On the second day of the 2009 World Series of Poker $1,500 Omaha hi/lo tournament, there is a new leader in Ed Smith.  The chipleader at the end of Day 1, Thang Luu who is defending his 2008 title, was overtaken on the leaderboard by Smith who has finished runner-up in a $1,500 Omaha hi/lo event 1999 and finished in 23 rd place last year.

The day ended with nineteen players left to battle down to the eventual winner. Still in contention is Freddy Deeb, Jordan Rich and the last remaining female in the tournament Ming Reslock, who earlier eliminated her husband Chris Reslock.Among the more well known players who failed to advance in the tournament were, Annie Duke, Erik Lindgren, Layne Flack, Todd Brunson, Phil Hellmuth and Andy Bloch.

Thang Luu’s lead was cut by mid-day, but managed to gain back ground later in the day, mainly thanks to large pot he won with kings full of tens against Jordan Rich, so his quest for a second bracelet in this event is still alive.

The first day of the 2009 World Series Of Poker $1,500 Omaha Hi/Lo tournament saw a record number of entrants for a live Omaha Hi/Lo event. The tournament started with 918 participants and ended with last years winner Thang Luu at the top of the leaderboard.

Amongst the top names tacking part were Chris Ferguson, Freddy Deeb, Ivan Demidov, Jennifer Harman, Andy Bloch, Erik Lindgren, John Juanda and Kathy Liebert.  Mike Matusow shared his time between this tournament and his stack in the $40,000 NLHE tournament, but ended up being busted out of both. One unlucky player was eliminated when he was unknowingly dealt 5 cards, the hand was declared dead and the player was knocked out. 

By the time of the dinner break the field had been reduced to just over 500 and by the end of the day, just 197 were left to fight it out on day 2. Notable survivors included Phil Hellmuth, Annie Duke and Todd Brunson. Some players not so fortunate to last the day included Daniel Negreanu and David”Chino” Reem.

Earlier this week Tom Dwan and Ilari Sahamies were again playing at their own “higher” high stakes PLO table. They are sitting at a $500/$1000 table and before they even play their hands, they are raising and reraising, so making the blinds $3000/$9000.

Sahamies was not too keen to play at these stakes at first, but obviously Dwan’s power of persuasion got the better of him.  The session last just over an hour and it was Sahamies who came away in profit, helped by winning three of the nights biggest pots.

If you are used to playing Texas hold’em,  you are probably well aware of the importance of having  position over your opponents at the poker table, but PLO  has much more action after the flop, and with possibility of the lead changing after every street it is much more important to see what your opponent does before it is your turn to act. If you are folding all but the premium hands when you are out of position and a bigger range of hands when you do have position, you will find that you are less likely to find yourself in tough situations later in the hand.

By being in a late position you are going to get more information about your opponents hands, if there is a raise and a reraise before you get to act , it is easier to decide whether to continue with your hand or fold.  Being able to play a larger range of hands when you are in position is only half the story, being able to use your position to your advantage will make your game alot more profitable. But remember you still have to use good hand selection and be willing to fold the hand if you miss the flop completely or you are drawing to a non-nut hand. 

You should use your position and the strength of your hand to dictate the size of the pot.  If you have a very strong hand preflop, don’t be afraid to reraise a raise, this will drive out any opponents that may have flat called the original raise. Likewise if you only have limpers in front of you, limping in yourself is a option if your hand is more marginal, but be aware that the flop may help any number of players and the pot can grow quickly in the next rounds, so be sure that if you do limp in to see the flop that you are not chasing a non-nut draw in later rounds.

Remember not to become predictable with your play when in position, don’t always limp in if everyone limps to you and don’t always only raise when you are holding  big pairs. Good players will always pick up on your plays if you do become predictable, so do remember to keep a balance in your play.

Once again Tom “durrrr” Dwan and Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies hit the high stakes pot-limit Omaha tables. During the session they played on Saturday they managed to battle it out for the largest ever online PLO pot, $702,925 which is also the second-largest pot in online poker.

The pair came to an agreement that they would raise and reraise every pot, each putting in $9,000 before the flop was shown. After playing a few pots of between $300k and $400k, they played the record breaking hand. Dwan made his raise for $3,000 and Sahamies made the required reraise to $9,000, Dwan now made a four-bet raise to $27,000, which Sahamies called and the flop of  Js-Th-2s  was checked by both players.  The turn showed up the 7d and Sahamies bet $54,000 into the pot which Dwan then raised to $216,000.  The raise was answered by Sahamies shoving his entire $324,463 stack into the middle. Dwan then called his opponent and showed Qs-Td-8s-5dto give him a queen high flush draw, a gutshot straight draw and a pair of tens. Sahamies was ahead at this point with Jd-9d-8c-7s giving him a jack high straight and two pairs. With the Jc showing on the river, Sahamies hand improved to a full house, jacks full of sevens to land him the record breaking $702,925 pot.

Tuesday night saw  the high stakes pot-limit Omaha action on Full Tilt Poker step up a gear as Tom Dwan not only played Patrik Antonius in another session of the durrrr challenge, but he also went heads-up against the likes of Phil Ivey, Gus Hansen and Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies.

