Home / Guides / PLO, PLO5 and PLO6

PLO, PLO5 and PLO6

Pot-limit Omaha is Hold'em's big brother. You get four hole cards in PLO, five in PLO5 and six in PLO6, and the betting is pot limit.

The one rule that matters

Your hand is made of exactly two of your hole cards and exactly three of the five cards on the board. Not one hole card, not three. Four hearts on the board and one heart in your hand is not a flush, and a pair of aces in your hand on a board of three kings is a full house of kings over aces, not more aces.

Pot limit

The most you can bet or raise is the size of the pot, counting your call first. No one can move all in for a stack many times the pot in one go, so the money goes in over the streets, and when two players both like their hands the stacks often go in on the turn or the river.

What each extra card changes

• More cards mean more two-card combinations: six in PLO, ten in PLO5 and fifteen in PLO6. Players hit the board more often, so the winning hands get stronger.
• Hands run closer before the flop. Even the best starting hands are rarely a big favourite against another good hand, which is why the swings are bigger than in Hold'em.
• The nuts matter more. A flush that is not the best flush, or the low end of a straight, loses big pots in Omaha far more often than in Hold'em.
• Draws are bigger. With wraps and combination draws, a hand that has not made anything yet can be the favourite against a made hand.

Starting out

Start one stake lower than you play Hold'em, and keep more buy-ins for it. Favour hands whose cards work together: connected cards, suited cards, and pairs with connected cards beside them. A hand with one strong pair and two cards that do nothing is weaker than it looks.

Basepoker runs PLO, PLO5 and PLO6 from $0.01/$0.02 to $5/$10. The stakes and buy-ins are on Basepoker cash games.

More guides