Omaha Eights or Better Starting Hands

This is something I enjoy discussing more for the feedback than the content itself. It has to do with the best starting hands in Omaha Eights or Better. I had always been a big fan of Omaha as a game to begin with. I enjoyed the action and generally believed it to be an exciting game that if you know how to play, stands to provide you with healthy returns.

As with most poker games, Omaha Eights or Better is heavily dependent upon your starting hands. There has been considerable discussion about what constitutes the best possible starting hands and I have always gone with the classic approach.

For those of you not familiar with Omaha, it is like Hold Em except you get dealt four cards and you can only use two of them while you must use three and only three board cards. The restrictions are what make the game considerably different from Hold Em.

Omaha Eights or Better is different still in that it is a split pot game with half going to the best low hand, and half going to the high. I won't go into too much detail right now, I'm more curious about opinions surrounding the starting hands.

As I mentioned, I prefer the classic position that is, I want a starting hand that makes it possible for me to scoop the pot. As such, I probably won't enter without a good A,2 combination, the A making a nut flush possible. I am also of the school of thought that you should hold a good accompanying card for the A,2 considering the possibility of pairing one of them on the flop. The ideal accompanying card usually being a 3 or 4.

In any event I try to stick to these rules. As you can imagine, I don't play many hands, especially out of position and I don't believe you should. I have noticed an odd phenomenon with my online games however. It would seem there is a significant frequency with the number of times multiple players get dealt A,2 the same time as I do. Whenever I play Omaha Eights or Better in B&M rooms, that kind of frequency is unheard of. It does happen, but not very often.

I will vary the starting hand a little when I have position and will often play four big cards to mix it up and also be prepared for a flop that will give me the nut high hand and no low to split.

I still believe this is the best starting hand philosophy for Omaha Eights or Better but I am also open to other strategy suggestions. I would be curious to hear from others considering how this game is beginning to pick up in popularity.

See you on the felt.