6-Card Pot-Limit Omaha

It’s PLO, except you get six hole cards

Everything about Pot-Limit Omaha carries over: pot-limit betting, five board cards, and your hand has to be exactly two hole cards plus exactly three board cards. The only difference is how many hole cards you’re holding. Six cards give you fifteen two-card combinations to choose from.

Almost any flop is going to hit something. That’s the whole personality of the game.

30-second cheat sheet

• Six hole cards, five board cards, four betting rounds, pot-limit.
• Exactly 2 hole + exactly 3 board. Six cards in your hand doesn’t mean you can use more of them.
• Fifteen two-card combos per hand.
• Seven players max is the natural table size (see Full rules for why).
• High hand only. Hi-lo six-card variants exist, but they’re not this game.
• No WSOP live-action rule entry for plain 6-card PLO. Treat it as PLO plus an extra pair of cards and check the room’s rules.

Full rules

The deal

Button, small blind, big blind. Six cards face down each. Betting starts left of the big blind, then flop, turn, river, with the usual burns and four betting rounds. Position, blinds, and pot-limit sizing are all exactly as in Pot-Limit Omaha (max raise = call, then raise the new pot).

Table size

Seven players is the natural cap. [INFERENCE from arithmetic, not a quoted rule: 7 x 6 = 42 hole cards plus burns and board is 50 cards, which fits a 52-card deck. Eight players would need 56.] Pagat mentions that a seven-player six-card game “would not run out of cards” in the context of Binglao, and live games at Aspers in London are reported as 7-handed. Rooms that cap at 6 exist too.

Showdown

High hand only. Choose exactly two of your six hole cards and exactly three of the five board cards. Ordinary rankings, ties split, and the odd chip goes by position clockwise from the button.

Hi-lo six-card variants exist (Pagat’s “Binglao” die-roll game is one) but ordinary PLO6 is high only.

Rooms disagree

• Is six cards the base game? In UK dealer’s-choice PLO games, the button may choose 4, 5, or 6 hole cards for the orbit. Forum reports (2+2 posts about Aspers 888 in Stratford and the Hippodrome) say “almost all games are 6 cards”, and that it’s common to see players sit out if someone dares choose 4. Those are forum reports, not room rules. Elsewhere PLO6 is just its own listed game online.
• “Big O”. Pagat says five- and six-card Omaha games are sometimes called Big O. The WSOP and Commerce reserve “Big O” for 5-card hi-lo. Don’t call PLO6 “Big O”.
• Seats. 7 versus 6 varies by room.

Worked examples

Five hearts, no flush

Five hearts across hand and board, still no flush

Board

Alice

• Pair of Deuces

Bob

• Jack-high straight✓ wins

Bob scoops the whole pot.

Alice holds three hearts, and the board has two more. That’s five hearts in the pot, and she still doesn’t have a flush: exactly three board cards means three board hearts, and there are only two. Bob has the same problem with clubs (three in his hand, two on the board). What Bob does have is the jack and ten, which plus the nine-eight-seven on the board make a jack-high straight. Alice’s best is a pair of deuces, so Bob wins.

More cards, same two

Four sevens in your hand play as a pair

Board

Alice

• Pair of Sevens

Bob

• Pair of Kings✓ wins

Bob scoops the whole pot.

Alice has all four sevens. She can use exactly two of them, so she’s got a pair of sevens. Bob’s king in his hand with the king on board is a pair of kings, which is better. Extra cards in your hand don’t combine with each other beyond the two you pick.

How you’ll embarrass yourself

• Using a PLO4 or PLO5 chart. RangeConverter and PLO365 both say premium pairs lose value, equities run much closer, and non-nut flushes are frequently second best.
• Over-folding or over-calling. More hands connect with more flops, so “I missed” is less often true.
• Counting three suited hole cards as a flush. No. Exactly two from your hand.
• Calling it Big O. At a WSOP-style room you’ll get corrected.

Lore and reputation

Wikipedia says six-card Omaha (“6-O”) can be found in many casinos across the UK, and that some online rooms spread five-card Omaha, six-card Omaha, and Courchevel. 2+2 posters describe Aspers 888 in Stratford running £1/£2 dealer’s-choice 4/5/6-card PLO, 7-handed, with most hands played with six cards. Those are lightly sourced, so treat the room names as reports.

Online, RangeConverter says six-card Omaha is a relatively recent addition that major sites added in waves. The vendor-flavored sources (PLO365 is an affiliate and training site) describe it as the highest-variance Omaha game.

Pagat’s “Binglao” is a die-roll game that sets 4, 5, or 6 cards and Hi versus Hi-Lo before each deal, and has been played at the Norwegian Poker Championship week in Dublin. That’s a side note, not a rotation game.