All hands are NLH, then every hour or 30mins you play a dbl board NLO bomb pot.

Does that make sense to play?

I have an opinion. It carries wipe out potential in one hand all the money you won playing a different game. Imagine. You are up $350, took 6hrs. Then once an hour, you go play one 10ante NLO hand. Oops! I don't know how to compare it because I never see NLO played. It is always PLO.

What is your mindset playing the NLO game? Flop a set? Thank you Jesus! Turn say hello to the devil.

Is the risk reward worth it?

Does it just mean take a larger roll to the games and expect larger swings? Over time, talent wins!

huge edge to be had when you trick people into playing a different game.

I used to play in a game like this. Not exactly the same, but the "usually a normal game, but one hand of crazy gambool poker every once in a while." I just played that hand like a super-nit. I would fold a set OTF in a double-board NLO pot without a second thought, basically only continuing if I flopped very well on both boards or if I flopped the nuts on one of them.

People overvalue hands in Omaha all the time, and now we are adding that it's a double board and that everyone is mostly in hold-em mode most of the time. These hands will play out of control. There is good money to be had if you really know Omaha, but if not, or if you're not rolled for such a game, just nut peddle. And I mean actual nuts not "strong hands" like flopped sets.

In general I think bomb pots break games. All the money goes to the wrong player. 1 guy felts 4 people and then racks up taking money out of the game, the rest minbuy. Or they get tilted and just quit.

NLO shouldnt exist as it defeats the spirit of the game. Omaha is a drawing game, we play it with a betting limit so you can actually chase hands. What happens in NLO is people just jam 10x pot with their flopped set to deny anyone odds to call.

As someone who often plays a round of PLO bomb pots, nitting up is the only way to go. Occasionally there are spots to bluff but it has to be against the right opponent who understands he should fold and not draw to the 12th best nuts etc.

While they are fun and do break up the monotony of NL, it's my opinion that they are bad for the game taken on face value. Big winners and big losers are more likely to leave a game and Bomb pots often dwarf the size the pot on comparison to NL.

The caveat to this though is that some players at your table like them and are only playing NL because of the bomb pots. I know you can't please everyone but having bad players play a half hour of bad holdem for this so called reward is very profitable in its own right.

Double board PLO bomb pots are a lot of fun, and are very profitable IMO, but as noted they do break games. A solution to this issue is to cap the total amount wagered across all streets. This is the approach taken by the Lodge, where they cap bomb pots at $300 for 1/2, $500 for 1/3, $1k for 2/5, $2k for 5/10, and $4k for 10/25. For instance, if I bet $80 on the flop at 1/3. The maximum I can bet on the the turn is $420 and this will cap the betting — once the cap is reached the betting action for the rest of the streets is frozen and everyone gets to see a showdown. I find this to be a pretty good compromise.

I believe it was Tom McEvoy and TJ Cloutier years ago wrote about why Omaha is only Pot or limit, never NL. NL Omaha ends up to an all in shoot out that breaks up games quickly.

When you add that you get to pay double rake for the privilege, it is a pretty bad deal. The only people who when in the medium are the house.

No experience with this. Only with PLO bombpots where it is extremely profitable if you know how to play well as there are usually a few bad double board PLO bomb pot players the the NLH tables.

I am guessing this would also be profitable if you know what you are doing. Seems like your stackoff threshold would be very high. Like nuts on one board and very nutted draw on another. Kind of like if it was pot limit. And then you hope to get it in good vs someone with 2nd nuts worse draw, or playing only one board.

You are already getting huge stacks in when it is PLO anyways. It helps a lot though if you know to fold a lot. It doesn't make sense to call with middle set (or sometimes even top set) on a wet board and nothingness the other board when you have huge amounts of stacks behind and are only calling to chop. Or like, 2 pair with on one board and a gutshot on another where there are sets, wraps, flush draws, etc available.

Yes, you need a larger roll and tolerance for variance to play these games. But honestly I am not sure if it is even as bad as pot limit. Because in pot limit, you will be priced into call more hands as will your opponent's, so you have to deal with getting sucked out on and not getting there more often.

The cap betting is definitely a great decision. Keeps the game going both in terms of longevity and speed. Makes for muchhhhh fewer side pot situations where even skilled dealers are going to take a lot of time forming the pots & splitting them up.

Great opinions and observations. My concern has been breaking me. Breaking the game is worse. I can think of lots of people who have come through, but don't last. The bomb pots play a big roll. The game juices up, stronger players start coming and it's hard to stay in the game. Just as you mentioned being deeper stacked. The new guys who last play much deeper. Some guys come playing deep and don't come back.

I really like what you guys said about playing tight tight tight. I'm also a shorter stack. Truth is what it is. So, it's even more important for me. If I call a flop seeing all mine go in on the turn or river. Go in or fold out the turn/river losing my big flop call. Sorry for writing this out like this, but it helps me think.

Rereading the thread, this was a good one.

I’ve played in some games in Portland that have this setup and this strategy is far and away the best unless you think you have a huge edge in NLO.

It does take some time to get used to this setup but overall I like it, people have no idea what they are doing in NLO and it gets A LOT of money on the table.

Double rake? Seems like that would be against most gambling regulations.

Most splash pots I've seen will "run it twice" and charge rake for each board. Whether it is allowed by regulation I have no idea.

Double rake as in each half of the pot is treated as a separate pot with its own rake cap?


Because splitting a pot in half and taking 10% from each is obv the same as taking 10% from the whole pot before splitting it.

