Bomb pots play as a staple of Texas poker rooms. Poker players at the Lodge see plenty of opportunities to participate in bomb pot action, with the chance to increase win rates significantly.
Most of the cash games at the Lodge include a bomb pot every dealer change. Depending on the game, you could find yourself playing in a Pot-Limit Omaha bomb pot, or a No-Limit Hold’em bomb pot.
Most bomb pot hands at the Lodge play as double board PLO bomb pots. Watch your favorite poker vlog, and you’ll probably see a double-board PLO bomb pot or two.
Let’s take a look at how a double board PLO bomb pot works, and in what situations you’ll see this action-filled poker format unfold at the poker club.
Double Board Bomb Pot Rules
A bomb pot hand begins with each player putting in an ante before the cards are dealt. The amount for this preflop ante varies based on the stakes of the game.
The $1/$2 No-Limit Hold’em cash games ($100-$300 buy-in) at the Lodge, for example, include a $300 cap bomb pot that takes place at every dealer change.
The bomb pot ante for this game is $3. Every time a new dealer comes in, that dealer’s first hand plays as a bomb pot.
A bomb pot button (separate from the standard dealer button) goes around the table, moving to the right after each bomb pot. In the NLH cash games at the Lodge, the player holding this button gets to choose whether the bomb plays as Texas Hold’em or Pot-Limit Omaha.
In PLO cash games at the Lodge, bomb pots are almost always played as PLO. Almost all bomb pots at the Lodge play with double boards.
After all players have put forth the required ante, the dealer goes straight to the flop, with no further preflop action. Per double board bomb pot rules, two separate flops are dealt.
All postflop action plays just as it would in a standard hand of NLHE or PLO. The small blind begins the flop betting round, and the action moves around the table to the left, with the button player last to act.
In double-board games, you play both boards. The board closest to the dealer is known as the bottom board, and the board furthest from the dealer is called the top board.
Make the best hand on both boards, and you win the entire pot. If you win one board, but another player wins the other, you chop the pot.
Double Board PLO Bomb Pot Example Hand
Even if you’re playing a No-Limit Hold’em cash game at the Lodge, most of the bomb pots end up as PLO hands. The double board PLO bomb pots often result in lots of chips going in the middle.
The multiway nature of the format leads to many hands that see the bomb pot cap reached. Every hand goes to the flop as a family pot game, though you do have the option of sitting out bomb pot hands at the Lodge.
Let’s say you’re in possession of the bomb pot button, playing $1/$2 NLHE with $300 cap bomb pots at the Lodge.
A new dealer comes in, meaning it’s bomb pot time. You choose PLO as the game, and by rule every player at the table that wants to participate puts in a $3 ante.
Suppose there are eight players at the table, and all of them opt-in for the double board PLO bomb pot. The hand begins with $24 in the middle.
With the antes collected from each participant, each player is dealt four hole cards. Bomb pot hands skip the preflop action, going straight to the flop.
You look down at the following hole cards:
Your Hand: A♣ A♦ 5♦ 4♠
You’ve picked up a nice PLO hand at a great time, with pocket aces and possibilities for straight draws and nut flush draws.
As the bomb pot button holder, you’re in the button position for this hand. Note that it doesn’t matter which position you were in the previous normal hand, before the new dealer came in.
After all players have their four hole cards, the dealer puts out these two flops:
Top Board: A♠ T♦ T♣
Bottom Board: K♦ 6♦ 3♥
These flops put you in a great situation, with a strong hand on the top board (aces full of tens) and the nut flush draw plus an open-ended straight draw on the bottom.
Most modern-day, GTO-focused poker strategy resources don’t include extensive bomb pots strategy materials, as the format is still very new to the industry. In the above example, however, you would probably be best piling the money in if possible on the flop.
As with a normal PLO hand, the flop betting round begins with the small blind. Let’s say the small blind checks, the big blind checks, and the under-the-gun player bets $24.
The action folds to you, and you decide you’re going for a pot-size raise, the maximum allowed in PLO. By pot-limit betting rules, you could raise to $96 so you do just that. Your opponent then raises to $300, the max that he is allowed to. You call and the board runs out as follows:
Top Board: A♠ T♦ T♣ 8♥ 2♦
Bottom Board: K♦ 6♦ 3♥ 6♠ Q♦
Your Hand: A♣ A♦ 5♦ 4♠
Opponent’s Hand: K♠ K♥ 9♥ 2♣
You win the top board, as your aces full hold up. Your opponent wins the bottom board, however, with kings full of sixes.
This hand results in a chopped pot, with both players splitting the pot.
Bomb Pot Cash Games at the Lodge
From $1/2 to the high-stakes games, most of the cash games at the Lodge include bomb pots. Keep in mind that NLHE cash games allow the bomb pot button player to choose either NLHE or PLO as the bomb pot game.
PLO games always play bomb pots as PLO. Big O games (five-card PLO played under hi-lo rules) always play Big O in bomb pots.
Double board PLO bomb pots often produce huge pots and lots of action, and are the preferred bomb pot format at most NLHE tables.
For a few tips on how to play double board PLO bomb pots, check out this article from Upswing Poker: 3 Tips for Playing Double Board PLO Bomb Pots
