‘Killer Cards’ in Omaha Poker refer to those ‘outs’ which improve your hand to beat someone who is either drawing against you, or has already hit their draw. Understanding and using omaha kill card math is as simple as counting the number of outs correctly using some straight forward Omaha Poker principles and, best of all, you will quickly be able to put this to a profitable use at the tables.
Memorizing every combination of hand match-ups and killer outs is possible, though it is not practical at the tables. The reason for this is simple – you do not know your opponent’s exact hand. What an Omaha poker killer cards chart can show you is this:
Your chances of making your hand and your chances of winning the hand are NOT the same...
The most common example is where you have a set (trips) against someone with a straight and flush draw combination. Here a player with a wrap straight plus flush draw is favorite to win if all the money goes in on the flop. However, even if the drawing player makes their hand, a pair on board would give you a winning full house. This is the definition of an Omaha poker ‘kill-card’ – a re-draw, either on the turn (leaving your opponent drawing dead) or on the river.
Below is a chart of common Omaha Killer Card scenarios. Using the logic already mentioned trips would have 7 outs on the turn (1 remaining of your set + 3 of each of the other cards showing on the board) and 10 outs on the river (assuming the turn did not pair the board already there are now 3 additional outs which pair the turn card). This changes depending on many factors – including Kill Cards which you may hold yourself (rendering them useless!).
Simple Omaha Poker Kill Cards Examples
Example 1: Set vs Combination Flush and Wrap Straight Draw
You have A-A-K-K of 4 different suits against and opponent with 4-5-8-9 double suited.
Pre-Flop Match-Up:
A-A-K-K (Unsuited): 55%
4-5-8-9 (Double Suited) 44%
The flop comes down a seemingly favorable K-6-7 with 2 spades (which match opponent’s cards for a low flush draw). Here you have top set but are against a monster draw… with any 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10 or Spade* putting your opponent ahead in the hand.
*Remember not to double count the spade straight outs or count those spades which pair the board.
Post Flop Match-Up:
Flop: Ks-6s-7h
A-A-K-K (Unsuited) 42%
4-5-8s-9s (Double Suited) 57%
As expected the draw takes the lead on this flop. However, your A-A-K-K still has outs, and all of these will win the hand for you (your opponent has no redraws against a full house or better). The last remaining King gives you quads and the 3 remaining 6’s and 3 remaining 7’s give you top full house.
In this example, the turn brings a flush card for your opponent, in this case the Jack of spades.
Hand Match-Up After The Turn:
Board: Ks-6s-7h-Js
A-A-K-K (Unsuited) 25%
4-5-8-9 (Double Suited) 75%
Even against a made flush on the turn A-A-K-K (with top set) will still win a healthy 25% of the time. There are now 10 killer cards to consider. The last King of course still gives quads, the 3 remaining 6’s and 7’s give you a full house and now there are 3 remaining Jacks which may also pair the board on the river - giving you a full house.
While this has shown why making your draw and winning the hand are 2 different things – the actual situations will vary from hand to hand and from opponent to opponent, so be careful!
Understanding the strategy behind Omaha will actually give you a potentially profitable edge at the tables – but only if you are ready to ensure that your opponents are one step behind you in terms of that knowledge and experience.
All the best,
USC ;)
