1. Omaha Poker Best Starting Hands
2. Omaha Poker Ranking Hands
3. Omaha Poker Best Hands
4. Best Omaha Poker Starting Hands
5. Omaha Starting Hand Chart
6. Omaha Poker Hand Rankings

The player with the best five-card hand wins the pot. Remember: in Omaha, players must use two and only two of their four hole cards in combination with exactly three of the cards from the board. Learn which Omaha poker starting hands to play PLO Poker at Adda52.com. Know what are the best and worst pre flop poker hands in Pot Limit Omaha poker. In most poker games, the best hand wins. But 5 Card Omaha Hi/Lo Poker is a bit different. In this variant, the pot is split between the highest and lowest hand. It’s not quite as straightforward as that, of course. But it’s certainly an interesting style of poker. In standard Omaha poker (Omaha Hi) the pot is given to the player with the highest hand. If you are playing Omaha Hi-Lo, then the pot is split between the players with the highest and lowest poker. Omaha Poker, sometimes referred to as Omaha holdem or just Omaha is a poker game closely related to Texas Holdem. In Omaha Poker, players get four hole cards. Out of those four hole cards, the player must combine two of them with three from the flop to make the best hand.

Omaha Hi-Lo is a fascinating game packed with action! The action, at least in small-middle stakes games, is not only loose but many times also weak. By having four cards, and playing for high and low, some players frequently find a “reason” to stick with their hand. However, even if their hand has some potential, pot odds often do not justify playing it. So, many novice players play too loosely, stick with their hands when they shouldn’t, and end up making many mistakes.

Most errors originate from poor preflop hand selection. Understanding which Omaha high-low starting hands are solid and under which circumstances they are playable will significantly improve your game!

Starting hands

The best starting hands in Omaha hi-lo have both strong high and low potential. Since aces are the best cards for high and low, they are excellent starting hands! Almost all playable starting hands contain at least an ace! On the counterpart, cards between six and nine, are considered weak. So, any starting hand containing one or more of these cards usually decreases in value.

Another deal-breaker is to have trips in your starting hand! This is because you can only use two out of three, so you have an unusable card in your hands. Your chances of hitting a set also decrease. Let’s take a look at the strongest starting hands.

Top hands

The best starting hand is AA23, followed by AA24. These hands have excellent high and low potential! If one, or even better, both aces are suited, the strength of the hand increases as it also has nut flush potential.

Powerful starting hands with both high and low potential

• AA, with one or two low cards (the smaller, the better), like AA2x or AA35
• A2 or A3 with two high cards, like AKJ2 or AKQ3
• A2 or A3, with a big pair, like KK or QQ

Strong only low starting hands

• A2 or A3 with one or two more low cards (the lower, the better), like A23x
• 2345, 2346, 2356 (the flop must contain an ace, and at least another small card, or the hand may become useless)

Note that if one or no low cards come on the flop, these hands lose their value

Strong only high starting hands

• AA, with two high cards, like AAKJ
• A with three cards ten or higher, like AKJ10 or AKQJ
• Four high connected cards, like KQJ10 or QJ109
• High cards with one pair, like KKQJ, or KQQJ
• Double paired high cards, like KKQQ

Note that if three or even two low cards appear on the flop, these hands go down in value. So you should adjust your play accordingly.

Trouble starting hands to avoid

Unlike Holdem, in Omaha hi-lo, it is ok to play a little looser preflop. The idea is to try to see many flops with hands that have potential. However, you must remain selective and avoid some trouble hands, especially when playing in a full table.

Some hands may seem attractive, but will only make second or third best! Don’t play them as they have a negative expected value. For example, avoid playing A4x or A5x type of hands in a full table, as they may get you in trouble more often than not.

The same goes for the high. With everyone having four cards, it is more probable that someone will make a monster hand, so you don’t want to be drawing for second or third best! For example, if you are drawing for a queen-high flush, you will often lose to an ace or king-high flush. Even if you make a set of nines, you will often end up second best to a higher set! Let’ take a look at some other trap hands.

• 333A, AAA4 type hands have minimal high potential, and even if they make a low, it may be second-best.
• 9876, 8765, 7654 may seem keen but are really not! With these hands, it is tough to scoop the pot. If you make a nut straight, most of the time, there will be a low, and you will split the pot. If you make a straight with high cards, a better straight may beat you!
• High pairs with two one or two trash cards like KK9x or QQxx are weak hands. Do not confuse with the value of a pocket pair in Holdem. In Omaha hi-lo, with straight and flushes appearing often, a single pair is not all that great.

Omaha Poker Best Starting Hands

So, how to bet preflop?

In Omaha hi-lo, taking the lead in the hand with preflop aggression is less crucial than in Holdem. So, raise preflop mostly for value when you have powerful hands and position.

From position, when several players have limped, you can widen your range and add in see cheap flops with some speculative hands. Raise with premium hands for value. Most of the limpers will call you, and you also want to build the pot to be able to make big bets after the flop.

Out of position, limp with hands that have both high and low potential, to see a multiway flop.

