Pot Limit Omaha is often looked upon as an action game. It's a game of aggression, equity and pushing thin edges. For most of us at the low limits, that usually means finding a big combo hand full of suited connectors, announcing "pot" over and over, and then hanging on for the ride. And while PLO players need plenty of heart and willingness to gamble, at the higher limits there is far more to Pot Limit Omaha than just gamble.
We saw that today in Event #56 of the PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker. It was the $2,100 Pot Limit Omaha 6-Max event, which attracted 519 of the best PLO players in the world to create a prize pool of $1,038,000 to more than double the guarantee. Over the course of the next thirteen hours, there would be quite a bit of gamble, but the championship structure provided the opportunity for plenty of skilful postflop play.
Jose Barbero, Raymond Wu, Jason Mercier, Roy Bhasin, Ana Marquez, Theo Jorgensen, Andre Akkari, Ville Wahlbeck, Eugene Katchalov, Bertrand Grospellier, George Danzer and Jonathan Duhamel were representing Team PokerStars, but there was only one red spade that reached the money and that was Daniel "kidpoker" Negreanu.
As the bubble burst on the top 66 players, Negreanu was well in contention, but 37th place was as far as Negreanu would go as he collected $5,709 in prize money.
After eleven hours of play, Durian rivered kings up to better cyprean's queens up, to see cyprean eliminated in 7th place and the final table line up set as follows:
Final table line up
Seat 1: mikki696 (1,156,718 in chips)
Seat 2: Durian (1,411,566 in chips) out of hand
Seat 3: Darreta (823,796 in chips) out of hand
Seat 4: brianm15 (245,736 in chips)
Seat 5: saphire1 (844,693 in chips)
Seat 6: DonkPredator (707,491 in chips)
The pots were small in the early stages of the final table, as DonkPredator was the first to win a significant pot at showdown, and incredibly, king-high was enough to take it down. After firing bets on the flop and turn, both DonkPredator and mikki696 checked the river on the [9d][3s][2s][8h][Qc] board, with DonkPredator's [Kc][4s][6h][5c] a surprising winner.
Moments later, the short-stacked brianm15 landed a double up in fortunate fashion:
brianm15 ran into aces but caught a backdoor straight to double through DonkPredator.
With the six-player deadlock unable to be broken, saphire1 raked in the biggest pot of the tournament in a clash with mikki696 on a [Td][6c][Th] flop. mikki696 showed [Kh][Ac][Qh][Qd] for queens and tens as saphire1 was drawing with [9s][5d][8d][7s]. saphire1 didn't have to wait long as the [9h] appeared on the turn to complete the straight before the [ad] fell on the river.
Durian and saphire1 were the two above the one million chip mark as the other four were battling for survival. Durian extended that advantage at the top as brianm15 became the first casualty after an hour of final table play.
And it took a cooler to bring the first bustout as brianm15 was all in preflop with [Kh][Td][4h][Kc] and was unlucky to run into Durian's [8h][As][5h][Ah]. The board was spread [7s][3c][5c][Qd][8s] to see brianm15 finish in 6th place for $33,216.
The aces were passed around the table as Darreta landed a double up with [Ah][Ad][6h][3c] against saphire1's [Qd][Jc][Ts][Td] to put saphire1 back on the short stack. Darreta then followed up with a second double up with [8s][Kd][Jh][Kc] surviving an all-in clash against Durian's [As][7c][2c][Ks].
The double ups continued with DonkPredator getting among the action with [Qd][As][Qs][5d] cracking saphire1's [Ad][Kc][3c][Ah] when a third lady found its way onto the flop.
saphire1 couldn't recover from that blow, and a short time later, pushed [2c][Tc][Td][9c] into Durian's [Qh][2h][Qc][Kh]. The board ran out [7d][As][6c][5h][3c] to see saphire1 out in 5th place for $51,900.
We subscribe the popular Theory of Poker Karma and one of the golden rules is written as "Thou shall not refuse a deal, otherwise feel the wrath of elimination from the poker Gods."
So when we saw this conversation we knew what would happen next:
DonkPredator said, "anyone wants to look at numbers?"
