Poker After Dark to Show PLO in 2011

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

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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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