Fri, 01/28/2011 – 05:31 – PokerPages Staff

As a beginner poker player you have learned the basic poker rules, which included poker betting.  Now it’s time to advance your play with some basic tips to success in Pot Limit Omaha (PLO).

1.  Be selective with starting hands.  Premium starting hands in PLO are hands that have combinations.  Since you must use two of the four hole cards you receive, you have 6 possible combinations.  While top pairs will give you a good starting hand, in PLO they are not a premium starting hand.  A premium starting hand in PLO contains connectors and suited cards.

2.  In Omaha the winning hand is generally the nuts.  As such, it is not good strategy to play drawing hands that will not give you the nuts. 

3.  The goal of your game is to maximize profit.  In PLO, like other variations, there are two ways to maximize profit. 

A.  First, you want to extract the greatest amount of chips from your opponent when you hold the best hand.  This is accomplished with a value bet.  A value bet is an amount you believe your opponent is willing to stake with their hand.

B.  Secondly, you want to minimize loss.  This requires that you do not invest your chips with the second best hand hoping it is good enough.  The best strategy is to get out of hands when you know you are beat.

To learn more, check out PokerSchoolOnline, the best online source for poker related learning.  Then put those skills to work by playing for free at PokerStars.net.  Also, check out the PokerPages sections Poker Information and Poker Articles for more poker strategies and tips.

Sat, 01/29/2011 – 00:02 – PokerPages Staff

Online poker player ‘Ilvdnfl’ was the big winner on PokerStars in mid week after taking down $173,000 in various high stakes cash games.

‘Ilvdnfl’, who is rumored to nosebleed regular Di Dang, benefitted from several lucrative $100/$200 Pot Limit Omaha sessions against ‘MauriceSch’ and ‘Also11′ on the world’s biggest online poker site on Wednesday.

Those figures pushed his profits for the week past the $350,000 mark. The PLO specialist is now on an upswing of $741,000 for the calendar year.

Cash games on rival sites have been quiet this week as the likes of Phil Ivey, Tom Dwan and Patrik Antonius are competing in the Aussie Millions in Melbourne.

David Benefield posted the best figures on Full Tilt Poker. Benefield won $91,000 in lengthy PLO exchanges. Van Marcus (+$45,000) also prospered.

Dang, who plays under the ‘Urindanger’ alias on Full Tilt, failed to generate any heat despite his alleged successes at PokerStars. He ended the evening with losses of $106,000.

However, Dang has been one of the front runners during the early stages of 2011 and if the rumors are to be believed, is now on an upswing of around $1.5 million for both of his online accounts.

There were several big losers on PokerStars as ‘MauriceSch’ (-$104,000) and ‘Sauce123′ (-$104,000) dropped six figure sums. ‘Also11′ (-$77,000) and ‘Looney Gerbil’ (-$73,000) rounded out the top four.