Omaha hi poker starting hand ranks. The 2nd Part
See beginning in Part I
To our opinion the following hands are close in their value. And we’re leaving it for you to arrange these starting hands according to their value for Omaha hi poker:
, 
, 
.
The most important thing here is how nice these cards are combined. Naturally the hand: is more valuable than 
, but the second hand is also very good, though the cards here are smaller than those of the first one. It is possible to accept the flop with any hand if the cards in it follow each other and are double suited if the price is not too high.
A valuable hand is one in which two aces match with another two cards. The best match is when cards are suited. Double-suited hand with two aces is a wonderful hand. Let’s compare such two hands: 
and 
.
The first starting hand in order to stay in the game Omaha hi poker has to draw an ace, and the second one has two drawing flushes and good chances for a drawing straight that adds value to the aces. Of course if you play one-on-one and you’ve got two “rotten” aces in your hand, your chances are good. But one cannot say a good poker about a game in which one raises on a card requiring a three-of-a-kind to win the pot.
In a limit Omaha it is impossible to get two aces through and it is hard to do the same in a pot-limit game. Only in a non-limit game two aces form a good hand without support but Omaha games are not limited very rare.
Quite often two aces may be discovered in a player’s hand when he makes high bets in preflop. Especially in a pot-limit game when a serious player reraises to maximum. In this case an opponent will support with his money any hand better than two aces or a hand having high chances to beat them. But if a hand with two aces will draw with the other two cards something more, a big surprise awaits for your opponent. It’d be nice to get a three and in addition to it a straight.
Obviously it is easier to get a high card on the flop if your sided cards are paired and form a useful combination like J-10, rather than in the case when they are not connected. The presence of suited cards is also a valuable surprise. The situation in which one gets a flush draw in addition to two aces can be used as bait for an opponent and make him play all his money in confrontation. In Omaha hi poker one should thoroughly evaluate in a starting hand the two support cards for two aces (or any other high pair), because Omaha is definitely a four-card poker game.
For continuation see Part III
