After a twelve day break, action resumed in the durrrr challenge with Patrik Antonius continuing where he left off and extending his lead over Tom Dwan. Antonius carried a $78,000 lead from the last session, and this time extended it by another $75,000, taking his total lead to $159,727, which is the biggest margin that either player has lead by so far.  

Despite Antonius’s dominance it was Dwan who picked up the biggest pot of the session when he was holding   Qh-Ts-9d-8c, only to come up against the Finn with Ad-As-Kc-Kh. With the pot raised to $108,000 before the flop of 9s-8s-7h, Dwan shoved all-in with his last $45,000, the Finn called but when the board was completed by 5s-9c, it was Dwan who collected the $198,961 pot. Even a pot of this size couldn’t help Dwan reign in Antonius who took five pots over $100,000.

So far the pair have played 12,956 of the 50,000 hands they are aiming to complete, which they were optimistically hoping to complete  before the upcoming start of the WSOP next month.

Before we go any further i will discuss how big a pot in pot-limit Omaha can get.  Do not be fooled into thinking that because it is pot and not no-limit that the pots do not get so big.  If you are used to playing no-limit hold’em you will no doubt be used to raising or calling all-in, but the nature of Omaha means that more players will see the flop, so if  aggressive players were to raise all in every hand, the game would turn into a lottery. Having a pot-limit will not stop the pot growing big and if you are still in a hand, be prepared to see some big raises.

Omaha is more of a action packed game with more people seeing the flop, the pot limit will give players who want to see the flop the chance to bet their hand if they think it is strong enough.

If you are going to raise with your hand, you can raise the pot by the size of the pot itself including any bets that were made before your turn. So if the pot is $10 and a player bets $5 , you could raise up by another $20. You would call the $5 bet and raise by the size of the pot $15, making the pot $35. Another raise in the same round of betting would see an opponent call your $15 raise and again raise by the size of the pot $35 making the pot now $85. So you can see how quickly a pot can grow during the betting rounds. Some poker sites now have specific “Bet Pot” action buttons that make play easier.

Pot-limit Omaha is definately not a game for the faint hearted, your hand can be a red hot favourite on the flop and become junk on the river, thats part of the appeal of this action packed game.

April continues to be a rather bad month for Gus Hansen, last week he was battling Di “Urindanger” Dang at the high stakes PLO tables and earlier this week he was bettered by the older Dang brother, Hac”trex313″ Dang.  There were several big pots over $200,000, and Hac was getting the best of them, including the biggest pot of a night for $236,993.

At one stage this year Hansen was reputed to be up over$2 million this year, but some bad sessions had put a huge dent in his profits. But his luck was not getting any better. He then come up against Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies at the high stakes tables on Wednesday night and again some huge pots were up for grabs, out of the ten biggest, six went to Sahamies.

Next it was back to face one of the Dang brothers. This time Gus was going to get the better of Di “Urindanger” Dang, taking down nine of the biggest pots of the day, though the biggest pot of the night did go the way of  his opponent. Maybe this will be the turn around in Hansen’s fortunes, but he will probably be very glad to see the back of this month.

If you are at a hold’em table and you are dealt a big pair like  A-A or K-K, you are holding two powerful cards, but in PLO these cards in your hand alone are not enough to give you a chance of winning the pot. It does not mean that big pairs are not good cards to have when playing PLO, but for them to be strong cards they need  to work in combinations with the other cards you are holding.

Inexperienced players will often bet a hand, A-A-X-X all the way to the river, but in a multiway pot unless you hit the flop really hard, you are a big underdog. So you need your A-A to work together with your X-X, you  have the possibilities  of hitting a straight, flush or full house.  If you are hold a  hand like A-A-9-3 of different suits, your hand will only improve if you hit another Ace on the flop, but if it is a multi-way pot and there are two or more suited cards your hand is probably an underdog to someone holding a monster hand.

If your hand is A-A-J-T of just two suits, this will give you alot more opportunities to hit a monster hand, the nut straight or nut flush, another Ace  and you have the chance of the nut full house.

 To be in with a decent chance of winning the pot, you really need to be able to make a straight or better. The more your hole cards can work together to give you two cards that will work with whatever comes on the flop, the more chance you have of taking the pot.

Ever since Phil”OMGClayAiken”Galfond described Gus Hansen as the player that is attracting the sharks to Gus’s high stakes PLO tables at Full Tilt, there has been a bit of bad feeling between the two. This pot-limit Omaha session started on Tuesday evening and went on until the early hours of Wednesday morning.

