So you’ve been playing hold’em for a while and thought you would try something new? Omaha is a great place to get started, and PLO, or Pot Limit Omaha, is a very popular and fun game. This is a game that is very much like Hold’em except for two specific differences in game play that can make all the difference in the world when it comes to strategy.

PLO Differences
Unlike Hold’em where you are dealt two down cards, in PLO you are dealt four. Before you get excited when you look at your down cards and see 5,6,7,8 of hearts, you are only allowed to use two of your cards to make your five card hand. In fact you must use EXACTLY two of your cards, and exactly three of the five cards on the board. This will result in many “almost” kind of hands, where if you could only use three of your four hole cards, or four of the table cards, you would have the nut hand. Alas, this can’t happen in PLO.

The PL in PLO
Pot Limit is very much like Limit. The major difference is that the maximum bet size is determined not by the big blind, but by the amount of money in the pot. This way there is a little more safely than No Limit (your opponent can only push you for the size of the pot and not necessarily all your chips) and a lot more excitement by having very large pots. Controlling the pot size is an active part of PLO and a whole new strategy.

The best of the best in PLO
In PLO you will notice something that makes a big difference in game play. Because of the four down cards each player has a lot more options. Flushes and straights and even full houses will happen all the time and be much more common. If you want to be sure of a victory, then, you need to look for making the absolute nut hand.

You may think that A-A-A-A is the best starting hand in PLO, but remember you can only use two cards. The best hand is A-A-J-T, where all but one ace card is the same suit. This way you could make a range of nut straights, a nut full house and a nut flushes.