Quote:
Originally Posted by darkside2007
This is a great explanation for the top 15%.
Thanks.
It's not very exact and is intended for newbs, to keep them reasonably safe while they observe at the table while learning the game and learning how their various opponents play.
Quote:
Can you explain which hands would fall into the top 25-30% of all hands. I want to open my starting hand requirements.
Reasonable request.
However, I think the key to success at any kind of poker, including Omaha-8, is knowing how your opponents play better than they know how you play. And then you need to adapt to them better than they adapt to you. That's the basic idea.
Consequently the next step in learning the game of Omaha-8 is more about learning to read your opponent's hands than learning what the top 25% to 30% of starting hands are.
However, to sort of answer your question,
• If you played every possible hand with an ace, you'd be playing
69184/270725=25.6% of your starting hands.
• Or if you played every possible hand with an ace, that didn't also have three middle cards (sixes, sevens, eights, nines, and tens) you'd be playing
64624/270725=23.9% of your starting hands.
• You might want to play some coordinated but aceless low only hands, like 2345 or maybe 2346 or 2356, especially if double suited.
• You might also want to play some coordinated but aceless high only hands, like KQJT double suited or maybe KKQJ if double suited.
• You might also want to play double suited KK23, KK24, and KK34 hands.
These last several groups are speculative hands you have to be willing to fold if the flop doesn't hit your hand very squarely.
But before you start adding hands to you arsenal, make sure you consistently show a profit sticking to the original list.
It might seem that the best Omaha-8 two-card combinations would be the same as the best Texas hold 'em two-card combinations. But the split pot nature of the game changes that. I wrote a lot more about that, but deleted it, preferring to keep this answer as succinct as possible.
Here's the complete list of all 16432 possible starting hands, objectively arranged from best to worst, using a clever simulation scheme.
http://www.propokertools.com/simulator/o8ordering.txt
Buzz