Greg and I decided to have a personal challenge with this year’s World Series of Poker Satellites. Seeing who could get closest to Vegas by playing qualifiers online. You can read the background to the challenge and ‘rules’ here.
I have an admission to make before getting going with this post – I have not actually managed to play any more satellites since the last post… Oops. My excuses are pretty poor, moving apartment took time, though it was mostly eating, drinking and enjoying the sunshine that distracted me from the tables.
Fortunately, Greg did his part (and is making good progress) and in a poor effort to make it up to you, I’ll give you my thoughts on the new 6-card Omaha games at Full Tilt, which I did manage a mighty 20 minute session of over the weekend!
World Series Qualifiers Challenge – Greg’s Progress
Balance Remaining $375
Tokens / Tickets Remaining: $27 Step2 + $109 Round 2
Quite a busy couple of weeks to report on, with most of the action taking place at PokerStars. First a shot at a $11 Passport satellite ended in a standard Ak vs KK all-in pre-flop. Greg did not specify which hand he held, but we all know those pesky aces have a nasty habit of appearing when we have the kings, right? On a brighter note a Step 2 SNG token ($27 value) is in the kitty, meaning a paper profit of $4ish from the session.
Greg’s second session was more successful, with yet another Ak vs KK (again, no idea which way around!) ending an $11 and a $3 rebuy getting cancelled due to lack of players, the big break came in a $2 Passport Satellite, which guaranteed a seat in the $109 stage 2.
The final key hand was a 3-way all-in, which you can see below… giving Greg the win and seat, which he intends to play next weekend. Fingers crossed for that one. As things stand, it looks like I will be the one getting the beers in!
6-Card Omaha
I love Omaha and I love new games, so what better than a break from unpacking boxes in my new apartment to play some 6-handed PLO over at Full Tilt… at least until the better half came to grab me 20 minutes later and put me back to work….
After expecting great things from this game I was a little disappointed, 5-card Omaha added an extra dimension, my feeling is that the 6th card actually takes away from the gameplay. With 50%+ seeing the flop (games are short-handed) and lots of draw-chasing going on you will probably find the games easy enough to beat (tight is right, nut draws only etc)… For me the entertainment of PLO was gone… it was just one card too many.
The only thing which lightened the load for me was a German gentleman in the lowest buy-in table who seemed to love criticizing the play of others. ‘how could you possibly call that turn bet with only top pair, 3rd nut flush draw and gutshot??!??’. The funny thing is he really meant it, and the rest of the players obviously did not care… something endearing about it in a uniquely Germanic way, especially bearing in mind that we were taking about bets and raises in multiples of 2 cents!!
GL at the tables, Mark
Submitted by Planet Mark on Fri, 06/14/2013 - 16:01