PLO5 is Pot-Limit Omaha with five hole cards. Preflop, pick hands where four of the five cards work together. Check four things - nut potential, connectedness, suits and danglers (cards that don’t work). Pairs are worth less than in four-card PLO, and danglers cost more.
This article assumes high only (not Hi-Lo), 6-max, and 100bb cash games.
PLO5 rules (five cards, but you use two)
- You get five hole cards, and the board has five cards
- Your hand is made from exactly two hole cards and exactly three board cards. You can’t use one hole card, or three or more
- The maximum bet is the size of the pot (pot limit), the same as four-card PLO
Because you use only two, five hole cards give 10 two-card combinations (four cards give 6). That makes everyone’s hands stronger.
The full rules are in the rules guide, “Omaha”.
What changes from four-card PLO
| Item | PLO4 | PLO5 |
|---|---|---|
| Two-card combinations | 6 | 10 |
| ds hands (two suited pairs) | 13% | 47% |
| Hands with a suited ace | 17% | 25% |
| Hands with AA | 2.6% | 4.2% |
| KK (without AKK or KKK) UTG open rate | 64% | 30% |
| Double-paired hands UTG open rate | 75% | 12% |
| Open rates by seat | 18–49% | About the same |
The ds, suited-ace and AA shares count every possible hand (in PLO5, ds includes the three-plus-two shape). The open rates come from a PLO5 guide that explains solver results (a solver is a program that computes optimal strategy).
With five cards, nearly half of all hands are ds, so being ds alone does not make a hand strong. And since about the same share of hands opens, the same hand opens from a later seat than with four cards.
What changes:
- Pairs are worth less (a pair is only two working cards)
- Danglers cost more
- ds is worth the same
Check four things
| Check | Good | Bad |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Nut potential (most important) | Many cards T or higher, a suited ace, AA or KK | Only low cards (they tend to make the second-best straight) |
| 2. Connectedness | Rundowns (consecutive cards), one gap (lower gaps are better) | Scattered cards |
| 3. Suits | ds (two suited pairs) > ss (one) | Rainbow (all different suits), three or more of one suit (blocks your own outs) |
| 4. No danglers | Four or more of the five cards work | One card that doesn’t work (weak), two (mostly a fold) |
A dangler is a card with no connection or suit to the others. In a five-card hand, one card that doesn’t work already makes the hand weaker than the same four cards alone.
Example. J♠T♠9♥8♥7♦ is good on all four: (1) a J-high straight is often the nuts, (2) five in a row, (3) ds, (4) no dangler. K♠Q♦J♥3♣2♦ has (1) and (2), but (3) only one suited pair and it adds little, and (4) the 3 and 2 don’t work.
The more checks a hand passes, the earlier the seat it opens from. You don’t need to add up points.
Which seat to open from
Open rates by seat (guides based on published solver results, 6-max, 100bb): UTG about 18%, HJ 22%, CO 30%, button about 50%, SB 33%. The SB raises or folds (no limping). For hands near the edge, opening and folding are close.
Five-card examples. The first seat to open is this app’s calculation (the four checks fitted to the open rates above).
| First seat to open | Five-card examples |
|---|---|
| From UTG | A♠A♥K♠K♥Q♦, A♠K♠Q♦J♦T♥, K♠K♦Q♠J♦8♣, Q♠Q♥J♦T♣9♠, J♠T♠9♥8♥7♦, K♠K♥Q♠Q♥2♦ |
| From CO | K♠K♥9♦7♣4♠, T♠9♠8♦7♦2♣, 8♠7♠6♥5♥2♣, K♠Q♦J♥3♣2♦ |
| From the button | K♠K♥8♦5♣2♠ |
| Don’t open | A♠K♦7♠6♣2♥ (borderline on the button), 2♣2♦3♣K♥8♠ |
How to read it:
- T♠9♠8♦7♦2♣ and 8♠7♠6♥5♥2♣ are a four-card ds rundown plus a 2 that doesn’t work. With four cards they open early; with five, from the CO
- K♠K♥9♦7♣4♠ has KK and one suited pair, with weak connection. It opens from a later seat than a four-card KK hand
- A♠K♦7♠6♣2♥ has a suited ace, but the other cards are scattered
AA and KK
In four-card PLO, AA opens whatever its shape. With five cards, 4.2% of hands hold AA, and you look at how the other three cards work.
- 3-bet and 4-bet only with double-suited AA supported by high cards (A♠A♥K♠Q♥J♦, for example)
- Aces with weak support, like A♠A♦9♣4♥2♠, are used as an example of a hand people overplay
KK depends on the other three cards. About 30% of KK hands open UTG (64% with four cards).
Rough five-card equities (against the field).
| Hand | Equity |
|---|---|
| A-K-Q-J-T ds | 45–50% |
| A-A-8-6-2 | 32–38% |
| K-K-9-7-4 | 25–30% |
Even AA is not as far ahead as with four cards.
3-bet from the top, and rarely
In PLO, you 3-bet your strongest hands, call with the next ones, and fold the rest. You don’t 3-bet as a bluff.
The goal is not to make the opponent fold but to lower the SPR (remaining stack ÷ pot) so the money goes in easily on the flop. Pot limit caps how much you can bet, so folding opponents out is hard, and with many hole cards they often hit the flop.
Loose live games
- Bet the nuts big. Don’t build big pots with hands that aren’t the nuts
- PLO players enter more pots in general, so treat a player as a calling station at 60% or more of hands played
- Swings grow from PLO4 to PLO5 to PLO6. Play one level lower until you’re used to it
Common preflop mistakes
- Thinking AA is always strong. A-A-8-6-2 has about 32–38% against the field. Check whether the other three cards work
- Opening just because the hand is ds. Nearly half of five-card hands are ds. Check nut potential and connectedness too
- Not counting danglers. Two cards that don’t work make it close to a three-card hand
- 3-betting as often, and for the same reasons, as in NLHE. In PLO, 3-bet from the top and rarely, to lower the SPR
- Calling out of position with speculative hands. The nuts change on the turn, and you keep facing pot-sized bets
- Sitting down short. Buy in for 100bb or more
Practice in the app
In Casino Edge’s PLO, set the hole cards to 5 and the open drill and play (Sim) switch to PLO5. In the drill you choose Open, Limp or Fold by seat, and after each decision it shows which seat the hand opens from.