In past articles for this site, I discussed some general beginner strategies Omaha High-Low. Today, I would to drill down a bit more and present four types of starting hands that I frequently see overplayed by novice players. These hands can look great at first, but often result in nothing but trouble.
Lone Ace-Deuce
One of the biggest mistakes beginning Omaha High-Low players make is playing any old A-2 combination. A-2 is obviously a pair of cards you want to hold in your four-card starting hand, as it is the quickest way to the nut low, but it is not always an automatic “show me the flop” hand.
Remember, the goal in Omaha High-Low is to scoop the pot. Just because it is a split pot game doesn’t mean you want to routinely win just one half of the pile of chips in the middle of the table. Therefore, when you play A-2, you want to have a chance to end up with the best high hand as well as the best low hand. All too often, I see people play hands like A-2-7-10 rainbow. This starting hand is fairly worthless. Sure, you have the first two cards of the nut low, but you don’t have anything else. No flush draws. No solid straight draws. No pairs. Not even any face cards. Realistically, the best you can hope for is the low portion of the pot and even if a qualifying low is possible once all five community cards are dealt, you have no other good low cards in case your Ace or Deuce gets counterfeited. Plus, if someone else has A-2, you are now playing for just a quarter of the pot, which is a losing proposition.
Don’t get me wrong, I still play most A-2 starting hands. But there needs to be some other redeeming quality about the combination other than those two cards. Give me something suited with the Ace so I have a flush possibility. Give me a pair. Give me a couple of other solid low cards so I at least have a better chance to avoid getting counterfeited. Give me something that will give me a legitimate shot at scooping.
Middle Connectors
This is the kind of hand that looks pretty, but while it may win you part of a pot here and there, it won’t get you very far in the long-run. When I say “middle connectors,” I mean hands like 5-6-7-8, 6-7-8-9, or 7-8-9-10. You know, middle-ranked sequential cards.
Obviously, middle connectors have a better chance than most starting hands to make a straight. But again, think about what you are trying to accomplish. You want to scoop. And these hands are tough ones with which to achieve that goal. Say you have 6-7-8-9 and the board ends up 5-6-8-Q-K rainbow. Looks good, since you have the nut straight. But you don’t have a qualifying low hand. Even if it were 4-5-6-Q-K, the chances that your 4-5-6-7-8 is the best low are extremely slim.
On those rare occasions when you somehow have the best low hand, like when the board comes A-2-3-Q-K and other people’s low cards get counterfeited, it is still virtually impossible for you to have the best high hand with any of the middle connectors I listed above. Unless you bet everybody out of the pot, someone is going to hit something and beat your nothing. This is not to say that you will never scoop with middle connectors, but it won’t happen often enough to make that hand worth it.
Three of a Kind
Here’s another type of starting hand that looks great when you first see it dealt. Three of a kind in the hole. I mean, how cool is it to see A-A-A-J in your hand? Three Aces! Fold it.
Always remember that you can only play two hole cards. Thus, one card of your set gets thrown in the garbage. You only have one out to hit a “real” three of a kind. That superfluous card also does more damage to your hand in that it takes a spot away from what could have been a useful card. A Queen instead of one of those extra Aces would look a lot better.
I will say, however, that if I can see the flop for free or for very cheap, I might play a three of a kind hand if the cards are Aces and the fourth card shares the same suit as one of them. Then, I at least have a flush possibility. If that fourth card is a 2 or a 3 and suited, even better. But the vast majority of the time, I insta-fold those hands.
Three Suited
Similar to having three of a kind in the hole, having three suited cards is not an appealing situation either. Again, since you can only use two hole cards, one of your outs to make your flush will be stuck face down in front of you, never to see the light of day on the board. As you might imagine, having all four cards of the same suit is even worse.
Despite the inherent weakness of a three suited hand, I will play it much more often than I would a three of a kind hand. This type of hand can still have good straight possibilities, low options, or other combinations that can make it worthwhile to play. So, it is not nearly as universally useless as other poor Omaha High-Low hands, but like the three of a kind hand, too many novice players think it looks pretty and will play it with a flush in mind.
When push comes to shove, it is still upon you to make your own judgments as to what hands are best to play in certain situations. As I noted, while I don’t generally like the four types of hands I discussed, some of them can still have value depending on their exact makeup. Just be aware of each hand’s shortcomings and you will be fine.
