Trap hands are hands that look good, but can easily cost you your whole stack, because when you make your hand it more than often proves to be second-best.

In Pot-Limit Omaha there are three kinds of trap hands:

Small-Pair hands
Hands with small-pairs will often flop bottom or middle set, which are very hard hands to get away from when you’re beat. Hands like 5543 can be easily dominated on a flop such as KQ5, and can suddenly be drawing to one out. So always think twice before comitting chips with bottom or middle set.

Low-Wrap hands
Another dangerous type of hand is the low four-connected hand, such as 5432. Although it looks like they have great potential, it’s very simple to flop or draw to a low end of a straight. Which most of time means you’re drawing dead.

Small-Flush hands
Small-flush hands are risky hands. When you flop a flush with a hand like 5432, you can’t commit a lot of chips, because when you get any action at all, you’re likely drawing dead. So avoid small flushes!

In Pot-Limit Omaha the value of a starting hand depends on the possible 2-card combinations your 4 hole cards can represent. For example:

AAJT
This hand has some nice 2-card combinations:
AA
AJ
AT
JT

These two short movies nicely show the difference between a good and a bad pot-limit omaha starting hand.

In PLO you’ll often commit a fair amount of chips without a made hand, mostly because you get great odds on your draws. BUT remember you should ALWAYS be drawing to the nuts. An example:

Although Hero’s draw was still good on the flop, he was drawing dead when the board paired and he lost his whole stack when he hit his (dead) nut flush draw on the river.

So write this on a Post-It and glue it to the side of your computerscreen:
Pot Limit Omaha rule #1: Always draw to the nuts.