Post deleted by Mat Sklansky

[raisethatmofo]

[randomstumbl]

I might be misunderstanding you, but if you're seriously considering playing 8JAx then you're in trouble. It's more important to play coordinated hands(connected, suited and high pairs) than it is to play high cards (though hands like 2345 are probably best avoided).

I've mostly stuck to PLO so I don't have any advice about the merits of playing specific hands. I'm sure others have much better advice. Also, you should probably try searching this forum. I'm pretty sure similar questions have been asked on a fairly regular basis.

[raisethatmofo]

[randomstumbl]

You'll probably benefit more from trying to understand why AAAA is freaking terrible than just memorizing a hand chart. The best advice I can give is to think of your four card hand as 6 individual hands each trying to win the same pot.

For example, AAAA is AA off suit, AA off suit, AA off suit, AAo, AAo, AAo. By the end you'll either have a full house or a pair of aces. Similarly 7778 is 77,77, 77, 78o, 78o and 78s. Which is better, but still pretty bad. You can make a set of sevens with 9 outs to a full, a few different straights or an 8 high flush.

An example of a pretty good hand is KQJT with the king and ten being the same suit. That gives you KQo, KJo, KTs, QJo, QTo and JTo. With that hand, you can end up with a straight (usually a nut straight), a king high flush, a full house, high trips or two high pairs.

[raisethatmofo]

[MarkGritter]

[ QUOTE ]
Would AKQX be a good hand ? I would think not since you basically need a J and a T to hit for a decent hand.

[/ QUOTE ]

AKQx has some strength, but you really want to have all four cards working together; AKQx where x=A,K,Q,J, or T are all playable, and a lower x that is suited with one of the other cards adds some value, especially multiway. You should be extra-careful of suited K's and Q's, though, they have even less strength than in Hold'em. But AKs Q3s is still OK.

Be careful of single-suited hands, they reduce the strength by tying up some of your flush outs.

Try using an odds calculator like this:
http://www.twodimes.net/poker/
to get some feel about how hands stack up. (What would be best is a PokerStove equivalent for Omaha so that you can compare against a range of hands.) This is only a partial picture, since some hands play better than others on the flop.

For example:

Ac Ks Qh 3d vs. 3s 4h 5d 6d: 0.517/0.483
Ac Ks Qh Js vs. 3s 4h 5d 6d: 0.533/0.467
Ac Ks Qh Js vs. 5h 5s 9s Ts: 0.591/0.409
Ac Ks Qh 2d vs. 5h 5s 9s Ts: 0.489/0.511
Ts 9s 8c 7c vs. Ks Kc 6h 2h: 0.466/0.534
Ts 9s 8c 7c vs. Ks Kc Qs Jd: 0.398/0.602

You can see how one card can make a significant difference in some situations. But, in Omaha, hands run a lot closer together in value than Hold'em so a lot will depend on your postflop play.