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The highest possible straight flush, and the best hand in poker, is an ace high straight flush, also known as a royal flush. A “ royal flush” consists of a straight from ten to the ace with all five cards of the same suit. A royal flush is exceptionally rare and is therefore the most coveted hand in poker. A pair of queens, also known as 'ladies,' rounds out the top three best starting hands for Texas Hold 'em poker. You will hear many groans from players over this hand. It looks so pretty and it is strong, but they have often had it busted in the past. If an ace or king comes on. A♦ A♥ K♦ K♥, A♠ A♦ J♠ 10♦ and similar: Any hands featuring any pair of Aces with two broadway cards (Ten to King), are the best hands in PLO. You should raise and reraise with these hands and, if it is possible, go all-in before the flop.
Playing poker against opponents who are lesser-skilled than you is a recipe for success. Not all your opponents are weak, however, there are some very good poker players out there. These stronger players are not limited to high-stakes games, good poker players frequent even the low and micro-stakes.
It is easier to win against weak players. They do not think deep enough about the game to warrant any out-of-the-box thinking. Value bet when you have the good, fold when they show strength, and you will not go far wrong.
Beating good poker players requires more creativity. They are less likely to pay you off and more likely to put you in tricky spots. Good poker players are more observant, meaning they pick up on betting patterns and tells. You need to be on your game to beat these opponents and beat them consistently.
Keep Good Poker Players Guessing By Mixing Up Your Continuation Bets
We spoke about continuation bets only a week or so ago. They are a powerful tool that every poker player has in their arsenal. Mixing up when you continuation bet and when you do not is one way to confuse good poker players.
Let us take a look at a simple example. We raise preflop with As-Kc and one opponent called. The flop comes down Kd-5c-2s, what do you do? Your first instinct is to continuation bet, but doing this 100% of the time makes you easier to read. Good poker players will stop paying you off. Instead of automatically making a c-bet, consider checking and reevaluating once our opponent acts. Keeping opponents second-guessing themselves is a great way to dominate them.
Consider Slow Playing Big Hands Against Good Poker Players
Few poker players suggest slow-playing big hands preflop, but it is a necessary evil. It is tempting to always three-bet with aces, kings, and queens, and do so for value. Think about just calling when the raises come from good poker players.
Stronger opponents raise with a wider range of hands, hands that they do not want to play in a three-bet pot. They fold a large percentage of their raising range, which leaves you to collect a small pot.
Do not always flat call their raise with a monster, but be prepared to do so. Just calling with strong hands preflop keeps your opponent wondering what you have. They never, initially at least, think you called with pocket kings, for example. Once good poker players know you are capable of flat-calling with big hands, it opens to door to other opportunities. They do not know if you have called with As-Ac or 9d-7d. Likewise, your three-bets could be with anything if you are prepared to only call with a monster!
Do Not Only Raise With Strong Hands and Draws
Lower-stakes players play a more straightforward form of poker. Their raises tend to mean they have an overpair to the board, at least two pair or a set, or a big draw with plenty of outs. Remember our article about playing draws aggressively?
Mix up the hands you raise with and include both bluffs and semi-bluffs. Consider raising the flop with two overcards, for example, raising As-Ks on a Td-6c-3s flop. Raise it up with an inside straight draw occasionally. Good poker players take notes on what they see so the next time you raise on the flop they wonder what on Earth you could hold. Your chances of making money increase when your opponent does not know what to do.
Use a Standard Time For Acting and Watch Your Bet Sizes
Avoid giving off timing tells, especially in the online poker world, by always taking the same amount of time to act. A quick check is almost always the sign of a weak hand. Conversely, a fast bet is almost always a display of strength. Choose a number and wait until you count to it before acting. Keeping your time to act standardized prevents opponents from getting reads from you.
Similar is said for bet sizing. Weaker players bet bigger with strong, made hands, and smaller with bluff and draws. Good poker players mix their bets up, No-Limit Hold’em is “no limit” after all; you can bet what you like!
Always bet the maximum that a recreational player will call. These opponents call you off lightly so extracting value from them is a must. Mix things up against good poker players by sometimes betting small/large with big hands or bluff. Keep them second-guessing and wondering what is happening at their table.
