Omaha Poker: Combinations vs High Pairs
by Dougie Goguen | Feb 15 2012
Winning Pot Limit Omaha players do not think of their hands in the same ways that a winning Texas Hold 'Em player does. While there are certainly pairs that are good to have in your hand, it's the starting hands that have combinations of cards that are the key to winning. Let's look at starting hand combinations and how important they are to the new Omaha poker player.
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You have to remember that you can only use 2 of your 4 hole cards (together with 3 cards from the board) at showdown. To win a hand in Pot-Limit Omaha you will need a very strong hand – the nuts or something close to it. That's why it's frequently referred to as a game of the nuts. With four hole cards you can make up six distinct 2-card starting hand combinations: A+B, A+C, A+D; B+C, B+D; C+D.
Let's look at a hand that a typical Hold 'Em player might get excited about and use this method: KK74. There's only one combination that can effectively hit the flop, K-K. In fact the rest of the hand means that unless you hit a 3rd King or some crazy miracle flop that you'll be talking about for the next decade, you're probably going to have to throw your hand away. In fact even if a King does flop, the presence of 2 suited cards or another high card could easily mean an opponent has a monster draw against you.
Now, let's look at a hand that immediately has better possibilities: 9hThJdQd. All 6 of the 2 card hands work together in some way to make straights and the 2 suits mean there are (non-nut) flush possibilities as well. Imagine a flop that scans AK8, with 2 of your suit – the number of combinations in your hand make you a huge favorite to make the best hand by the river.
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However, let's be clear: we're not saying that high pairs aren't worthy of attention. They have a place in any balanced Pot Limit Omaha Strategy. The truth of the matter, though, is that you need to have several combinations working simultaneously for you to hit flops in many ways. A happy side effect of playing such hands is that you'll receive the benefit of being difficult to read when you bet out on seemingly ragged flops.
