Omaha High-Low is one of those games in which starting hand selection is perhaps the single most important factor determining whether someone is going to be a winning or losing player. In a game like no-limit Texas hold’em, there are many ways to play the game successfully, including approaches that involve playing many less than premium hands. Experienced hold’em players will sometimes use position, stack sizes, or player-reading abilities to make playing subpar hands worthwhile to them.
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One can make a decent profit in fixed-limit Omaha High-Low by simply sticking to playing good starting hands. When playing a full-ring game of Omaha High-Low, the player who is practicing smart hand selection is probably only voluntarily going to be playing somewhere around 15% of the total hands dealt.
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Pot-limit Omaha is sometimes called a “drawing game” because with four hole cards, there are usually many more drawing possibilities than one generally finds in Texas hold’em. Really, almost any flop that does not contain a pair is going to provide someone a draw in PLO.
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Omaha poker was first created in the early 1980s as a variation on Texas hold’em. The game is played very similarly to hold’em, with the big difference that players are dealt four hole cards rather than just two. Players must use two of their four hole cards along with three community cards to make the best possible poker hand.
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Soon after Omaha poker was first introduced back in the early 1980s, the game began to be played in tournaments just like other poker games like Texas hold’em and stud. The first World Series of Poker event to feature Omaha was in 1983. Noted poker author David Sklansky won that first WSOP bracelet in Omaha in a limit event. The first PLO event in the WSOP would be held the following year.
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Position is of profound importance in pot-limit Omaha. Of course, position is important in any poker game, but position is even more significant in pot-limit games than you will find in other kinds of poker.
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There are many reasons why pot-limit Omaha is such a complex, interesting game. One factor that has a profound effect on the way the game is played is the pot-limit betting format. In fact, many players — especially those who are used to either the fixed-limit or no-limit versions of Texas hold’em — tend not to appreciate how much the pot-limit betting format affects the way PLO is played.
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Omaha High-Low (the fixed-limit version) is played in a similar fashion to Texas hold’em. Both are “flop games” which involve players combining “hole cards” with “community cards” to form the best possible five-card poker hand. There are some significant differences, however, between Omaha high-low and limit hold’em.
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Pot-limit Omaha is similar to Texas hold’em insofar as it is a poker game played with “hole cards” that are dealt to each player that are kept hidden and “community cards” that all players can see and that all players use in combination with their hole cards to make the best possible five-card poker hand.
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There’s a kind of paradox in pot-limit Omaha with regard to starting hand selection. On the one hand, since you are dealt four cards instead of two (as in Texas hold’em) and therefore are able to make lots of different hands when pairing your hole cards with the community cards, many more starting hands seem worth playing since any four-card combinations appears to have at least some potential to make a big hand.

On the other hand, the increased potential present in a four-card hand is precisely the reason why players should be even more circumspect about starting hand selection in pot-limit Omaha than they might be in no-limit hold’em. Let me try to explain.

Let’s say you are dealt a hand like Qc-Qd-5h-4h in a full-ring game of PLO. At first glance, this might seem to be a decent starting hand. After all you have a big pair, and the other two cards also provide straight and flush possibilities.

However, when you assess the potential of a starting hand in PLO, you need to take into account the fact that every player at the table has six potential two-card combinations to choose from when making a hand with three community cards.

Look at your hand. You have a pair of queens, which is good but actually will probably need a queen to flop (and no straights or flushes to be possible) in order to be competitive against table full of opponents’ hands. And you have the 5h and the 4h, which can make straights or flushes, sure, but the flush will be a small one and unless the A-2-3 comes out the straight won’t be the best possible straight, either.

Even worse, consider the other four two-card combinations here: Qc-5h, Qc-4h, Qd-5h, and Qd-4h. All are terrible starting hands in hold’em, meaning you are playing a PLO with very limited potential compared to an opponent holding, say, Jh-Th-Ts-9s, a hand with six good-to-excellent two-card combinations.

When choosing starting hands in PLO, you generally only want to play hands with four cards that are coordinated or “work together” well. In other words, avoid hands with “danglers” or cards that don’t work well with the others. Choose hands with good straight or flush possibilities, favoring those that can make you “nut” hands (or the best possible hands).

Also, when selecting starting hands be sure to take into account the special importance of position in PLO. You don’t want to be playing too many hands from early position, and when you do, you definitely want to be playing premium hands that can make the nuts, since it is so hard to control the size of the pot from up front in PLO.