most of the online hold'em experts aren't experts at PLO, and some are PLO fish. They get their money in good most of time, but are robbed/not stealing enough too much of the time. The same could be said about some of the top PLO players playing hold'em. Fish is a relative term anyways.

> People are speculating on matters they have no idea

I have never played with Sammy. So, I don't know his skill level at PLO. Therefore, I can either take the opinion of those who have played with him, who are in a position to know his skill level, or those who never have never played with him, who are not in a position know how good he is. Gee, who should I believe?

> because he quit a job to play poker doesnt mean he hasnt inherited money

Working in a mall indicates that you are not living high on the hog. In any case, it goes both ways -- please post some evidence that he did inherit a lot of money.

> B. Many top players disagree on who is good and who isnt so any
> arguments in NVG about who the top players are is laughable.

Since most people here have never seen Farha play a single hand of PLO, I'm inclined to take the word of people who have actually played with him.

> C. Just from watching HSP it is obvious that Sammy is a NLHE fish.

Just from watching the WPT, I'd say Gus is the best player of all time.

Two words: David Benyamine.

Obviously, the two games are very different. Hell, just Pot-Limit Holdem vs. No-Limit Holdem requires an adjustment and plays significantly different...forget about having two additional cards in everyone's hands.

It's definitely possible to be very good at PLO but very bad at NLHE. Usually due to underestimating the importance of RIO to preflop decisions in NLHE.

It's also possible to be good at NLHE and horrible at PLO, but that's usually just due to applying NLHE hand values to PLO and doesn't last too long.

RIO = ?

reversed implies odds.

Probably from here

And in the most recent episode of Big Poker Sunday, Haralabos, who has no trouble calling out people he thinks are bad players (he called out Chris Ferguson not too long ago), said Sammy was a very good PLO player, after playing him HU several summers ago where sammy gave him the button every hand.

He also said that nobody, including even Chip Reese apparently, knew where Sammy got his fortune from. There has been speculation, even among people here, on every thing from oil to real estate to furniture stores, but nobody is certain.

From the blog of Patrik Antonius:

"My first marathon session started as a $3k-6k mix of Chinese, Stud 8, PL 5 card draw, Triple Draw 2-7, PLO, and NL hold em. The NL and PLO had a cap. Johnny Chan, Gus Hansen, Doyle, and Jim were all in the game."

and:

"I went another night really late to play again at the Bellagio. I got to Bobby's Room around 2am and played with Doyle, David, Jennifer, Jim, Johnny, Eli, and Rafi. We played 2k-4k mix. The game broke a little later and this time, since Gus was not around, I found a Chinese poker opponent in Rafi. We mixed it up and played with 2-7 in the middle, which is a new variation that is gaining popularity in some bigger mixed games. I booked a small small win, which sure beats losing."

People say Haralabos is a great poker player (cash) but how can he say Chris is a bad player. he was talking about tournament play and said CF was a bad player, now I dont think he is the best but you can call his tournament result bad. Haralabos play tournament and has nothing close to CF

My point isn't really that he thinks he's bad, its that he's not afraid to say that he thinks somebody is bad, and has done so many times in the past. When Scott Huff told him in a later show that he had broken the record for circuit events won, and asked him if he still stood by his statement, HV said that he's had impressive results, but every time he's played with him he didn't think he was a good player.

Not being afraid to say the truth doesn't lead to a logical conclusion that the truth will always be told by this person. Quite on the contrary I believe that Voulgaris' 'fearlessness' could let him say whatever is most profitable for him regardless of the amount of truth in it.

A lot of the big game players genuinely believe that Sammy is one of the best short-handed PLO players in the world. A lot of the top PLO specialists, like Devilfish, believe this as well. I think it's probably true. It was obvious to me when we played that he reads hands extremely well. Remember also that he was probably the biggest winner in poker in Summer 07, and most of this win came in PLO.

The week that we played was a week of extreme tilt for Sammy. It was the same week as HSP.... look at how he played here, calling 25k cold pre-flop with K7 and so forth. Towards the end of our match, he was on super tilt and I just started nut peddling. On the last hand we played, he got 150k in on the flop (320k pot total, 10k each pre, 150k each flop) with top two vs my top set.

LAter in the summer, he crushed everyone in PLO. I think tilt is a very important factor for him. There's no doubt that he's capable of playing very poorly.... one day in June, he was playing Brian and I learned that he was stuck over a mill, so I joined the game (after DB). On the first hand, there was a straddle, such that it was 1k-2k-4k plo. Sammy was the straddle. I raised with QJT9 queen-high hearts. Brian re-raised from the small blind. Sammy cold-called, I called. The flop came 8-6-3, two hearts. Brian and Sammy checked, then I went all-in for about the size of the pot. Brian and Sammy were both deep. Sammy called. I said, 'want to run it twice'. he said, 'what do you have?'. i showed him and he said, 'i'm dead, buddy'. We ran it twice and two completely different boards came out (both missed me completely) and he mucked. He must have had jt95, ten-high hearts, or something like this.

Here's an example of Sammy playing very well, or at least creatively. I don't recell the details of this hand well. I wasn't there. I read about it in Brian's blog.
The rough details are that Sammy and Brian both have more than a mill in front, Sammy raises to 7k, Brian 3-bets with a non-aces hand, then Sammy 4-bets with kings double-suited. call it KK98. Point of the story is: only someone with a lot of deep-stack PLO exp could make this play and it's especially strong against Brian. Brian is used to playing in 400BB or lower games. Brian either A) has aces and raises, allowing Sammy to know exactly where he is and giving him odds to crack/outplay, B) has aces and doesn't raise. Now he has no idea where Sammy is b/c he's never seen someone 4-bet oop w/out aces in such a deep game, or C) doesn't have aces and doesn't raise. Now he thinks Sammy has aces. Plus Sammy has the betting lead (a big deal with mill-plus stacks). The stacks were such that Sammy knows that Brian can't 4-bet without aces.

Brandon

i really enjoy reading everyone post you make on 2+2, brandon

I second that. Great post, BA. TY.

I can't remember how they introduced Farha in the "anyone can win" segments in the original 2003 WSOP episodes, but it wasn't as a poker player. The ones where they show farha, tomer benvenisti, moneymaker and brian watkinson in some order and go through and say something like "whether a something from somewhere, an expedition tour guide from vegas, a cop from somewhere or an accountant from tennessee, anyone can win." Can anyone remember what they actually said Farha's job was?

Also, fwiw: