What are Omaha High Low best starting hands?
Omaha hi lo can be a very confusing game to beginners, but with just a little practice, you can soon recognize the powerful starting hands in the game and take advantage of the throngs of bad players who frequent low limit games.
Good hand selection in Omaha hi lo revolves around choosing hands that have aces and low cards. Although Omaha Hi/Lo has a pot for both the low and the high, it should be your contention to win or "scoop" both halves of the pot. By playing premium starting hands with low ranking wheel cards and aces you increase your chances of scooping.
The Best Omaha Hi Lo Hands
Just like in Omaha High and Texas Hold'em you can get yourself in trouble by playing less than premium hands out of position or just playing them in general.
Strong raises from early position players in Omaha hi lo usually at a minimum indicate they hold an A2, you should hold at least a comparable or better hand. Here is a list of the best hands in Omaha hi lo:
- AA23: hands down the best in the game. Three cards to the wheel, plus a pair of aces to boot.
- AA2X: again, two solid wheel cards plus a pair of aces for a strong high hand.
- A234: this hand has a lot of wheel potential, look for it to be double suited for even more profitability.
- AA3X: this is another solid holding and when a two falls, punish the early position raiser holding A2 and let him know he has your sympathies on being counterfeited.
- A23X: a very versatile wheel hand good enough to compete with the very best hands.
There are many other strong and powerful hands in Omaha hi lo, but the ones listed above are the ones that you can pretty much play unconditionally.
You should be aggressive and raise and re-raise with any of these hands. The flop will do a lot to determine the power between a hand like AA23 and A234, but there would be no reason not to see the flop with such a good holding.
Other Omaha High Low starting hands
There are many other hands that are quite strong, its just that you will want to be more careful with them especially from early position.
Hands like A34X, 2345, 234X, A2XX and others are all strong, but you can begin to see that there is clear separation between their strength and the premium hands strength. Use your knowledge of other players to guide you with these hands pre flop.
They certainly are worth a raise from middle or late position, but be careful when it is two or three bets to you from strong players, is you're A2XX really going to have a chance at much more than quartering the pot? Sometimes it's certainly worth a look, but dump it like that plague if the flop misses (which is probably will).
Cold calling raises in Omaha hi lo with strong to speculative hands is a horrible mistake. You will either end up with second or third best hands or you will end up scraping by with a quarter of the pot and probably losing money to the rake. It's okay to be extra tight in selecting your hands in Omaha hi lo.
If you scoop just one pot an hour, that is often enough to make it a monumental night of winnings. If you are not playing with hands that are both versatile for the high and low half of the pot however, then you will struggle with being profitable at Omaha hi lo.
For starting hands requirements in Omaha High, check the article about
starting hands in Omaha High.
If you are looking for the best online rooms for Omaha High Low, only a few rooms really have good action in these games,
as most smaller rooms only have real traffic in Texas Holdem. So for the best Omaha High low games on the Web, the
recommended rooms are
Full Tilt
and PokerStars.
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