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1pm: Welcome to Day 1B

Welcome back to PokerStars LIVE Macau at the City of Dreams, where today there will not be a spare seat in the house. We're expecting a bumper field for Day 1B of the APPT10 Macau main event, including many of the region's most decorated talents. 

The tournament gets under way at 2pm, so return here for all the action. In the meantime take a look back at any of the previous coverage via the links above.

One of the common and biggest mistakes Hold'em players make is the way they perceive PLO. They think it's a gambling game without structure--just pot-sized bets and people jamming flush draws all the time. This is a huge mistake.

It's a very technical and complex game with more possibilities than Hold'em. Equities are a lot closer together than they are in Hold'em, meaning if you face an all-in as a favorite, a lot of the times it will be around 60%, whereas in Hold'em your percentage will be way higher. After all, extra cards can make extra combinations. If you run a situation where it's 60-40 numerous times, the standard deviation can be much bigger in PLO. This means that good or bad runs can last a lot longer. If the better player keeps his discipline in check, he will be the eventual winner, but it could last a while before that happens. This is why I feel Pot Limit Omaha is more suited for recreational players as well. 

One thing you need to immediately let go of is your NLHE hand values. You get twice as many cards, so general Hold'em hands go down drastically in value. Queens are okay in PLO, but by no means are they a good hand. You get aces about 3% in PLO, but they are a lot more vulnerable and can rarely bet three streets for value. A lot of hands can look pretty. With hands like double suited KJ63, the possibilities might seem endless, when in actuality you have a pretty trashy hand with a lot of second nut draws in it. So the average hand strength post-flop goes up as well. Flushes and straights are more common, especially backdoor ones. 

Where in NLHE you might consider losing with 78 to KQ on 9TJ a huge cooler, in PLO it's something you have to consider as a serious possibility and a lot of the times all you are holding is a bluff catcher. This takes some time to get used to. People seem more aware of this fact with straights than flushes. At our regular bar we often play €20 buy-in tournaments and small buy-in NLHE cash games. When I explained PLO to them and we played a few SNGs, you could tell people would just go crazy with low flush draws. They approached it from the NLHE perspective. Big mistake. 

The fact good hands are more likely also means that you can make some really cool bluffs. If your opponents have a decent grasp of hand strength in PLO, they will know that flushes are more common. Because you have to use two cards from your hand, having the sole ace of spades on a four flush board doesn't give you a flush. What it does give you is the information that your opponent cannot have the nuts. Because general hand strength goes up, you can credibly rep the nut flush and play it like you have it, simply because it's easier to make in PLO than in Hold'em. This is called a blocker-play. Another very common example is having QQxx on KT9. You can either use it to bluff with or make hero calls with. There are a ton of possibilities that way, and it's one of the reasons I love Omaha. 

The new Omaha Week promotion PokerStars is running is a great opportunity to try the game while having the opportunity to win great prizes. Play around with it, and see if you like it. Try to approach it as a new game with the same poker rules. That way you will not immediately have leaks in your game that come from things you do in Hold'em. Different game, different strategy.

Good luck and see you in the Wild Wild West of Omaha!

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With the final events of this year's Spring Championship of Online Poker still playing out, it was back to business for the Super Tuesday, PokerStars' weekly $1,050 no-limit hold'em event that routinely draws poker's best and brightest. As often happens in the event, the final table was full of familiar usernames and avatars, with Jason "jdtjpoker" Wheeler, Rafael "zugzwang16" Porzecanski, Alex "Schildy1984" Debus, Michael "WaGe N Warz" Fadersen, Mark "AceSpades11" Radoja, and Marvin "Ron Jovi 7" Rettenmaier among the final nine.

In the end, though, it was Cesar "Ce$ar$pa" Garcia of the U.K. outlasting them all to win this week's Super Tuesday and a handsome $72,730.10 first prize.

