Good Starting Hands for Omaha

jh1spartanfan

jh1spartanfan

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What do you look for in a good starting hand for Omaha? I've been playing some Omaha freerolls lately and my one major problem is deciding what constitutes a good hand preflop.
 
Aleksei

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Coordination coordination coordination. You want a hand that can flop as many strong combinations as possible. The best Omaha hand is likely AAJT double-suited.
 
snklzona

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I am by far low on the list of people to ask but have been having success lately in 05 .10 PLO and the main reason (I think) is because I have changed up my starting hands from big pairs but not coordinated to big pairs only if cord. and 2 suited or hands like AK J10 two suited or something like KQ 109 two suited...has been big difference...
 
Aleksei

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I am by far low on the list of people to ask but have been having success lately in 05 .10 PLO and the main reason (I think) is because I have changed up my starting hands from big pairs but not coordinated to big pairs only if cord. and 2 suited or hands like AK J10 two suited or something like KQ 109 two suited...has been big difference...
Yeah I mean, having a big pair with no coordination is like having a Broadway rag in HE. Worse in fact since you need to improve to a set for your hand to have any value, which will happen a lot less often than improving a high hand to a pair in HE.

You really shouldn't be relying on pairs at all in fact; everyone's drawing to something so you need to be drawing to the nuts. AQ59ds is infinitely better than AAKKs or r.
 
micromachine

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I thought AAKKds was the best omaha starting hand? Surely better than AQ59ds??
 
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AQ59ds is infinitely better than AAKKs or r.

Dude if your going to say this, I recommend never commenting on PLO again, its just so fundamentally wrong. Big pairs in PLO are fine. Just absolutely fine. And since OP is playing tournaments its fine for him to be jamming stuff like KKxx when he only has 10bb.


AAKK no suit v AQ59ds is 64% to 36%.
 
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Aleksei

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I thought AAKKds was the best omaha starting hand? Surely better than AQ59ds??
I said AAKK rainbow, HUGE difference. AAKKds is super premium because it flops to the nuts every time.

@marginal AAKK rainbow is fine in shortstack situations, but it's terrible in deepstack situations because it runs into absolutely craptastic RIOs vs every drawing hand out there (which is... every non-retarded hand out there). It will only draw to the nut straight 3% of the time, plus top set 15% of the time, vs every other hand that will flop well 1 out of 4 times and better.

The best starting hand in Omaha is, as I said, AAJTds. AAKKds is the second, but AAKK rainbow is almost worthless barring super shallow stacks. My personal favorite is AAT5ds though.

Basically, it's like AA/KK in HE. Their equity is super huge preflop because the odds of no one flopping anything better than one pair are so good, but they have virtually no redraws so the further you progress down the hand the more you allow people to catch up, and the more likely you are to get coolered.

Ergo, yes, your pot odds are great with AAKK vs any other hand, but how often will you actually get a big pot in with good odds with them? Your equity is about 80% vs virtually any hand with AA, but how many times have you GII with Aces on the turn to find yourself staring down a set? Same shit really.
 
JohnBoyWWFC

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Aleksei is right, in deep poker co-ordinated hands are better, just like in deep stack hold'em 67s is infinitely better than AA.
 
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Marginal

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AAKKr has at worst 55% against the most premium rundown and if villain has an Ain his hand even if he is double suited we have over 63% equity. Its far from worthless. Im not saying you stack it post flop and go apeshit with it but its got a ton of equity and even more so in 3 or 4 bet pots. So again, seriously, stop.
 
dj11

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Easier to do in the micro's, limp in when you can, especially in LP. Learn to like getting the cheap peek, but learn to like even more that if it don't fit, git. That said, Omaha has such a huge portion of chase in it, that post flop evaluation is more important than in HE.

I prefer O8, which allows me to peek even more, and in those sessions where I have no problems gitting out of a hand, I do pretty well.

Remember, especially if you are a holdem player, that each Omaha hand is roughly the equivalent to 6 holdem hands. For yourself that makes things that much more complicated, but don't forget that at a 6 max table, 5 other players have 6 hands each, so you are up against 30 hands!

If the flop hits you hard, don't hesitate, bet it hard. Never slow play in Omaha. Preflop I would suggest Potting AAxx from any position , but pay attention to a flop that doesn't fit with your hand and drop fast to any resistance. You will run into a lot of players who know that their flop of 2P has your AA beat...

Other than that, I'll go with coordinated hands as the basic guiding rule. Count how many of your 6 preflop combo's can develop into a winning hand. 34 suited could of course turn into a St8F, but it is so unlikely as to not really be counted on (unless you play PLO8). T9xx s on the other hand has a lot of play. If you can only count 2 potential winning combo's you probably should not be playing that hand. I think I prefer JT98 ds over AAxx. Even with a gap like QJ98ds I would see a flop against a known AAxx happily, and at almost any price.

Be wary of connected rainbows. Seldom if ever play a XXXY hand, where you start with 3 of a kind in the hole. Chance of improving is miniscule.

For even more insanity, a local casino runs a 5 hole cards PLO8 game on Saturday mornings. Each hand = 10 Holdem hands.....The nuts are almost guaranteed to occur. But the cheap peek becomes more important.
 
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Dont open limp. If its worth coming into the pot, just like holdem, you should be raising. Open Limping is a really bad habit
 
dj11

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Dont open limp. If its worth coming into the pot, just like holdem, you should be raising. Open Limping is a really bad habit

I did qualify my suggestion with it being micro stakes. At higher stakes, yeah, open limping don't work so goot! But even then, I will always love to get a cheap peek if I can count 4 possibles in my 6 combo's.
 
RichL

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(I'm new to Omaha too but it's a great game). Aleksei (or anyone else) why is AAJTds better than AAKQds ?
 
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(I'm new to Omaha too but it's a great game). Aleksei (or anyone else) why is AAJTds better than AAKQds ?

You have a lot more combos of possible straights with JT than you do with KQ
 
Aleksei

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You have a lot more combos of possible straights with JT than you do with KQ
Exactly. JT has the best odds of drawing a straight of all connected hands, plus Aces have better straight drawing odds with wider gaps. A5 and AT have the best straight odds of all Aces.
 
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How about Omaha 8? AA23 double suited?
 
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So the better str8 draws outweigh the nut low odds? Is it because the low is so often split? I usually only play plo not 8 so I decided to try and improve my 8 play. Thanks.
 
Blobweird123

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AA23ds is nuts in 08
 
hobonc

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I see nobody mentioned ds wraps. 9 10 J Qds is a great hand. So are lower ones to a lessor extent. Just rember that most likely you'll be playing against the nuts, especially in multi-player hands.
 
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http://www.pokerlistings.com/strategy/potlimit-omaha-starting-hands
The top 30 Omaha starting hands are as follows:
1. A-A-K-K11. K-Q-J-T21. Q-Q-A-K2. A-A-J-T12. K-K-T-T22. Q-Q-A-J3. A-A-Q-Q13. K-K-A-Q23. Q-Q-A-T4. A-A-J-J14. K-K-A-J24. Q-Q-K-J5. A-A-T-T15. K-K-A-T25. Q-Q-K-T6. A-A-9-916. K-K-Q-J26. Q-Q-J-T7. A-A-x-x17. K-K-Q-T27. Q-Q-J-98. J-T-9-818. K-K-J-T28. Q-Q-9-99. K-K-Q-Q19. Q-Q-J-J29. J-J-T-T10. K-K-J-J20. Q-Q-T-T30. J-J-T-9*All hands in the top 30 list must be double-suited.

Profitable 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-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.
 
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