Game rules

PLO5 and PLO6: 5- and 6-Card Omaha Rules and Strategy (2026)

PLO5 and PLO6 take Pot-Limit Omaha and add a fifth and sixth hole card. The rules barely change, but the game does: everyone has more combinations, big hands come more often and second-best hands lose huge pots. Here’s how to read hands correctly, which hands to play and how to survive the swings.

Updated: 16 October 2026

Key takeaways

PLO5 deals 5 hole cards, PLO6 deals 6. Everything else is Pot-Limit Omaha: four betting rounds, pot-limit bets.
You must make your hand with exactly 2 hole cards and exactly 3 board cards — no more, no less.
More cards mean stronger average hands: two pair and sets lose value, nut hands and nut draws decide the pots.
Variance is higher than in 4-card PLO. Suprema Poker and ClubGG run PLO4/5/6; PPPoker, PokerBros and X-Poker run PLO5.

6two-card combinations in a 4-card PLO hand

10two-card combinations in a PLO5 hand

15two-card combinations in a PLO6 hand

2 + 3hole cards + board cards in every Omaha hand

PLO5 and PLO6 rules in short

PLO5 (five-card Omaha) and PLO6 (six-card Omaha) are played exactly like regular Pot-Limit Omaha: small and big blind, a preflop betting round, then flop, turn and river with betting after each. The only difference is the number of hole cards — five in PLO5, six in PLO6 instead of four.

Blindssmall and big blind

Deal5 cards (PLO5) or 6 (PLO6)

Prefloppot-limit betting

Flop, turn, riverbetting on each street

Showdownbest 2 + 3 hand wins

A PLO5 / PLO6 hand from start to showdown

Because each player gets six cards, PLO6 can’t be dealt to a full nine-handed table — the deck doesn’t have enough cards — so it is always played short-handed. Clubs may also add antes, straddles, bomb pots or double boards on top of the base game.

The golden rule: exactly 2 + 3

In every form of Omaha your final five-card hand is made of exactly two of your hole cards and exactly three board cards. You can’t play one hole card with four from the board, and you can’t play three or more of your own. With five or six cards in hand, Hold’em instincts mislead you even more often — read these examples carefully.

Your hand	Board	Your best hand	Common misread
A♥ K♣ Q♦ 7♠ 3♣ (PLO5)	K♥ 9♥ 5♥ 2♥ J♣	Pair of kings — only one heart in hand, so no flush	“Ace-high flush”
A♥ 4♥ Q♦ 7♠ 3♣ (PLO5)	K♥ 9♥ 5♥ 2♥ J♣	Nut flush — A♥ 4♥ + three hearts from the board	—
7♠ K♣ Q♦ J♥ 4♣ (PLO5)	A♠ A♦ 7♣ 7♥ 2♠	Three sevens (7♠ K♣ + 7♣ 7♥ A♠)	“Sevens full” — that needs a second hole card that pairs
10♠ A♦ A♣ K♥ 3♣ 5♦ (PLO6)	9♣ 8♥ 7♦ Q♠ 2♥	No straight — the 10 needs a J or a 6 next to it in your hand; best hand is a pair of aces	“Straight to the ten”

Four of a suit on the board and one card of that suit in your hand is not a flush in Omaha. Four to a straight on the board and one connecting card in your hand is not a straight. You always need two.

Pot-limit betting

Both games are pot-limit: the most you can bet or raise is the size of the pot after you call. The app calculates it for you with the “Pot” button, but it helps to know where the number comes from.

Situation	Pot-size action
Pot is 100, nobody has bet	Bet up to 100
Pot is 100, opponent bets 50	Call 50 (pot becomes 200), raise 200 more — total 250
Preflop, blinds 0.5 / 1, you open first	Raise to 3.5 BB (call 1 → pot 2.5 → raise 2.5)
Preflop, facing a pot raise to 3.5 BB	Re-raise to 12 BB (pot 5 + call 3.5 = 8.5 → raise 8.5)

How hand strength shifts with more cards

A PLO4 hand has 6 two-card combinations, a PLO5 hand 10, a PLO6 hand 15. Every extra card gives every player more ways to connect with the board — so the hand that wins at showdown is, on average, stronger. What’s good in Hold’em is often marginal in PLO4 and weak in PLO6.

