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Index > Poker games and rules > Odds and probabilities

How many fundamentally different Omaha or Omaha-8 starting hands are there?

Author: Frank Jerome
Last updated: Mar 2010
Copyright © 2009 Frank Jerome
The official and up-to-date version of this answer is here.

Although there are C(52,4) = 270,725 different 4-card hands, many of them are indistinguishible as starting hands because they differ only in suit. For example, AhTh9c8c is equivalent to AsTs9d8d. How many distinct starting hands are there? A total of 16,432, as follows:

  715     C(13,4)       all four cards in same suit
 2860     4*C(13,4)     two suits (3,1), no pairs
 2145     3*C(13,4)     two suits (2,2), no pairs
  858     13*C(12,2)    two suits (3,1), one pair
  858     13*C(12,2)    two suits (2,2), one pair
   78     C(13,2)       two suits (2,2), two pairs
 4290     6*C(13,4)     three suits, no pairs
 2574     13*3*C(12,2)  three suits, one pair
   78     C(13,2)       three suits, two pairs
  156     13*12         three suits, triplets
  715     C(13,4)       four suits, no pairs
  858     13*C(12,2)    four suits, one pair
   78     C(13,2)       four suits, two pairs
  156     13*12         four suits, triplets
   13     13            four suits, quads

16432                   total
(Thanks to storkk for a correction submitted Mar 2010).