Pairs & Rundowns in Pot Limit Omaha

Pairs in Omaha

Pairs mostly play poorly in Omaha, for the same reason as danglers (you will have 3 hands and a pair instead of 6 hands). Playing too many crappy paired hands is another big leak new players coming from No Limit Holdem (NLH) tend to have in Pot Limit Omaha (PLO).

 Let’s look at the different kind of pairs and their playability in PLO:

Aces

Are pretty much always playable (with the exceptional case of AAAx which is another topic altogether). However, AAxx is also the most habitually and grossly overplayed hand by beginners. Aces can go from bad, like AsAd9c2c (which you mostly play hoping to flop top set or getting it all in preflop as a slight favorite) to awesome (any double suited AAxx hand, and single suited hands where the side cards connect with the rest of the hand, like AAJT or AAKQ). Do not get too excited about bad to medium-bad AAxx hands. They rarely hit the flop and are very hard to play well, especially without position. Bad Aces are much like porn stars; they look good at first, but you don’t want to get married.

Obviously, you are usually happy stacking off AAxx before the flop as you should be the favorite. But trying to do so too hard can also cause you to “sell your hand cheap” (announcing you have AAxx to the other players before the flop comes with a lot of money left behind you). A good rule of thumb is that if you are going to announce to everyone you have Aces by your preflop action, get at least 25% of your stack in. This way you won’t have difficult decisions once the flop comes.

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Kings: 

 Next, we have a big step down to Kings. Kings are pretty good, but nowhere near as strong as Aces. You will mostly want to play a KKxx hand, but the strength of your hand can vary greatly depending on suits and the two side cards. Trash Kings like KcKd8s3h should usually be folded under the gun in a 6 max game, but most of the KKxx hands you’re dealt will be playable, especially with position. Double suited Kings are also very good (usually some of the best hands in Omaha), and nice side cards help too.

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Queens, Jacks, Tens:

Queens are usually pretty bad, unless the side cards blend in well (QsQdJsKc, for example), or they are double suited. You can’t fold a hand like QsQc9s4d fast enough when you’re not guaranteed good position later in the hand. Sometimes you will find spots where you can play queens hoping to setmine, but that is not a reason to regularly open a trashy hand. The same thing applies for a pair of Jacks or Tens, only to a greater extent.

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Other pairs:

  Low pairs (99 and lower) are inherently poor in Omaha. If you are playing a shortstack, they’re useless because you won’t hit the flop as often and you have usually invested a good part of your stack to see the flop. If you are playing a deepstack, they will be treacherous to play. You will almost never flop top set and will often find yourself playing guessing games deciding how to play the flop. This is not to say they are completely unplayable, but know what you’re getting yourself into by playing them.

Rundowns

Rundowns (E.G. 9TJQ or 8TJQ) are very strong in PLO, much stronger than suited connectors are in NLH. They hit the flop fairly often, and as was pointed out earlier, they tend to hit the flop hard. Here are a couple of pointers on valuing the quality of your rundown hand.

The gaps in your hand will often determine how well it will play postflop. A single gap at the bottom of your hand (eg. 8764) isn’t too big of a deal, but a gap at the top (8654) kind of is. This is because a gap at the top of your hand, especially in middling rundowns, prevents you from having many nut hands or nut draws.

Having a pair in your rundown isn’t the end of the world, but it does hurt your hand. 9987 isn’t bad, but it is far from 9876. Add a gap and a pair to a rundown, and you soon get a hand that’s pretty questionable (ex: 7554).

Remember, the less you think you will have position in the hand, the better you want your hand to be.

You should be happy opening 9976on the Button, but it’s also garbage under the gun in a full game.

If you still feel the need to learn more about Omaha check out our Omaha Poker Rules and Strategy Tips article.

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