Omaha Poker Combinations

Players who win at Pot-Limit Omaha do not think of their hands in terms of ‘premium pairs'. While these hands have their place, in PLO starting hands which contain ‘combinations' are the key to winning. This guide looks into the concept of PLO starting hand combinations and explains the importance of this in a simple manner. The second article in this series will look at the various individual Pot-Limit Omaha starting hands in more detail.

1. Omaha Poker Card Combinations
2. Omaha Poker Combinations Poker
3. Omaha Poker Combinations List

Online Omaha is a variant of Hold'em that has become very popular, due mainly to its many hand combination possibilities. In Omaha, each player starts with four hole cards instead of two. As in most forms of poker, Omaha uses a standard 52-card deck. Below is a comprehensive description of online Omaha. The goal of every poker player out there is to have the best possible combination of cards or at least better than the opponents'. The best possible strategy is to aim for a Royal or Straight flush — the two most potent combinations. Omaha has 16,432 starting hand combinations if we ignore the suits. If we'd include the suits, there would be 270,725 possible combinations for your four hole cards in Omaha poker. This is compared to only 169 starting hands in Texas Hold'em, or 2,652 if we include the suits.

So, what do we mean when referring to PLO starting hand ‘combinations'? There are 2 factors to think about here. Firstly you can only use 2 of your 4 hole cards (together with 3 cards from the board) at showdown. Secondly, to win a hand in Pot-Limit Omaha you will need a very strong hand – the nuts or something close to it.

Relating back to Holdem hands is a clear way to explain, since with 4 hole cards you can make up 6 combinations of the familiar 2-card starting hands.

To picture this imagine 4 cards marked A, B, C and D. Your 6 combos of 2 cards are as follows:

A+B, A+C, A+D

B+C. B+D

C+D

B+C. B+D

C+D

Now we can look at some real PLO starting hands and compare the number of ‘live' combinations that they contain. Let us compare K-K-8-3 of 4 different suits with 9-10-J-Q with just 2 suits.

The K-K-8-3 hand contains only one combination that can effectively hit the flop, K-K. In fact the rest of the hand mean (barring a miracle flop) that unless you hit a 3rd King you will probably have to throw your hand away. In fact even if a King does flop the presence of 2 suited cards, or another high card could easily mean an opponent has a monster draw against you – caution would be advised!

The 9-10-J-Q hand has many more combinations that could hit a strong hand on a number of flops. All 6 of the 2 card hands work together in some way to make straights and the 2 suits mean there are (non-nut) flush possibilities as well. Imagine a flop of A-K-8, with 2 of your suit – the number of combinations in your hand make you a huge favorite to make the best hand by the river.

That is not to say that high-pair hands are not valuable – they certainly will have a place in your balanced Pot Limit Omaha Strategy. The real point is that you need to have several combinations working for you to hit flops in many ways – playing such hands will also provide you the benefit of being difficult to read when you bet out on seemingly ragged flops.

High-pair hands that also have different combinations working for them are much stronger than ‘bare pairs' hands. Take for example A-A-8-7 ‘Double Suited' (that is 2 suits both to the ace). Here you have a powerful combination hand, the A-A may make top set, 2 nut flushes are possible and the 7-8 may make you a straight. On the flop you will be in a position to quickly assess whether you have outs to a nut hand – a powerful combination in any Pot-Limit Omaha starting hand.

Part #2 of our PLO Starting Hands Guide looks at the various hand types you will be dealt playing pot-limit Omaha and assesses their relative pre-flop strengths.

Here are some important probabilities in Omaha that returns in different situations. Knowledge about probabilities will help you to better evaluate situations in poker. You will , for example, know when you should call and when you shouldn't, and, vice versa, know when to fold and when the odds are in your favor.

Starting hands

There are many starting hands in Omaha (16.432 if not all suit combinations are counted), which makes it difficult to get an overview. Table 2 will hopefully increase that overview a bit.

Comments

Exemple of a double suited hand: Q♥ A♥ 2♦ K♦
Exemple of a rainbow hand: Q♥ A♣ 2♠ K♦
The best Omaha hands are less bigger favorites against an average hand compared to Texas Hold'em.
In Texas Hold'em, common knowledge is that A-A is very big favorite against all other hands. In Omaha, A-A as a part of a hand is far from that strong. In general, an A-A-x-x hand versus a random four-card hand is a 70-30 favorite in average (if all the starting hands that are normally folded are excluded, the A-A-x-x hands will be even less favorites).

Made hands versus draws

A typical feature in an Omaha Hi game is a set against a hand with several drawing possibilities. The made hand will not be a very big favorite (sometimes it is an underdog), so the recommended strategy is to play fast and bet/raise the pot in these situations.

Comments

Factors that can affect the odds are for example blocking cards.

Flush draws versus straight draws

In Omaha, hands with flush draws are often more likely to win than straight draws.

Omaha Poker Card Combinations

Omaha Poker Combinations Poker

Comments

Since that many cards are in action, there are often combined possibilities, which makes it hard to give general percentages. A hand with a flush draw has mostly something else, like a pair or a straight draw as well.

Omaha Poker Combinations List

Related article:Omaha strategy