Hellmuth's Omaha H/L Premium Starting Hands

[Jaded]

As I said the other day, really impressed by Hellmuth's book and thought I'd share a little bit of the wisdom. I HIGHLY recommend buying it yourself! Phil's Recommended Starting Hands for Omaha H/L, in order of strength. (BTW, as he stresses in the book, there is nowhere near as much consensus over the strength of starting hands as there is in Texas.) Note: All hands go up in value if they have an A suited to another card, because of the nut flush draw, and up again if they're double suited.) 2nd Note: A2345 is the 'wheel', which is best low hand and also has the potential to win as a straight. 3 (different) cards to a wheel is a very good starting point for any hand. Premium Hands 1. AA23 (The killer. Top pair, three best low draws, and nut flush draws if either A is suited.) 2. AA2x (Phil says from AA24 down to AA2K, I'd personally say AA24/AA25 are the ones you REALLY want because of the three cards to a wheel. After that, AA2K/AA2Q/AA2J/AA2T would be my choices because of the potential for straights and higher kickers, along with the best 2 low cards.) 3. AA3x (Phil has this here because of the best possible pair and second best low.) 4. A23x (I'd prefer this to AA3x, personally, given the low draw.) 5. A2KK/A2QQ (Good pair, top kicker, best 2 lows.) 6. A345 (You need a 2 here, preferably on the flop. If that hits -obviously along with other low cards-, you have the nut low and people with A2 are going to lose a hell of a lot of money to ya.) 7. AA45/AAxx (Nowhere near as convinced as the Poker Brat about the strength of a pair of Aces. Okay, A on the flop and things look good if you have a decent kicker, but even then things can get nasty. Say you have AAQJ and flop comes A25... do you play because you have trips? If you do, prepare to get hammered if someone else had AKxx... or even 34xx for the straight. Even if you DO think you're ahead in the high pot, you got nothing for low and someone certainly will have, so you're getting half the pot at best.) 8. A2QK/A2KJ/A2xx (For me, A2xx is streets ahead of AAxx, because of the low there. Yes, you've got much less to work with for the high pot, but you can fluke the odd one of them, especially if the A is suited. The thing to watch for here is if you're up against someone else with A2xx you can end up getting a quarter of the pot, so it's one to be careful about shoving your money in with when there's only one or two others in there.) 9. A3KK (Pretty good, second nut low draw with second top pair and the A kicker. Main problem is that an A on the flop looks better than it is - yes, it gives you AA with K kicker, but it also counterfeits the one in your hand for the low. Ideal flop is 245 for the wheel, followed by K24 for the trips and nut low draw, anything with a 2 and two more low cards is good.) Will try and post his 'strong' hands later, but if you stick to playing those you won't go far wrong... I should stress that you are MUCH less likely to win hands with a pair/2 pair in Omaha than you are in Texas, btw! You're looking for at least trips for the high pot, and if there's a straight/flush/FH possible the chances are someone's hit it...

[Paulie_D]

Re: Hellmuth's Omaha H/L Premium Starting Hands Interesting. Personally, I prefer AKA2 (preferably double suited) to AA23.

[Valiant23]

Re: Hellmuth's Omaha H/L Premium Starting Hands Good post and analysis JJ, but...

6. A345 (You need a 2 here, preferably on the flop. If that hits -obviously along with other low cards-, you have the nut low and people with A2 are going to lose a hell of a lot of money to ya.)

This straight away causes confusion for NLHE players (me at least) as I would see once the 2 appears I have the low str8. You have used the term counterfeit, so would I need a 6 to drop as well or would I want one of my hole cards to be counterfeited?

[Jaded]

Re: Hellmuth's Omaha H/L Premium Starting Hands Okay, Val - REMEMBER you MUST use exactly TWO cards from your hand!! You don't have the nut straight atm, unless something like 245 flopped. Counterfeit means that it makes one of your low cards useless. If you have A29T, for example, and the flop comes 258 your 2 is counterfeited, meaning you now have 852A and need one more for your low hand... meanwhile, someone playing A3xx has got 8532A, someone playing 3456 has got 85432 and so on...

[Valiant23]

Re: Hellmuth's Omaha H/L Premium Starting Hands So... what makes that hand so good then? Wouldn't AA plus any two from 2,3,4 or 5 be more effective? Or is it that with A345 you almost want a counterfeit to hit?

[Jaded]

Re: Hellmuth's Omaha H/L Premium Starting Hands AA2x and AA3x are certainly better, as shown in the hand rankings... AA45 vs A345 is a close call, but I'd prefer A345 because of the better low possiblities. As for wanting a counterfeit to hit, maybe I'm not explaining it well... you NEVER want a counterfeit to hit (in terms of the low hand, at least.)