Omaha poker best starting hands. The 3rd Part
For the beginning see Part I and Part II
It’d be great if in every game we raised many hands with two aces and the cards were double-suited or all four cards laid in succession. Those would be best starting hands for Omaha poker. However, unfortunately such hands are very rare so we need to make some changes in our requirements. Otherwise we will fall upon the category of holdem players which enter the pot having only combinations like A-A, K-K, Q-Q or A-K.
In other words we can go all-in for ante and not get a game in the situation when we make a bet. Four in succession is great, but assume we have a gap in the hand. Which hand is more valuable: J-10-9-7, J-10-8-7 or J-9-8-7? The answer is as follows: they are given in descending order, because if one of the cards will “bridge the gap”, we’d like our cards to be higher than lower. That’s why we believe the J-10-9-6 combination to make a better hand than J-9-8-7 combination in spite of the bigger gap between the cards.
In some cases a hand with only three working cards can be quite decent and able to play. The best starting hand with three working cards in Omaha poker is a hand in which there is a high pair supplemented by an unbeaten flush. Apparently on the flop you’d like to see either a three or an unbeaten flush draw. Your problem can be simplified by a situation in which an ace is suited with your fourth (otherwise not working) card and not with a card forming the pair.
Good poker player doesn’t look for big opportunities; he looks for advantages in his starting hands.
In high pot games drawing hands and pat hands often meet. In this case one has to be very lucky to take the pot. In Omaha poker when high pots are played, drawing hands are the best hands and can be so big that often a pat hand has only a small advantage over it or is even weaker.
Nevertheless quite often with high pots there meet combinations like flush against flush or full against full, when the best hand is defined by one card. In such cases one wants to win. How to get an unbeaten combination? The answer is to create an unbeaten combination. The one who starts with a higher pair or high suited cards often has more advantages in cases when both are drawing.