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 additional cards and combinations players can make. If you’ve never played Omaha and not quite sure what we’re referring to you can read our “How to Play Omaha Guide” which will help you with the basics of the game including format.

Holdem

Since Omaha and Omaha Hi Lo use four hole cards, it’s absolutely critical that you understand the starting hand requirements in both versions. Making poor decisions on which hands to play and which hands to fold will ultimately cost you your bankroll. Although you’ll find plenty of beginners do end up falling for some of the more common omaha myths when choosing their starting hands.

As suited cards slightly increase the value of a starting hand due to their higher flush capabilities (you can see this illustrated in the poker hand strength charts) those 78 suited non-paired starting hands are counted separately from unpaired starting hands. While there's no starting hands chart set in stone for Texas Hold'em, it's a good idea as a novice to keep a list of good starting hands printed out and kept by your monitor. Hand selection changes with the style of players at the table or the stage of the tournament you're playing, as well as the number of players at the table. Starting Hands Chart Desktop Wallpaper Use this as your computer desktop wallpaper. It is designed so that whilst you are playing poker, you can place your poker table window over the Poker Professor logo and all the charts will be visible around the table. Poker starting hands: playing the right cards at the right time The basic idea of poker is to play the strongest poker hands in early position, good hands in mid-position and a few more hands in the late (aka strongest) position.

Below you will find general outline to the starting hand requirements in Omaha Hi Lo. Omaha Hi Lo allows you to play for both the hi and low pot and because of this the starting hand requirements in Omaha 8 vary significantly from Omaha Hi since the goal is to be able to play for and win both pots. The starting hands below are dependent on situation, although you may not be able to bluff your way through this game, you can pick up a few additional big blinds through position and restricting your starting hands. Remember two things – the game is made up by strong hands and you need to play for both pots if you plan on coming out ahead.

Premium Starting Hands in Omaha High-Lo

The best starting hands in Omaha Hi Lo include:

1. A-A-2-x
2. A-A-3-x
3. A-2-3-x
4. A-2-4-x
5. A-2-x-x
6. A-3-4-x
7. A-A-x-x

While the chart above gives you a general outline of the best starting hands in Omaha Hi Lo, you do need to realize that it is still quite broad as the ‘x’ represents nearly any other card. A suited hand is significantly stronger than a non-suited hand even if they both fall in the same category. Suppose you have the option to play A-A-Q-K rainbow or A-A-2-K suited. The obvious choice of hand would be the later since your able to play for high and low, while giving you a chance at a flush, full house, or straight for hi hands. A tip to keep in mind when determining your hand strength in Omaha Hi Lo using the chart above is that the majority of cards 5 – 9 are essentially worthless. They can be used to pick up a few blinds when in position or playing against a loose table.

Texas Holdem Starting Hands Chart

Ten of the Best Starting Hands in Omaha High-Low

Poker

These hands are considered the top hands in Omaha Hi Lo:

1. A-A-2-3 Double-suited
2. A-A-2-4 Double-suited
3. A-A-2-3 Suited
4. A-A-2-5 Double-suited
5. A-A-2-4 Suited
6. A-A-3-4 Double-suited
7. A-A-2-3 Non-suited
8. A-A-2-2 Double-suited
9. A-A-3-5 Double-suited
10. A-A-2-6 Double-suited

Playable Starting Hands in Omaha High-Low

Starting

Below is a summary of hands that are playable starting hands in Omaha Hi Lo

A-A-2-x
A-A-3-x
A-A-4-5
A-2-3-x
A-2-K-K
A-2-Q-Q
A-2-J-J
A-3-4-5
A-A-x-x
A-2-K-Q
A-2-K-J
A-2-x-x (suited Ace)
A-3-K-K
A-3-4-x
2-3-4-5 (This hand is dependent on the Ace hitting the flop. If the flop doesn’t show an Ace you should fold)
J-Q-K-A
T-J-Q-K
K-K-Q-J
Q-J-T-9
2-3-4-x (Another hand that depends on the Ace. If no Ace hits the flop, fold the hand on first bet).

