PLO starting hands chart
The cleanest PLO preflop decisions come from hand class, not from one big card. Use this chart to separate premium keep hands, playable mix hands, and avoid hands before you move into the evaluator or the comparison tool.
Two suits, tight ranks, and multiple nutted routes across straight and flush runouts.
Powerful shape, but it still wants the right seat, stack depth, and board texture.
One ace does not rescue the gap-heavy shape or the weak suit story.
Chart
This is not a solver output and it is not meant to be memorized line by line. It is a practical filter for the four-card shapes that show up in everyday PLO decisions, especially when you are sorting close opens or looking for a clean entry point.
| Class | Keep / mix / avoid | Example | What to look for | Next step |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Premium rundown | Keep | A♠ K♠ Q♦ J♦ | Two suits, tight ranks, and multiple straight and flush routes that stay live across many runouts. | Open evaluator |
| Double-suited Broadway | Keep | K♠ Q♠ J♥ T♥ | High-card pressure plus a real runout plan, especially in position and against capped ranges. | Compare hands |
| Paired and connected | Mix | K♥ K♦ Q♠ J♦ | Pair value helps, but the rest of the hand must still keep drawing live and avoid becoming one-dimensional. | Starting-hands guide |
| Wheel-connected | Mix | A♣ 4♣ 3♦ 2♦ | Low boards and straight-heavy runouts keep this class useful, but it is not a universal open. | Follow the curriculum |
| Disconnected rainbow | Avoid | A♠ Q♦ 8♣ 3♥ | Gaps, weak suit leverage, and too much second-best equity for a disciplined preflop range. | Beginner guide |
If the hand keeps a real straight path, supports at least one meaningful suit story, and does not fall apart when the board connects, it belongs much closer to keep than to avoid.
Hand classes
Four-card hands matter because each extra card creates a second or third path to the nuts. The best hands make that extra flexibility obvious before the flop.
Keep
Mix
Avoid
Use next
Examples
These examples show how a hand earns its label. When you start sorting holdings this way, your preflop choices become faster and much easier to defend later.
Keep
Tight ranks, two suits, and clean straight potential make this a premium class hand that stays valuable across a wide range of boards.
Mix
This is strong enough to play in the right seats, but it still wants position and careful pressure on boards that do not help the structure.
Avoid
An ace does not rescue a disconnected rainbow hand. Without connection or suit leverage, the hand is often a costly trap.
FAQ
No. The hand still needs connection and suit leverage, or it becomes too dependent on weak made hands and second-best draws.
Rundowns keep more straight runouts alive and usually realize equity better than isolated high cards with gaps.
Mix when the hand has a real upside but still needs the right seat, table, stack depth, or board texture to play cleanly.
Run the hand through the evaluator, then compare it against a second candidate and review the opening ranges guide if you want a fuller study path.
Next step
The chart gives you a fast public reference, the evaluator gives you a practical read on one hand, and the comparison tool shows you which shape keeps more nut paths alive.