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Poker After Dark to Show PLO in 2011

6 possible starting hands for Ivey, Dwan, Hastings, Galfond, Farha et al.

Comments (4)
by , Nov 11, 2010 | 5:07 am

Poker After Dark is trying its hand at pot-limit Omaha, according to Brian Hastings’s blog on CardRunners (via PokerJunkie). From the sound of it, imho, could be another great step in the evolution of poker on TV …

We’ve previously contended that just because mixed games don’t play well on TV, there should be an exception for PLO. It’s easy-enough for any Texas Hold’em player to follow … same winning hands (essentially) … with enough crazy beats, dramatic suck-and resuck, and occasional nut-folding to make things exciting … while opening a new realm of poker thinking that should keep viewers coming back, especially if they play the game, too.

Supposedly this rare televised high-stakes PLO cash game, played a couple days ago in Ivey’s Room @AriaPoker and airing some time next year, was 300/600 with a $100k minimum buy-in. Pretty sexy line-up, too:

Phil Ivey, Tom Dwan, Brian Hastings, Phil Galfond,
Patrik Antonius, Sam Farha, Brandon Adams

While at least five of those names have inherent high-stakes appeal, and one of them is Durrrr, I particularly wanna tune in to see Farha. We always hear how Omaha is his game … but I dunno that I’ve ever seen him play PLO before with hole-card cams — and should be interesting to watch his old-school style match-up with the online generation in a game that isn’t Texas Hold’em.

Could be wrong, but If this episode plays well — which I think it will, relatively — don’t be surprised to see a little more PLO factor into other poker franchises’ TV decisions.


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  • http://www.pokeroso.com/jreviews/live_poker_directory/ Live Poker

    It seems to me there will be a steep learning curve with the mass public when it comes to PLO on television. I have friends who know the basic’s of Texas Hold em and talk of PLO in the same manner a prospective college kid talks about those tough math classes he might one day have to face. People hate what they don’t understand even if the answers are right in front of them.

    That being said those that give the game any amount of study know that the absolute basics aren’t that hard to come by. 2 cards have to play, hand valuation is different etc.

    When the public figures out the basics things will get interesting. That’s only if the folks producing these shows allows the public time to figure them out and present them in a palatable way.

    So my prediction is this. If television presents the basic rules in a way that your average poker tv guy can understand PLO will make watching Texas Hold em like watching paint dry. Texas Hold em will die a slow death on television and viewers will get their kicks watching guys flip for $100,000 pots every 2 minutes. We like action and PLO is 100% action.

  • http://veerob.com veeRob

    ‘fraid Farha wasn’t on the show, and it wasn’t filmed in Ivey’s room. Other than that, it will be a treat when it does air.

  • Dan Michalski

    bummer on farha. and i shoulda known ivey’s room didn’t make sense. (i haven’t seen the upstairs room where they film stuff at aria yet.)

    you agree that PLO has good TV potential?

  • http://veerob.com veeRob

    Yeah, about mid-way through the week I said out loud, “Man, I wish Sam Farha was on this show like the old days.” He definitely brought an element of cool to television.

    We filmed in the convention area at Aria. The set was awesome, as always, but it’s torn down by now.

    After sitting through a week of NL tapings, I was very happy to switch to PLO. If my opinion is anywhere near the average TV viewer, I think they’ll enjoy the change. My only gripe with PLO is that the players have a tendency to get it in as a coin flip, and if they run it twice and chop it, it’s very anti-climactic. Phil Ivey will agree with me there.