The Sit N Go Starting Hands Guide That Explains The Poker Strategy Concepts Behind The Selections

Starting Hand selection is a key component of any winning poker strategy – discipline, combined with the ability to take advantage of profitable situations as they arise can ensure your online play has a solid foundation.

Sit N Go Starting hands selection has 3 major differences when compared to cash game poker – those who ignore these differences (intentionally or otherwise) these will rarely be winners in SNG Poker over the long term. This article will explain these differences and will then provide a starting hand guide which can be adapted to suit your individual needs and playing style.

Finding Opponents That Play Too Many Hands

Key to profits in SNGs (and other poker formats too), is to find players who open with too many hands, and overplay them post-flop. For me the site with the best ratio of fish to grinders is Party Poker. Not only are the games soft, you'll get up to 40% cashback every Monday paid automatically, plus a generous welcome offer which includes a lot of tournament entries. Use bonus code SNGPLANET, and make sure you check out those easy to beat Sit N Goes for yourself - at www.partypoker.com

Poker Range Chart

3 Critical Factors In SNG Starting Hand Selection

  1. The Stages Of A Sit N Go Tournament:
    Sit And Go Tournaments start with 9 or 10 players and blinds which are a very small percentage of your stack. They end with blinds totaling 15% or more of stacks and just 2 players facing off heads-up. It should be clear that starting hand selection needs to adjust to account for many factors including position, number of opponents, stack sizes and the speed of blind increases (turbo or standard).
  2. Multi-Tabling SNGs And Playing Against Multi-Tablers!
    If you are a SNG Grinder who is playing 8 or even more tables at once then your starting hand selection will be different from the profitable leisure player who enjoys just one game at a time. In order to multi-table effectively, some slightly profitable starting hands are often dropped to make decisions easier. If you are playing against several multi-tablers you may want to increase your own hand selection to take account of this.
  3. The Bubble And Chip Equity Models
    At the bubble of a SNG tournament you can stop thinking in terms of which hands you wish to select based on their inherent ‘strength’. Instead winning player’s judge the range of SNG hands that opponent’s will call with and work backwards from there. Your SNG Starting hand selection can be very wide for all-in moves (depending on your opponents) and is usually very narrow for calling all-in moves (often premium hands only).
    I strongly recommend checking out the SNG tool 'ICMIZER', this will show you when you push all-in and when to fold at the bubble of a Sit N Go - giving you a massively profitable advantage over your opponents. You can try 3 of these calculations per day for free (though the monthly subscription is worth it's weight in gold!). See www.icmpoker.com for info on how this tool can transform your game.
  4. Sit N Go Starting Hands Charts

Notes On The SNG Starting Hand Charts

Starting

Poker Best Starting Hands

- We have not included a ‘Call Raise’ column in these charts. This is for a good reason that there are very few scenarios where this is a profitable move. The few that exist are either due to very deep stacks (implied odds plays), situations in which a weak opponent opens and you have a monster hand (hoping to induce a squeeze from an aggressive opponent behind you in the middle stages) or ‘player specific’ situations which are out of scope for this beginners article.

- Blind Stealing will often depend on how likely your opponents are to ‘defend’ rather than the actual cards that you hold. Balance between maintaining an effective stack for stealing during the later stages, and accumulating chips will depend on a number of factors.

Poker Strategy Charts

Mark's Note: Some Your skill level on the tables is always measured relative to your opponents. If you take the time to avoid 'pro grinders' and actively seek out the softest competition, your bankroll will really rocket. For non-US readers, Party Poker are by far the softest of the big sites. They are also generous, giving you up to 40% cashback every Monday, plus a welcome package that includes tournament tokens (with bonus code SNGPLANET). See for yourself how soft those games are at www.partypoker.com now!

Poker Starting Hand Odds

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