clar I think the big thing to bring up in this hand is playing it in the first place. Honestly you will rarely get such a perfect flop for this hand.


Lets look at your hand more closely. You were holding:

As9s9c4h

You have 6 playable "hold'em hands" so lets break them down.

As9s: Meh, okay if there are a bunch of spades, your opponent doesn't pair, AND there is no low. Some scoop possibility here but I try not to play a hand that only contains a naked flush draw.

As9c: Can't make a straight or a flush. Your chances of even having top 2 aren't that good and then the chances of it holding are even slimmer.

As4h: You can make a low with this hand but you need 2 perfect cards (a 2 and a 3) to hit to make the nut low. Remember we are always playing for the nuts in Omaha! Even if you hit your low you have no back-up so if pair your ace or 4 or if no third low card comes you have to put your hand in the muck and your money in your opponents stack. Your prospects for high here are pretty slim.

9s9c: There are a few problems with this being the best holding you have. If you flop a 9 a few things are very likely to happen that may keep you from taking the whole pot or even half.

1) There will be overcards which will create a straight draw or the possibility of a higher set.

2) There will be low cards creating the possibility for a low and possibly a straight draw as well, taking half of the pot or all of the pot from you.

We need to play for the nuts and with 99 being right in the middle of the hand rankings we really open ourselves up to losing either early in the hand or even worse late in the hand when we are heavily invested.

9s4h and 9c4h: Both of these are pretty obvious. Bad hands with little chance for winning high and zero chance at low.


So we can see why it is so important to have 4 cards that work together. Sure we won this time but don't expect to be so lucky in the future. Only around 15% of Omaha high low hands are going to be lifelong winners. Picking a good starting hand is the biggest decision you will make in any hand at the table.

Next time muck it pre-flop.