Hand	PLO4	PLO5	PLO6
Top pair	Weak	Very weak	Almost never good
Top two pair	Decent	Marginal	Usually behind against action
Bottom set	Strong	Vulnerable	Often behind in multiway pots
Non-nut flush	Risky	Dangerous	Often second-best
Nut straight with redraws	Strong	Strong	Strong
Nut flush, nut full house	Very strong	Very strong	Very strong

The practical takeaway: play for the nuts. In PLO5 and PLO6, when big money goes in on the river, it’s usually the nuts or close to it against someone who has a second-best hand.

Starting hands: what to look for

Nut-suited acesAn ace with another card of its suit gives you nut flush draws. Double-suited with an ace is even better.

Connected cardsCards close in rank (rundowns like J-10-9-8) make big straight draws (“wraps”) that are often the nuts.

All cards workingEvery card should help the others. More useful combinations = more ways to make the nuts.

DanglersA card unconnected to the rest is dead weight — fine in PLO6 if the other five are strong, bad in PLO4.

Three or four of a kind in handYou can only use two of them, and they kill your own outs. K-K-K-x-x is a weak hand, not a strong one.

Low flushes and small pairsThey make second-best hands — the most expensive kind in big-pot Omaha.

Postflop: nut-focused play

Before you put in big money
Do I have the nuts — or a draw to the nuts with redraws?
Which hands beat me, and how many of them are realistic given the betting?
Do I hold blockers — e.g. the ace of the flush suit — that make the opponent’s nuts less likely?
If I call and hit, will I be sure I’m good — or might I still lose?
How many players are in the pot? More players = need a stronger hand.

Position matters even more than in Hold’em: in pot-limit games the player acting last controls the pot size. Play more hands on the button and in the cutoff, fewer from the blinds and early seats.

Hand examples

Game	Your hand	Flop	Situation	Plan
PLO5	A♠ K♠ J♦ 10♦ 9♣	Q♠ 8♠ 3♥	Nut flush draw (A♠ K♠) + straight draws: any 9, 10 or J makes a straight	Bet or raise: many outs to the nuts
PLO5	K♦ K♣ 7♥ 6♥ 2♠	K♥ 9♥ 8♣	Top set, but flush draw and straight draws on board; your 7♥ 6♥ add an open-ended straight draw and a low flush draw	Bet for value, but slow down if the flush or a big straight arrives
PLO6	Q♥ Q♣ J♠ 10♦ 5♣ 4♥	Q♦ 9♠ 2♣	Top set on a fairly dry board	Strong — bet and build the pot
PLO6	A♣ 8♣ 7♦ 6♠ 5♥ 3♦	10♣ 9♥ 2♣	Nut flush draw + wraps (8-7 / 8-6 / 7-6)	Strong draw in position; check-call or raise with initiative
PLO5	J♥ J♣ 4♦ 3♦ 2♥	J♠ 7♠ 6♠	Set with no spade in hand on a monotone flop	Proceed carefully — a made flush is very likely in a multiway pot

Common PLO5 and PLO6 mistakes

What costs players money
Misreading hands — using one or three hole cards.
Overvaluing two pair and small sets in multiway pots.
Drawing to non-nut flushes and straights.
Playing too many hands out of position.
Calling big river bets with a hand that can’t beat a value bet.
Sitting with the whole bankroll on the table — PLO swings are big.

Variance and bankroll

Equities in Omaha run close: even a strong hand is rarely a big favourite before the river, and the pot-limit structure gets stacks in quickly. PLO5 and PLO6 push this further. Expect long downswings even when you play well, and keep more buy-ins than for Hold’em — see poker variance explained and bankroll for club poker. Big pots also hit the rake cap more often, so the cap matters a lot here — more in rake in poker apps.

Where to play PLO5 and PLO6

PLO5 is available in all the main club apps. PLO6 is rarer: of the apps we cover, Suprema Poker and ClubGG run it.

App	Omaha games	Notes
Suprema Poker	PLO4 / PLO5 / PLO6	Omaha is the app’s main strength
ClubGG	PLO4 / PLO5 / PLO6	Bomb pots, double board and run it twice as table options
PPPoker	PLO / PLO5	PLO is the second most popular game after NLH
PokerBros	PLO / PLO5	Big unions, tables around the clock
X-Poker	PLO / PLO5	Aggressive, gambly action