Bomb Pot

It’s like a normal hand, except you skip the betting you’d normally do before the flop

A bomb pot isn’t a game with its own hand rankings. It’s a way to deal a hand in whatever flop game the table is playing (No-Limit Hold’em, PLO, PLO5, double board). Everyone antes the same amount, hole cards go out, the flop goes out, and the first betting round happens on the flop.

Rarity: common in live PLO and streamed cash games, and it is an established WSOP live-room device. Other rooms schedule it differently.

30-second cheat sheet

• Everyone antes the same amount. No blinds, no pre-flop betting.
• Everyone sees the flop with totally random hands.
• Post-flop betting starts left of the button.
• No burn card before the flop (there was no pre-flop action).
• Ante size is set by the table or room. Typical advice: a few big blinds (casino.org), 3 to 10 (PLOMastermind).
• Most common live form is a double-board bomb pot.
• The button does not advance in a WSOP bomb-pot hand.

Full rules

How it starts

WSOP rule 31: all players agree to ante the same amount, hole cards are dealt, the flop is put out, and play proceeds normally “every player having seen the flop with totally random hands”. There is no pre-flop betting round, and action starts left of the button after the flop.

Why WSOP has it

In WSOP time-raked games, players may opt to play a time-pot, time-flop or bomb pot to collect the half-hour’s time charge. The entire charge is collected from the bomb pot on the first hand dealt after the 30-minute announcement. A player can opt out and pay only their own time, but then isn’t dealt in for that hand. If players agree to a bomb pot but not the ante, the default is $20 per player in $1-$2-$5 games and $25 in $5-$5 and larger games.

The deal

No burn before the flop. Otherwise the base game’s dealing applies. With the 5-card double-board game, WSOP spells out what to do when the deck runs short. See 5 Card Double Board Bomb Pot PLO.

Showdown

Whatever the base game’s showdown is. In double-board bomb pots the pot is split between the best hand on each board (see Double Board Omaha). The ante is dead money in the pot. Odd chip as in the base game.

Rooms disagree

• Opt out? WSOP lets you skip it; The Lodge says you can sit the hand out; PokerListings says all players agree but a player can still fold before the flop. Treat it as a table decision.
• Who picks the game? At The Lodge (Austin) a rotating bomb-pot button holder picks NLHE or PLO at NLHE tables, and the bomb pot happens at each dealer change in $1/$2 and up. All their bomb pots are double-board, with a $500 cap in their $1/$3 example with a $15 ante. WSOP only speaks of an agreement and an ante.
• What triggers it? WSOP: agreement, tied to time collection. Others: dealer change, orbit, hour, or at random online.

Worked examples

No verified examples: a bomb pot changes the deal and betting, not the hand evaluation.

How you’ll embarrass yourself

• Treating the ante as free money. It’s a sunk cost. Top pair is often behind in a multiway pot of random hands.
• Not asking what format it is (single or double board, NLHE or PLO) before the ante goes in.
• Ignoring the second board in the double-board version, or forgetting that a split of one board leaves you a quarter of the pot.
• Expecting to be dealt in after opting out of a WSOP bomb pot. You sit the hand out.

Lore and reputation

Explainers describe bomb pots as “wild”, popularized by streamed cash games (Hustler Casino Live, per casino.org) and Texas rooms like The Lodge, which calls them a relatively new addition. All our sources are explainers or room blog posts, with no deeper history. The WSOP rule shows it is an established live-room device. Home-game “circus games” such as Derailment extend the idea (per Poker Chip Forum posters).