so ask the dealer.
• Is it a real game? Big Easy appears in the WSOP’s live-action rule sheet and that 2012 thread, and we found it nowhere else, including the WSOP’s tournament rules. Treat it as a curiosity that shows up in Dealer’s Choice.

Worked examples

Six low cards, no low

Six low cards in hand, but the board has only two

Board

Alice

• High:Ace high
• Low (8-or-better):No qualifying low (8-or-better)

Bob

• High:King-high straight✓ wins
• Low (8-or-better):No qualifying low (8-or-better)

Bob scoops the whole pot.

Alice holds A-3-4-6-7, which is a bounty of low cards, but the board has only two cards 8 or lower (the 5 and the 2). A low needs three from the board, so nobody can make one. Bob takes the whole pot with a king-high straight: his J-T plus the K-Q-9 on board.

Different pairs for different halves

Six cards means fifteen combos, and Alice needs two of them

Board

Alice

• High:Three Queens✓ wins
• Low (8-or-better):7-4-3-2-A low✓ wins

Bob

• High:Two pair, Kings and Queens
• Low (8-or-better):7-6-4-2-A low

Alice scoops the whole pot.

With six cards, Alice picks the best two for each job. Her Q-9 plus the two queens on board make three queens for high. Her A-3 plus the 2-4-7 make 7-4-3-2-A for low. Bob has a decent low himself, a 7-6-4-2-A, but it’s second best. He also has three diamonds in his hand and two on the board, which is five diamonds and no flush: a flush needs three from the board.

Counterfeited

A-2 in a six-card hand, counterfeited by the board

Board

Alice

• High:Two pair, Aces and Deuces✓ wins
• Low (8-or-better):7-6-3-2-A low

Bob

• High:Pair of Eights
• Low (8-or-better):6-4-3-2-A low✓ wins

Alice takes half · Bob takes half

Alice holds A-2 in her hand, but the board already has an ace and a deuce. For low, her A-2 gets counterfeited, so her best low is 7-6-3-2-A (her 3-7 plus the board’s A-2-6). Bob’s 3-4 gives him 6-4-3-2-A, which is lower, so Bob takes the low half. Alice’s A-2 isn’t useless, though: with the board’s ace and deuce it makes two pair, aces and deuces, which is the best high.

How you’ll embarrass yourself

• Using more than two hole cards. More cards in your hand does not change the rule. Exactly two.
• Mixing it up with six-card Omaha high. Big Easy is a split game.
• Starting hands by prettiness. With six or more cards everyone has a draw and nut hands are normal. Only the nuts reliably win.
• Forgetting the card count. Everyone gets the same number. If someone asks how many cards, you have to ask the dealer, because the WSOP doesn’t say who chooses.

Lore and reputation

There’s not much of it. The WSOP lists Big Easy in its live-action rules and a June 2012 Two Plus Two thread titled “Big Easy Poker” seems to place it at the Rio during that year’s WSOP, but we only saw the thread through search snippets. No source we could open explains the name.