Darreta said, "yep"
mikki696 said, "no"
DonkPredator said, "ok. gl"
mikki696 wanted to go for the big bucks but the decision backfired a short time later:
mikki696 was able to induce action from Durian on the queen-high flop, but mikki696's aces were swallowed up on the river as Durian made two pair to eliminate mikki696 in 4th place for $72,660 in prize money.
DonkPredator rivered a flush to double through Durian, before the three players agreed to take a look at the numbers with the stacks as follows:
Seat 2: Durian (1,900,982 in chips)
Seat 3: Darreta (1,681,019 in chips)
Seat 6: DonkPredator (1,607,999 in chips)
With things pretty even, DonkPredator tried to squeeze a little extra coin from his opponents.
DonkPredator: Id like even numbers, bc im up 1 million in plo and believe I have an edge. there are only 5bbs from 1st to 3rd
Donk Predator: I think thats fair
Durian: no
Darreta: no
Durian: im up 5 million and have position
In the end, DonkPredator managed to extract an extra $1,504 from his opponents as a deal was agreed to.
Durian: that 504 is just cos cant see str8 so tired
With the majority of the cash locked up, the players didn't waste any time to go for the $10,000 and gold bracelet for the winner.
In the very next hand after the deal, DonkPredator and Durian went to war on a flop of [Tc][Js][7c] in a three-bet pot. Durian went with [6s][Qs][9c][Jh] but DonkPredator held a powerful [Qd][Kh][4d][Kd] which held through the [ah] turn and [6c] river.
Durian was crippled and eliminated moments later. Durian's last chips went into the middle on a [3s][Qs][9d] flop. Durian was in front with [Jh][7h][As][Js] as Darreta gambled with [6s][Kh][8c][Th]. Darreta took the lead on the [Kc] and it was all over for Durian when the [3d] river landed. Following the deal, Durian took home a massive $149,752.77 for 3rd place.
Heads-up chip counts
Seat 3: Darreta (2,064,002 in chips)
Seat 6: DonkPredator (3,125,998 in chips)
DonkPredator held the advantage but Darreta quickly found a double up:
DonkPredator was looking good to take the crown after flopping two pair, but the ace on the turn gave Darreta a better two pair for the big double up.
DonkPredator fought back, making a flush against Darreta's straight to even things up before Darreta was unlucky in a massive pot for virtually all of the chips in play.
With the flop reading [2s][Qs][Td], the chips went flying with Darreta holding [Js][Kh][3h][Jc] for jacks with a straight draw against DonkPredator's [Ks][4s][Tc][7c] pair of tens with a flush draw. The [Ac] arrived on the turn to give Darreta the Broadway straight, but the [Jd] river card did the same for DonkPredator as the pot was chopped.
Darreta didn't waste any time in getting back on track as the very next hand the two collided once again. The flop read [7d][Jd][Qc] with DonkPredator in front, but vulnerable with [Ad][Kc][Kh][4s] for a pair of kings against the [Jh][Ts][9d][6h] pair and straight draw for Darreta. The [2d] turn card was a brick but the [9c] river gave Darreta two pair to take it down.
DonkPredator was crippled and all in next hand with [9h][2h][Td][Kd] but Darreta flopped the nut flush holding [5h][Th][3s][As] when the board arrived [7s][6s][5s][Kh][9d] and it was all over! DonkPredator collected $145,000.71 for 2nd place after a great tournament.
Meanwhile the WCOOP gold goes to Darreta, to add to a previous WCOOP title in 2010 and a SCOOP-L win earlier this year, both in Pot Limit Omaha, along with $154,181.52 in prize money!
WCOOP Event #56 $2,100 Pot Limit Omaha 6-Max Final Table Results
Number of entrants: 519
Prize pool: $1,038,000
Places paid: 66
1st Darreta (Bulgaria) - $154,181.52*
2nd DonkPredator (Norway) - $145,000.71*
3rd Durian (Finland) - $149,752.77*
4th mikki696 (Austria) - $72,660
5th saphire1 (United Kingdom) - $51,900
6th brianm15 (Costa Rica) - $33,216
* denotes three-way deal
There are only a few more opportunities to get among the WCOOP action with events running right through until September 24th. For more details head to the WCOOP home page or check out WCOOP radio for daily shows at 15:00 ET.
Heath "TassieDevil" Chick is a Freelance Contributor for the PokerStars Blog.