WCOOP Event 16: $215 PLO 1 Rebuy/1 Add-On

I was actually only in for $400 because I didn’t rebuy immediately. Only one person at my table did this, and I decided that Omaha being a high variance game, my one rebuy would be more useful to me as an insurance policy than as an immediate add-on. However, I doubled up almost immediately and never ended up using it. I ended up running pretty deep anyway. Throughout the rebuy period and the first hour or so afterwards, I played very tight. I won a few nice pots early in the rebuy period, so after adding on, I could afford to fold for quite some time, which is what I did.

Eventually I picked up Aces in a great spot and won a huge pot with a coin flip:

Poker Stars
Pot Limit Omaha Tournament
Blinds: t50/t100
8 players
Converter

Stack sizes:
UTG: t4940
UTG+1: t10930
MP1: t11523
Hero: t7430
CO: t840
Button: t8674
SB: t29202
BB: t32230

Pre-flop: (8 players) Hero is MP2 with :ks :6s :ah :ac
2 folds, MP1 raises to t350, Hero calls t350 (pot was t500), 2 folds, SB calls t300 (pot was t850), BB raises to t1750, MP1 calls t1400 (pot was t2800), Hero raises to t7350, SB folds, BB raises to t12950, MP1 folds, Hero calls all-in t80.
Uncalled bets: t5520 returned to BB.

Flop: :5s :js :tc (t16960, 1 player + 1 all-in – Main pot: t16960)

Turn: :2c (t16960, 1 player + 1 all-in – Main pot: t16960)

River: :as (t16960, 1 player + 1 all-in – Main pot: t16960)

Results:
Final pot: t16960

Aces in PLO aren’t nearly the monster they are in NLHE, so with not much else to the hand, I elected just to call with them initially. I ended up getting it in with QJT9 and holding.

I’m no PLO expert, but from what I could tell, a lot of people were playing really badly. I may even have made some questionable folds because I gave people too much credit when they potted it:

Poker Stars
Pot Limit Omaha Tournament
Blinds: t150/t300
9 players
Converter

Stack sizes:
UTG: t32987
Hero: t22900
MP1: t33260
MP2: t4865
MP3: t23062
CO: t31400
Button: t43209
SB: t31598
BB: t1730

Pre-flop: (9 players) Hero is UTG+1 with :as :ad :9s :8d
UTG calls t300 (pot was t450), Hero raises to t1350, 2 folds, MP3 calls t1350 (pot was t2100), CO calls t1350 (pot was t3450), 3 folds, UTG calls t1050 (pot was t4800).

Flop: :5h :9d :5d (t5850, 4 players)
UTG checks, Hero checks, MP3 bets t5850, 2 folds, Hero folds.
Uncalled bets: t5850 returned to MP3.

Results:
Final pot: t5850

Here I check-folded Aces and the nut flush draw because I just couldn’t see this guy having less than trips, and I didn’t want to invest 4x the pot in such a spot.

Eventually I caught one of these guys overvaluing his hand:

Poker Stars
Pot Limit Omaha Tournament
Blinds: t150/t300
9 players
Converter

Stack sizes:
UTG: t30862
UTG+1: t30050
MP1: t43209
MP2: t30998
MP3: t1280
CO: t31037
Hero: t20050
SB: t32660
BB: t4865

Pre-flop: (9 players) Hero is Button with :kd :js :6s :th
UTG calls t300 (pot was t450), UTG+1 folds, MP1 calls t300 (pot was t750), 2 folds, CO calls t300 (pot was t1050), Hero calls t300 (pot was t1350), SB folds, BB checks.

Flop: :jh :4c :ks (t1650, 5 players)
BB checks, UTG checks, MP1 checks, CO bets t1250, Hero calls t1250 (pot was t2900), 3 folds.

Turn: :5s (t4150, 2 players)
CO bets t3600, Hero calls t3600 (pot was t7750).

River: :kc (t11350, 2 players)
CO bets t4200, Hero raises all-in t14900, CO calls t10700 (pot was t30450).

Results:
Final pot: t41150

He had AKT4, for K’s full of 4’s. The turn should probably a check-fold for him. Potting it again is really bad with top and bottom pair, and if I hadn’t seen so many people making mistakes like this, I might have been tempted to fold top two. But I decided to call again and river the nuts instead.

This was a fun one where I turned an overpair into a bluff since I held two blockers to the nuts:

Poker Stars
Pot Limit Omaha Tournament
Blinds: t150/t300
9 players
Converter

Stack sizes:
UTG: t4415
UTG+1: t30962
MP1: t32240
MP2: t38329
MP3: t27768
CO: t10130
Button: t18737
Hero: t37200
BB: t35360

Pre-flop: (9 players) Hero is SB with :kh :jc :jh :ac
3 folds, MP2 raises to t900, MP3 folds, CO calls t900 (pot was t1350), Button folds, Hero calls t750 (pot was t2250), BB folds.

Flop: :9h :4h :5c (t3000, 3 players)
Hero checks, MP2 bets t1500, CO folds, Hero calls t1500 (pot was t4500).

Turn: :8h (t6000, 2 players)
Hero checks, MP2 checks.

River: :qs (t6000, 2 players)
Hero bets t4300, MP2 folds.
Uncalled bets: t4300 returned to Hero.

Results:
Final pot: t6000

For the majority of the tournament, Andy McLeod, the eventual winner, was on my immediate left. From what I could tell, he wasn’t a great PLO player, but he is a great tournament player in general and very loose and aggressive, which was rough to have on my left. I actually ran really well against him and probably didn’t win as much as a better player could have nor as much as I could have from a less good player. I ended up doubling through Andy at a really crucial moment when we both held KKxx and flopped an overpair. I had a flush draw with mine, he had an open-ended straight draw with his, and my draw hit.

The last laugh was his, though, as he recovered by twice doubling through the Aces of LoneHixx (who was on his immediate left) with random garbage and ended up winning nearly $100,000 for first place.

With 117 left out of more than 1200 who started, I was in 25th place and feeling fine. Then it happened:

Poker Stars
Pot Limit Omaha Tournament
Blinds: t600/t1200
8 players
Converter

Stack sizes:
UTG: t58291
UTG+1: t68740
MP1: t58836
MP2: t141471
CO: t49815
Hero: t84555
SB: t71922
BB: t100490

Pre-flop: (8 players) Hero is Button with :8c :9d :jc :js
3 folds, MP2 raises to t4200, CO calls t4200 (pot was t6000), Hero calls t4200 (pot was t10200), 2 folds.

Flop: :ks :jd :5h (t14400, 3 players)
MP2 bets t14400, CO folds, Hero raises to t57600, MP2 raises to t100800, Hero calls all-in t22755.
Uncalled bets: t20445 returned to MP2.

Turn: :5s (t175110, 1 player + 1 all-in – Main pot: t175110)

River: :6h (t175110, 1 player + 1 all-in – Main pot: t175110)

Results:
Final pot: t175110

I was up against KKxx, so I busted with middle set versus top set. In NLHE, that’s an absolute cooler. But I wonder whether a better PLO player would have lost his ass here. Truthfully, when the guy bet out into two people, I was already pretty worried about top set. But I just couldn’t see anything but getting it in and then getting it pissed.