Cold as Ice: Why Being Dealt Four of a Kind in Omaha is a Poker Player's Nightmare

You’re sitting at the table, the cards are dealt, and you slowly peel them back one by one. It’s a ritual. The first card is an 8. Okay. The second is an 8. Nice, a pair. The third... another 8. Whoa. Your heart starts to pound a little. Then you see the fourth card, and it’s the last 8 in the deck. You’re holding quads. A winter wonderland of snowmen, as some players call them. In most poker games, this is it. This is the moment you dream of. Your mind immediately starts racing, planning how to extract maximum value. But this isn't most poker games. This is Pot-Limit Omaha.

And in PLO, holding four of a kind in your hand is, to put it bluntly, atrocious. It's a poker player's nightmare dressed up as a dream.

The Cold, Hard Truth About Quads in PLO

So, why is this hand so unbelievably bad? It all comes down to one simple, brutal rule that defines Omaha.

You must use exactly two cards from your hand and exactly three cards from the community board to make your final five-card hand. No more, no less.

Let that sink in. With 8-8-8-8 in your hand, you can only use two of those eights. You are guaranteed, no matter what beautiful, magical board comes out, to have nothing more than a single pair of eights from your starting cards. All those extra eights? They're just dead weight. They're not helping you; they're actively hurting you by removing cards that could have been connectors, suited cards, or other pairs that would give you redraws and possibilities.

Think about it. The best you can hope for is an eight to appear on the board, giving you trips. But in a game like PLO, where people are making straights, flushes, and full houses left and right, trips with no redraws is a ticket to Value Town for your opponent. You're basically hoping to hit a third eight on the board just to make a hand that's still incredibly vulnerable. What happens if the board comes 7-9-10? Everyone else with a J-Q or a 6-8 in their hand is loving life. You? You’re sitting there with a pair of eights, drawing dead and feeling foolish.

"Just Pot It": The Poker Player's Battle Cry

Now, if you were to ask a group of seasoned poker players what to do with this hand, you'd hear a resounding, almost gleeful chorus of "Pot it!" Is this real advice? Well, yes and no. It’s mostly a meme, a piece of gallows humor among players who know exactly how terrible the hand is. It's the equivalent of telling someone to jump off a cliff because the view on the way down is nice. It’s a joke rooted in the degen spirit of the game—when in doubt, gamble it up!

Blockers or Self-Blocks?

Some will try to justify it with a straight face, talking about "blockers." They'll say, "Hey, you block all the straights that need an 8!" And sure, technically, you do. You've cornered the market on eights. But you're blocking yourself out of making a real hand far more than you're blocking your opponents. It’s like owning all four tires to a car but not having the car itself. What good are they?

The Ultimate Newbie Trap

This kind of hand is the ultimate newbie trap. A player coming over from No-Limit Hold'em, where pocket aces are king and being dealt a monster is a clear-cut situation, looks down at 8-8-8-8 and sees dollar signs. They can't imagine folding it. They get their money in, and they get absolutely crushed by a random two-pair or a backdoor flush. It’s a tough lesson, but it’s one every PLO player has to learn.

Poker's Cruelest Jokes

This isn't the only time poker plays a cruel joke on you. Players tell stories of similar situations in other games. One guy got dealt a Royal Flush in 2-7 Triple Draw—a game where the goal is to make the worst possible hand. Another was dealt a five-card straight flush in Big O (a five-card PLO variant). At least in that case, they could actually play it! The absurdity of being dealt quads in PLO is so well-known that some casinos have even run promotions where they'd pay a jackpot just for being dealt four of a kind.

It’s a tacit admission from the house: "We know this hand sucks so bad, here's some money for your pain and suffering."

And let’s not forget the human element. In the heat of the moment, seeing such a rare hand, your first instinct might be to snap a picture to show your friends. But imagine doing that at a live table. Whipping out your phone to take a photo of your cards is probably the biggest tell in the history of poker. The whole table would instantly fold, and honestly, that might be the only way you'd win the pot.

So, What's the Real Play?

Honestly? You fold. You quietly muck those four beautiful, useless eights and wait for the next hand. It hurts. It feels wrong on a spiritual level. But poker isn't about what feels right; it's about making the most profitable decision. And the most profitable decision with quads in your hand in PLO is to save your money.

This hand is a perfect little microcosm of what makes Pot-Limit Omaha such a beautifully complex and often frustrating game. It’s a game of possibilities, not just raw starting strength. A hand with four different cards, all connected and suited, is infinitely more powerful than the statistical miracle of four of a kind. So next time you see that winter wonderland staring back at you from your hand, just smile, let it go, and wait for a hand that can actually win you a pot.