Pot Odds in Omaha Hi/Lo

Falstaff at PokerStage writes:

So in essence what I’ve saying is this – when you have a hand that is only going for half the pot on your best day, you need double the pot odds to make a call in O8 that you need in Hold ‘Em, since you’re only going to get half the money. So if you are like me, drunk and stupid and calling off on a flush draw thinking 4-1 is good odds, you actually need 8-1, because the low cuts the pot in half. Just something to think about in a rare and exceedingly elementary strategy post from the Falstaff homegame.

While the notion that you need better odds to call when you might win half the pot is correct, requiring double the pots odds is incorrect. Part of that is because, if you are facing possible low draws, you might make your hand with a card that doesn’t make a low possible. For example, if you have AJT9 on a KQ83 rainbow board, you might split the pot with a low if you make the nut straight with an ace on the river, but any jack, ten, or nine giving you the nuts means that no low is possible. So, you have to discount your odds, but not really that much, especially since an ace might counterfeit an opponent going low with no back-up (and possibly giving that opponent aces up, which some omaha/8 players have a hard time folding).