Lot of familiar names have thrown their hats in the ring over the last few days, and there has been some significant swings during that time. At the top of the leader board we find players like Patrik Antonius and LokoIsBack, while durrrr and Cole South were not so lucky. Durrrr is against among the most active players, but a $279K loss must be a discouraging reward for his work ethic.
Antonius’ two pairs are enough to win a $256K pot from Hansen
This hand is one of the largest we have seen in a while, and obviously a major contributor to his excellent result over the period. It is an excellent example of how important position is in PLO, particularly when playing heads up. Gus Hansen has a difficult decision to make on the turn here since he is will be more or less pot committed if Antonius shoves. On the other hand, checking and folding is not really a very tempting option either.
I am not a big proponent of checking a calling in most satiations, but his time around it might be the most prudent option. If Antonius bets both the turn and the river, there is little chance that top pair is good, and it gives you the chance of rivering two pairs which very well could be enough to win the pot. Betting out could win Hansen the pot on the turn, of course, but since Antonius called a pot sized bet on a fairly dry board, chances are he has some kind of a decent holding.
Antonius flops top set and durrrr catches up enough to get stacked on the river. $162K pot.
I am not saying he did anything wrong, but durrrr was left regretting taking a card off on the flop here. Once the turn and the river came the way they did there was no way that he was going to save any money on this hand. In that sense this hand is the very definition of a cooler, bit for these guys a cooler is a bit more expensive than for the rest of us..