Importance of Being Double-Suited in Omaha
I’d like to take a few moments to tell you about the importance of being properly suited. If you’ve ever had the embarrassment of showing up at a black-tie affair decked out in a Hawaiian shirt, cutoff dungarees, flip-flops and one of those “foam dome” plastic hats with two slots for beer cans and a connective tube that funnels a stream of icy cold suds to your waiting mouth, you know that it’s very important to adopt the proper dress code before leaving the house.
Clearly, the right suit is critical. But you may not realize that this very same subject becomes greatly enhanced - in terms of urgency - when dealing with the phenomenon of being “double- suited.” Here, as in so many aspects of modern life, precise communication is of the greatest importance. Just last week, I picked up my double-breasted hounds tooth suit from my neighborhood cleaner’s shop and found an ugly surprise waiting for me. The cleaner - a usually reliable sort of Vietnamese descent - had totally misinterpreted my instructions to steam-clean the suit and had instead marinated it in a pot of steamed clams. Needless to say, I had a serious problem on my hot date that night.
However, the issue of being double-suited also plays a tremendously important role in the popular community card poker variation of Omaha. Allow me, if you will, to make a few further pertinent remarks on this matter.
The situation of being double-suited in a game of Omaha generally arises in terms of assessing your starting hand. It Omaha, you are dealt four hole cards at the beginning of each round. This will form the basis from which you will make a collective hand using three face-up cards on the board which are available to all of your opponents. It is in your four hole cards that you always want to look for double-suiting.
Let’s say, for example, that your starting hand looks something like this: king of hearts, ten of diamonds, three of hearts and six of diamonds. As you can see, under this type of scenario you would be starting the hand in an enviable double-suited position. Why is this such a desirable situation? Because as the other betting rounds proceed during the game, (from flop to turn to river), you will have more opportunities to create a strong hand of pairs or better. And your ability to put together lethal combinations will be greatly enhanced by be starting with double-suited hole cards.
Now, there are some self-appointed poker gurus and experts out there who will advise you not to proceed with an aggressive betting style unless your starting hand is double-suited. I, for one, do not follow that strict approach. It is still entirely possible to craft a strong winning strategy even when dealt nonconsecutive and unsuited cards. But the specific strategy for proceeding in that fashion will have to be addressed in a future article.