Let's say 8 people put in $10. Rake is 6+1. The dealer puts out two boards. One player bets $40 and there is one caller. The room takes $7 for each board for a total of $12 for the house and $2 for promotions. If it was a regular hand, the total rake would be 7, not 14.

That is horrible. Increasing the cap would be bad enough, but they are actually raking at 2x the % rate for double board pots.

That is ridiculous. The place I play has occasional 4 card double board bomb pots, but they don't take any extra rake.

Adding some anecdata. Pokerstars used to (might still exist, haven't played there since Black Friday(pretty sure it was PS IIRC)) have no limit omaha 8. The games just didn't get any volume. And what micro stakes games ran just sucked ass because you'd have nit grinders just go all-in preflop with any super premium starting hand, who would still get calls from rec players who would quit after getting scooped.

And no disrespect to the small stakes nits who found that edge and were pushing it, good for them. Hate the game not the players here, and no limit omahaha as a game doesn't make sense.

That said, it was also hilarious as **** to quarter/scoop people by overbetting all-in on the river when you had the nut hi/lo.

Oh well. Q's full of A's lost to A's full of Q's. Stack gone. There will not be another pot 1/4th this size for another 15-20mins. I asked and I was told. Have nuts and at least a redraw on the other board. Hell with that, I got me a big hand right here on one board! :|

QQ on AAQxx is not a big hand in Omaha. Depending on the action and what you have on the other board, it might be an easy fold.

For sure. Obviously there are some unfortunate runouts where you have top set and someone randomly banks a higher set on your board. But honestly, so much money could be saved if people learned to fold their middle and bottom sets on the flop and little to nothing on the other board once any significant amount of money goes in the middle. And same goes for top set if there are straights/flushes available, or even if the board is just very wet and you have nothing on the other board.

I scooped a $5,000 bomb pot in a 2/5 game last month against a guy who got married to middle set on a board I flopped nut straight on. He had nothing on the other board where I had top 2 and the nutflush draw. Flush got there and it was over.

He was never winning more than half in that pot and should have folded flop.

Thanks guys. I own up to playing bad. It is the best way to get it into my head. Posting it here has helped my NLO d/b game, instead of talking it over with other players. They say, "you just took a bad beat." So, I go do the same thing and think it is just a bad beat. You guys have helped me to understand sometimes what looks like a bad beat is something a better player avoids by playing smarter. Or like someone said, there is a lot of money to be made playing against players who don't understand the game.

It's usually a PLO Dbl board bomb pot. NLO is kinda nuts. But PLO pots end up getting all the stacks in a lot anyway.


If you are a winning/good player you should have a *huge*........*huge* advantage in these pots. Follow a few simple rules:


- Always look to scoop a pot. Don't start committing a ton of chips when you can't win both boards unless you have the nuts (and won't be quartering with others who have same nuts) on one board and someone is forcing you to put your stack in. You should *not* be the one pushing the action with just one board.....unless on turn or river when you have nuts and trying to bluff on the second board.

But, if you're jamming money in on just one board for "value," you're doing it wrong.


- Flopped straights = almost sure way to get quartered. Don't start shoveling money in on flopped straights. When you get called, they usually have the same straight. Unless the other board has nut hands possible....then you can start to *consider* making big calls. But don't be the one shoveling money in.

- Just fold bottom set, bottom 2p, and most of the time top and bottom 2p. Fold these on the flop unless you have draws or big hands on the other board. These are sure ways to commit a ton of chips early on to either just fold, or end up getting coolered when top set stacks your second or third nut full house after the board paired.

- Consider folding middle set if action gets too heavy and you don't have a hand or redraw on second board

- Unless you flop absolute monsters or huge draws on both boards, wait for turn and/or river to pile money in. The nuts changes a ridiculous amount in these bomb pots. Your flopped straights and flushes will run into paired boards a ton. You can get money in on later streets when it's safer.

- Don't play the "sucker" double board flush draws like they are the nuts. The "sucker" type being when you have the same suit on both boards. I.E. you have AX clubs, and there's 2 clubs on top board and 2 clubs on bottom. Two of your outs are gone for each board since they are on the other board. You'll either end up just chopping, or getting scooped. Rarely will you get both boards to complete your flush.

There's a few other things I'm sure I'm forgetting, but these are the big ones.

For example here are two recent double board PLO bomb pot hands where I got money in on flop. This should give you a good idea what kinds of hands you want:

Total pot: $12k (5/10/25 NLHE game with $25 double board PLO every 30min)

7653 with two spades. Flop: 773 and A34 one spade. Got my 5k or so stack in after it got potted a couple times. I was against K756. 773 board bricked. We both got the same straight on the other board on turn, but I ended up with backdoor spades for a scoop.

But, flopped stone cold nuts on one board and nut straight draw with backdoor flush draw on other. These are the types of hands you can get your stack in on flop without worry.



Total pot: $1k. (1/3 1k cap, match stack with $5 double board plo every 30min)

KTT8. Flop: T 3 3 and Q J 3r. Of course someone can have 33, but we just die there. There's also only one other T left, so odds are I'm the only one with the nut draw on bottom board. I think 3 other short stacks of 2 or 300 got it in. Best hand was a single 3 and I think JJ......not both the same player. And someone else had AA (yes, many people think AA is a good hand here.....hence the huge edge we should have).

Top board didn't change. Bottom board was a 9 on turn for nut straight and brick on river. We scoop.

So, as you can see here......We have second nuts (but essentially the nuts) and nut draw on other.



Always look to scoop.