Multiplayer versus heads-up preflop requirements

Some of the hands that are not good enough for a multiway pot go up in value heads-up. When playing in a multiway pot, you want your hand to have nut, or close to nut potential for the high and low. When playing heads up, you can win the low or high with medium-strength hands. For example, heads-up A4 is often good enough for the low, whereas in a multiway pot, it is a weak hand.

Also, heads-up you can win the high with a hand like two pair or a set, even when the board has some flush or straight possibilities. If the board is dry, even top pair-top kicker can win you the pot! In a multiplayer pot, when the board has flush or straight potential, you should expect that someone will have it most of the time!

In a nutshell

In Omaha hi-lo, you often see players playing too loosely. By adopting a selective starting hand strategy, you gain a significant advantage over your opponents. In multiplayer pots, play hands that have strong high and low potential, and avoid hands that can give you second or third best!

I hope you found this post helpful. If you have any questions or suggestions that you want to share, please leave a comment below.

When you're playing hole card games such as Omaha, choosing the right hands to play preflop can make a big difference -in fact, it can make all the difference.

If you play absolutely every hand, you're just going to funnel your winnings right back into the game. However, in Omaha especially, you want to play enough hands to scoop some big pots. Those of you crossing over from Texas Hold'em will find yourself playing a lot more hands. Omaha Hold'em is definitely more of an action based game than its sister game Texas Hold'em.

When a game of Omaha begins you'll be dealt 4 cards, and from those 4 cards you can come up with 6 starting hand combinations. Omaha rules require you to use exactly 2 of your hole cards and 3 of the community cards (the ones dealt face up on the felt table and shared amongst all the players).

So you get two more cards than you're used to, and so do all of the other players. In fact, there are in general a lot more cards out there to play with.

Omaha Poker Ranking Hands

That variance makes playing Omaha poker, creating winning Omaha strategies, and choosing strong Omaha starting hands a little trickier. Although you get 4 cards to choose from, keep in mind that so do all the other players at the table, so there are more cards dealt out altogether.

Suited Cards - Remember, You Only Get to Keep Two...

Finding yourself looking down at four cards of the same suit is not a good thing when you're playing Omaha. If you're holding four spades what you really have is two spades to a flush, and two of your own outs mucked.

Omaha Poker Best Hands

Pocket Pairs

Pocket pairs in Omaha are a good hand, but not nearly as valuable as in Texas Hold'em. The look on a new players face when he first sees a solid boat get beat by another boat… it's priceless. It's not uncommon to see three sets of trips at showdown, or a couple boats, a flush, and top two pair.

What I'm saying here is that with all these cards and so many more players paying for a flop, you're going to need a lot better of a hand to win a pot.

The Best Possible Starting Hand in Omaha High:

When playing straight Omaha, or Omaha High, the best hand you can hope to peel up from the table is AAKK. That's it, the very best hand preflop. Now you want these to be suited as well to give you the best odds post flop. So Something like Ah As Kh Ks would be perfect.

Now you've got two shots at flopping trips, two cracks at a flush draw, and a high straight possibility. You are holding your out cards for a full house if you make trips, but in the Omaha high world, this is as good as a starting hand gets. And if all else fails there, you've still got that pair of aces workin' for ya.

Second up on the list of Highest ranking Omaha High Starting hands is AAQQ, still giving you a nice pair of bullets to start off the show. In addition here you have AQ for pulling off Broadway straights. And of course we want the hand to be double suited such as Ah As Qh and Qs, giving you two shots at making a flush.

Omaha Hi Hand Ranking Chart:

Best Omaha Poker Starting Hands

**Please assume that these hands are all Double Suited**

The Best Starting Hands for Omaha Hi/Lo...

The most popular versions of Omaha today are the Hi/Lo varieties which award a pot to both the highest hand and to the lowest hand. Omaha Hi-Lo is super fun to play because the action is insanely intense.

You already have a full table seeing more flops, but now you have the lowest hand betting against the highest hand, and both actually standing to win. However, if you play your cards right, you'll be playing hands that will give you a shot at scooping up both the low pot and the Omaha high pot all in one clean swoop.

Omaha Hi/Lo players are eligible to win either the entire pot or a 50/50 split. The pot is of course split when there is a winning 'low' hand. A winning low hand must include five cards all under 8 (hence the Omaha 8 nickname) and different in value; a hand with a pair doesn't count, because it's no longer a low qualifying hand.

So with that in mind, the best possible hand to win the low is A2345.

Due to the fact that a player MUST use two cards from their hand and three from the board, a low hand is only a possibility if there are three or more cards on the table that are an 8 or lower. Learn more about Omaha Hi/Lo.

Omaha Starting Hand Chart

The Best Starting Hand in Omaha Hi-Lo Hands Down!

The best hand a dealer can put in front of you in an Omaha Hi Low game is AA23, especially if the ace and the deuce are suited, and the other ace and 3 are also suited.

This hand, dealt exactly this way (double suited), gives you the best shot at hitting flushes, straights, and the best low, not to mention it begins with a pair of aces you can use to build a high hand.

Omaha Poker Hand Rankings

Considered to be the second best starting hand in Omaha Hi/Lo is AAK2, giving you a pair of aces and AK to work your way into a decent high hand, and A2 to work toward the low.

More Omaha Poker Strategy: