In this article about strategies, the focus will be on Omaha High, not Omaha Hi/Lo. Yet, many of the strategies that are explained here works in both variants.

Domination is a familiar concept for Texas Holdem players – this occurs when one players hand is a 70% or more favorite before the flop, and usually involves hands with Aces and different strength kickers or a pair vs a higher pair. On this site you can find all possible combinations of preflop hands that can occur in Texas Hold'em Poker. As a bonus you will also learn the nicknames of the different hands. The hands are ranked from #1 to #169, where #1 is the best. This ranking is applicable when the poker table is full ring (9-10 people). AA is not only the best hand over a large enough sample size it will be by far your most profitable hand. If you miss the flop they can be difficult to play especially multi way, but they will win a lot of showdowns unimproved. When you the hit the board and make flushes, straights, and sets they will always be the nuts level 2. The next best hand that you can benefit from in Texas Hold'Em poker is a King and a Jack from the same suit. With a hand like this before the flop, stay in the game to see the flop, but do not bet if you can help it. The tenth best starting poker hand in Texas Hold'Em is an Ace, King combination where the Ace and King are from different. As you develop confidence in your post flop strategy, you can add poker hands such as QJ/A9/KT/J9/QT/K9 to your range of poker hands that you will play. Remember that when the players to your left are quite loose, you will need to tighten up a little more.

Starting hands - the importance of coordination

In Omaha, you will be given four cards that are matched against another five (the community cards on the table), which are as much as nine cards all together. In spite of this fact, you shouldn't treat your hole cards as abundance. If two of the cards are good, it doesn't make it a first-class hand.

There are exceptions, but remember the general rule that all the cards together must form a well coordinated hand before it’s suitable to play. How good is, for example, this hand: A♥A♣4♦7♠? There are two aces, but not much more. Hands like this is very limited in regard to development, and a pair of aces will seldom be enough to win a pot in Omaha, at least not a big one. The nearest possibility for this hand is making a set with another ace. In Omaha, however, trips often loses. The other chances for this hand is bleak: the chances for a straight are almost non-existing, and a flush cannot be made (see Omaha rules).

The conclusion is that you shouldn’t overestimate hands that contains strong parts, but doesn’t form a strong unity.

Best Poker Hands To Play Before The Flop

Let us instead look at this hand: A♥A♣J♥T♣. This hand contains two aces and a lot more. Besides the possibility of a set, there are also chances for the highest possible straight (T-A) plus two possibilities for the nut flush (hearts and clubs).

What you wish for are starting hands that 1) includes two pairs and/or 2) offer many possibilities to make a straight or a flush or a combination of these. You should, however, be cautious with low pairs and low straight and flush draws. With a low pair you can hit a set but lose against higher trips. The same matter is it with low connected and suited, the risks are that your opponent hit a higher straight or flush. All these situations tend to be expensive.

After the flop - good timing and minimum of bluffing

There are some fundamental guidelines to be aware of after the flop:

1. Play aggressive when you have the best hand. This is necessary to prevent players with draws to call for free. You want to force them to pay more than the odds allow. If you play Omaha pot limit, the best bet is very often the maximal. There are some exceptions. If you hit a full house on the flop, your interest is probably not to drive away all players from the pot immediately, if not the chances for someone beating your full house is big enough.
2. Only call when it’s fully motivated. Single pairs and even two pairs are seldom worth calling bets with. It is often a good idea to be reluctant from calling if you have a drawing hand that can be beaten if you make the hand. For example, if you try to hit a straight when there are possibilities that another player can make a flush.
3. Since every player has four hole cards, there’s often some that have hopes for the next card and therefore will call a bet. These circumstances make bluffing less effective and you should bluff rarely. As a consequence, the bluff may be most effective when all the community cards already are on the table and especially if your bluff represent a straight or flush.

These guidelines are mostly based on games at full tables. If you play on shorthanded tables, it's advisable to modify these guidelines some. On a shorthanded table you can call with some more hands and bluffs can be used more often.

Related article:Omaha odds

So….You now know about position - But how should you play pre-flop and what factors should you consider? Let’s get down to some basic strategy. We are going to think about which starting hands you should be playing.

It Depends…..

The first concept to understand is that the hands you should be playing, really depend on a variety of ever-changing factors. Factors such as:

Best Poker Hands To Play Before The Flop

1. Your position at the table.
2. Who your opponents are. ( How are they feeling today?)
3. What happened before you. (Did everyone fold? Or was there some action?)
4. How big your stack is.

