Starting hands in Pot-Limit Omaha are grouped by structure. With so many possible 4-card combinations it is actually the suits, closeness of the cards and pairs as well as the high card strength that makes the difference between a strong starting hand and a weak one. Add to this the fact that seemingly insignificant differences – for example a gap at the top end of your connected middle cards compared to a gap at the bottom end – make a huge difference and it is difficult to come up with some simple ‘cut off point’ between good and poor hands in the same way we do in Holdem.

Of course, many players new to Omaha look for a PLO starting hand chart first – these are common in Holdem, so why not for Omaha!

I am happy to be publishing a contribution from a reader today, the following Omaha starting hands chart was put together by Anthony, from Ashburn VA – an Omaha fan with a genuine will to help people new to the game.

This chart is based on Jeff Hwang’s playing guidelines, the position and raise / fold percentages are based on deep-stacked play and full-ring tables. Adapting this for 6-max games should be straight forward enough for motivated readers, you are starting in Mid-Position compared to a full table and should be raising a lot from the cut-off and button positions.

Click the graphic below to see the full chart. Your feedback is welcomed, particularly on how this could be adapted for different situations and stack sizes, mail us at [email protected] anytime.

Suggested Starting Hand Structures – based on deepstack FR games, should be adjusted for 6max

Just like to close with my thanks to Anthony for these charts – you can contact him at the following address ashburnpokerclub (at sign) gmail.com.

For more information on how and why certain starting hands are playable while others are not check out the following guides:

PLO Starting Hands #1, Combinations vs High Pairs
PLO Starting Hands #2, Picking The Best PLO Starting Hands