In the previous article, we discussed two starting hand look-fors: key card and low possibilities. In this article, we will look at high possibilities.

Look-for #3: High Possibilities:

 What is the best hand with high possibilities? If you said AhAdAcAs, you should probably stick to play money for now (remember, use only two!). The best hand would clearly have powerful two-card combinations that allow you to make nut boats, flushes, and straights. Double suited aces with kings (such as AcKcAsKs) have many possibilities. You have top two pairs, two nut flush possibilities, and a straight possibility. Of course, double suited wrap-around straights are also good (such as ThJsQhKs). Again, co-ordination is very important (recall that “just” one un-coordinated card cuts your possibilities in half!).

There are other considerations as well. There is always a high hand, but not always a low hand. The board can make it impossible to make a low hand. Just as you have to use two cards from your hand, you must use three cards from the board. The boards of A22JQ or KJ25J do not have three distinct low cards, and therefore there cannot be low hands made. In other words, the high hand will scoop (or split with another high, in some cases). Most advice for beginning Omaha high/low players revolves around “playing to scoop”. Some players do not realize that this necessarily does not involve winning high and low. If there is no low, then scooping merely means winning the high. Clearly, this is a position in which you want to be with your high hands.

Consider a situation in which you hold Th Jd Qh Kd in late position. There are two limpers in front of you. You decide to call. Button, small blind, and big blind all call. Six players see the flop of 6h Td 7h.

What do you have?

“I have a draw to…. and a ….”

There is a more important question you should be asking yourself first. How does my high hand stand with respect to scooping? In other words:

1) is there a strong low draw out there that will likely force a split pot?

2) If there is no low draw out there, how does my high stand?

The flop is bad news for you. 6 and 7 indicate that a low will likely be made. There are 45 (yet) unseen cards in the deck. Any ace, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 8 will allow a low to be made (notice that there is more low cards in the deck than high cards). That’s 24 cards (6 times 4). Minimally, if we discount two aces and say, four low cards (due to five other players seeing the flop, most of whom usually play with an ace and some low card), we have 18 cards. So that’s 18 out of 45 cards that can come on either turn or river that will likely split pot. The chance of making low by the river is about 65% (i.e. 1 – (27/45 * 26/44)). It is likely that this will be a split pot. To make matters worse, your high is not that great. Your pair is very weak. You need to catch a heart to make a flush. If you catch runner-runner Ah and Kh, you’ll have nut high (but note that now a low will be possible, due to Ah). You will likely make only a third-best or a second best flush. How many outs do you have? Subtracting Th and Qh (in your hand) and 6h and 7h (on the board), we have 9 hearts. But wait! We have to make sure that we take into account situations in which the board might pair. Often players will flop a set and take it all the way hoping to make a boat or to win without improving. Th might make somebody’s full house, if not quads. Therefore you have 8 hearts. If the turn is not a heart and does not pair the board, we have only 7 hearts left (discount another heart because of another possible pairing on the river). So really, you are drawing to half the pot, to second or third best high, with only 8 outs at best. You would need good pot odds to make a call. You will simply not get them in this situation. Some players might fold, others might raise cutting your pot odds further. This is clearly folding hand. Your high is junk and will do poorly while there are strong low possibilities on the board.

Omaha high/low players often disagree as to how high hands should be played. Should I raise pre-flop, or keep players in? Get in cheap or make it expensive for low draws? Perhaps the key is to understand the ratio of low to high cards in the deck. Out of 52 cards, 32 are low and 20 are high only. On average, one can expect to see about 60% low cards on the flop. In other words, the flop will usually not favour high-only hands. But when it does, you will usually have a strong hand. When it does not, you will have to fold. Therefore you do not want to put in lot of money preflop with high only hands. Of course, there are exceptions. Good high hands do well heads-up or short-handed. You may also consider a steal in late position if no players entered the pot or if the situation is favourable in some other ways.

These three look-fors should give you a solid sense of direction when you evaluate your hand. You should never play a hand because you “feel like it”. Make sure you have good reasons. Analyze it in terms of the factors discussed. At most lower limit tables, you will be ahead of your average competition.