How do you identify a “dangerous” starting hand at Omaha High-Low?
Depending partly on how you decide to define “bad.” I can quickly pick out the 13 WORST starting hands. They’re the quadruplets of all thirteen ranks with the deuces being the worst of the worst and the Aces being the best of the worst. That’s because NONE of them can form a low and their high can only be, at most, two pairs (you MUST use exactly two cards from your four card hand). So, it’s conceivable for a high two pair to take the high half, or even the whole pot, if there’s no low, but the twos can never win except by a bluff that goes uncalled. In practice, trips in the hand aren’t a whole lot better.
Every other starting hand is relative and its value depends almost entirely on the board cards. If the flop and turn cards are favorable, almost any four-card combination can turn into “the nuts” for one half of the pot on the river.
So, what we really need to be cautious with are the DANGEROUS hands that are likely to come in SECOND or third best, or get quartered at the showdown. (I once got sixth-ed when three of us tied for low and a single player won high with a low flush. Unlikely things happen every day at the tables.)
What Omaha High-Low starting hands seem the most dangerous to you? Why do you think so?
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I don’t like hands like AA96 rainbow. You just don’t have much of a chance of winning either way.
Hands like A29J are dangerous because any A or 2 on the board makes it much harder to get a winning low, and you aren’t very strong high either.
Starting with 4 of one suit makes it much less likely that you will make a flush.
Low only hands are dangerous. The board won’t allow a low something like 20% of the time, and there’s always the chance to get quartered. High only hands can easily go wrong, and even if they go right, you are often playing for a chop.
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if you’re dealt 4 of a kind
If there is 3 of a kind on the board you could get a full house. But yeah, it’s still sucky.
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Good point, Dorkupine, I overlooked that one. Good catch. Of course, with my luck, that’d be the hand when I had AAAA–and someone held the fourth to the board trips.
Thats what I was going to post too. If you are dealt quads , keep a pair, there are 12 different ways to make a full house. I agree that quads are still the worst starting hands thoughj.
Ace duece , to me, is the same as AK in hold’em, looks great but seldom wins. Also, if you have 4 low cards in your hand it maybe hard to make a low hand when considering most everyone at the table has at least 1 low card. Consider the chance that even id a low card boards it may likely pair 1 of your hole cards. Caution is in order when you have 4 low cards in your hand.
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It is possible for up to 7 players to split the lo hand with A-5 straights.
Player 1… A2xx
Player 2 …23xx
Player 3 …34xx
Player 4… 45xx
Player 5 …5Axx
Player 6… A3xx
Player 7… 24xx
Community Cards A2345 without flush possibility.
Additional to that 4 more players may split the Hi hand by holding 67xx. Unlikely to happen but possible if 11 players are involved.
That totals up as
44 hole cards
5 community cards
3 burn cards
Entire deck in play.
I posted this in another thread last year but thought I would bung it on here too.
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Wow. I’d pity the dealer who had to split all the side-pots if this happened in a live game. And think of the players who were out of position for the partial chip splits! AND, THEY’D ALL LOSE MONEY DUE TO THE RAKE, LOL!
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