It’s seen as the Europeans’ game of choice but could the home players live up to their fearsome reputations in pot limit Omaha?
Venue: The Casino at The Empire
Date: September 8-9
Buy-in: £5,000
Entries: 156
Prize pool: £779,400
If you’re uninitiated in the ways of pot-limit Omaha all you need to know is that it’s a game where a bit of gamble goes a long way. Which is one reason why it was a dead-cert for selection in the inaugural World Series of Poker Europe. The other reason being that it’s a game traditionally favoured this side of the pond.
At this year’s $10,000 World Championship Pot-Limit Omaha event in Vegas, three of the final table were European players with Dane Rene Mouritsen, Finn Patrik Antonius and Jennifer Harman’s other half, Italian Marco Traniello, coming second, third and fifth respectively. With a more evenly balanced field over here would the Europeans come out on top?
DAY 1
Each player sat down with 10,000 chips and a double chance chip that gave them a further 10,000 at any point in the first three levels. With the blinds starting at 50/100 and the knowledge of a 10,000-chip safety net, the action was fast and furious from the outset. Roland de Wolfe, an Englishman not noted for his rock-like tendencies, was quick to invoke his second set of chips when Italian Jeff Lisandro rivered a straight against his two-pair. Not one to be down about a gamble gone wrong de Wolfe got himself on a huge rush and ended up with some 94,000 chips by the end of the first day.
Meanwhile, 2006 WSOP Main Event winner Jamie Gold, newly schooled on Omaha, took to ripping apart the field too, tipping the 50,000 mark by level four but then somehow managing to implode so that he was out before the beginning of level five.
But while most players were busy trying to build their stacks, two players were just hoping to preserve theirs. Kiwi Kirk Morrison and 2000 Main Event winner Chris ‘Jesus’ Ferguson had bought in but were otherwise engaged at the final table of the £2,500 H.O.R.S.E. Both players had a few thousand chips blinded away until the dinner break in the H.O.R.S.E. when, instead of eating, they took their seats for an hour. It wasn’t an ideal scenario and both players bust out fairly early.
It was a good day for the Brits though, with John Duthie, Roland de Wolfe and Dave ‘Devilfish’ Ulliott all sitting on big stacks by end of play.
END OF DAY 1 CHIP COUNTS
Tony G – 150000
Dario Alioto – 130000
Eli Elezra – 128500
Andy Bloch – 112000
Sampo Lopponen – 102500
John Duthie – 98000
Magnus Persson – 96500
Roland de Wolfe – 94000
Jon Persson – 91000
DAY 2
The second day got underway with just five tables left, but with the prospect of the tournament playing out to its conclusion on the same day, it looked like being an epic affair. Each table was loaded with at least a couple of grandstand players.
One particular table boasted the talents of Allen Cunningham, Ted Forrest, Erik Seidel, Rafi Amit, Devilfish and an aggressive young Italian called Dario Alioto. Despite the importance of the event and array of talent on show though, much of the attention seemed to focus on the banter between the Devilfish, Amit and the former player’s preoccupation with the attractive female masseuses. But in the end it was Devilfish’s ego rather than his back that was in need of a massage a little later when he went out in 25th.
John Duthie, Roland de Wolfe and Ted Forrest were among the big names to make the money but not the final table. And perhaps the unluckiest player of the day was Jon Persson who hit quad Aces to quadruple through when he only had one chip left! He then went out on the next hand, bubbling the final table.
FINAL TABLE CHIP COUNTS:
Seat 1: Sampo Lopponen – 247,000
Seat 2: Tony G – 281,000
Seat 3: Sherkhan Farnood – 651,000
Seat 4: Istvan Novak – 480,000
Seat 5: Dario Alioto – 397,000
Seat 6: M H Razaghi – 153,000
Seat 7: Andy Bloch – 376,000
Seat 8: David Callaghan – 271,000
Seat 9: Antoine Arnault – 391,000
FINAL TABLE
The final table could be broken into three phases: Farnood dominates proceedings, Alioto becomes table captain, Alioto and Tony G wrestle for control.
It all started when Full Tilt pro Andy Bloch fell to chip leader Sherkhan Farnood when he failed to connect further with a 6-7-8-9 wrap on a 6-8-K board. At that point Farnood had close to 1,000,000 chips, more than twice as many as anyone else, but Alioto’s constant aggression kept him in contention until he knocked out Sampo Lopponen and then made a strong call against fellow big stack Farnood to grab a large chip lead.
Despite strong attempts from Tony G to throw a spanner in the works, the Italian knocked out the final six players in clinical fashion to win the bracelet.
RESULTS
1 Dario Alioto – £234,390
2 Istvan Novak – £137,280
3 Tony G – £94,380
4 David Callaghan – £65,520
5 Antoine Arnault – £49,530
6 Sherkhan Farnood – £38,220
7 Sampo Lopponen – £30,420
8 Andy Bloch – £22,020
9 M H Razaghi £16,380
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