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Starting Hands In Omaha
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Your four hole cards are crucial in Omaha, but many new players who are used to playing Hold'em misinterpret and overrate their starting hands. This is most obvious with high pocket pairs, which are the premium starting cards for Hold'em but which still need to coordinate with the other two cards you hold in Omaha.
For instance, if you hold Ks-Kc-5d-9-h in Omaha you have an average hand at best, plus you run the considerable risk of improving just enough to lose a substantial pot. This hand is not as good as pocket Kings in Hold'em because the other two cards do not improve the hand by giving it any straight or flush draw oppotunities. The best Omaha hands are all double suited, meaning that you have two flush draws before the flop.
Even trickier for Hold'em players who cross over to Omaha are those starting hands where all four of the cards are useful but do not combine well with each other. Let's say you hold A-K-7-7 but you have a rainbow of suits. As a Hold'em player you think to yourself that the four cards are playable as two separate hands, both of which have great potential in a community game. But once again you have limited drawing options here: no flush draws, only the top straight draw, and if you do hit a 7 on the flop you are drawn in and still need to improve in all likelihood to win it.
Now let's consider the strongest starting hand in Omaha: As,Ks, Ad, Kd where you hold pocket Aces, pocket Kings, and two different combinations of the nut flush draw. All possible combinations are very strong hands in Texas Hold'em as well. Other examples of hands that have four cards working together are hands like Qs-Jc-Ts-9c, Ks-Kc-Qs-Jc, Qs-Qc-Js-Tc, Js-Ts-Jc-Tc, and As-Ac-9s-5c.
The second strongest starting hand in Omaha is As-Ac-Js-Tc, where you again hold plenty of drawing options plus top pair to begin with.
European Omaha players, who tend to have more experience with this format than their American counterparts, and who often specialize in this format, favor drawing hands with plenty of straight and flush options over hands that simply contain pocket Aces. Until recently, American players were generally known to play pocket Aces far more aggressively and to overrate them in Omaha.
You ideally want starting hands that hold both straight, flush and set potential. For instance, if you held the As-Ac-Jc-Ts and the flop came Ad-Kc-Qc, you would have top set, the nut straight, and the nut flush draw. Notice that in this example the Tc will also give you an unbeatable hand - the royal flush.
Hand Ranking
We have listed the top dozen starting hands that you can be dealt in Omaha. Please note that in all twelve cases you would be double suited. We have simply used the notation of spades(s) and clubs(c) throughout for consistency.
2 As-Ac-Js-Tc
3 As-Ac-Qs-Qc
4 As-Ac-Js-Jc
5 As-Ac-Ts-Tc
6 As-Ac-9s-9c
7 As-Ac-Any s-Any c
8 Js-Tc-9s-8c
9 Ks-Kc-Qs-Qc
10 Ks-Kc-Js-Jc
11 Ks-Qc-Js-Tc
12 Ks-Kc-Ts-Tc
Even if you only had one suited combination in the above twelve hands (or to a lesser extent no suited combinations) these hands would all be strong in Omaha. But double suited is the optimal combination.
Related Poker Articles And News Items:
> Omaha Hands You Want To Avoid
> Basic Strategy For Pot-Limit Omaha
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