Harry Demetriou and Ivan Demidov went to war, with Demetriou coming out on top. Preflop, Demetriou raised an early limper only to see Ivan Demidov three-bet him. That folded the action all the way back to Demetriou, who capped the action. Demidov called.
Demetriou retained 550 chips in his stack as the flop came down . He bet out, drawing a groan and a sigh from Demidov. Demidov then dutifully raised, drawing a three-bet from Demetriou. Soon enough Demetriou's chips were all in.
Demetriou:
Demidov:
Demetriou's top set of aces had Demidov crushed. The board ran out to allow him to scoop. He's back up to 2,400, but don't cry too much for Demidov. He still has about 9,500 chips.
Omaha Hi-Lo is not a game that is regularly spread in the Crown Poker Room. Today's event is the only Omaha Hi-Lo tournament on the 2009 Aussie Millions schedule. Thus it's not surprising that some of the players in the field haven't exactly played much Omaha Hi-Lo in their poker careers. But we did a double-take when we saw a player at Tony G's table, sitting to the right of the G, reading a book about tournament Omaha in-between hands!
It would seem that Level 3 of an AU$1,100 tournament is a bit late to be doing your homework, but what do we know? Maybe his newly-gained knowledge will be fresh enough in his mind to earn him a few extra bets on a future hand.
Roy Vandersluis led the betting on every street and was called down in two spots, by Ashish Gupta and a third opponent. The board read and the cards were tabled as follows:
Vandersluis:
Gupta:
Opponent:
Vandersluis was in the enviable position of flopping the nut-nut, while he chopped the low with both of his opponents.
We caught up with Dave Morton on the turn of a board that had come . His sole opponent bet before Morton raised. Morton's opponent called the raise, bringing a river card of . Morton's opponent check-called a final bet. Morton showed down . He flopped top set and a flush draw, filling the flush on the river. His opponent flashed for a turned straight and straight flush draw before quietly mucking.
Morton is back to roughly the starting stack as a result of this pot.
"Cards visible please," the dealer instructed the player in the 1-seat, Josh "JJProdigy" Field. Field's hands were clasped on top of his cards, completely obscuring them. The dealer waited to deal the flop until Field responded but Field didn't seem to notice.
"Cards visible please," the dealer repeated. Field still made no movement.
"Sir. Cards vis-i-ble please," he tried a third time. That snapped Field out of his reverie. He lifted his hands off his cards and placed them on the rail with a bemused smirk on his face.
"Otherwise I'll make a mistake," the dealer explained.
Sorel Mizzi was spotted wandering through the Crown Poker Room. He walked up to Alexander Kostritsyn and Josh Field's table and was joking about seeing people on two different continents in two days. Mizzi admitted that he hasn't played much Omaha Hi-Lo in his life and wasn't sure if he wanted to play today's event. Kostritsyn responded that he hadn't really ever played before either.
The three players discussed entering into some side bets on the tournament, but as far as we could tell nothing was agreed upon. Mizzi left the table after remarking that maybe he would register so he could "donk off" some money. Before he left, he asked Field for a few lessons.