Here are my updates from the pot limit Omaha tournament at a buy-in of 1,500 dollars, unlimited re-buys: it began with a starting stack of 3,000 chips, but since I bought in with 3,000 dollars right away I got 6,000 chips. And it really started off well for me. After only about ten minutes I had already doubled my stack. My table was really comfortable to play at. At this point, the only really dangerous player at the table was Jeff Madsen, player of the year 2006.
In these re-buy tournaments, it’s really important in my opinion to make lots of chips in the re-buy phase, since otherwise it gets really difficult to get into the higher ranks. Without major incidence I built up my stack to 33,000 by the end of the re-buy phase and that with an investment of only 6,000. In comparison: Phil Ivey had a 90k stack, however with a total of 13 re-buys. By the way, Ivey might come to Oktoberfest this year.
After our table was broken up, I was able to play five hands at a table with the Devilfish and Katja Thater. But then I soon came to another table again and that one was much harder to play: big stacks and names like Johnny Chan and high stakes PLO player tsarrast. To my left sat one of the tournament’s chip leaders, who, like all chip leaders in a PLO tournament, called all pre-flop raises in position. There were still 200 players in the tournament at this point. Then it came to the following hand: I raise at the cutoff with 5♠-7♠-8♦-10♦; a limper and the button call. The flop brings K♠-6♠-8♣; we check. The turn comes with a 9. Now the UTG almost plays for the pot. I raise the pot, in response to which the UTG goes all-in. I decide to call and my opponent shows me A♣-K♣-Q♣-8♥, so two pairs with nuts flush draw. Unfortunately, his flush comes at the river and I lose 80 percent of my stack. In the next hand I get 3♣-4♣-6♥-7♥. The flop comes with 3♦-3x-8x and there are three of us in the pot, everyone checks. At the turn comes the K♦. The player in the first position plays for about 80 percent of the pot and I decided to go all-in with my small stack and was called with 8-8. With that my second PLO tournament was over after six hours playing time.
After my elimination I went to my hotel, picked up my girlfriend and our son to go have dinner and who do you think I met? Phil Ivey! We talked about the tournament and of course I couldn’t keep myself from asking what he did with his huge stack. To that, Phil said: “OH MAN, you know when you play bad?” “Yes,” I said, “we all know that. Sometimes you can’t do anything about it.” To be honest, I think Phil is running after a bracelet. He has a lot of side bets going, which are definitely in the millions of dollars. For example, he has a bet going with multiple players that he’s going to win a bracelet at this WSOP, for a 1-2 quote. In my opinion, Phil’s game is being affected by these bets. Now more than half of all the tournaments are over and then Phil is also playing the 50k H.O.R.S.E event, which will make him miss a few other tournaments. In any case, I wish him all the best for the rest of the WSOP and I’m already looking forward to drinking a beer with him.
Bye for now
Your Markus Golser
