Master Classics of Poker Report
Day 3: Brits dominate big-bet tournament action
November 5: Pot-limit Omaha high, buy-in $420
(1040 guilders), 1 optional rebuy
People who know me or have read my works know that my favorite game is pot-limit Omaha. In Britain, France and Austria the game has become extremely popular and it seemed likely today's tournament would be dominated by the foreigners. Still, there are also a few very capable Dutch PLO players (like the winner of yesterday's event, Euro King Marcel Luske), but they had no chance whatsoever today. The final table was dominated by the British and, to a lesser extent, the Austrian professionals. Big name players like Ram Vaswani (former winner of the big $2000 Lido tournament), Mike Magee, Ali Sharkeshik and the capable and highly aggressive Austrian-based Jin Caillin and Markus Golser made this a highly interesting final table, to say the least. However, despite the obvious quality of the players, the final table lasted only 32 hands, while the size of the blinds was a bit too high relative to the average stack size. Not only that: none of the star players mentioned managed to win it- and none of the big stacks, either. It seemed Ram and Markus, with almost 50 percent of the total chips in play plus their PLO tournament experience, would be huge favorites to capture the title, but neither of them was able to lift the trophy. Who was?
Start final table (players / country / chip count)
Seat # 1: Jin Caillin, Austria, 32,000
Seat # 2: Mohammed Mirfan, Scotland, 40,000
Seat # 3: Manfred Selzer, Austria, 15,000
Seat # 4: Ali Sharkeshik, England, 34,000
Seat # 5: Tony Kelly, England, 21,500
Seat # 6: Ram Vaswani, England, 129,000
Seat # 7: Markus Golser, Austria, 118,000
Seat # 8: Vicki Lincoln, England, 58,500
Seat # 9: Mike Magee, Ireland, 47,000
Blinds: 4,000-8,000
Casualties all over: Is this a poker game or another episode of MASH?
Just like yesterday, a final table player was eliminated on the first hand, and this time it was one of the most dangerous players: Mr. Jin Caillin, the owner of the Poker World casino in Vienna, Austria. Even though he definitely made the right move (re-raising the button's possible steal with QQ77) he exited ninth (the button, Mike Magee, had a quality hand and won with AKQJ single-suited). On hand # 2, we also had casualty # 2. Everybody folded to the small blind, Mohammed Mirfan, who called rather than raise or fold. The extremely short-stacked Manfred Selzer decided to commit with QQ84 and raised all-in, but lost against Mohammed's T983. Seven-handed, it seemed for a minute like this was going to be a ‘normal' final table. After a walk for Tony Kelly (holding AAQT single-suited, did those guys smell something or what?), we had six of the usual "raise-and-take-it" situations. The chipleaders waited for the short stacks to bust out and Mike Magee took the opportunity to steal three blinds in only six hands. On hand # 12, we had our third victim. Ali Sharkeshik suffered a beat when he re-raised Mohammed with AAQT single-suited, only to lose against KQT3. Then it was Tony's turn to leave, when he raised all-in with 7766. He was no threat to the big stacks to his left, who called his raise and then checked all the way, only to see that one king was enough to bust the Englishman out. Four casualties in only thirteen hands; we were down to five-handed and it seemed time to play some poker.
Big stacks in sudden trouble; early exit for chip leaders
Ram, the original chipleader, got in sudden trouble on hand # 14, when the only lady player Vicki Lincoln caught him on a steal with KQ73; she held AKK6 which doubled her up. The other big stack, Markus, knew he couldn't afford to wait and raised three pots in a row. First, he made it 25,000 to go on the button and was successful in winning the blinds, although Mike needed at least four minutes to surrender. On the following hand, when Markus once again raised (this time to 30,000) he came over the top and made him lay down his hand, thereby severely crippling his stack. Right after that, Markus raised again (full pot to 35,000). This time it was Mohammed who came over the top, and there was no way for Markus to lay down his quality KKQ9 double-suited, but he was dead in the water against his opponent's aces; exit Markus. A couple of hands later the other former big stack, Ram, had an early departure when Mohammed called his AKQ7 reraise with KJJ6 double-suited and won. In a very short period of time, the two chip leaders had busted out fourth and fifth, and the relatively small stacks had gained valuable ammunition.
Some more firework, and a few remarkable decisions
When we were down to three-handed, I expected the action to cool down a little, but the blinds came around so often, no one could afford to wait. When the short-stacked Vicki raised 50,000 all-in on Mohammed's 15,000 blind, I was surprised to watch him fold T973 double-suited. Not because it is such a great hand (it's not), but because these type of hands do rather well in heads up situations -it is hard for this type of hand to be more than a 2 to 1 underdog-, and because there was the chance to bust someone out at a relatively low cost. He made his move against Mike, however, coming over the top with AQJ4 double-suited against KKT8; when the flop came AAJ, Mike was out in third place. Mohammed now had a huge 4 to 1 chip lead over Vicki, but once again refused to finish her off, this time with Q985 double-suited. He had raised her 15,000 blind to 45,000 and when she re-raised all-in to 98,000, he laid down his hand- an amazing decision. He gave the excellent playing Vicki the chance to get back in the game and she didn't even have to show a winner for it. A few hands later, he finished her off anyway. He came over the top of her 45,000 raise with QJT7 single-suited, Vicki called all-in with 9966 but a queen on the board sent her out. The final table was over in just 32 hands and we had an upset winner with Mohammed Mirfan, who played well but also made a few remarkable decisions along the way, decisions a lot of us might not have made- but that is why he is the Omaha champion, and we are not.
Final results:
1. Mohammed Mirfan, Scotland, $40,000 (97,812 guilders)
2. Vicki Lincoln, England, $20,000 (48,906 guilders)
3. Mike Magee, Ireland, $10,000 (24,453 guilders)
People who are new to PLO often claim that it's all just luck. In tournaments, there is some truth to this, because losing one hand often means you are out and because it is hard for your hand to be more than a 2 to 1 favorite over your opponent's hand, either before or on the flop. Today's final table showed that when the blinds are a bit too high, the luck factor can become enormous. This having said, pot-limit Omaha in itself is a beautiful, exciting and highly skillful game, and it is for this reason almost all European professional players favor it over limit hold'em, for example. Also, in PLO tournaments you'll see the same faces taking the money all the time and if it were just luck this would simply not be possible. Tomorrow we'll go to the game most Americans love: no-limit hold'em. I'll keep you all posted. Take care, and good luck,
Rolf "Ace" Slotboom.
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