Strategy · position · PLO and hold'em
Bomb pot position: how often to bet first, by seat
In a bomb pot everyone sees the flop, so the flop is where position first comes into play. We measured how often the solver bets from each seat, which hands it leads with, and how it answers the first bet, across the whole solved library.
1First to act bets single digits from three players up
Everyone antes and there is no preflop, so the first player to act on the flop has the whole table behind them. Six-handed, that player bets 6.7% of the time in both games. Heads-up it is 14% in PLO and 18% in hold'em; from three players up it stays in single digits.
| Players | PLO: first to act bets | Hold'em: first to act bets |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | 14.0% | 18.2% |
| 3 | 8.6% | 9.3% |
| 4 | 5.3% | 8.0% |
| 5 | 6.5% | 6.9% |
| 6 | 6.7% | 6.7% |
2Every check before you raises the betting
Six-handed, a player who is checked to bets more with every check in front of them. After five checks, the last player bets 31% of the time in PLO and 27% in hold'em, four to five times the first-to-act rate. (This ladder averages over dealt hands, so its first row reads 6.5% in PLO against the 6.7% board average above.)
| Six-handed, nobody has bet | PLO bets | Hold'em bets |
|---|---|---|
| First to act | 6.5% | 6.7% |
| After 1 check | 8% | 7.3% |
| After 2 checks | 13% | 9.6% |
| After 3 checks | 19% | 14% |
| After 4 checks | 24% | 20% |
| After 5 checks | 31% | 27% |
3Which hands lead first to act
The two games lead at the same overall rate with different hands. In PLO, holding the nuts on one board when nobody can share them is the hand class that bets first most often (26%). In hold'em that same hand bets 3.4%: it checks almost every time. Hands with one pair or less and no draw on either board bet 5% in hold'em and 0.8% in PLO.
| Six-handed, first to act | PLO bets | Hold'em bets |
|---|---|---|
| The nuts on one board, nobody can share them | 26% | 3.4% |
| The nuts on one board, shared | 25% | 22% |
| A set or better on both boards, with the nuts | 20% | 5.3% |
| A set or better on both boards, no nuts | 20% | 7.9% |
| Anything else with two pair or better, or a draw | 8.3% | 14% |
| One pair or less, no draw, both boards | 0.8% | 5% |
"The nuts" means the best possible hand on that board. In hold'em, a pair made only by the board does not count as your pair.
4Facing the first bet, most hands fold
Six-handed, a player facing the first bet (with nobody calling in between) folds 83% of the time in PLO and 82% in hold'em. PLO raises more than it calls (11% raise, 5.6% call); hold'em calls more than it raises (10% call, 7.8% raise).
More: the five lessons of double board bomb pot strategy · static vs dynamic boards.
Study it yourself
Every number on this page comes from our solved double board library. The trainer deals you spots like these and grades each decision against the solution in big blinds, and the free equity calculator shows how the pot splits across both boards.
How we measured: averages of the solver's own frequencies over the solved library as of September 30, 2026: every six-handed board (82 PLO and 176 hold'em), 3,000 dealt hands per board, at the flop decision. Table-size rates use the deepest solve of every board at that size. Boards keep getting solved deeper, so numbers can move a little over time.