Omaha Hi/Lo

Unlike Texas Hold’em where there are several different types of hands that are playable there’s two types in Omaha they are playable and unplayable. The basic concepts of playable hands are ones where all four cards work well together. It’s amazing for hold’em players to find out that a hand like A-A-x-y (where x and y are random cards) actually belong in the muck pile.

When looking at a starting hand there are certain things you should look for to see if the hand is playable. In Omaha you are usually drawing towards the best hand. The first thing you should look at is suits. Are any of the cards suited? If not then you might be in trouble off the bat. Also since you only get to use two cards you should pay attention to which ones work good with each other. Do you have a hand like Ah-3h-Kd-Qd or do you have a hand like Ah-Ad-Ts-6c. Hands that have options are always helpful so look for the possible outs your hand can have. Usually the more playable hands are the ones where all four cards work together. A good example of this would be Ah-Qh-Kd-Td where it gives you a chance to use any of the two cards you need for a straight or flush.

One of the trickiest hands to play in Omaha comes in when you flop two pairs. In general if you have the bottom two pair you should fold. If you end up having the top two pair, you should consider playing it. However if you flop the top and bottom it can be a tricky situation. I’ll give you some good examples of these situations to help put you on the right track. We are not going to include suits into this exercise to make it focus on just the pairs. Let’s say that your hand contains T-8-7-7.

In the first scenario the flop comes down as K-T-8. You have the bottom two pairs and you have no way to draw to the nuts. This should be an automatic fold for you.

Now let’s say that the flop lands T-9-8. You now have the top and bottom however; the flop itself is dangerous since someone might have a straight draw. In this scenario you should play it safe and fold especially if there’s any betting.

This time the flop lands T-8-5. There’s not much of a hand here. You should probably fold as it would be easy to beat your hand by the river.
Finally if it comes 9-7-6 you’ve not only flopped the nut straight, but you have a full house possibility and a set of 7’s. I’d say go ahead and bet it.

There are many different possibilities that I could sit here and list for pages however these four examples should give you a general idea of what to play and not to play in this tricky situation. The general idea is to play the high pairs though and have plenty of outs. Also I would apply these concept when flopping sets. Stick to the higher sets and stay away from the lower ones.
Finally when looking at hand playability pre-flop it’s not worth trying to bluff. This is because it is almost impossible to steal the blinds in Omaha Hi-Lo.