Remember, it's not simply a case of selecting all of the top hands and expecting to profit. If it were that simple, everyone would be making tons of money.

Position

Position is very important in helping you decide which starting hands to play. But what do we mean by position?

Take a look at this 6max table:

We can see that our position on the table is determined by the location of the dealer button. Traditionally, the player with the dealer button would be the player who dealt the cards. In casinos today there will usually be a designated dealer who does not take part in the action. Even so, one player will still be assigned the dealer button which moves to the left after every round.

To the left of the button (BU) we have:

SB (Small-blind)

BB (Big-blind)

Followed by:

UTG (under-the-gun)

MP (middle-position. Sometimes referred to as “the Hijack”)

CO (cut-off) immediately to the right of BU (button)

In every pre-flop round, UTG will be the first to act. After the flop the player in the SB will be first to act assuming he didn’t fold already.

Try to play in position

• Acting first in poker is a big disadvantage and is referred to as being “out-of-position”. We give away information about our hand – our opponent gets to see what we do before he acts. As a result we should –
• Only play stronger hands when it is likely we will be “out-of-position” postflop.
• Take a look at this familiar starting hands chart and see how the suggested starting-hands vary by position.

Previous Action

Here are some possible scenarios that take place before our turn to act:

1. Everyone Folds
2. Someone Raises
3. One or more players limp (Limping is when you just call preflop rather than raise)

Assuming everyone folds, it is down to you to put in the first raise, known as “open-raising”. It is recommended that if you want to play a hand that you always start by raising. Many players instinctively feel as if they should “open-limp” but in reality it will be harder to play profitably this way. One reason is that every time you raise, you will have a shot at taking down the pot-preflop when everyone folds. If you open-limp you are giving your opponents a free/cheap chance to see a flop and make a better hand than you.

How big should you raise? Anywhere between 3 big-blinds and 4 big-blinds will likely be fine. In late position, such as the Button you can sometimes profitably open-raise to 2.5bb or 2bb, while in early position or with strong hands you might choose to raise to 5bb.

Assuming one or more players limp, it will still be a good idea to put in a raise. There are some situations where it is ok to limp behind, with small pocket-pairs for example, but generally you should just raise. Raising against a limper is known as an “isolation raise”, or iso-raise for short. This is because a likely outcome is that the other players fold, and the originally limper calls – so you’ve “isolated” yourself in a heads-up pot against the player. This can be a very profitable thing to do, especially if the limper is a weak player and you will also be in-position postflop.

How big should you raise? A similar size to when you are the open-raiser, but add 1bb for every limper. For example, there are 2 limpers before you, and you are on the button where you normally like to raise to 3bb. Now you will raise to 3bb + 1bb + 1bb, for a total of 5bb.

Assuming someone open-raises you have 2 options. You can either re-raise (known as a “3bet”), or you can flat call. With your strong value hands you should be 3betting, while the rest you should be flat-calling with, or folding if they are not strong enough to call with.

How big should you raise? Around 3 times the initial open raise size, or perhaps a little over. For example, someone open-raises to 3bb – you wake up with pocket-Aces and 3bet to 10bb.

I am ready to take my poker game to the next level!

Other Factors

The Starting Hands Chart is provided as very rough guide for getting started – it is not a long term strategy you should be following. Within a few weeks (depending on how much you play), you should be deciding for yourself which hands to play – and ideally making a decent amount of variations from the SH chart.

One factor you will find that makes a big difference is the specific stack-sizes going into a hand. Players intentionally buy in with different amounts of chips knowing it will effect which hands they will play.

For example some common stack sizes:

20-40bb Short-Stack Strategy

50bb Mid-Stack Strategy

100bb Big-Stack Strategy

200bb Deep-Stack Strategy

It’s useful to know how to play with any of these stack sizes. Even if you buy in with 100bb you will face opponents who only have 20bb some of the time, and you will want to adjust your strategy accordingly. It is recommended you learn to play poker with 100bb stacks – big-stack strategy is the most common strategy followed at the tables currently.

One final thing to look out for is the other players at the table. If some players who are still to act behind you are especially aggressive you might want to open-raise less. On the other hand, if those players are very tight and folding a lot you can consider open-raising more.

Learn more about playing before the flop in this poker coaching video.