Hand Explorer

A♠A♥K♠K♥

The best starting hands in PLO — aces with two nut-flush suits and connected high cards.

AAKK-ds, AAJT-ds and AAQJ-ds head the rankings. You have the best pair, two nut-flush draws, and high cards that make top sets and nut straights. Always raise and reraise for value — but remember even AAKK-ds is only around a 2-to-1 favorite against a good rundown, so postflop discipline still matters. Aim to get money in preflop while the pot is small relative to stacks or when you can get heads-up.

Equity: ≈72% vs random; ≈58–60% vs a suited rundown

A♠A♦8♠4♦

Aces with two suits are always premium, even with junky side cards.

Two nut-flush draws rescue what would otherwise be a fragile hand. Raise and repot preflop, especially when you can get a large share of your stack in — the hand's edge is biggest before the flop. Postflop without an ace or a flush draw, be ready to slow down: the side cards contribute little.

Equity: ≈68–70% vs random

J♠T♥9♠8♥

Four connected cards, two suits — the signature PLO speculative-premium hand.

Rundowns flop the widest range of strong hands and monster draws: wraps, pairs-plus-draws, two pair, flush draws. JT98-ds is close to a coinflip against bare aces and plays far better postflop. Prefer high rundowns (KQJT, QJT9, JT98) — every rank you drop converts nut outs into non-nut outs. Happy to raise, call raises, and see flops in position.

Equity: ≈60% vs random; ≈40–45% vs AAxx-ds

A♠A♥J♠T♦

Very strong — one nut suit plus side cards that actually cooperate.

A clear reraise for value. The connected side cards mean you can flop straight draws and two-pair backup rather than relying on aces alone. Slightly below the double-suited versions but comfortably ahead of most of the deck.

Equity: ≈66–68% vs random

Q♦J♣T♦9♠

Connected and suited once — strong, flexible, plays well in raised pots.

Everything the double-suited rundown does, minus one flush possibility. Still a comfortable open from most positions and a fine call against raises, particularly in position. With an ace-high suit (A-badugi style rundowns like A♦J♦T9), the nut-flush potential upgrades it further.

J♠T♦9♠7♦

A gap at the bottom barely hurts — the top three cards still make the nut straights.

JT97 plays almost as well as JT98: your highest cards, which make the nut end of straights, stay connected. Bottom-gap rundowns are clearly better than top-gap ones (J987) where the gap cuts into your nut-making combinations. A useful rule: gaps at the bottom cost you little; gaps at the top cost you the nuts.

A♣K♦Q♣J♠

AKQJ and friends — every straight you flop is the nut straight.

Four cards ten-or-higher can only make nut straights, and pairing any of them often makes top pair with backup. Suited to the ace, these hands are reraise-worthy; rainbow versions are still solid opens. Their weakness is making lots of one-pair hands in bloated pots — connectedness, not pair value, is what you're playing for.

K♠K♦Q♠Q♥

Two big pairs — a set-mining hand with premium sets.

KKQQ, KKJJ and similar flop a set roughly one time in four, and those sets are usually top set. Double-suited versions are legitimate reraising hands. The danger: on ace-high flops with big pots, kings-up is a fold-class hand. Think of it as 'premium set-mining with showdown backup,' not as a big pair to slowplay.

K♠K♥T♠9♥

Kings with two suits — strong, with one famous weakness.

Plays much like a slightly discounted AAxx-ds: raise it, and with connected side cards reraise it. The weakness is running into aces preflop in reraised pots — and flopping an ace-high board. Since a quarter of your flush draws are king-high rather than nut, stay honest when flush-over-flush money goes in.

A♠A♦9♣4♥

Aces with no suits and no connection — the most overplayed hand in PLO.

Raise them, but with a plan: dry aces want to get most of the money in preflop or win a small pot. Once the flop comes and the pot is deep, an unimproved overpair is a bluff catcher at best. You flop a set about 1 time in 4 with two pairs in hand; the rest of the time this hand makes exactly one pair. The classic NLHE-transition stack-loser.

Equity: ≈62–64% vs random, but equity realizes poorly deep-stacked

J♥9♣8♥7♠

The gap up top means many of your straights are not the nuts.

J987 looks similar to JT98 but plays a class below: on many boards your straight is the ignorant (low) end while an opponent's higher connectors make the nuts. Playable, especially suited and in position, but respect raises on straight-heavy boards.

T♣T♦8♣8♥

Set-mining hands whose sets can end up second-best.

Playable for one raise in position, best in deep-stacked pots where flopping a set wins a stack. The problem is underset risk: mid sets lose big pots to higher sets often enough that you should stay alert on high-card flops. Suited versions and connected versions (9988, T988) upgrade meaningfully.

A♦9♦8♣7♠

The nut suit welded onto three connectors — a great multiway hand.

A♦ with three connected cards gives you nut-flush potential plus wrap potential: exactly the combination that wins stacks in multiway pots. Best played in position for one bet. The naked version of this idea — a suited ace with three unconnected rags — is far weaker; it's the rundown doing most of the work.

8♥7♠6♥5♣

Connected and flexible, but the straights get less nutted as ranks drop.

87 65-type hands flop plenty of wraps and two-pairs, and suited versions are fine speculative hands in position. Each rank you drop means more ignorant-end straights and more dominated flushes. In multiway pots keep the pot small without the nuts; heads-up in position they make excellent semi-bluffing hands.

6♠6♦3♠3♣

Bottom-set mines. When you hit and the money goes in, you're often behind.

Low sets are exactly the hands that pay off higher sets — the definition of reverse implied odds. Occasionally playable cheap from the button; a fold from most seats. If you do flop bottom set, play it fast, not slow: every turn card that completes a draw or pairs the board hurts you.

6♣5♦4♣3♠

They flop 'straights' that lose to better straights.

6543 flops the bottom end of everything: wheel-territory straights that chop or lose, low flushes if suited, and undersets. The wrap counts look impressive until you notice how few outs are to the nuts. Occasionally playable on the button in a limped pot; mostly a discipline test.

K♠Q♦J♠2♣

A three-card hand in a four-card game.

The 2♣ contributes essentially nothing: half of your six two-card combinations include a card that makes no straights, no relevant pairs, and no worthwhile flushes. KQJx plays a full class below KQJT. If the other three cards are premium and suited, it can be worth a look in position — priced as a weak hand, not as 'almost KQJT.'

A♥9♣5♥2♦

One good card and three passengers.

The nut-flush draw is genuinely valuable — but it arrives on only a fraction of flops, and the rest of the hand makes weak pairs and no straights. Occasionally playable cheap in position or in short-stacked pots where one nut draw decides things. Don't confuse it with the suited-ace-plus-rundown class above.

Q♠Q♦Q♣7♥

Three of a kind in your hand is a broken hand, not a strong one.

You can only use two of the queens, so you hold a pair of queens with one useful side card — and you block your own set outs: only one queen remains in the deck. QQQx flops a set less than half as often as QQxx. Nearly always a fold; the four-of-a-kind version (QQQQ) is the worst starting hand structure in the game.

K♦8♦5♣2♣

Two suits can't rescue four unrelated cards.

Suitedness is a bonus on top of a coordinated hand, not a hand by itself. Non-nut flush draws with no straight or set backup are precisely the hands that stack off drawing dead-ish. If the high cards aren't connected and the suits aren't ace-high, let it go.