Starting Hand Selection In Limit Deuce To Seven Dramaha

The first two articles on Deuce to Seven (2-7) Dramaha have built the foundation and we are now ready to put together a set of opening requirements by position. And by opening we mean that you should come in for a raise. Limping only exposes the fact that you may not thrilled with your Draw holding and also allows the big blind a free look at smashing the Omaha half.

As in all split-pot games, we must open tighter from early positions and with the nature of the importance on the Draw hand in 2-7 Dramaha we must be very selective.

UTG
Ten Low or Better 4.7%
Good Jack Lows (Top 80%) 3.9%
One Card Draw to Seven 2.3%
One Card Draw to Eight 3.2%
One Card Draw to Nine (Double Suited) 1.1%
15.3%

HiJack
Ten Low or Better 4.7%
Good Jack Lows 3.9%
One Card Draw to Seven 2.3%
One Card Draw to Eight 3.2%
One Card Draw to Nine (One suit or DS) 4.7%
18.9

Opening with a made ten low or better is clear because with a pat ten it’s highly likely you hold the best hand and even in a three-way pot against two one card draws your low is usually approximately 38-50 percent to hold up depending on what everyone else holds. In the times your ten low gets beaten you can more often depend on winning the Omaha side since you typically have the ability to make higher flushes, straights, and pairs.

Jack lows are a different matter thus you must exercise judgment in which ones that you choose to play. Overall there is a 4.9 percent chance of being dealt a jack low which would include convertible holdings such as J-7-6-5-2 and J-8-7-4-3. Opening 7-6-5-2 and 8-7-4-3 are profitable on their own merit thus you should certainly open J-7-6-5-2 and J-8-7-4-3. Whether or not you keep the jack intact depends on the action behind you, the number of players in the hand, the flop, and any information regarding the number of cards your opponents draw.

Weaker jacks such as J♦ 10♥ 7♠ 5♣ 2♣ and J♥ 9♠ 8♥ 4♥ 2♥ (mostly because of four suits) can be folded, however, you may want to take the risk and open a rough jack such as J♣ 10♥ 9♣ 8♥ 6♠ because it can hit the flop strongly in Omaha. Note that the latter hand is suited to both the jack and the ten which are strong flush draws in this game. In addition, it can also flop a lot of straights and wraps as well as something like a high two pair.

Assuming we choose to open the top 80 percent of our jack lows we will expect to open with these hands approximately 3.9 percent of the time.

One card draws to a seven includes the holdings 2-3-4-5, 2-3-4-6, 2-3-5-6, and 2-4-5-6. These hands all contain a gut-shot straight draw on the low side (not ideal) but can all make very good low hands as well as low straights for Omaha. Remember that A-2-3-4-5 is not a straight in 2-7 so you will beat low draws that pair up. 3-4-5-7, 3-4-6-7, and 3-5-6-7 are also good enough to open due to their two-way potential.

Any of the one card draws to an eight of 2-3-4-8 through 4-5-6-8 should be opened. The relative values of these hands are relatively close, the smoother ones have higher low equity and the rougher versions typically offer more winning possibilities in Omaha.

Due to its open-ended straight draw 5-6-7-8 is weak to open from early position; however, it can certainly be used as a late position if it is suited at least once.
You can open nine draws from the first two positions; however, you must be somewhat selective. A badugi hand such as 9♥ 8♣ 3♠ 2♦ does not hold a lot of value and should be mucked, however, a holding such as 9♥ 7♥ 6♠ 4♠ has a lot more value going for it in terms of Omaha equity. One formulaic way to handle this is to open any double-suited nine draw (other than 6-7-8-9) from UTG and any nine draw with specifically two of one suit from the hi-jack position.

There’s approximately a 19 percent chance of being double-suited and another 59 percent probability of having exactly two of one suit (e.g. 9♥ 8♣ 6♥ 2♦), and those probabilities derived the opening percentages shown in the above chart. As you gain more experience in the game you may deviate, for example, I am opening 9♥ 6♥ 5♠ 4♦ from UTG as it’s a smooth nine-six draw and has some pretty nice Omaha potential as well.

The standards above have us opening approximately 15 percent and 19 percent from the UTG and the HJ positions respectively. In the articles on High Dramaha, it was recommended that we open around 12 percent to 15 percent from these positions.
Intuitively this makes a lot of sense given the differing nature of the two games.
In 2-7 Dramaha it’s far less likely another opponent can have us in really bad shape.
There is only a 2 percent probability each specific opponent holds a pat nine or better and the times we run into a better low draw we are typically a favorite on the Omaha side. In contrast, in High Dramaha if someone just simply holds a higher pair than us they are a large favorite on both sides. We can open with a greater frequency from all positions because in 2-7 Dramaha the cost of running into a better hand is much lower.

