After A-A-3-x and A-2-3-4 comes A-2-3-X. With A-2-3-X you will win a piece of the pot more than 40 percent of the time. Many top pros really want to have four wheel cards in a hand, even when that hand doesn’t contain both an ace and deuce, like A-3-4-5 or 2-3-4-5.

Here is my list of 08B hands (the first 10 on the list are “premium,” and the next eight I’ll call “strong”), in order from best playable hand to worst playable hand. Again, this is the list of the playable hands. Suited hands are better than unsuited hands.

This is my list of the most powerful playable hands in 08B. Hands like 0494949 are right on the edge of being playable (I’m playing them). I will almost always play two big pairs double-suited. But I’m not interested in hands like 0494943′ since the pairs aren’t high enough to win on their own merit. Moreover, when you do flop a set with a hand like this, your set will almost never be the highest available three of a kind on the board. Generally, when there is an eight or a nine on the board there will be over cards out there also. In Omaha, whenever there are over cards there is a good possibility of an overset, so you want to stay away from hands like this. But these drawbacks do not apply to A-A, K-K, or Q-Q.

Premium and Strong 08B Hands

Premium hands
1. A-A-2-3
2. A-A-2-x
3. A-A-3-x
4. A-2-3-4
5. A-2-3-X (wins a piece of the pot more than 40% of th e time)
6. A-2-K-K, A-2-Q-Q
7. A-3-4-5
8. A-A-4-5, A-A-x-x
9. A-2-Q-K, A-2-K-J and A-2-x-x
10. A-3-K-K

Strona hands
11. A-3-4-X
12. 2-3-4-5
13. J-Q-K-A
14. 10-J-Q-K
15.J-Q-K-K
16. 9-10-J-Q
17. 2-3-4-x
18. Any four cards between a ten and an ace

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The best possible starting hand in 08B is A-A-2-3, with the A-2 and the A-3 pairs each of the same suit. So 0-[2~[9~[9 is as good as it gets in 08B for a starting hand. Any A-A-2-3 with just one suited pair is the next-best possible hand, followed by A-A-2-3 with no suits. Why is this hand so strong? First, you're starting with the best possible pair (A-A); second, you have the nut-flush possibility when you're suited to the ace; and, third, you already have three wheel cards that offer the best possible low combination (A-2), the second-best possible low combination (A-3), and the third-best possible low combination (2-3). So this is an incredibly powerful hand, because you have so many great low possibilities and high possibilities at the same time. This is a hand that's easy to scoop the pot with, and hands that have strong scooping potential are highly prized in high-low-split games.

The next-best possible starting hand in my book is A-A-2-4, followed by A-A-2-5, and so on, all the way down to A-A-2-K. The reason why A-A-2-x is such a big hand is that you will often make the best possible low hand with it, and the A-A can hold up for high as well, especially when there is another pair on the board, like 10-4-5-7-7. After A-A-2-x, I prefer A-A-3-x, but some other pros like A-2-3-4. The argument for A-A-3-x is that you have the best possible pair, the second-best possible low card combination, and, if you're suited, the best possible flush draw. The argument for the A-2-3-4 is that you have all the low draws covered. In most cases where the board qualifies for low, you will have the nut low. What you think is more important—having all the lows covered or having high features—will determine which of these hands you like better. But there are good arguments either way. In any case, they are both very powerful starting hands in 08B.

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When you have A-2 in your hand, you're hoping to guarantee yourself half the pot by winning the low side and to get lucky somehow, some way, and win the high half as well. Perhaps you will win the high half with a full house, a flush, a straight, trips, two pair, one pair, or even ace high! In 2001, in the World Championships of Omaha (the $5,000 buy-in 08B tournament at the WSOP), I busted out the poker legend T.J.

Cloutier at the final table when my A-J high beat his A-6 high! T.J. started with A-2-5-6, and I started with A-2-5-J. The board brought 3-7-3-3-K, and I won the pot with my A-J and the board of 3-3-3. He had A6-3-3-3 for high, and there was no low on the board! I went on to finish second to another world champion, Scotty Nguyen, even though I had Scotty $490,000 to $60,000 in chips at one point. I simply ran into a really unlucky stretch of cards at that point, although Scotty is considered by many to be one of the best 08B players in the world today. Don't feel too bad for me, though, because second place did pay more than $100,000.

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With a board showing (3~043~[9~0> the best possible high hand is A-10, which makes 10-J-Q-K-A (an ace high straight). There are no pairs on board; thus there are no fours of a kind or full houses. There isn't three to a suit on the board; thus there are no flushes. So a straight is the best possible high hand, with A-10 being best and 9-10 being second-best. The third-best possible high hand is three kings, followed by all the three-of-a-kind hands. Next we have top two pair, made with K-Q out of the hand. Anyway, you get the idea.

The Importance of A-2 in Your Starting Hand
Now that we've covered how to qualify a low, from combinations of board and hand, and what the best possible low hands are, given certain boards, let's move on to a more complete picture of 08B. We'll turn now to the problem of assessing starting hands.
A few poker professionals believe there is only one two-card combination you could have in your hand that is so promising you would not have to look at your other two hole cards before deciding to play. This combination is A-2. In other words, a lot of top players believe that any hand containing A-2 is playable, regardless of what the other two cards in the hand are. Of course, I would never recommend not looking at the other two cards (although I sometimes don't look). In poker, it's always a good idea to know what your whole hand is!

The importance of starting with an A-2 among the four cards in your hand cannot be underestimated. Some professionals consider it more important than starting with A-A! Often the board will come down with a combination of three low cards of three through eight (like 3-4-5, 4-6-8, 4-5-7, or 3-7-8). When any of these combinations of three through eight hit the board, the best possible low hand is made with the A-2 in your hand. The majority of low boards require that you have an A-2 in your hand to make the nut (best possible) low. That is, most of the time when there is a low-qualified board, A-2 from someone's hand will make the best possible low. This is why most premium 08B hands contain A-2. Of course, with a board of 2-4-7-J-J, A-3 is the best possible low.

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If you have a hand of "tS' an<^ trie board shows
tnen y°u would use the A-4 from your hand for the second-best possible low hand of 7-5-4-2-A. You would use the A-7 portion of your hand for a high hand of A-7-7-Q-K, or just a pair of sevens with A-K-Q kickers. This hand is a lot weaker than the previous example, with one pair of sevens serving as your high hand and the second-best low working as your low hand. But it's not bad: an excellent shot at low and an outside shot at high.

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If you have a hand of 0~M~[VJ-fy] and a board of Py|~P»1~ [V]-pVl-pv1, then you use 0~[3 f°r the second-best possible low hand of 8-6-5-3-A. (A-2 would make the best possible low in this case.) For high you would also use for the nut (best possible) flush. As you can see from this example, it's possible to use the same two cards from your hand for both high and low. Having the best possible high hand and the second-best possible low hand in the same hand is a stunning sensation. You may well scoop both the high and the low halves of the pot with this hand.

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If you have A-2-J-Q in your hand (this is a pretty good starting hand) and a board of 4-5-8-J-Q, your low hand will be 8-5-4-2-A, or the best possible low hand in this case. For low, you use the A-2 from your hand and the 8-5-4 from the board. Your high hand will be Q-Q-J-J-8, or top two pair of queens and jacks, using the Q-J from your hand and the Q-J-8 from the board. In this example you're using A-2 for low and Q-J for high.

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