5 Card Double Board Bomb Pot PLO

It’s like Double Board Omaha, except five cards and no pre-flop action

Take Double Board Omaha and make it a bomb pot: everyone antes, nobody bets before the flop, and you hold five hole cards instead of four. You still use exactly two of them per board.

Rarity: low to moderate. It’s a WSOP-named game and PLOMastermind mentions 5- and 6-card double-board bomb pots, but we found no room rule sheet other than WSOP’s.

30-second cheat sheet

• Five hole cards. Pot-limit. 8 players max.
• Everyone posts an ante. No blinds, no pre-flop betting.
• Two flops dealt right away, no burn before the flop. Betting starts left of the button.
• Each board is a separate hand: exactly two of your five cards plus exactly three from that board.
• Half the pot per board; scoop by winning both.
• With 8 players, the last card of the deck is the river.

Full rules

Deal

WSOP: all the rules of Double Board Omaha apply, with these changes. Antes in, five cards each, no betting. Both flops go down immediately (no burn card, since there was no pre-flop action). Action starts left of the button. The turn and river each get one burn, and the second board’s cards go right beneath the first without extra burns.

If the deck runs short, WSOP is specific. With eight players the last card completes the river. If a river is dealt prematurely with two cards left in the stub, the last card, the premature card, the burns and the muck are reshuffled. If nobody plays the worst position (first seat left of the button), the button passes to the next player who posted on the previous hand.

Betting

Pot-limit. The pot already holds all the antes, so a pot-sized first bet is large. WSOP’s default ante for bomb pots when players can’t agree is $20 in $1-$2-$5 games and $25 in $5-$5 and above.

Showdown

Per board, exactly two of your five hole cards and exactly three board cards. Boards can’t be combined. Best hand on the top board takes half, best on the bottom takes the other half. Ties split that half. WSOP doesn’t say who gets the odd chip; TDA’s default is the first seat left of the button.

Rooms disagree

We found no other rule sheet for the five-card version. The Lodge uses a four-card bomb pot, so this page follows WSOP, the only source for the five-card rules.

Worked examples

There are no verified examples for this game yet, because the example evaluator cannot score two boards.

How you’ll embarrass yourself

• Waiting for pre-flop action. There isn’t any. Everyone sees both flops with random five-card hands.
• Forgetting the pot already has all the antes.
• Trying to use three hole cards or cross-board cards. Exactly two hole cards, one board at a time.
• Falling in love with a one-board hand. See the Double Board Omaha page.

Lore and reputation

WSOP lists it in a block of bomb-pot-style Omaha games (Double Board Omaha, Ultimate Big O, Derailment, Courchevel). We found no history. PLOMastermind calls double-board bomb pots a rapidly growing format; that is commentary, not evidence.