Pot-Limit Omaha Preflop Play

Right now there are plenty of Hold'em players that try out the new action game: pot-limit omaha. It's something new and a welcome variation to Hold'em. Although the rules are identical omaha is a whole nother game! You can't just adapt your style you have to play an absolutely new game. And this begins before the flop.

Hands whose cards harmonize
Everybody knows that an omaha hand consists of four cards. The first requirement on your omaha starting hands is that those four cards should somewhat harmonize. If you imagine that you can create six hold'em hands you recoginze how well they should fit. Let's take a look at A28T. While this hand looks ok to hold'em players it's total junk. Almost nothing fits together and the hands you can use are: A8, A2, AT, 82, 8T, T2 – none of them is really strong.
But what about AKQJ? You can create the following hands: AK, AQ, AJ, KQ, KJ, QJ – all of them have a lot potential.
But there are also hands that don't fit together but are well playable. For instance AA26 is a very nice hand because of the two aces although you can only create four hold'em hands with it: AA, A2, A6 and 26 – except AA everything's a weak combination. So harmony isn't the only criteria.
But generally speaking: the more valuable hold'em hands you can create the better!

Hands with straight potential
Mostly you win the big pots in omaha with straights and straights with redraws. You can also flop very strong draws with 21 outs and play them very aggressively. But you have to choose the right hands for that. Obviously four consecutive cards like QJT9 are very strong. Better are four consecutive cards in two suits thus making a flush possible.
Second best are consecutive cards with a gap after the first card for example QT98. Not bad at all are hands with a gap in the middle like QJ98. A little weaker are hands with a gap at the bottom like QTJ8.