Starting hands
Let’s begin with the starting hands:
A♦A♥K♦K♥, A♠A♦J♠10♦ and similar:
Any hands featuring any pair of Aces with two broadway cards (Ten to King), are the best hands in PLO. You should raise and reraise with these hands and, if it is possible, go all-in before the flop. These types of hands don’t need too much help to win and have good chances against a hand with multiple opponents.
K♣K♥Q♣J♠, J♥J♣Q♦K♣ and similar:
High pairs (TT-KK) with consecutive cards are also really strong and they do well in heads-up. When we play these kinds of hands against several opponents we should open raise from any position. However, since it is fairly common to find at least one player with Aces in PLO, we shouldn’t push these hands too aggressively before the flop.
8♥8♦7♦6♥, 7♣7♠8♣9♥ and similar:
Middle pairs with consecutive cards are especially strong in multiway pots, as they get their value from coordinated draws or made hands on the flop. They are speculative hands, but when you hit your set and straight draw you may have some clients to earn some money. You should limp in with these hands. Calling a raise can also be right, mainly with other potential callers behind.
A♥K♥Q♣J♠, K♥Q♥J♠10♣ and similar:
These hands are strong, but they are easily dominated before the flop, especially by high pairs. In early position you should play these hands carefully. In late position you can call a raise or even raise the pot.
7♥8♥9♣10♠, 7♣9♥10♣J♥ and similar:
Medium and consecutive cards are quite strong and they are playable from any position. You should play them as draws most of the times. However, sometimes it is good to play these hands like Aces and raise, in order to be more difficult to read.
4♣5♦5♣6♠, 3♣3♦4♥5♠ and similar:
Low pairs with consecutive cards work well from late positions. These hands are profitable quite often, mainly when we hit a low straight (A-2-3-4-5).
3♥4♣5♣6♥, 4♥5♠7♣8♥ and similar:
Low consecutive cards should be treated like medium cards. But, considering many of your potential hands are the lowest possible straight, you must fold these hand in early position and not too optimistically in late position.
A♥K♠10♣4♥, K♣Q♥J♣6♦ and similar:
In these hands one of the cards doesn’t match with the others (this card is known as a “dangler”). This kind of hand should be played only in small pots and late position. Folding this type of hand is not a mistake. Why would you play with only three coordinated cards against players who have four? That is an unnecessary disadvantage we can easily avoid.
A♥A♠7♦3♣, Q♥Q♦9♣2♥ and similar:
These hands justify their value if we hit the top set, but we should be careful about these hands before the flop. We need to look at the Aces in a much different way than we do in Texas Hold’em: in Omaha, while Aces may be a favorite against any individual hand pre-flop, it is unlikely that you can win a large pot without improving those Aces to a set or a full house. These hands can become the biggest danger hands for beginning players and should be treated with caution.
Best Poker Hands To Play
Q♥Q♦Q♣3♥, A♥10♥7♥2♥ and similar:
Having trips in our starting hand is a huge disadvantage since we are forced to play with exactly 2 hole cards and here the third card is a vital out to our potential set. The cards listed in no particular order are not too useful either. The hand will be even worth less if is single suited, as we are losing two important outs for a flush. Fold these hands without a second thought.
10♠10♥10♦10♣:
Having quads is extremely rare and even if it looks good, these hands have zero value to make a hand. We could hope that the board revolves around our quads (here, around the ten: 8-9-J-Q-K) letting us to make a bluff. No one can have another ten. Yet, staying in the hand for so long costs us money and if we get called, we will lose even more chips.
The double suited hands are better in Omaha. Therefore,A♠A♦7♦8♠ is substantially better than A♣A♥7♠8♦. In a battle between those hands, the second one would have no chance of winning. Additionally, the first hand will make a flush in 14% of cases. In the rest of the cases they will split the pot.
Good Preflop Poker Hands
Also,J♥10♣9♥8♣ is favored against A♠A♦5♥6♣, since it is double suited. Hands with two suited cards are better than rainbow hands.
Three suited cards decrease value to the hand (eg. A♥10♥8♥3♥), since we can use only two of them at the showdown.
In summary, we must keep in mind that a good starting hand selection in Omaha is more important than in Texas Hold’em. This is mainly because our opponents have a lot of chances to get a strong hand on the flop. So, to win we need to have some value at the showdown. Even the second best hand frequently loses on the river in PLO (eg. King high flush).
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