Gambling terms, explained straight

Poker

Omaha starting hands chart

A chart that groups Omaha hole-card combinations by their preflop strength, helping players decide which hands to play and how to play them.

Hole cards dealt
Four private cards per player 1
Hand-building rule
Exactly two hole cards plus exactly three board cards 1
Chart scope
Applies to four-card Omaha and Omaha hi-lo 1

Key points

  • Charts focus on combinations that work well under the constraint that only two hole cards may be used with three community cards 1.
  • An Omaha hi-lo starting hands chart is a subtype for split-pot Omaha/8, tuned to hands that can win both high and low 1.
  • No single universal chart exists; different sources publish their own rankings 3.

Where this term is used

Not the same as

  • Poker starting hands chart — a broader term that can refer to charts for other poker games, especially Texas hold 'em, which uses two hole cards and has 169 non-equivalent starting hands 2
  • Omaha poker hands — the actual hands or hand rankings in Omaha, not the chart used to evaluate starting hands 1
Poker Poker hands Explains the standard hand rankings used in most poker variants. Poker Omaha poker Overview of Omaha poker rules and gameplay. Poker Omaha poker hand rankings Details the hand rankings specific to Omaha poker. Poker Poker hand odds chart Shows the probability of making each hand in poker. Poker Poker hands chart preflop A preflop chart for Texas hold 'em, not Omaha. Poker Texas Hold'em hands Covers starting hands and hand rankings for Texas hold 'em.

Sources

  1. Omaha Poker - card game rules - Pagat pagat.com Provides the official rules for Omaha, including the four-card deal and two-plus-three hand-building rule.
  2. Texas hold 'em starting hands - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org Supports the distinction between Omaha and Texas hold 'em starting hand charts.
  3. Are ChatGPT and GPT-4 Good Poker Players? - A Pre-Flop ... arxiv.org Confirms that no single universal chart exists for Omaha starting hands.

Sources are drawn from regulators, universities and published research, and each one is labelled with what it actually is — a preprint is not called a paper. Bookmaker and affiliate pages are never cited here, because a page that sells betting is not a neutral authority on it.

Written and maintained by Ellis Warrender, writer and maintainer.

Last updated 28 July 2026. Spotted an error? Tell me and it gets fixed and logged on the corrections page.