Omaha Poker Rules (PLO)

Omaha looks like Hold’em with more cards and plays very differently. The most common form online is Pot-Limit Omaha (PLO), and it is the second game on nearly every club app.

The core rule

Each player receives four hole cards. At showdown a hand is made from exactly two hole cards and exactly three community cards. Not one, not three. This rule is the source of most beginner mistakes: four hearts in hand with one on the board is not a flush.

Betting

Blinds, button and betting rounds are the same as Hold’em: preflop, flop, turn, river. In pot-limit, the maximum bet or raise is the size of the pot. To calculate a maximum raise: add the current pot, all bets on the table and the amount you would call, then raise by that total. Online clients do this for you; understanding it still matters.

Hand values

Rankings are the same as Hold’em – see hand rankings – but with four cards, strong hands are far more common. A flush or straight that would be a lock in Hold’em is often beaten in Omaha, and the nuts change street by street.

Omaha Hi-Lo

Also called Omaha 8 or Better. The pot is split between the best high hand and the best qualifying low hand (five unpaired cards eight or lower), using any two hole cards for each half separately. If no low qualifies, the high hand takes everything.

Five- and six-card Omaha

Club apps popularised PLO5 and PLO6, dealing five or six hole cards. The two-and-three rule still applies. More cards make the games more volatile and generally softer, which is part of their appeal.

Note on software

Our bot does not play Omaha, and solvers for the game are fewer and heavier than for Hold’em; see the Simple Postflop review for one that does.