Pot-limit Omaha (also called PLO) is popular in Europe, online, and in high-stakes "mixed games" played in some American casinos. It is more often played high only, but can also be played high low. Even more so than Limit Omaha Hi-Lo, PLO is a game of drawing, if you are drawing, to the nut hand. For example, second best flushes and straights can be, and frequently are, beaten. Furthermore, because of the exponential growth of the pot size in pot-limit play, seeing one of these hands to the end can be very expensive.

Redraws

A great hand to have in PLO is the nuts with a redraw. For example, if the board is Q♠ J♠ T♥, and you have A♠ K♣ Q♣ Q♥, then not only do you have the current nuts (your ace-king), but you also have a redraw with the two queens in your hand because if the board pairs, you will make queens full, or four queens. If your hand is A♠ K♠ Q♣ Q♥ , your hand is even better because you have flush and straight flush redraws as well. In fact, with the Q♠ J♠ T♥ board, A♠ K♠ Q♣ Q♥ is approximately an 80-20 money favorite over a random hand containing ace-king.

Even a pair of queens with any two spades is better than 55-45 against the same random ace-king hand. Flopped nut straights, flushes and even sets can often be a double-edged sword in pot-limit Omaha.

Variations

Sometimes the high-low split game is played with a 9-high qualifier instead of 8-high. It can also be played with five cards dealt to each player instead of four. In that case, the same rules for making a hand apply: exactly two from the player's hand, and exactly three from the board.

In the game of "Courchevel", popular in Europe, instead of betting on the initial four cards and then flopping three community cards for the second round, the first community card is dealt before the first betting round, so that each player has four private cards and the single community card on his first bet. Then two more community cards are dealt, and play proceeds exactly as in Omaha.

POT LIMIT OMAHA HI can also be played with more than 4 hole cards, the most common variety being 6 card Omaha which can be found in many casinos across the U.K.