Congratulations to Steve Billirakis for winning the World Series of Poker Europe €5.3k Pot Limit Omaha Event, cashing €238,140.
Steve came into the final table second in chips, and although he was one of the favourites, the only American at the final table was still facing some steap competition from the likes of Eoghan O’Dea, Ramzi Jelassi and ofcourse chipleader Sam Trickett.
He started out the final table pretty slowly, but when five-handed he stepped it up. Eliminating Jerome Bradpiece shortly after a key hand were Billikaris’ A-A-10-7 held up against Bradpiece’s 6-6-2-2. When he took a 400k pot of Jelassi, he was the first player to cross the 1 million chipmark. Although Jelassi proved a tough opponent and was slowly gaining on Billikaris. A key hand settled the matter however: Billikaris insta-called Jelassi’s shove with Td-9d-8d-6s on a Ad-3c-2d flop, with Ah-As-9s-5c. Fading the diamond, he was heads-up with Michele Di Lauro, which ended quickly when Billikaris A-K-T-7 flopped two pair against Di Lauro’s Q-Q-7-6.
This episode isn’t quite a amusing as the first one, but here are the highlights:
5:00 Brandom Adams overplays an overpair (again). 21:00 “Wut about me?” 23:00 Ivey plays a wrap very agressivily. 32:00 Great valuebet by Hastings. 35:00 Ever confused about what blockers are in PLO? Analyze this hand.
PAD PLO Cashgame ep. 3
This episode is all about Phil Ivey. Let’s some it up:
04:00 Ivey shows us how to play a small flush in a 3-way pot. 13:00 Ivey shows us how to play a hand with blockers. 15:00 Ivey shows us how to play a wrap, hit a miracle river and we see Dwan make a great fold. 18:00 Ivey shows us how NOT to play air. 24:00 Ivey shows us not even him can call with A-high in PLO. 37:00 Ivey shows us how to win a huge 3-way pot.
Few weeks ago Poker After Dark featured a PLO cashgame for two weeks. In the next couple of posts I’ll be discussing these episodes with you. Big thank you to youtube user wsop2010fvp for uploading these.
If you don’t want any spoilers, just watch the movie and don’t scroll down any further.
PAD PLO Cashgame ep. 1
The line-up is pretty sick: Brandom Adams, Patrick Antonius, Phil Ivey, Tom Dwan, Brain Hastings and Phil Galfond. Andy Bloch is the guest commentator for these special episodes, and although I was pretty sceptical about this at first he really does a great job.
Here are some of the key hands of the first episode: 03:00 A classic example of why history between players plays such a huge role in any form of poker: Dwan calls a big bet on the river with a marginal holding. 04:00 Antonius wants a round of double stradles, sicko. 07:00 Brandon Adams makes a nice laydown. 12:00 Phil Galfond teaches us the art of the valuebet-bluff. 17:00 We already have our first all-in. 24:00 Ivey says he “really wants to gamble” and induces a pretty loose call by Antonius. 30:00 As we all know, aces can get you in some though spots in PLO. 34:00 Some great pot-control by Ivey with the second nuts. 40:00 Dwan makes a great valuebet, with quite a weak holding.
All in all very amusing first episode. But, don’t you think Brandon Adams looks really uncomfortable between these guys?
Just as I predicted in the last post, the online poker madness was far from over! Patrik Antonius and Isildur1 (the new high-stakes sensation) just crushed the old record:
At just before 9:30 p.m. Eastern time on Saturday night, Antonius and Isildur1 were in the middle of a three-table, $500/1,000 pot-limit Omaha match on Full Tilt Poker. On the “Royal Guard” table, Antonius had built up his stack to nearly $1.26 million from his initial $200,000 buy-in, while Isildur1 was sitting on $678,000. These two high-stakes rivals had already tangled in an $815,000 pot earlier in the evening (then the second-largest online pot ever), and many railbirds believed it was only a matter of time before they saw seven figures at stake on a single hand.
The pot was five-bet before the flop, Isildur1 opening for $3,000, Antonius three-betting to $9,000, Isildur1 repotting to $27,000, and Antonius coming back over the top for $81,000. Isildur1 called and they saw a {5-Clubs}{4-Spades}{2-Hearts}flop.
Antonius bet $91,000 into the $162,000 pot. After a little thought, Isildur1 repotted to $435,000, leaving himself only $162,473 behind. Antonius reraised to $773,000 and Isildur1 called off the rest of his stack, creating a $1,356,946 pot.
Antonius turned up {A-Hearts}{K-Hearts}{K-Spades}{3-Spades}, having flopped a wheel, while Isildur1 revealed {9-Spades}{8-Hearts}{7-Diamonds}{6-Diamonds} for a higher straight draw.
Although Antonius was a 55 percent favorite on the flop, the {5-Hearts} on the turn made him a more than 3-1 favorite over Isildur1. The river was the {9-Clubs} and Antonius raked in more than $1.35 million.
The action in online casino rooms is getting crazier and crazier. In an attempt to still their hunger for action Durrrr (Tom Dwan) and Ziigmund (Ilari Sahamies) gave their own twist to PLO: instead of playing the normal game at the $500/1,000 tables they both agreed to raise and reraise every single pot, both committing $9,000 before the flop comes down. Ofcourse this results in some massive pots, including the largest online pot-limit omaha pot ever, worth $703,000!
This is what happened:
After Dwan made the compulsory opening raise to $3,000 and Sahamies put in his required reraise to $9,000, Dwan pushed the action with a four-bet to $27,000. Sahamies called and they saw a flop of {J-Spades}{10-Hearts}{2-Spades}. Both players checked and the {7-Diamonds} landed on the turn. Sahamies led out for $54,000, Dwan raised to $216,000, and Sahamies moved in for his entire $324,463 stack. Dwan called, having him covered, and showed {Q-Spades}{10-Diamonds}{8-Spades}{5-Diamonds} for a queen-high flush draw, a gutshot straight draw, and a pair of tens. Sahamies was a 3-to-1 favorite, however, with {J-Diamonds}{9-Diamonds}{8-Clubs}{7-Spades} for a jack-high straight and two pair. The river improved Sahamies’ hand further, falling the {J-Clubs} to make him jacks full of sevens, good for the nearly $703,000 pot.
I good way to learn how to play a new kind of poker game is to watch good players play it. That’s why I made a Youtube playlist of the PLO 10k event of the WSOP 2008.
