Evaluating Pot-Limit Omaha Starting Hands for Straight-Draw Potential

Poker Strategy / Short-Stacked Shamus / 12 January 2012 / Leave a Comment

Strong starting hands are sometimes harder to recognize in PLO than in Texas hold'em.

It is generally not a challenge to recognize when your hand is suited or double-suited or when you hold a pair (or two). However, evaluating starting hands for connectedness -- in other words, for their potential to make straights -- is probably one of the more misunderstood aspects of PLO.

I've been enjoying the recent posts from our friend Matthew Pitt, a.k.a. YorkyPud, in which he's kept us up-to-date on "Pud's Poker Progress." Lately the Pudster has found himself playing a lot more pot-limit Omaha. I also gravitated toward PLO as a favorite game a few years back, which I've found both challenging and rewarding -- a game in which reading opponents' hands can be difficult, no doubt, but evaluating one's own hand strength can be tricky, too, even preflop.

In no-limit hold'em, most players quickly figure out that big pocket pairs and A-K are strong starters while Qs-2h and 8d-3c are not. But in PLO it often takes a while to realize that just because you've been dealt a couple of nice-looking cards among your starting four, that doesn't necessarily mean your hand is worth getting too excited over.

A hand like As-Ks-8d-4h might seem playable to a new PLO player, his head filled with ideas of drawing a flush or Broadway straight. But experienced players recognize the hand as lacking much potential, one reason being that if you do draw to that flush or ace-high straight, your chances of getting paid off by worse hands are slim to none. Even a couple of "bare aces" -- e.g., in which the two side cards aren't helping much like As-Ad-9h-4c -- is not really reason to celebrate.

As any decent pot-limit Omaha strategy book will tell you, it is preferable for all four cards in a starting hand to "work together." Ultimately you have to play two of those four cards in order to make a hand, so you'd like for each of the four to have some way of working with at least one and perhaps more than one of the other cards you've been dealt. Ways cards work together include being of the same rank (pairs), being close in rank (connectedness), and/or being of the same suit (suitedness).

Of those three ways your starting cards work together, it is generally not a challenge to recognize when your hand is suited or double-suited or when you hold a pair (or two). However, evaluating starting hands for connectedness -- in other words, for their potential to make straights -- is probably one of the more misunderstood aspects of PLO. Indeed, even experienced players might look down at certain starting hands, note what appears to be "connectedness" between all four cards, and mistakenly decide they have been dealt a strong hand with lots of potential.

Let's take a quick look at this subcategory of starting hands in PLO, all of which feature four cards that "work together" by virtue of being connected. That is to say, every card in the hand is either right next to another in rank (e.g., 10-9-8-7), or only include one or two "gaps" in the sequence (e.g., 10-9-8-6 or 10-9-8-5). In other words, none of these hands feature pairs, and while we're setting suitedness aside for the moment, we recognize that having a hand that is suited or double-suited always makes it better to play.

Within this group, then, we can further divide the hands into three smaller groups: rundowns, one-gap hands, and two-gap hands.

Rundowns

By "rundowns" we refer to four cards in sequential order -- e.g., K-Q-J-10, 8-7-6-5, etc. Such hands offer excellent straight-making potential, including multiple ways to make nut straights. Most rundowns should be considered especially good starting hands, although the lower the rundown the more speculative the hand becomes.

Be especially pleased when you are dealt rundown hands from A-K-Q-J down to 9-8-7-6, be glad but cautious with 8-7-6-5 to 6-5-4-3, and don't bother with 5-4-3-2 as you need a perfect flop (i.e., exactly three cards) to make a nut straight.

One-Gap Hands

One-gap PLO hands include hands like Q-J-10-8 or 8-6-5-4. Again, big cards are always preferable for obvious reasons, so if we are comparing hands we'll always rank K-Q-10-9 higher than 10-9-7-6. However, when evaluating such hands for straight potential, we also want to focus on where the gap occurs, because it actually matters a lot in terms of affecting our ability to make the nut straight.

It is always better for the gap to come at the bottom of the hand rather than at the top. Thus even though they look very similar, 10-9-8-6 is actually a much better starting hand than 10-8-7-6. Why? Because while both hands can make straights in multiple ways, you're more likely to end up with a non-nut straight when your gap comes at the top than at the bottom.

Not to belabor the point too much, but look again at those two hands above.

You hold 10-9-8-6 and the flop comes a handy J-7-5 -- one of those nice flops that perfectly surrounds your hand. You have a big "wrap draw" with 16 outs that can make you a straight (the three 10's, three 9's, three 8's, three 6's, and four 4's). And all 16 of those outs are to the nut straight, too! A nice spot to be.

Compare holding 10-8-7-6 when the flop comes J-9-5 -- again, note how the flop neatly surrounds your hand and fills its one gap. Again you've flopped a big wrap draw with 16 straight outs (the remaining Q's, 10's, 8's, 7's and 6's). But this time only six of those outs are to the nuts (the sevens and sixes). A formula for disaster, this.

Two-Gap Hands

Two-gap hands are less strong as starters than rundown hands or one-gap hands, but still have a lot of straight potential. Again, the bigger the cards the better, and as with one-gap hands, it is preferable for the gap to appear at the bottom than at the top. So Q-J-T-7 is better than Q-J-8-7 and much better than Q-9-8-7.

I won't go through another example here, but the same idea from the previous section applies. If the gap is at the top of your starting hand, you might well flop a big draw, but most of your straight outs will be non-nut outs. Meanwhile if the gap is at the bottom and you flop that big draw, you'll have a better chance of drawing to the nuts.

Suitedness is another factor that might encourage you to be more willing to play such straight-making hands. Of course keep in mind that when playing a hand like 9s-8d-7s-6d, you are primarily gunning for a straight with the flush draw being something you'll consider as either a backup (coming backdoor on the river) or for which you'll have blockers to someone else drawing to a better flush to beat your straight.

As our bud Pud has been noting in his posts, there's a lot more to think about in PLO. But having a reasonable grasp of starting hand selection, including understanding the straight-making potential of your hand, can give you an edge over many PLO players.

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