How To Play Pot Limit Omaha – Crash Course
As the sudden, striking popularity of Pot Limit Omaha soars ever high these days, more and more Texas Hold’em poker enthusiasts are finding themselves distracted by adjacent poker tables where the game is taking place, and asking themselves, “Pot Limit Omaha, huh? Can you tell me how to play PLO?”
Of course, no one is going to abandon their table and chips to teach some curious George how to play Pot Limit Omaha, but we’re here to do it for them. Below, you will find a complete description of how to play Pot Limit Omaha, or as it is commonly referred to now days – “PLO”.
Rules of PLO
Players receive 4 Hole Cards, face down. These are their personal cards, seen only by the player. Throughout the hand, 5 Community Cards will be dealt face up to the center of the table. These cards are seen and used by every player at the table, in combination with their personal Hole Cards, to develop the strongest possible 5-card poker hand.
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Here’s where it gets tricky, so pay close attention. When developing your 5-card poker hand, each player MUST use EXACTLY 2 Hole Cards and 3 Community Cards.
Small Blind and Big Blind bets are used to sweeten the pot before the hand begins. The Small Blind is placed by the player left of the dealer button, equal to the low-end stakes; Big Blind is placed by the player left of the Small Blind, equal to the high-end stakes. For this quick tutorial on how to play Pot Limit Omaha, we’ll use stakes of $2/$4. Therefore, the Small Blind is $2, Big Blind is $4.
Now for the “Pot Limit” definition… Pot Limit stakes determine the minimum and maximum size of all Bets and Raises. The minimum Bet/Raise is always equal to the high-end stakes (except for the forced Small Blind); so the minimum is $4. The maximum bet, on the other hand, changes constantly because it is always equal to the size of the pot – hence the term ‘Pot Limit’.
Let’s say there’s $10 in the pot. The next bettor can bet a minimum of $4 or maximum of $10. He chooses to wager $6. The pot is now at $16. The next bettor has the option to bet $16, and Raise $16. If he does, the pot would now be $48. I think you get the idea.
For this reason, PL Omaha (or any Pot Limit game, for that matter) can actually be one of the most expensive poker variants out there. Be sure to have a decent bankroll before joining a PL Omaha table. Even at $2/$4 stakes, you can see how quickly the chips may stack up.
On with the game…
There are 4 betting rounds in PL Omaha:
The first betting round is after the initial deal, once every sees their Hole Cards (except for the Small/Big Blinds, which were forced before the deal). This one is kind of complicated, so we’ll go a bit more into detail. Starting with the player left of the Big Blind, this player must Call the Big Blind, Raise or Fold. Betting continues clockwise until reaching the Small Blind bettor. The Small Blind bettor can Call or Raise the current bet by ADDING chips to his Small Blind to equal the respective amount, or Fold. IF no player has Raised, the Big Blind bettor may Check (because his Big Blind covers the bet). If someone has Raised, the Big Blind may Call or Raise by adding chips to his Big Blind to equal the amount, or Fold. Once all players have Called or Folded, the betting round ends. (Of course, if everyone Folded, the hand is over… if not, proceed.)
The Flop: 3 Community Cards are played face-up on the table. A second round of betting begins, this time with the player left of the dealer button. This and all remaining betting rounds are played out normally, with the option to Check, Bet, Call, Raise and Fold, as available throughout the round.
The Turn: A fourth Community Card is dealt, followed by another round of betting.
The River: The final Community Card is played and final betting round begins.
At this point, it is likely that enough players will have Folded for a single winner to already prevail. However, if at least two players are still in the Pot Limit Omaha hand, a Showdown will occur.
The Showdown: All remaining players combine EXACTLY 2 Hole Cards and EXACTLY 3 Community Card to develop the strongest possible 5-card poker hand. The highest ranking poker hand wins the entire pot.
The end, good luck and happy ‘PLO’ing!