18 Jun 09

WSOP Event #35: Trader Finishes Day 1 in Top 12

With two very good starts, our team members Nazgul and Trader had high expectations for this high-roller PLO tournament. Whereas Nazgul had to suffer an early bustout, Trader finished Day 1 with a stack in the top 12.

The $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha Event has the reputation of being a high-roller event. Not only because of the buy-in, but also because of the gambling type poker that you have to play and which puts the focus on post-flop play. It thus requires a lot of skill and players who are not as experienced are very reluctant to sitting down with the pros for so much money.

All in all, we had a rather small field of starters: with a total of only 363 participants, the skill density was rather high with online pros like Isaac Baron, Sorel Mizzi, Justin 'BoostedJ' Smith, Phil Galfond or Jeff Williams and big names from both Europe - including 'Devilfish', Bruno Fitoussi, Antony Lellouche - and the US - with Nam Le, Chris Ferguson, Parkinson.

Two of our Team PokerStrategy.com members could be spotted in the field, too:

Nazgul and

trader. They were seated close to each other, but luckily, they didn't have to face off against each other on the same table.

Nazgul and Trader Catch A Good Start

Nazgul was seated at a star-filled table: Jeff Williams, Andy Black (to his immediate right) and Sorel Mizzi were all sitting down with him. The gameplay obviously turned very aggressive, but Nazgul was able to easily adjust: "I caught a good start", he tells us in the first break after two hours of play. "I've used up my two rebuy chips already, but I was able to increase my stack to 28k. There are no fish on my table, it's different to the other PLO tournaments in the WSOP. You can't make mistakes here, there are only high-rollers and sharks!".

Meanwhile, trader was doing fine, too, with a chip stack of 25k during the first break. He was seated with one of Russia's best players, Kiril Gerasimov - a real PLO specialist.

nazgul hits the rail

In PLO tournaments, a player's fate can drastically change. After just a couple of minutes in the third level, Nazgul had lost 90% of his chips in a single hand. What had happened? Let's listen to our player: "I had such a big hand. I flopped the middle set with the nut flush draw. My opponent bet a little, I pot and he flat-calls. On the turn, I also have a straight draw, and we pot, re-pot and go all-in. He reveals top set, which holds, and I am down to 3,000 in chips. It's so hard...".

A few hands later, he pushed the majority of his chips in on the river as he called Jeff Williams with top two-pair, but the EPT Monte Carlo winner revealed rivered trips. Nazgul had less than 1,000 chips left after that unlucky hand and busted some time later. "I cannot do anything about this big hand", he tells us. "And Williams just got so lucky on the river, I just didn't have the chance I needed to double up...".

trader sets the pace at his table

In contrast, trader didn't suffer a bad beat today. He played his game very quietly and set the pace at his table. While a lot of players preferred to gamble it up, he played very solid PLO. Isaac Haxton, Scotty Nguyen, Greg Raymer and Adam Junglen are just a few of the players who hit the rail while trader continued building up his stack. Michael Binger just made a short appearance, too, as he busted almost instantly after taking Nazgul's unlucky seat.

Even though trader wasn't amongst the more active players on his table, he managed to bust some opponents. In a notable hand against Robert Williamson III, he was holding

against

, and he needed some help after getting it in on the

flop. When a king hit the turn things looked even bleaker however, in the end, he was saved by an ace on the river and busted Williamson.

Tomorrow, only 64 players will be returning for day two of this event. The bubble will burst when the 37th player is eliminated, leaving 36 players in the money. Jesper Hougaard leads the pack with more than 200,000 chips after winning one enormous pot. trader is sitting comfortably in 12th place with a stack of 131,600.

World Series Of Poker Event #35 Standings
Rank	Name	Chips
1st	Jesper Hougaard	208,500
2nd	Rifat Palevic	207,400
3rd	Edward Ochana	181,900
4th	Sorel Mizzi	177,000
5th	Ralph Perry	174,400
6th	Jeffrey Lisandro	162,500
7th	Richard Austin	158,500
8th	Sandra Naujoks	157,000
9th	Cliff 'JohnnyBax' Josephy	148,800
10th	Dave Devilfish Ulliott	140,900