Pot-limit Omaha title goes to young, aggressive and solid Norwegian
Pot-limit Omaha tournaments tend to attract some of the best players on the circuit, and today's event was no exception. A lot of stars were there at 3 p.m. when the tournament started. Because only one rebuy was allowed, play was somewhat tighter than is normally the case in this game: because pot-limit Omaha tournaments usually allow two, three, and sometimes even unlimited rebuys, quite a few good players use the system of being extremely aggressive during the rebuy phase. Today, though, they had to be a bit more careful, and this influenced not only the action in the beginning of the tournament, but also at the later stages. With so many European top players making their living exactly at this game, one could expect an event that was dominated by foreigners- and indeed, only one hometown player managed to make it to the final table. When Reinhardt Dersch from Germany was eliminated in tenth spot, we had a final table with at least three very familiar faces: Master Classics tournament star Steven Liu, high stakes player Freddy Deeb, and Frenchman Pascal 'The Bandit' Perrault. Chipleader was the relatively unknown Norwegian Öystein Halland, with the rest of the field fairly close, and no one in immediate danger of busting out.
Final table line-up / chip counts:
Seat # 1: Dick Djoa, Netherlands, 67,500
Seat # 2: Norbert Holting, Germany, 64,000
Seat # 3: Steven Liu, England, 75,300
Seat # 4: Simon Hennesy, England, 62,400
Seat # 5: Pascalle Perrault, France, 97,600
Seat # 6: Benjamin Hannuna, France, 54,700
Seat # 7: Freddie Deeb, U.S.A., 64,600
Seat # 8: Öystein Halland, Norway, 155,100
Seat # 9: Sherkhan Farnood, Afghanistan, 51,000
Total chips in play: 692,000 (approx).
No early casualties, and the chipleader in total control
Even though quite a few pot-limit Omaha players tend to be quite aggressive and somewhat loose, action on today's final table was rather slow, with quite a few 'walks' for the big blinds. It took fourteen hands for the first player to bust out (quite unusual by Master Classics standards), and rather surprising it was our second chipleader Pascalle Perrault. He first lost a big pot against Simon Hennesy when he overplayed his queens a little, and then got busted out with double-suited kings. Sherkhan Farnood held onto his AJJT, and received help by catching a jack to bust out the nice and charismatic Frenchman. Because no one was really short-stacked with the blinds at 4,000 and 8,000, everyone could afford to wait a bit, and it was chipleader Öystein Halland who was doing most of the betting and raising. He finished off local favorite Dick Djoa who trapped by check-calling with the nut straight, but Öystein, holding bottom set on a KQ9 flop, got lucky by backdooring a flush to bust out the Dutchman. He also sent home Freddie Deeb, when unimproved aces were enough to beat his more experienced opponent. His next victim was Benjamin Hannuna. He decided to call the all-in bet by the short-stacked Frenchman with JT65 double-suited, and received help from the board. Öystein was now the undisputed chip leader, but he had to fear Steven Liu, who had slowly but surely been building his stack, and who got a lot of respect from his fellow players. At hand # 31, I estimated the chip counts as follows:
Norbert 45,000
Steven 160,000
Simon 150,000
Öystein 290,000
Sherkhan 55,000
Slowly on our way to the expected final
With the blinds now at 5,000 and 15,000, it was clear that the short stacks had to make a move. Norbert was the first to do just that, but he was unlucky when his quality hand AJTT single-suited lost to Simon's K994. In the next all-in-before-the-flop situation, the best hand did win, though. With a jack on the board, Steven's AKJJ had become a monster, and the sympathetic Sherkhan from Afghanistan was out. We were now three-handed with the strong Steven who won lots of pots uncontested, and the undisputed chipleader Öystein, so it only seemed logical Simon would be our next victim. He struggled well to stay alive though, and was even in decent chip position when a crucial hand came up. On the button, Simon raised Steven's 20,000 blind to 60,000, and when his opponent came over the top, Simon decided to fold his hand. Rather than making the obvious decision (going for the gamble, and hoping to get lucky against his experienced opponent, with lots of chips as a reward in case he succeeded), he folded- but by doing so, he had become the shortest stack by far, holding less than 15 percent of the chips. A few hands later, things were all over for him when Steven DID go for the gamble and beat Simon's KJTT with AQ82 double-suited. We were now heads up with the solid but aggressive Öystein and the very successful Master Classics star Steven Liu, who had now also gotten a slight chip lead over the young Norwegian. Even though it seemed likely that Steven's bigger experience playing heads up at final tables would pay off, it was Öystein who kept playing well and got a little lucky as a result. On the final hand, he raised preflop with KKQJ single-suited and Steven, in position, called with QJ94 double-suited. When the flop came J84 Öystein bet out, and when Steven raised all-in, the Norwegian was too committed to fold now. He got lucky when an eight came on the turn, counterfeiting Steven's two pair, and ending today's tournament. It was the relatively unknown Öystein Halland who had been playing a good and aggressive game all night, and as a result was crowned our 500 Euros pot-limit Omaha champion.
Tomorrow's tournament will be EUR 220 no-limit hold'em with unlimited rebuys. I will keep you guys posted. Take care, and good luck,
Rolf.
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