PLO glossary

Pot-Limit Omaha vocabulary in one-paragraph definitions, with a difference: wherever a term has a number, the definition carries it and links the reference page that computed it. For tracking-stat abbreviations (VPIP, PFR, AF), see the poker stats glossary.

Hands and suits

Double-suited (ds): A hand whose four (or five) cards form two suit pairs: 2-2 in PLO4, 2-2-1 in PLO5. Dealt 13.5% of the time in PLO4 and 36.5% in PLO5. Worth roughly 5-6 equity points over the same ranks rainbow at the top of the deck. exact suit ladders →
Single-suited (ss): Exactly one suit pair in the hand (2-1-1 in PLO4, 2-1-1-1 in PLO5). Which cards carry the suit matters: the same ranks span dozens of ranking places depending on whether the ace or a low card is suited.
Rainbow: No two cards of the same suit: no flush can ever be made. 10.5% of PLO4 deals, impossible in PLO5 and PLO6 (five or more cards, four suits). suit-pattern table →
Monotone (hand): Three or more hole cards of one suit. Weaker than it looks: the extra cards of the suit are your own flush outs, which is why four-of-one-suit hands rank below single-suited versions of the same ranks.
Rundown: Four (or five) consecutive or near-consecutive ranks, like T-9-8-7. The premier straight-making structure; a gap lower in the run ("bottom gap") costs less than a top gap because the highest cards make the nut end.
Dangler: A card that coordinates with nothing else in the hand. It halves fewer two-card combinations than players think: one dead card in PLO4 wastes three of six combos, in PLO5 four of ten.
Big O: Live-room name for 5-card Omaha, usually played hi-lo (eight-or-better split). PLO5 normally means the high-only version; the deal math is identical, the hand values are not. PLO5 rankings →
Blocker: A card you hold that removes combinations from the opponent's range, like the bare ace of the flush suit on a monotone board (a 7.7% holding). Single blockers move equity a point or two: a tiebreaker, not a read. card-removal odds →

Preflop

Pot-limit betting: The maximum bet is the size of the pot after your call. Preflop, "pot" over the blinds is 3.5bb; postflop a pot-size raise over a bet is the bet plus twice the pot. The cap is why stack-to-pot ratios, not raw stacks, drive PLO decisions.
RFI (open): Raise-first-in: opening the pot with a raise when everyone before you folded. The 6-max 100bb solve opens 17.6% of hands from UTG and 48.6% from the button. open widths by seat →
3-bet: The first re-raise. A real PLO 3-bet range is a distillation, not just "good hands": aces concentrate ten times over their dealt rate and wheel cards all but vanish. range composition →
SPR (stack-to-pot ratio): Effective stack divided by the pot on the flop. It sets how many bets remain and therefore the strength needed to stack off: a 100bb single-raised pot arrives around SPR 13, a 3-bet pot around 4. SPR by depth →
Effective stack: The smaller of the stacks in a pot: the most that can actually be won or lost. Every "how deep are we" adjustment keys off this number, not your own stack.

Postflop

C-bet (continuation bet): A bet by the last preflop aggressor on the flop. In the standard button-vs-big-blind single-raised pot the solve c-bets 50.7% of flops after the check, from 75%+ on ace-high dry boards down to ~30% on trips and broadway three-straights. all 1,755 flops →
Donk bet: A lead into the previous street's aggressor before they can c-bet. Rare on average (10.6% of flops in the same spot) and concentrated on low, connected boards that favor the caller's range. donk rates by texture →
Check-raise: Checking with the intention of raising a bet. The out-of-position range's main weapon on boards where its range holds the straights and the aggressor must bet.
Range advantage: Which player's whole range holds more equity on a board. Ace-high boards belong to the 3-bettor (65/35 on A-K-4); low rundowns flip to the caller. per-texture equities →
Nut advantage: Which range holds more of the strongest hands (top sets, nut straights, nut flushes) regardless of average equity. A range can trail on equity and still bet big holding the nut advantage.
Board texture: The structural class of the board: suits (55.1% of flops are two-tone), pairing (16.9% paired), connectivity. Texture, not your cards, predicts who bets. the texture map →
Wrap: A straight draw using three or more hole cards around the board, with up to 20 outs. Only the outs that make the nuts are worth stacks; the low side of a wrap draws at the ignorant end. draw densities →
Redraw: A backup draw attached to a made hand, like top set with the nut flush draw. In PLO, made hands without redraws are pot-controllers because so much of every range improves by the river.
Freeroll: A tie in current hand strength where one side can still improve: the classic same-straight-plus-redraw spot. The freerolling side can never lose the pot and should build it.
Second-best hand: The under-full, the non-nut flush, the low end of the straight. PLO's money flows from second-best to best: a random hand reaches the river with two pair or better 70.6% of the time, so the label "made hand" guarantees nothing. river distributions →

Math and study

Equity: Your share of the pot if all hands went to showdown now, averaged over runouts. Exact preflop equity for any PLO4/5/6 matchup is a solved computation, not an estimate. equity calculator →
Equity realization: How much of raw equity a hand converts into actual winnings. Position, nut potential, and playability decide it: out of position with a non-nut hand you realize less than the calculator says.
Pot odds: The price a call gets: call amount versus final pot. A half-pot bet offers 3-to-1 (call 25% of the final pot); a pot-size bet offers 2-to-1 (33.3%). sizing table →
Implied / reverse implied odds: Money you expect to win later when you hit (implied), or lose later when you hit second-best (reverse). Nut draws carry implied odds; dominated draws carry reverse implied odds. Most PLO calling mistakes are reverse-implied-odds mistakes.
MDF (minimum defense frequency): The share of your range that must continue against a bet so bluffing you cannot print money: pot/(pot+bet), so 1-alpha. Against a pot-size bet MDF is 50%; the same b/(1+2b) arithmetic sets the bluff share a balanced bettor uses. MDF by size →
bb/100 and standard deviation: Win rate and volatility per hundred hands. PLO 6-max runs around SD 140 bb/100 against roughly 100 for NLHE, which is why PLO downswings run half again deeper at the same win rate. downswing tables →
Risk of ruin: The probability a bankroll ever hits zero at a given win rate, variance, and roll. Sim-derived: a 5 bb/100 PLO 6-max winner needs about 57 buy-ins to keep million-hand bust risk near 5%. bankroll table →
GTO / solver: Game-theory-optimal strategy computed by a solver: a mixed strategy no opponent can exploit. Useful as the baseline you deviate from on purpose, not as a script.
Mixed strategy: Playing the same hand different ways at set frequencies (bet 40%, check 60%). Solver charts show the real mix; rounding every mix to its biggest action loses a little EV and a lot of balance.
Hand classes (suit isomorphism): Hands that differ only by suit relabeling play identically, so PLO4's 270,725 combos collapse to 16,432 classes and PLO5's 2,598,960 to 134,459. Every ranking table on this site works in these classes. all 16,432 ranked →