Anticipating a slight SCOOP hangover, the guarantee for this week's Super Tuesday was reduced to $300K, though that was easily met and then some as 379 took part to make a $379,000 prize pool. They had reached the sixth hour of play when the money bubble burst, and with 54 players remaining tomic91 led the counts. About an hour-and-a-half after that they were down to 18, with tomic91 -- then sitting with over 1.5 million with two tables left -- having maintained first position the entire way.

googleit185 (18th), winner of the SCOOP Super Tuesday two weeks ago /en/blog/online/scoop/2016/scoop-2016-russias-otitov-survives-marat-161648.shtml otitov (17th), and Søren "YukoEgawa" Smith Hansen (16th) then went out, picking up $3,411 each. They were followed by Owain "Sngwonder" Carey (15th), HuntItShipIt (14th), and IVFK (13th) who earned $4,169 apiece. 

tomic91 continued to lead through most of those eliminations, but gradually fell back in the counts while Marvin "Ron Jovi 7" Rettenmaier moved forward to take over the top spot. Then tomic91 went out (in 12th), followed by Graftekkel (11th) and pokerturo (10th), with those three taking away $4,927 each.

With t4t0PAGAU holding a slight chip lead over Marvin "Ron Jovi 7" Rettenmaier and Cesar "Ce$ar$pa" Garcia, the final table was underway.  

Seat 1: Jason "jdtjpoker" Wheeler (Mexico) -- 748,570 
Seat 2: Rafael "zugzwang16" Porzecanski (Uruguay) -- 376,896 
Seat 3: Alex "Schildy1984" Debus (Austria) -- 317,003 
Seat 4: Michael "WaGe N Warz" Fadersen (Australia) -- 1,138,661 
Seat 5: Mark "AceSpades11" Radoja (Canada) -- 412,443 
Seat 6: t4t0PAGAU (Germany) -- 1,767,060 
Seat 7: donkey310 (United Kingdom) -- 1,311,736 
Seat 8: Marvin "Ron Jovi 7" Rettenmaier (Germany) -- 1,701,112 
Seat 9: Cesar "Ce$ar$pa" Garcia (United Kingdom) -- 1,701,519

Not long after the final table began, multiple-Super Tuesday winner Jason "jdtjpoker" Wheeler min-raised to 50,000 from middle position, then Alex "Schildy1984" Debus reraised to 138,500 from a couple of seats over. It then folded to t4t0PAGAU in the small blind who four-bet to 312,500, and it folded all of the way back to Debus who shoved all-in over the top for 656,506 total, earning a call from t4t0PAGAU.

t4t0PAGAU showed [Jc][Jd] while Debus had [Ac][Ks]. The board came [7c][5d][9s][Qd][5c] to keep the jacks in front, and Debus was done in ninth.

About five minutes later, the blinds were 15,000/30,000 when Marvin "Ron Jovi 7" Rettenmaier raised to 69,000 from middle position, then Wheeler reraised to 169,000 from the cutoff. It folded back around to Rettenmaier who shoved all-in, and Wheeler called with the 520,070 he had behind.

Wheeler showed [Ac][Qs] and needed to improve to beat Rettenmaier's [Td][Ts]. But the board came [2c][8d][Jh][4d][9h], and Wheeler's run ended in eighth.

Play continued, and after another increase of blinds and antes t4t0PAGAU min-raised to 70,000 from UTG, Cesar "Ce$ar$pa" Garcia called from the cutoff, then Michael "WaGe N Warz" Fadersen reraised all-in for 683,661 from the small blind. Everyone else folded except Garcia who called right away and tabled [Ks][Kh] while Fadersen showed [Qd][Qs]. A king came on the flop, and by the turn Fadersen was already drawing dead to finish in seventh.

They pushed through the tourney's 10-hour mark, and soon after it was t4t0PAGAU again min-raising, this time to 80,000 from early position, with Rafael "zugzwang16" Porzecanski calling from the big blind. The flop came [Td][3h][Qh], and Porzecanski check-called a bet of 80,000 from t4t0PAGAU. The turn then brought the [2d] and another check from Porzecanski. This time t4t0PAGAU bet 240,000, Porzecanski check-raised all-in for 542,304, and t4t0PAGAU called.

t4t0PAGAU had [Ad][5d] for a flush draw plus a gutshot to a wheel while Porzecanski had [Qc][Jh] for top pair of queens. Fifth street then brought the [3d], filling the diamond flush for t4t0PAGAU and knocking Porzecanski out in sixth.

