When playing pot-limit-omaha (high), it is important to understand which hands are good starting hands, and to discard poor starting hands preflop, unless you have specific reads on your opponents. The strongest hands are those with nut possibilities (a nut hand is the best possible hand given a particular flop). Drawing to “the nuts” is essential, as omaha is a game of draws, and drawing to the second nuts can be expensive when your opponent has the nuts. It is preferable to be double suited so that you have the chance to make two different flushes, and it’s never bad to get it all in pre with AAxx or KKxx.

Below are the top twenty starting hands in PLO:

1 A-A-K-K double-suited
2 A-A-J-T double-suited
3 A-A-Q-Q double-suited
4 A-A-J-J double-suited
5 A-A-T-T double-suited
6 A-A-9-9 double-suited
7 A-A-x-x double-suited
8 J-T-9-8 double-suited
9 K-K-Q-Q double-suited
10 K-K-J-J double-suited
11 K-Q-J-T double-suited
12 K-K-T-T double-suited
13 K-K-A-Q double-suited
14 K-K-A-J double-suited
15 K-K-A-T double-suited
16 K-K-Q-J double-suited
17 K-K-Q-T double-suited
18 K-K-J-T double-suited
19 Q-Q-J-J double-suited
20 Q-Q-T-T double-suited