Fun, Fireworks, and Frustration: PLO/8 Awaits!
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It's not hold'em. Not no-limit, either. It ain't Omaha/8. Nor is it PLO.
Welcome to Event No. 51, the $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-low Split-8 or Better event that is guaranteed to bring lots of action, and perhaps a wild variety of skill and preparation, given the relative uniqueness of PLO/8.
A game largely confined to the online realm, PLO/8 was added to the WSOP schedule for the first time in 2007. It's a game that attracts specialists, many of whom believe they can find an edge against less experienced players coming to it from PLO high or fixed limit O/8. Too great a reliance on high cards (as the PLO players sometimes demonstrate) or only playing low cards (as will happen with some from the O/8 crowd) can get players in trouble, an edge the more agile PLO/8 players hope to exploit. The relative value of draws and made hands is different here than in other Omaha games, too, creating more challenges for the less experienced.
It's also a game in which the frustration factor may be a touch higher than in other games. As Lou Krieger and Mark Tenner write of PLO/8 in Mastering Omaha/8 Poker, "this is a game in which even solid players often tilt the hand following a tough beat, or after a hand where they miss a big draw with a lot of money committed to the pot."
Expect fireworks, then, with lots of wild hands and hotly-contested pots as players today line up with hopes of repeating the success of Steve Jelenik, who last year bested a field of 847 in this event to earn a cool $245,871 return on his $1,500 investment.
Play is scheduled to start at noon Vegas time. See you back here then when the action begins!