The difference between Pot Limit Omaha (PLO) and No Limit Hold'Em (NLH) is still massively underestimated.

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.

When starting out in PLO, it's imperative that you adjust your starting hands from NLHE.

• in Hold 'Em, a hand like qq is considered extremely strong, however, in PLO, a hand like qq83 is a very weak hand and should almost never be played.
• So many combinations of hands in PLO have an extremely similar change of winning pre-flop, for example a hand like aakk is a very marginal favourite to win pre-flop against a hand like qj109.

1. The best possible low hand on Omaha Hi/Lo (and Stud Hi/Lo) is 5-4-3-2-A, which is often known as the wheel (or bicycle). You will notice that the 'wheel' is also a Five-high straight on the high end of the board, which makes it a very powerful holding in Hi/Lo games.
2. There is some debate among expert PLO players as to which is the best starting hand of all. Some argue this is A-A-K-K double suited, while others prefer A-A-J-10 double suited (the double suited refers to having only 2 suits, with these hands these would necessarily be.

• We've listed the best 30 starting hands in Pot Limit Omaha below, all of which are Double Suited.

Make sure that you fully understand Omaha Rules before you begin your Omaha poker career and that you also know How to play pairs and Rundowns in Omaha

“What is the best starting hand in Pot Limit Omaha?” is something I get asked a lot and unlike in No Limit Hold Em the answer isn’t actually as immediately obvious, this is because in Omaha hands almost always see a flop and so their absolute pre-flop equity is not nearly as important; additionally hand values run a lot closer together in general, meaning however strong a starting hand you have it’s a lot easier for your opponent to out flop your holding. With that said it is generally agreed that AAKK double suited is the best hand you could hope to get dealt in PLO:

That said, the key to a great starting hand in Pot Limit Omaha is floppability, a clumsy term, I know, but forgive me for a moment. It’s important to realise the *reason* why AAKK double suited is the best starting hand. It’s not because it has AA in it, that’s really only a big advantage if you can get most of your money in pre-flop, no the reason it’s the best hand is because it can flop either the nuts in lots of different ways or it can flop draws to the nuts.

Here are a few flops that As Ks Ad Kd could hit where you’d usually be super happy to get your money in even when you’re playing with a deep stack and the pot is small on the flop:

• 
  You’ve flopped top set, if you can get it in here you’re almost always going to be a favourite.
• 
  you have two overpairs the nut flush draw and a gutshot, getting all in on this kind of a board is always going to be good for you. Even in a worst case scenario and you’re against QQxx you’re going to be roughly a coinflip. In all other situations you’ll range from a clear favourite to a huge favourite. In spots like this the value of having the nut flush draw is extremely important. You’ll often get it in against a hand like 89TJ with the same flush draw, in this spot you are a massive (for PLO) 75% favourite to win the pot, however if you were to get all in against the very same hand holding AA52 rainbow (all different suits) you’d actually be a 29% underdog! This should clearly demonstrate the value of “Good aces” versus “Bad aces”, with a hand like AAKKds you will flop opportunities to get lots of money in with great equity far more often!
• 
  Again you’ve flopped an overpair and the nut flush draw. In situations like this you will normally be very happy getting money in, especially against an aggressive opponent. Just imagine he is holding Q875 for top two pair, he excitedly gets all his money in, putting you on an overpair, well in this situation you’re actually a 54% favourite, against other hands he might be shoving, like top pair + a lower flush draw you’ll have your opponent absolutely crushed!

What I’m trying to illustrate here is that by reraising pre-flop and playing AAKKds fast and aggressively you will flop a lot of good situations to get a lot of money in, on the other hand consider the following:

Although this is still a premium hand in the right circumstances it’s actually extremely difficult to make a lot of money with if you’re playing a cash game with deep stacks. Why? Because unless you flop top set it’s going to be almost impossible to play. Take this hand up against the 3 situations I posted above, only the the 1st situation (flopping the top set) will this hand play well, in the other two you will likely get money in a huge underdog. Secondly in the first situation you are twice as likely to flop top set because you have KK as your backup, with 8d 2h as your backup cards you’ll be rooting for a miracle to improve your hand.

If you can get 40% of your total stack in before the flop with any AAxx hand then you should do so and stack off on most flops, if however you are playing with deep stacks, either in a tournament or a cash game, you should understand the value of coordinated hands that will make you draws to the nuts.

So with that theory out of the way I hope you have a better idea of what kinds of hands you should consider the crème da la crème of pot limit omaha and why. Here are the complete top 10 omaha starting hands, as you look at them consider the many flops where they can flop big draws to the nuts or 2nd nuts and how coordinated the hands are. Remember Tc Jc Qd Kd is much, much, much stronger than Tc Jc Qd 4h:

From this I’m sure you can begin to formulate in your mind what the next 20 or 30 strongest hands might be. Remember to get AAKKds in PLO is much rarer that getting dealt AA in No Limit Hold Em. Because of this you’ll usually be seeing a flop with at least the top 50 or so hands you could be dealt if you’re playing a ring game and a much wider range again in a heads up match.

Best Hands In Plo8

I hope this has been of help and I’ll see you next time!