Pot Limit Omaha Betting
How To Calculate The Pot In PLO
Pot-Limit Omaha Continuation Betting Part I by Michael Piper Published: Dec 17, '10 As we all know, you should raise more hands before the flop than you call, most of them in position. In Pot Limit Omaha (most popular form of Omaha Poker), the maximum a player can bet is the amount that is in the pot. For example, a $100 bet into a $100 pot. Omaha Hold Em: Pot Limit has structured betting where the maximum bet is the pot size. Play two of your four face down cards and three of the five community cards. PLO can often seem mystifying if you're not used to it, but our series Pot Limit Omaha Poker From Square One aims to make it understandable to newcomers.Spanning eight separate parts, our guide treats with every important aspect of PLO strategy. In Part IV, we go over 3-betting. We'll instruct you on the factors to consider when contemplating a 3-bet, 3-betting as a bluff,. The Basic Rules of Pot Limit Omaha (PLO) Omaha is a poker variant in which each player is dealt four “hole” cards (cards that the other players can’t see) and then share a five card board. It is similar to Hold’em in its play, with flop, turn, and river cards dealt in succession on the board, interspersed with betting rounds. The most common betting structure for Omaha is Pot Limit, in which players can only.
The most common betting structure for Omaha is Pot Limit. Unlike No-Limit Hold’em, where you can bet all your chips at any point, in Pot-Limit Omaha (PLO), the maximum you can bet is the size of the pot. (The same minimums apply as in No-Limit Hold’em.)
Unfortunately, calculating exactly how much the “pot limit” is in PLO is less straightforward than it might seem. In this article we are going to explain how to calculate the maximum bet in PLO given your situation.
Suppose you are first to act on the flop, and there is $20 in the pot. This case is simple – you can bet up to $20.
It’s more complicated though if you are already facing a bet, because you have to include the cost of your call into the pot size.
This sounds very strange at first, and it is. In other words, the pot size is defined as:
- the amount in the pot before your opponent bet PLUS
- your opponent’s bet PLUS
- the amount you would have to put in to call.
Once you come up with that number, that is the amount you’re allowed to RAISE (on top of the cost to call).
Let’s take an example of that so it will be clearer. There is $20 in the pot on the flop, and your opponent bets $10.
- the amount in the pot before your opponent bet: $20
- your opponent’s bet: $10
- the amount you would have to put in to call: $10
Add those all up and we get $40, which is the amount you can RAISE (in addition to the $10 you would have to put in to call). In other words, you can put in $50 total.
If that’s confusing, there is a short-hand for the math. You can bet three times the last bet plus whatever was in the pot before that bet. Note that the last “bet” is only on the current round of betting. So if you are the first to bet on the flop, turn, or river, there is has been $0 bet so far. The previous street’s betting has no effect (except to create what is in the pot currently). Pre-flop, the posted blinds are bets, so if you raise you must consider the value of the blinds in your calculation.
Let’s look at several examples of using the “Rule of Three”.
Example #1
Question: Pre-flop, you are under the gun. The blinds are $5 and $10. What is the maximum you can bet?
Answer: The last “bet” (the big blind) was $10, and what was in the pot before that was $5. So the math is (3 x $10) + $5. You can bet up to $35.
Example #2
Question: Pre-flop, you are on the button. The blinds are $1 and $2. There are three limpers in front of you. What is the maximum you can bet?
Answer: The last “bet” was $2 (the final limper), and what was in the pot before that was $7 (the blinds plus 2 other limpers). So the math is (3 x $2) + $7. You can bet up to $13.
Example #3
Question: In a $2/$5 game, there is $15 in the pot pre-flop. On the flop, you want to open for pot. What is the maximum you can bet?
Answer: This is the easy one! No betting has been conducted in this round. So you can match what’s in the pot pre-flop. You can bet $15.
Example #4
Question: There is $10 in the pot. Player A in front of you bets $5. What is the maximum you can bet?