Just two hands later, the blinds were up again to 20,000/40,000 when Cesar "Ce$ar$pa" Garcia opened for 84,800 from the cutoff, then Mark "AceSpades11" Radoja reraised all-in for 319,443 from the button. It folded back to Garcia who called, showing [Qs][Qh] while Rajoja had but [3s][3c]. Five cards later -- [5c][8c][Ad][Ts][7d] -- Radoja was sent railward in fifth.

Not quite 10 minutes later, t4t0PAGAU min-raised to 80,000 from UTG, donkey310 three-bet to 209,000 from the button, Garcia made it 540,000 to go, donkey310 pushed all-in for 2,120,586 total, and Garcia called.

donkey310 showed [Tc][Ts], but Garcia had picked up queens again with [Qh][Qd], and a [9h][Kd][3h][Ah][6h] runout spelled the end of donkey310's run in fourth.

That hand put Garcia well in front with about 5.12 million while t4t0PAGAU had 2.36 million and Marvin "Ron Jovi 7" Rettenmaier had almost 1.99 million.

About a half-hour later the blinds were up to 25,000/50,000 when Garcia opened for 125,000 frm the button, Rettenmaier pushed all-in for 1,005,248 from the big blind, and Garcia called. Rettenmaier had [6d][6h] but Garcia had another bigger pocket pair with [Td][Th]. The board came [5h][4s][9d], then [Js], then [Ah], and they were down to two.

By then t4t0PAGAU had been leading for a while, and had the edge to start heads-up play with 5,772,643 to Cesar "Ce$arSpa" Garcia's 3,702,357.

The pair would ultimately battle heads-up for nearly an hour, with Garcia grabbing the lead for a time, then losing it again to t4t0PAGAU. Then came a sudden sequence of two decisive hands and a winner was found.

The blinds were up to 40,000/80,000, and in the first t4t0PAGAU raised and then called a three-bet from Garcia, then called again after Garcia led at a [3h][2s][Td] flop. The turn brought the [Ac] and another leading bet from Garcia, again called by t4t0PAGAU, then after the [7c] river Garcia pushed all-in. t4t0PAGAU thought a short while, then called showing [Qs][Ts] for a pair of tens. But Garcia had [Ah][Jc] for aces, and suddenly he was up around 7.47 million while t4t0PAGAU slipped to just over 2 million.

The very next hand saw Garcia open-shove from the button and t4t0PAGAU call, and the pair showed their hands:

t4t0PAGAU: [Ts][Ad]
Ce$arSpa: [2h][2s]

The flop came [5h][Ac][3d] to give the advantage to t4t0PAGAU, but that suddenly changed with the [4d] turn that gave Garcia a wheel. t4t0PAGAU could only chop if a deuce came on the end, but the river was the [4s] and just like that it was over -- Garcia had won.

Congratulations to Cesar "Ce$ar$pa" Garcia for topping this week's typically challenging Super Tuesday field and a stacked final table to earn the $72,730.10 first prize.

5/24/16 Super Tuesday ($1,050 No-Limit Hold'em) results
Entrants: 379
Prize pool:  $379,000
Places paid:  54

1. Cesar "Ce$ar$pa" Garcia (United Kingdom) $72,730.10
2. t4t0PAGAU (Germany) $54,007.50
3. Marvin "Ron Jovi 7" Rettenmaier (Germany) $39,795.00
4. donkey310 (United Kingdom) $30,320.00
5. Mark "AceSpades11" Radoja (Canada) $21,224.00
6. Rafael "zugzwang16" Porzecanski (Uruguay) $16,107.50
7. Michael "WaGe N Warz" Fadersen (Australia) $12,317.50
8. Jason "jdtjpoker" Wheeler (Mexico) $8,527.50
9. Alex "Schildy1984" Debus (Austria) $6,291.40

Move over for the Main Event!

Welcome back to PokerStars LIVE Macau for our coverage of the Asia Pacific Poker Tour 10's Macau HK$25,000 Main Event. 

It has already been an exciting week of poker here and now players will set their sights on the festival's flagship event. You can read more about what's in store right here.

Play will begin at 2:00pm local time and with hundreds expected to pull up seats across the two opening flights you can be sure there will be a healthy prize pool on offer. The eventual champion will be crowned come Sunday so stay with us over the next five days for all the action from the felt! 

All photos by Kenneth Lim Photography courtesy of PokerStars LIVE Macau