As in all forms of poker the cut-off position is where we can start expanding our range dramatically:

Cut-off
Ten Low or Better 4.7%
Jack Low 4.9%
One Card Draw to Seven 2.3%
One Card Draw to Eight 3.2%
One Card Draw to Nine 6.0%
One Card Draw to Ten (Top 80%) 7.9%
29.1%

From the cut-off position we should open any pat jack as well as any one card draw to a nine. The next set of hands to consider are the one card draws to a ten which you are dealt approximately 10 percent of the time. Once again, we should be somewhat selective in the holdings that we choose to play within this group. For example, an unsuited 10-9 draw such as 10♦ 9♣ 5♥ 2♠ should be mucked while 10♥ 7♠ 6♥ 5♠ would be a clear open.
When you get re-raised holding 10♦ 9♣ 5♥ 2♠ you are often in bad shape as you could be drawing dead for low and this hand doesn’t have much potential in Omaha. It also does not perform that well in a three-way pot especially if you are stuck in the middle as you can easily experience reverse implied odds. 10♥ 7♠ 6♥ 5♠ is a much better open because you have the potential to make slightly better ten lows and will make flushes and straights at a much higher frequency.
Judgment is required when you hold a 10-9 draw as it needs to be accompanied with some strength on the Omaha side. We can probably open 10♦ 9♠ 7♦ 5♣ for a profit but should probably fold 10♦ 9♦ 7♦ 5♣. The former hand holds more value because you are not blocking yourself in diamonds and it also allows the possibility of making a spade flush.
If one has a strong belief that 10♦ 9♦ 7♦ 5♣ is too good to fold then by all means go ahead and open it. I’m not sure that it isn’t nor can we say with certainty that 10♦ 9♠ 7♦ 5♣ is a profitable open in the long run. No one really knows for sure, all of this is based upon educated guesses guided by intuition and attempting to play a reasonable percentage of hands by position.
Assuming we open with what we consider to the top 80 percent of our ten lows we will be playing approximately 29 percent of our holdings from the cut-off which is in line with other split pot games. Most experienced winning Omaha High-Low players open with approximately 30 percent of their range from this position and this game is somewhat comparable in that equities run somewhat close.
Moving onto the best position at the table:
Button
Ten Low or Better 4.7%
Jack Low 4.9%
One Card Draw to Seven 2.3%
One Card Draw to Eight 3.2%
One Card Draw to Nine 6.0%
One Card Draw to Ten 9.9%
One Card Draw to Jack (Top 80%) 11.9%
43.0%

Two Card Draws w/ better Omaha Equity

Pairless Premium Omaha Holdings

From the button we should open all of our ten draws as well as the top 80 percent of our one-card jacks. This brings us up to an opening percentage of around 43 percent which is a reasonable amount but against tighter players in the blinds we can possibly open this up further.

Opening with any once card jack is an option and/or we can open up some two card draws in this situation. For two card draws we can open smooth starters such as 2♥ 3♠ 7♣ or rougher holdings such as 5♦ 7♣ 8♣. A holding such as 2-3-7 has more equity on the low side while 5-7-8 would have more in Omaha thus in terms of hot and cold equity the value of these two hands is relatively the same. However, in terms of playability and being able to continue more often the 5-7-8 hand may be better because it can flop stronger hands and draws in Omaha.

In addition, we can open up some premium unpaired Omaha hands such as A♦ K♣ Q♣ J♦ 9♥, K♣ Q♥ 10♦ 9♣ 8♥, and Q♥ J♥ 9♦ 8♣ 7♠. All of these hands should be patted regardless of what the flop brings as any low improvement is marginal and it also allows for the possibility of your opponent mucking a slightly better low. And even in the times your hand goes to showdown you still have scoop potential should your opponent pair up for low but call down with an inferior Omaha hand. These high hands are very marginal and opening with them is not recommended against particularly sticky blinds.

Next issue we will discuss how to deal with the situation when another player has opened the pot ahead of you. ♠

Kevin Haney is a former actuary of MetLife but left the corporate job to focus on his passions for poker and fitness. He is co-owner of Elite Fitness Club in Oceanport, NJ and is a certified personal trainer. With regards to poker he got his start way back in 2003 and particularly enjoys taking new players interested in mixed games under his wing and quickly making them proficient in all variants. His new mixed-games website Counting Outs is a great starting resource for a plethora of games ranging from the traditional to the exotic. He can be reached at [email protected].