Do You Play Too Many Omaha Eight-or-Better Starting Hands?

A recent series of posts to the Internet newsgroup rec.gambling.poker dealt with Omaha eight-or-better (Omaha/8) starting hands. The person posting initially was concerned that he played too many hands and wondered what the correct percentage of starting hands should be. Rather than adhering to a percentage, I suggested that he develop some starting standards to guide his play.

Of all the decisions to be made when playing Omaha/8, the most important choice during the play of a hand stems from your initial decision about whether to fold or play, and it's a decision you'll face each and every hand. To become a winning Omaha player, you'll have to be right about playing or passing the vast majority of the time.

Your choice of starting hands depends on your position in the betting order, as well as how well your opponents play. Omaha/8 provides four starting cards that should work in concert with one another. Let's call them "A," "B," "C," and "D." Card "A" plays with "B." "A" also plays with "C." And "A" plays with "D," too. "B" plays with "C" as well as with "D." Card "C" also plays with card "D." Add up the possibilities and you'll find that six unique two-card combinations can be composed from these four cards.

Compare that to hold'em, in which you're dealt only two cards. That's a major difference between the two games. How many two-card combinations can be made with two starting cards in hold'em? The answer is simple. It's one hand, and one only. This should tell you something about the complexity of Omaha/8 compared to hold'em. If one of your starting cards doesn't relate to the other three, your possibilities for forming a hand have been reduced, and along with it your chances for winning. Suppose you have three coordinated cards and a card that doesn't fit – it's called a dangler – such as: king, queen, jack, and an offsuit deuce. That deuce doesn't coordinate with any of your other three cards. If you insist on playing danglers, it's almost like you're playing three cards against four of your opponent's. Three versus four represents long odds, and you'll have to avoid that to become a good Omaha player.

If you follow this list of suggested starting hands – it comes straight from the book Winning Omaha/8 Poker that I wrote with Mark Tenner – you'll seldom get into trouble, or find yourself involved in a hand in which you'll be confused about whether you ought to continue playing or fold your hand.

• Play any hand with an A-2 in it.

• Play any hand containing A-3, as long as the ace is suited to one of your other starting cards. If you have the A, one of your other three cards must be a spade. It doesn't need to be the 3. Any spade will do.

• Play any A-3 when your other two cards are tens, jacks, queens, and kings, sometimes referred to as "10-point" cards. If you have A-3 and your ace is not suited but your other two cards are 10-point cards – K-Q, Q-10, J-10, K-10, K-K, Q-Q, J-J, or 10-10 – go ahead and play. If your trey is suited, so much the better. If your hand is double-suited, that's better yet. For example, if you have A 3 10 Q, that's much better than having A 3 10 K, where all four suits are different. Nevertheless, any A-3 accompanied by two 10-point cards is playable.

• Play any ace plus two unpaired prime cards. Prime cards are aces, deuces, treys, fours, and fives. So, for example, you could play A-3-5 or A-4-5. Unpaired prime cards is what you are looking for, because they give you three wheel cards, and if one of your cards is counterfeited – counterfeited means that one of the community cards matches a card in your hand – you still have two other low cards that play.

• Play any four prime cards, even four prime cards without an ace in your hand, as long as there has been no raise in front of you. The best hand in this situation would be 5-4-3-2 double-suited.

When playing four prime cards without a raise in front of you, the closer you are to the button, the more valuable the hand becomes. Acting last is an advantage because you have a lot more information about the real or purported strength of your opponents' hands than you will in early position – and you'll know how many opponents are in the pot with you. If you are in first position, immediately to the left of the blinds, you probably should not play this hand even though it meets our suggested requirements. But if you think you must, make sure you are in a very loose, passive game with plenty of callers before the flop and very little raising regardless of what your opponents might be holding. As you move closer to the button and the pot has not been raised, four prime cards become more and more playable.

So far, every hand recommended has had an ace in it, with the exception of four prime cards without an ace, but we'll add another hand cluster for you to play.

• Play any hand that totals 40 points. Count aces as 11 points; take deuces through 9 at face value, while tens and facecards are 10-point cards. You can play any 40-point hand. Hands like K-Q-J-10 or Q-Q-J-10 play very well in situations in which lots of people have come in before you.

Many of your opponents will play any hand with an ace in it, especially if that ace is suited, and a large number of opponents can be an indication that your opponents hold low cards. In fact, low hands dominate our recommended list of starting hands. Nevertheless, this penchant for low hands is what makes 40-point hands so very playable. With lots of callers in front of you, most of the low cards are probably in your opponents' hands, and the deck figures to be rich in high cards.

If five players have already come into the pot and the blinds haven't had an opportunity to act, that's an indication that most players hold low cards. If you're holding high cards, your hand is very valuable. In my opinion, you can raise in this situation, even without an ace, because the chance of hitting the flop is quite good. If the flop misses, it's a very easy hand to get away from, but if you catch a big hand, you stand a very good chance of scooping the entire pot.

From the button or the cutoff seat (the seat immediately to the right of the button), whenever there are already four or more players in the pot and it's been raised, you can even consider a reraise with a 40-point hand. After all, when most players raise, it's as though they are saying they have an ace in their hand in combination with another ace or other low cards. Three of the aces are probably accounted for in situations like this one; and if somebody cold-calls that raise, all four aces might be out.

Under these circumstances, your high hand may scoop a big pot. It's unlikely to be split, because there probably won't be a low hand. In any event, it's worth a raise – or even a reraise – and if the flop misses you entirely, you'll never be in jeopardy, because this hand is very easy to release when confronted with a low flop.

These recommend hands are not the only hands you can play before the flop, but if you are learning the game, there is safety in knowing you won't be seduced into playing too many hands, and playing too many hands is the downfall of more Omaha/8 players than any other single flaw. Releasing hands that do not catch part of the flop will be easy, and less costly, too. And when you do play, the quality of your hands will be quite high. Since most people play Omaha because it offers an easy rationale for playing more hands, our recommendations will allow you to take advantage of that propensity and profit from it.

Raise your game with Lou Krieger at http://www.royalvegaspoker.com. His newest book, Winning Omaha/8 Poker, is available through Card Player.