Best Omaha Starting Hands

• Omaha starting hands are ranked in order of strength with AAKK double-suited being considered the best in Pot Limit Omaha (PLO) games. Determining the strength of starting hands in Omaha will help you make better decisions when selecting which ones to play.
• Working out your pre-flop hand selection strategy in PLO can be daunting, but there are still a number of factors you can consider in order choose starting hands that will win. In this article, I’ll break down 3 of them. But first, it’s important to understand why starting hand selection is especially important in Omaha. Hand Selection in PLO.

1. Omaha Poker Best Starting Hands
2. The Best Omaha Starting Hands

Premium Hands The very best PLO8 and O8 starting hands are known as ‘suited babies’, that is to say small suited cards with an ace suited with at least one other card. These hands have the very best chance of scooping both sides of the pot. Poker Starting Hands - Comprehensive guide to which poker hands you should play, including a 2021 Texas Hold'em poker starting hands chart.

A hand like 87s underperforms against top 10% hands (or whatever) in Holdem, while in Big O an analogous hand significantly overperforms. Without putting in exact hands where cards are nullified, can you input top 10% of Omaha for player X and player Y, then player Z choose your T987 hand and see what your equity is?

When playing Omaha High-Low, the most crucial decisions must be made before the flop. In order to make the correct decision, you must know which hands to play and which to not play.

Keep in mind, however, that hands vary according to the facts you have at the time of making any decision.

In general, in Omaha High-Low, the best hand takes the pot, so bluffing is not often helpful since the game is primarily driven by hand strength. Starting hands that are best may win both the high and low portions of the pot.

Premium Starting Hands

The very best starting hands are:

1. A-A-2-x
2. A-A-3-x
3. A-2-3-x
4. A-2-4-x
5. A-2-x-x
6. A-3-4-x
7. A-A-x-x

It is crucial to consider how these hands vary in strength, based on the value of the cards denoted as 'x' as well as whether or not the cards are suited, double-suited or non-suited. If an A-2-K-K hand is double-suited, it is much ber than a hand of A-2-Q-8 that is not suited, yet on the chart, these hands both fall into the A-2-x-x category. And, of course, a double-suited hand of A-A-K-K is much ber than a non-suited A-A-Q-7, again falling into the same category in the chart. So, you must study the overall hand to determine the exact strength. All 'x' cards of 6 through 9 generally weaken a hand but in loose play, these combinations can be b.

The Top Ten List

These are considered the Top Ten hands in Omaha High-Low:

Omaha Poker Best Starting Hands

1. A-A-2-3 Double-suited
2. A-A-2-4 Double-suited
3. A-A-2-3 Suited
4. A-A-2-5 Double-suited
5. A-A-2-4 Suited
6. A-A-3-4 Double-suited
7. A-A-2-3 Non-suited
8. A-A-2-2 Double-suited
9. A-A-3-5 Double-suited
10. A-A-2-6 Double-suited

Playable Starting Hands

Below is a list of hands that are considered to be playable starting hands in Omaha High-Low:

The Best Omaha Starting Hands

A-A-2-x
A-A-3-x
A-A-4-5
A-2-3-x
A-2-K-K
A-2-Q-Q
A-2-J-J
A-3-4-5
A-A-x-x
A-2-K-Q
A-2-K-J
A-2-x-x (suited Ace)
A-3-K-K
A-3-4-x
2-3-4-5 (fold if there is no Ace on the flop.)
J-Q-K-A
T-J-Q-K
K-K-Q-J
Q-J-T-9
2-3-4-x (fold if there is no Ace on the flop).
Any four cards between a Ten and an Ace.

Strategy Article 1. Limit Holdem Starting Hands

Strategy Article 2. 7 Card Stud Starting Hands

Strategy Article 3. No Limit Starting Hands

Strategy Article 4. Omaha Hi Starting Hands

Unlike holdem poker in which winning combination may be formed using two, one or none of hole cards in Omaha there have to be used two hole and three community cards. On those who play Omaha after playing holdem poker these four cards play a mean trick.

On the one hand four cards in your hand in Omaha are better than two in holdem poker, because they allow you to form better starting combinations. Though you should take into consideration the fact that your opponents also have four cards! That’s why straights, flushes and fulls appear in Omaha more often, and small pairs, which in holdem will surely play, in Omaha deserve only check. And a third card in your hands to a pair, which gives to beginners an impression about the strength of their hands, is not a positive side but a negative one – because only two of them play in the game and the probability of appearing of the similar card on the board visibly lowers. Accordingly a fantastic for other games four-of-a-kind combination in hands is considered in Omaha a losing one.

The main mistake which costs beginners the biggest money in Omaha hi poker is playing each and every hand. Even in holdem poker such delusion is very often, and in Omaha where almost every four cards give hope for good combination it happens all the time.

With what starting cards should one enter the game? There is no definite answer to this question as well as of course to many other questions in poker.

There is a strategy for Omaha hi poker developed by a famous American player Edward Hutchinson that uses Monte Carlo’s mathematic modelling. But we will repeat once more that this system like any other is not completely universal. In addition it is generally used in games with a lot of players (8–11 people at a table); with fewer players one should play more aggressively.

Starting hand rank in Omaha holdem by Hutchinson system:

1. First, suited cards are estimated.

If in your hand you have two or more suited cards count your points on the basis of highest of them (if you have double-suited cards then count for both):

• if your highest card is Ace add 4 points;
• King – 3 points;
• Queen – 2.5 points;
• Jack – 2 points;
• 10 or 9 – 1.5 points;
• any other card – 1 point;
• if all your cards are suited – subtract 2 points.

2. Now let’s estimate pairs’ value:

• a pair of Aces – add 9 points;
• a pair of Kings – add 8 points;
• a pair of Queens – add 7 points;
• a pair of Jacks or 10 – add 6 points;
• a pair of 9 – add 5 points;
• any other pair – add 4 points;
• if you have three or more cards of the came kind – don’t add any points.

And at last let’s calculate the possibility of forming a straight.

If you have in your hand cards which will help you to get a straight (meaning that a “gap” between them is not more than three cards) then:

• Ace with King, Queen, Jack or 10 earn you 2 points;
• Ace with 2, 3, 4 or 5 – 1 point;
• any two cards from 2 to 6 – 2 points;
• any two cards from 6 to King – 4 points;
• any three cards from 6 and higher – 7 points;
• any four cards from 6 and higher – 12 points;
• if a gap between the cards is one or two cards – subtract 1 point;
• if a gap makes three cards – subtract 2 points.

Now let’s calculate the sum. You should come into play (of course it depends upon the street position which mustn’t be overestimated and upon the opponents’ strength) only if you have 15 points and more and raise only if you earned 20 and more.

For continuation see Part 2.