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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.

A A K K is the best Omaha starting hand, but right next to it is, surprisingly, A A J T as it has much more straight potential than the third-best hand, A A Q Q. Almost all the top 30 hands from our chart have at least one strong pair in them: either A A, K K, Q Q or J J. Only two hands don't have a pair – J T 9 8 and K Q J. Pot Limit Omaha Starting Hands. In PLO there are a total of 16,432 different starting hands, made up of all the possibilities that result from the 270,725 stochastically possible combinations. So how do you decide what starting hands to play and what not to play. This is also the reason why there is no clear cut starting hand chart for PLO. In Omaha, we naturally have more chances to make a hand on the flop than in Texas Hold'em. Our four hole cards give us many more potential hands, and so there are many more types of possible starting hands in Omaha. The strength of our hand is the mixture of the four hole cards.

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.

Omaha Hand Calculator

Poker hand rankings As you have enlightened your knowledge about how to play Texas Hold’em poker, the five-card combination is determined to be the best based on the hand ranking. To fathom the hand ranking better we have fabricated a few frequently asked questions (FAQ) from which you can understand the hand ranking with live game scenarios. NiceHandOmaha will show you a rank of your starting hand, so you could make a better choice how to play Omaha. This includes Omaha, Omaha Hi/Lo, 5 Card Omaha, 5 Card Omaha Hi/Lo, Courchevel and Courchevel Hi/Lo. The kind of limit: pot-limit, non-limit, etc. The software is designed both for beginners and more experienced players.

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.

Omaha Poker Starting Hands

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.

Omaha holdem poker starting hand ranks. The 1st Part

Best Plo Starting Hands

When holdem players turn to playing Omaha they usually know what to do when the flop is opened but they don’t know how to consider starting hands in Omaha holdem poker. They may have correct thoughts about playing from the flop till the end or may not, but they all are not sure which starting hands are considered good.

It is harder in Omaha holdem poker to learn how to rank starting hands. “You reap what you sow” – is exceptionally right in Omaha. Before we start discussing the right methods of ranking starting hands, let us have a look at several wrong views widespread among beginners, used to playing holdem.

Wrong opinions in ranking starting hands in Omaha poker

1) “A good four-card hand of good starting values in holdem is also a good hand in Omaha.”

This theory seems to be the most popular criterion among holdem players. They evaluate a starting hand like almost equal to a pair of jacks in holdem. We don’t say that one mustn’t play this hand under any circumstances, but it didn’t even lie anywhere near the value it is assigned by a holdem player. Any hand with two useless cards can’t be considered a good hand in Omaha.

2) “Two decent hands for holdem in one four-card hand make good hand for Omaha.”

It can’t be seen by a beginner, but this view is also incorrect.
Let’s look at such hand: – it consists of two for a holdem quite good hands: Ace-Queen in different suits and a pair of sevens. In Omaha such hand is just a “pig”. The reason for it is that a holdem player sees only two of six possible combinations existing in the given hand.

He forgets about other card combinations, not quite well connected to each other:
¯ , ¯ , ¯ , ¯ . The ace is not suited and it is a disadvantage. Actually this hand is even worse than a pair of jacks in the previous example – that is our thought.

The correct view is this: “In a good hand for Omaha all four cards are connected”. This is the only statement calling for common sense if to think of it for a moment. A hand with six working combinations is a super hand. For example let us look at such a hand:
.
Each card has a working value for every other card of the hand. One can imagine the powerful flops which will open for such a great hand. If there appear two pairs during the flop, you still have an opened straight draw or a finished straight. There exist a lot of flop variants giving you an opportunity for 13-sided or 17-sided straight. And if you get a flush draw on this flop it is the better. Such starting hand is likely to turn in a multisided hand at the flop, and a multisided hand is exactly what we hope for in Omaha.

Omaha Hi Low Starting Hands

For continuation see Part II