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.
- Omaha Poker Best Starting Hands N
- Omaha Poker Best Starting Hands Wins
- Omaha Poker Best Starting Hands
- Omaha Poker Best Starting Hands Games
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.
Best Starting Hands in Omaha Hi Lo Omaha and Omaha Hi Lo is a much more complicated game then Hold’em simply because you have a wider range of starting hands seen by players due to the. The best starting hands in low-limit Omaha are hands where you hit two pair and your draw, for example K Q J 10. (A great flop would be Q J 3.) Those hands are a bit rare, so another good hand in a loose game would just be a hand with a lot of drawing possibilities.
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:
Omaha Poker Best Starting Hands N
- 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.
Omaha holdem poker starting hand ranks. The 1st Part
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
Omaha Poker Best Starting Hands Wins
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.
Omaha Poker Best Starting Hands
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 Poker Best Starting Hands Games
For continuation see Part II