Patrik Antonius had the better of Dwan in the durrrr challenge session, stretching his lead by just over $32,000 during the 700 hands that the pair played. Tom Dwan managed to take the sessions biggest pot when the flop was 9s-4h-Jh, Dwan hit top pair and a straight draw holding  Th-Jc-4s-Kc, but was behind to Antonius who had two pair with Jd-7d-As-9h. Everything changed on the turn when the Ks came, giving Dwan a better two pair. Antonius had no help on the river, so Dwan took the $153,226 pot.  

Dwan had better luck against Phil Ivey, taking nearly $500K off him before they called a halt to the session. Gus Hansen proved stiffer opposition, despite Dwan building a early lead, the Dane staged a fightback and managed to finish the session over $350K up.

Then Dwan came up against Sahamies, playing $3,000/$9,000  PLO for around an hour. Sahamies took the biggest pot of the session winning $462,514 with the nut straight. There were six pots over $300K, but it was honours even as they won three apiece and finished the session both breaking even .

With the start of the WSOP only days away it looks like the durrrr challenge is going to be put on the back burner for a while, but hopefully we may see some more challenge action before the start of the WSOP extravaganza

In a short session of the durrrr challenge lasting  just over 300 hands, Tom Dwan managed to start his fight back against Patrik Antonius’s $500K lead. Antonius started the session well winning a couple of big pots,including the second biggest pot of the session, but that was before Dwan got into his stride. First he managed to take down several pots over $50K, before the biggest pot of the session when Dwan’s trip 9’s won him $144,838.

This session helped Dwan reduce the finn’s lead by $100K, and  there is still over 36,000 hands to be played in the challenge, but the pair’s hope of trying to complete the challenge before the start of the WSOP looks to be in jeopardy.

Although the durrrr challenge has been put on hold again at the moment, that has not stopped Tom “durrrr” Dwan seeking out more high stakes action against some of poker’s best over the last few days. But unlike the last few sessions of the challenge, Dwan was in formidable form and took over $2 million worth of pots.

It started over the weekend when  Dwan played a series of heads-up matches,  $500/$1000 PLO against Gus Hansen, $300/$600 PLO against Ilari”Ziigmund” Sahamies and a $300/600 no-limit hold’em session against Sami “Larsluzak” Kelopuro.

The largest pot of the session was against Sahamies, when Dwan won $265,000, he also managed to win another five pots over $100,000.

Then it was on to Sunday and this time Dwan was up against Phil Ivey playing PLO. Ivey got off to the better start taking pots worth over $100k, but Dwan started a fight back and the highlight was winning a pot worth over $300K.  Dwan raised pre-flop with K-J-Q-Q, which Ivey re-raised holding J-T-9-8, a flop of Q-8-7  came and Ivey bet and then shoved all-in when raised by Dwan, who then promptly called the Shove. The fourth Q came on the turn giving Dwan the pot with quads.  

It had been rumoured that Dwan had been down about $4 million so far this year and has now cut that deficit by half, it is no doubt that Dwan will be looking to get back on top in the durrrr challenge once it is back on.

At the end of May the 40th World Series of Poker begins and thousands of poker players from all over the planet will head to the Rio All-Suite and Hotel in Las Vegas to battle it out for the most prestigious titles on the poker tournament calender. This year Omaha poker players have even more events to contest including pot-limit Omaha, Omaha Hi-Lo and mixed events such as H.O.R.S.E..

              Date                  Tournament                                                      Buy-in

• Fri 29 may                Omaha Hi-Lo 8/b                                             $1,500
• Mon  1 June             Pot-Limit Omaha                                              $1,500
• Wed 3 June              Pot-Limit Hold’em/Omaha                                $2,500
• Thurs 4 June           World Championship Mixed                           10,000
• Sun 7 June         World Championship Omaha Hi-Lo 8/B            $10,000
• Tues 9 June             H.O.R.S.E.                                                         $3,000
• Thurs 11 June     Omaha/Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo 8/B                  $2,500  
• Fri 12 June             Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo 8/B                               5,000
• Sun 14 June            Pot-Limit Omaha                                          $2,500
• Sun 14 June            H.O.R.S.E.                                                      $1,500
• Wed 17 June         Pot-Limit Omaha                                           $5,000
• Sat 20 June     World Championship Pot-Limit Omaha             $10,000
• Sun 21 June             Mixed                                                            $2,500
• Tues 23 June        Omaha Hi-Lo 8/B                                           $2,500
• Thurs 25 June      Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo 8/B                        $1,500
• Fri 26 June          World Championship H.O.R.S.E.                    $50,000    

In a short durrrr  challenge session lasting no longer than thirty minutes and playing 300 hands, Patrik Antonius took huge strides to take control of the challenge by extending his lead to nearly $500k.

Tom Dwan did not get off to the best of starts, losing $150,ooo in two early hands. His total loss for the session was $328,470 and the only thing that stopped it from being a bigger margin was that he took the biggest hand of the session, when his pocket Aces beat Antonius’s Kings and taking a $174,196 pot. But that did not stop Dwan having to reload on all four of the challenge tables they were using at Full Tilt Poker.

Antonius now leads the challenge by $488,133 having played just over 13,000 hands, out of the 50,000 they are aiming for. Before this session Antonius held the biggest lead that either player had held in the tournament and now the margin between the two is even bigger. You should never write Dwan off , but the way this year is going for him so far, he will have his work cut out to try and reel Antonius back in, but, stranger things have happened in the world of high stakes poker.