Best Starting Hands for Pot Limit Omaha

It is quite common to see monster after monster after monster in the game of Omaha. It happens all the time for the obvious reason that each player has four cards instead of two. For this reason you should never consider joining in on a hand in pot limit Omaha because its more than likely that the pot is going to be bet every single chance someone gets.

The best starting hand in Pot Limit Omaha is the exact same as the best starting hand in no limit Omaha, which is Ace / Ace / King / King double suited. Remember, playing Omaha is code word for “playing the nuts!” AA KK double suited gives you the best case scenario for catching the nuts whether it be the flush, quads, the straight , the straight flush, the royal flush, the full house, trips, or who knows maybe you will get extremely lucky and win with just the top pair of AA or KK (that doesn’t sound right but it’s actually true, you kind of have to get lucky to win with just a pair in Omaha especially if you have mid pair, and maybe once in the last million years with low pair at a full table).

So if AA KK double suited is the best hand, does that make AA QQ the second best hand? No, this is not true. The second best hand to have in Omaha pre flop is AA JT (10) double suited. Doesn’t make sense to you? Consider this fact.

The AA JT has a way better chance of hitting the straight than the AA QQ. This fact adds a whole other dimension to your hand, and someone holding pocket kings easily trumps your pocket queens. AA QQ is actually the third best hand in this game.

Is AK QJ double suited better that JT 98 double suited? No. Think about it. Sure AK QJ gives you a better chance at catching the absolute nuts, JT 98 work way better together because they make a wider variety of straight connections while the K Q and J only work one way with the ace. Remember since Omaha is always about catching your draws you have to think about which cards work better together and have a better chance of catching some sort of the nuts because of it. In fact AK QJ is not even in the top 30 hands possible in Omaha. Hands like KK QQ, AK QQ, and even JJ TT and JJ T9 have it totally dominated.

The top 30 hands in Omaha are as follows: