Double board bomb pot rules

The hand, step by step

1. Everyone antes. Before any card is dealt, each player posts the same amount. There are no blinds and no preflop betting. Nobody can fold before the flop.
2. Hole cards. Four cards in most card rooms, five in many home games. The game is Pot Limit Omaha: you must use exactly two of your hole cards with three from a board.
3. Two flops. The dealer deals two separate flops, one above the other. They share nothing. A card on the top board does not exist for the bottom board.
4. Betting starts on the flop. From the first seat left of the button, the usual pot limit rules: check, bet up to the pot, call, raise up to the pot.
5. Two turns, two rivers. Each board gets its own turn and river, with a betting round after each.
6. Showdown. The pot is split in half. The best hand on the top board takes one half, the best hand on the bottom board takes the other. One player with the best hand on both boards takes everything.

How the pot splits, in numbers

Pot of 100 on the river, two players left.

• You have the best hand on both boards: you take 100.
• You have the best hand on the top board, he has the best on the bottom: 50 each. Whatever went in on the river comes back to whoever put it in. Nobody wins anything on the river.
• You both hold the same nut straight on the top board, he alone has the best hand on the bottom: he takes 50 for the bottom and 25 for his share of the top. You take 25. You were quartered.
• You hold the nuts on one board and air on the other, and he has the nuts on both: he takes 100. Your nuts were worth nothing.

That last line is the one that costs people their stack. The arithmetic of every one of these endings, with bet sizes, is on the river math page.

House rules that vary

• When it is dealt. Once an orbit when the button reaches a fixed seat, every time a new player sits down, at the top of the hour, or whenever the table agrees. Decide before the game starts.
• The ante. Usually fixed per player. In a 1/2 game a 5 or 10 ante per player is common; some home games go much higher. Eight players at 10 each means an 80 pot before the flop.
• Four or five cards. Card rooms mostly deal four. Home games often deal five. With five cards everybody's hands are stronger, which raises the bar for every decision; the frequency tables show by how much.
• Straddle games. Some rooms run the bomb pot at the straddle amount, or at double the big blind. The size of the ante decides how deep the hand plays relative to the pot.
• Odd chips. When a half cannot be split evenly, the odd chip usually goes to the first seat left of the button. Minor, but settle it in advance.
• Hold'em bomb pots. Some tables deal double board Hold'em. Same split, two cards each. It is a different game: far fewer made hands, far more one-board situations. Everything on this site is about the Omaha version.

What changes once there are two boards

Three things, and they explain almost every mistake made in this game.

1. Nobody folded before the flop. Eight players, four or five cards each, two boards. On a paired board somebody almost always holds trips. With two suited cards on a board, a flush draw is almost certain to be out. The tables give the exact numbers.
2. Half the pot is the most a one-board hand can win. The nuts on the top board with nothing on the bottom is a hand that cannot lose the top half and cannot win the bottom half. Betting the pot with it on the river wins nothing from a caller who has the bottom. Raising with a nut straight that can be shared risks a quarter.
3. The big hands are two-board hands. A hand that is strong on both boards scoops, and scoops are where the money is. Our method gives each board a colour and decides from the pair of colours, because that is what the pot split rewards.

Questions people ask

How does a double board bomb pot work?

Every player posts an ante before the cards are dealt. There is no preflop betting. Two separate flops are dealt side by side, the hand is played out with a turn and a river on each board, and the pot is split in half: the best hand on the top board takes one half, the best hand on the bottom board takes the other. Nearly all double board bomb pots are Pot Limit Omaha, with four or five hole cards.

How is the pot split in a double board bomb pot?

Half the pot goes to each board. If one player has the best hand on both boards, they scoop. If two players tie for the best hand on one board, that half is split again, so each of them takes a quarter of the whole pot. A hand that is the nuts on one board and nothing on the other wins exactly half, no matter how much money went in.

What does getting quartered mean?

You hold the best hand on one board, but someone else holds the same hand, usually the same nut straight. The half pot for that board is split between you, so you collect a quarter of the pot. If you put in half the pot on the river and get a quarter back, you lost money on a hand that was the nuts.

Is a bomb pot played with Hold'em or Omaha?

Both exist, but in live games the double board version is almost always Pot Limit Omaha, with four hole cards in most rooms and five in many home games. With four or five cards and two boards, somebody connects with something on almost every deal, which is the whole point of the format.

How often is a bomb pot dealt?

House rule. Common versions: once every orbit when the button passes a fixed seat, every time a new player sits down, on request when the table agrees, or at the top of every hour. The ante is usually a fixed amount per player, often around a big blind to a few big blinds, so the pot is already large on the flop.

What is the biggest strategy difference from a normal PLO hand?

There is no preflop fold, so everyone sees the flop, and everyone is live on two boards. A hand that is strong on one board and dead on the other is worth half, so the hands that win big money are the ones that are strong on both boards. Most of the money lost in this game is lost by players who treat a one-board hand as if it were the nuts.

Where to go from here

• The four-colour method: how to decide a flop in ten seconds.
• How often somebody has it: sets, flushes, full houses, by number of opponents.
• The trainer: play a hand against seven opponent types, five free a day.