There were an amazing 28 pots worth over $100k, the biggest three pots going to Galfond, but that didn’t stop Hansen building up a $160,000 lead by midnight.  The biggest pot of the night saw Hansen call all in on the turn with two pair and a gutshot draw only to run into Galfond’s flopped straight. Galfond collected a huge pot of $307,991.

Hansen’s biggest pot was $212,791, which he won when he flopped a set of tens that beat Galfond’s KK.

1. A-A-K-K  
2. A-A-J-T
3. A-A-Q-Q
4. A-A-J-J
5. A-A-T-T
6. A-A-9-9
7. A-A-X-X
8. 8-9-T-J
9. K-K-Q-Q
10. K-K-J-J
11. K-Q-J-T
12. K-K-T-T
13. K-K-A-Q
14. K-K-A-J
15. K-K-A-T
16. K-K-Q-J
17. K-K-Q-T
18. K-K-J-T
19. Q-Q-J-J
20. Q-Q-T-T
21. Q-Q-A-K
22. Q-Q-A-J
23. Q-Q-A-T
24. Q-Q-K-J
25. Q-Q-K-T
26. Q-Q-J-T
27. Q-Q-J-9
28. Q-Q-9-9
29. J-J-T-T
30. J-J-T-9

These hands should all be double suited, as in  Ac-Ad-Kd-Kc.

These are considered the best starting hands in pot-limit Omaha. We will discus why these hands are so important in future posts.

Tom Dwan and Patrik Antonius played a short session in the durrrr challenge last night, completing only 165 hands, but  it was enough time for Antonius to extend his overall lead to $80,554.  The biggest pot of the night went to the Finn, when both players were all in, with Dwan on two pair and Antonius on a straight draw. The turn gave Antonius the straight and the river failed to improve Dwan’s hand and so Antonius collected the $139,000 pot.

Away from the durrrr challenge tables, Patrik Antonius is still profiting in the high stakes games. His latest win saw him collect $500,000 from his fellow countrymen Ilari”Ziigmund”Sahamies and Sami”LarzLuzak”Kelopuro. So far this year Antonius is rumoured to be in profit to the tune of $4 million, so clearly is having a very good 2009 regardless of whether he wins Dwan’s $1.5 million.

Another session of the durrrr challenge took place on Saturday night and another 966 hands were played during the session. Dwan’s lead fom Good Friday did not last long as Patrik Antonius stormed back winning over $140k for the session and retake the overall chiplead.

Dwan’s night never really got going as he lost out on some big pots to the challenger. The biggest pot of the session, and the third biggest of the challenge so far, saw Antonius hit a a 4 to 8 straight on the river after he had called durrrr’s all in shove and collected a pot of $196,665. Antonius has now retaken the lead by $61,412.

Away from the challenge tables, Dwan is not having too bad a weekend, almost erasing his rumoured to be $4 million deficit for 2009, he has now brought it down to just $200,000

On Good Friday Dwan and Antonius managed another session of the durrrr challenge, playing 803 hands in just over twp and a half hours. It was a very good session for Tom”durrrr”Dwan as the overall chiplead swung back in his favour. Durrrr went from being $80K down, to having a lead of nearly the same margin.

Dwan took a few pots over $100K, the largest being for over $155,000 when he hit a King high flush on the river. Dwan now has an overall lead of $78,062. With 20% of the 50,000 hands played so far, neither player has managed to keep a resounding lead in the challenge, and you can be sure Patrik Antonius is due another big session soon.

In an earlier post i explained how you should be selective in choosing cards that you see the flop with. There are two factors that will determine how good a hand you are holding.

1. You need your four cards to be able to be combined in sets of two, especially if they give you a chance of making the best hand on the flop. An example is Ac-Ad-Jc-Td, with these cards you have possabilites to hit a full house, a nut flush and the nut straight.
2. If your cards run in a tight straight that will let you hit the nut straight on the flop. Cards with a gap at the lower end are also good. A good example of how a straight run of your hole cards can improve on the flop is, Qd-Jc-Td-9c, the fact that the cards are double suited will also help you hit a flush. There are many community card combinations that can improve these four cards to make a great hand,

AKQ, AKJ, AKT, KJ9, KT9, QT8, Q98, JT8, J98, J87, T98, T87, 987, 876,

Remember the lower your straight the more chance of someone else making a higher straight that will beat your hand.