Answer: The last bet was $5. There was $10 in the pot before that. (3 x $5) + $10 = $25. You can bet up to $25.
Example #5
Question: There is $10 in the pot. Player A bets $5. Player B raises to $25. What is the maximum you can bet?
Answer: The last bet is $25. There was $15 in pot before that. (3 x $25) + $15 = $90. You can bet up to $90.
At first calculating the pot limit can seem daunting. Eventually you will get the hang of it. In the meantime, you can always just announce that you bet “pot” and the dealer will figure it out for you!
When playing on OmahaPokerTraining.com, you can use the bet slider to see the minimum and maximum amount you can legally bet or raise. Slide the bar all the way to the left and you’ll see the minimum amount. Slide all the way to the right to see the maximum (“pot”) bet.
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Because it's a little bit more complicated than a standard Limit of No-Limit betting structure we've put together a specific article on How to Calculate the Pot Bet to help you understand how it's done.
The simple rule for making a pot-size bet is:
- You can raise the amount that is in the pot after you have called the previous bet.
Here are a few examples to make things clearer.
How to Make a Pot Bet in Poker -- Examples
Pot Bet Example 1
Situation: There's $10 in the pot. You're first to act.
How much can you bet? You can bet $10.
Simple, right? Now we'll make it a little harder.
Pot Bet Example 2
Situation: There's $10 in the pot and a player has bet $3.
How much can you bet? To calculate your maximum bet, first pretend that you call that last bet. The total pot then contains 10 + 3 + 3 = $16.
This is your maximum raise. With the $3 call your total maximum bet would then be $19.
Still with us? Now let's make it a little more complicated.
Pot Bet Example 3
Situation: There's $10 in the pot, one player has bet $3 and another player has raised to $10.
How much can you bet? First, pretend that you call the last bet of $10. The pot then contains 10 + 3 + 10 + 10 = $33.
Pot Limit Omaha Betting Structure
Your pot raise is $33 and your total bet is $43.
Got it? Even if you're struggling a bit to get your mind around it, don't give up. There are a couple of smart tricks you can use to make it even easier.
If you want to play Pot-Limit poker (like, say, Pot-Limit Omaha) live, you should definitely learn them as you'll need to calculate your pot bets on the fly with a table of other players watching.
If you play your Pot-Limit Omaha online, though, you'll get some help with the betting functions.
How to Make a Pot Bet - Tips & Tricks
If you're playing Pot-Limit poker on online poker sites, the poker client will tell you exactly how much you're allowed to bet. In live poker, the common way to do this is to just say the word 'pot' out loud before you bet.
This establishes that you intend to bet the maximum. Then you can take your time to figure out how much that is.
The Simple 3x Rule for Pot Bets in Poker
Here's another really helpful trick that you can use to calculate the correct size of a pot bet:
- To get your maximum bet, multiply the last bet by three and add all other bets, including the original pot.
Does that sound insane to you? That's probably a sane reaction. But the truth is, it actually works!
Let's go through the same examples from above again, this time applying the 3x Rule.
Example 1
Situation: There's $10 in the pot. You're first to act.
How much can you bet? So, 3x the last bet is zero (no one has bet yet). Add the rest of the bets including the pot, which amounts to $10.
Example 2
Pot Limit Omaha Betting
Situation: There's $10 in the pot and a player has bet $3.
How much can you bet? 3x the last bet is 9 (3 x 3 = 9). Add $10 from the original pot and you get $19.
Example 3
Pot Limit Omaha Bet Sizing
Situation: There's $10 in the pot, one player has bet $3 and another player has raised to $10.
How much can you bet? 3x the last bet (3 x 10) is $30. Add $10 + $3 and you get $43.
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Luckily, this simple rule of thumb for pot bets works just as well in the first betting round when the blinds are on the table.
If the small blind is $1 and the big blind $2, the max bet is (3 x 2) + 1 = 7. With two limpers before you, the pot bet is (3 x 2) + 1 + 2 + 2 = 11.
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