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Scooping the Pot
Scooping the pot is the term used when a player playing a hi-lo variant wins both the high hand and the low hand so winning the entire pot. In hi-lo games, a pot can either be chopped (split) meaning that both players split the pot, or a player can scoop the pot. Scooping the pot does not count if no player qualifies for either the high or low hand - a player must win both.
I have read a number of interesting articles on the difference in value in scooping the pot, other than the obvious. The obvious is that you win the entire pot and not half however there is more to consider when you take a closer look.
Let's look at an example. You are in a 2$ - $4 ring game of Omaha hi-lo and the blinds have posted so there is $6 in the pot. A player in early calls and there is one other caller and you with a pot value of $18 (assume no rake for this example). The flop comes and doesn't help anyone. Early position bets the minimum and everyone else calls - there is now $30 in the pot. The turn comes and again early position bets $4 with everyone else calling. The pot is now $42. The river card comes and everyone checks down.
Now you have committed $12 to the pot. Now if you chop the pot, you would get $21 giving you a profit of $9. Should you scoop the pot you would get $42 giving you a $33 profit. So where am i going? Well scooping the pot is worth twice the value than halving the pot (obviously) however the profit is way more than double, in fact nearly four times better.
The point i am making is that when you are chasing down cards, some outs are more valuable than others. For instance chasing outs that will give you a split or possible split are worth a lot less than chasing outs that will give you the scoop. Analyzing your outs like this can really make the difference when working out whether to stay in the hand. Of course you need to take into account that the smaller the pot, the smaller the difference between the scoop and the chop (and so the less of a difference between outs).
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