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PLO games in various areas often offer twists that change how they play out and the correct GTO strategy. Among many ideas and variants, the most popular is playing with two boards (sometimes in the "Bomb Pots" format).
If you've never played PLO (or PLO5) with two boards, you'll be surprised how differently the game plays out. An additional board adds a whole layer of complexity, which many players (as is often the case when a niche idea becomes popular) are unaware of. The game feels so fresh and challenging that even some live No Limit Hold 'em games implement an occasional PLO Bomb Pot every dealer change!
It seems like the double board PLO and Bomb Pots are inclined to become more popular. Unsurprisingly, if a skill-intensive game variant becomes in demand, it is worth learning, as a large part of the population is completely unaware of how to play it.
So, let’s dive a little deeper into the rabbit hole and examine how to tackle the double board PLO.
How does the double board PLO work?
Let's start with the basics. The double board PLO (sometimes even PLO5 and PLO6) is a split game, meaning the pot is split into two halves, one for each board, usually dubbed top and bottom. The mechanic of splitting the pot works similarly to the "Run It Twice" feature.
Most importantly, you must have the best hand on both boards to win a whole pot at a showdown. And, as you might suspect, that's not an easy feat, so you will often end up chopping the pot and sometimes even splitting one half of it (if more than one player has the same straight, for example).
An even more intricate variant of double board PLO is "Bomb Pots." Depending on what's popular in your region, they can be an occasional occurrence (like one hand after dealer change in an NLH game) or a regular game.
There's no preflop in Bomb Pots
Bomb Pots have two distinctive characteristics.
The most important one is that there's no preflop betting - everyone is in the pot on the flop. That means the hand can start with as many as eight people in!
The second thing to note is that before the Bomb Pot is dealt, players post ante instead of the Big Blind and Small Blind. As a result, the average pot is way bigger as the ante (depending on the home rules) can be as big as 10 BB. Although there's no set limit, the most popular number is 5BB.
Double board PLO & Bomb Pots: a few things to grasp
Like every other poker game, PLO Bomb Pots is full of nuances and has its own metagame, which you learn over time. For now, let's focus on a few important basic takeaways that can save you a lot of money.
Take card removal into account
In any poker game, you rarely have any other firm information about the cards that are still in or out of the deck (this happens mostly in live games when either the dealer or a player accidentally flips cards over).
While it will be obvious after some time, you should remember that cards present on one board are "dead" on the other. Let's say the boards are A46 rainbow and AA7 rainbow. If you have the last Ace, no other player can also have trips. A similar effect applies when there's KJ2 (club, club, diamond) on the top board and A65 (club, spade, heart) on the bottom; if you have Queen of clubs and at least one other club in your hand, you are drawing to the nut flush on the top board and have a backdoor nut flush draw on the bottom one.
Aim for freerolling (or a decent chance to scoop the whole pot)
Usually, to continue on further streets in a double board PLO, your hand has to fulfil one of the two requirements. It should have one board crushed (which means you hold unique nuts, like the nut flush on an unpaired board or a good full house on a paired one) or should have reasonably good equity on both boards, like having a middle set with a backdoor flush draw on one board and a nut flush draw with a nut gutshot on the other.
What's the logic behind that idea? Your goal and the best outcome to aim for is winning the whole pot, and most of the time, you should VPIP when you have high equity on one board. If you win at least one board, you're guaranteed to break even (barring rake) or win some money, meaning any equity on the other board is essentially a freeroll. The second best outcome is when you have solid equity on both boards (over 50% in HU pots or 33% in three ways).
Straights are not as good as in regular PLO
Nuts in double board PLO can either be absolute nuts (meaning they never chop) or "shared" ones. The absolute nuts are nut flushes, top full houses or better, and they always guarantee you to win one board. The shared nuts are way worse than you might think; chopping the pot is a neutral outcome in regular PLO (or even NLH). In double board PLO, your straights often will end up chopping one half of the pot, meaning that if you made hand on one board your best outcome is only ¼ of the pot.
Know what’s your aim (pushing and pulling)
You'll often find yourself in a spot where you have one board locked in, and you're almost hopeless to win the second board. What should you do? It depends on how many people are still in the hand. If there's only one opponent betting big will be a better strategy, as then the worst outcome will be chopping the pot, and sometimes you'll manage to push your opponent out and scoop the whole pot.
However, if the pot is multiway and you're confident of winning one board but have no chance to win the second one, consider a much more passive strategy to pull more of your opponents into the pot. Whenever you're only playing for half of the pot (let's assume you have quads or straight flush), you're interested in making "your half" as big as possible, so it's wise to let other people catch up and put more money into the pot. Often, if you start potting, you'll chase other people out of the pot, except for the player who has a second board locked in, so you fail to make any more money.
Why bother learning Bomb Pots?
Of course, there will be poker players who consider playing and learning the double board PLO & Bomb Pots dynamic a needless hustle. While you may choose not to play double board PLO or opt against or even sit out the Bomb Pots, we'll advise against that, and here's why.
If you're playing a live game and the bomb pot occurs every dealer change, it will take a lot of your playing time. Assuming that the dealer changes every 30 minutes and one Bomb Pot hand takes roughly 5 minutes, that's a ⅙ of your whole live session, which is undoubtedly a lot!
Additionally, the Bomb Pots are much bigger than an average pot (assuming 5 BB in 8-handed PLO, that's 40BB on the flop!), meaning that when played correctly, they will significantly boost your overall win rate.
As is usually the case, most live players play according to their experience and intuition, not the optimal strategy. The same can be said even for PLO regulars since they often do not put much effort into studying the Bomb Pot principles. All of that results in the fact that there's a lot of edge to be gained when playing Bomb Pot (and even "regular" double board PLO).
A few more ideas to make your life easier
Due to their complexity and the fact that they are mostly popular in a live environment, the bomb pots are relatively unsolved games. That's why you should simplify your decisions as much as possible.
As in other games with community cards, the board usually runs out in a dynamic (meaning that nuts will likely change on every street, as is often the case when there are multiple draws present) or static manner (meaning the nuts on the flop will relatively likely be the nuts on the river, as is the case on disconnected and paired boards). Whenever you face a bet, you should think about which board your opponent is more likely to be focused on and what drives their decision when they bet against multiple players.
Most of the time bets will be driven by the more static boards, as there is more immediate value to be had (and protecion). And average player is more likely to check if their hand is drawing to made hand
Remember that math works differently in a double board game. In regular PLO, whenever you face a pot sized bet, you have to be right 33% of the time. In the double board game, if you're able to win only one board, you have to be right 66% to be breakeven whenever you face a pot sized bet. That's a tremendous difference, which makes "bluff catching" much less appealing.
That brings us to another point: betting any amount and calling the same amount in a double board PLO differ significantly. If you bet pot with a powerful hand on one board (but not the nuts) and a pretty poor hand on the other, you can get called and chop the pot, get raised and fold or force the opponent to fold and scoop. If you check in the same scenario and the opponent checks back, your most likely scenario is to chop the pot.
However, if you check with the same hand, your best outcome becomes chopping since you realistically can expect to win only one board or showdown!
That’s a dynamic unique to double board games, making them much more of a brain burner than a regular PLO.
Double board PLO & Bomb Pots are fun
Even if you do not feel like double-board PLO is a game for you, we encourage you to try it, even on micro stakes. While the game might look like a pure gamble at first glance, we guarantee there's more to it than meets the eye, and it can be very entertaining.
If you want to learn more about how preflop and postop work in PLO, we invite you to check out or own PLO Genius, an excellent tool for improving your understanding of the game (whether it's one or two boards).