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Cardrunners.com |
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December 2007
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In a September radio interview, Ben Affleck said that although he gave up poker at the beginning of his marriage, he has started playing online again at high stakes. He’s quoted as saying that he plays three or four times a week and usually loses $20,000. Nobody’s sure how accurate that number is, or even whether it refers to losses per week or per session.
››› Full Tilt Poker has opened up even higher stakes tables, which are branded after Phil Ivey. “Ivey Deathmatch” is $500/$1000 No Limit Hold’em, “Ivey Thunderdome” is $500/$1000 Pot Limit Omaha, and “Ivey Glue Factory” is $2000/$4000 H.O.R.S.E. These are now the highest stakes games on the Internet, and the community is eager to see how often they run and if they last. Ivey has had a rough start: David Benyamine got the best of him at H.O.R.S.E. and Patrik Antonius took a $100,000 buyin off him at Omaha.
››› Steve Jacobs, known online as “Stevesbets” and “Glove55,” is on a huge rush at heads-up tables in both No Limit Hold’em and Pot Limit Omaha. By all accounts he’s won hundreds of thousands in the games and, though his opponents – who include Brian “sbrugby” Townsend and James “Grimstarr” Grimaldi – claim he’s playing exploitably and just running well, Jacobs shows no signs of quitting. Steve is also one of the biggest winners in the history of the PokerStars $5,000 heads-up sit-n-gos.
››› Daniel Negreanu has joined Team PokerStars, playing on the site as “KidPoker” and helping to promote the site and act as a liaison between players and management. So far he’s spurred the action at their $100/$200 No Limit Hold’em tables, and he’s also been a regular at the $25/$50 six-max tables he helped create. Those datamining the games say he’s a small winner who has been playing well.
››› Controversy has surrounded the Main Event of PokerStars’ World Championship of Online Poker. TheV0id, briefl y considered the winner of $1.2 million and the tournament, is Mark “Play2Kill” Teltscher’s account or his sister’s. PokerStars concluded that TheV0id cheated; the site confi scated the money and redistributed it according to the revised standings after TheV0id’s
finish was stricken. To protect the integrity of its investigation procedures, PokerStars has not described the evidence against TheV0id. They claim, however, that it is conclusive, and Teltscher appears not to be claiming the money. Among the allegations against Teltscher are that he entered as many as five accounts in the tournament and that Play2Kill is actually Teltscher’s friend, high-stakes pro Michael Thuritz, who plays $25-$50 nolimit online and lets Teltscher use the account for tournaments. Also, Vanessa Rousso, who took third for $400,000 in the event, has defended herself from allegations that she softplayed her boyfriend Chad Brown when they were seated together early in the event.
››› Absolute Poker’s high stakes games have recently been the center of a scandal involving alleged “super-user” accounts that can see the rest of the table’s hole cards. These players, who crushed tournaments and cash games as high as $200/$400 Limit Hold’em, not only won money at dizzying rates but also played bizarrely. One called a big bet with only ten-high (his opponent had nine-high) and, even more damningly, these players always raised or folded and never called on the river. That’s what a player who knew his opponent’s cards would do, and it’s almost impossible to play the river that way in Limit Hold’em and win legitimately. The management of Absolute Poker has been quiet about the issue, even with high-profile players like Mike “Schneids” Schneider presenting evidence and asking for an investigation.
››› Online phenom Annette “Annette_15” Obrestad, one of the biggest winners at online multi-table tournaments, won over 1,000,000 GBP in the Main Event of the new World Series of Poker Europe. Obrestad has drawn attention not only for her success at the table but also because she’s young – only 18 when she won the tournament in London – and female. Her new WSOP distinctions include being both the youngest bracelet winner in WSOP history and the all-time leading money winner among women, and she has signed on with Betfair.com.
HIGH STAKES REPORT
1. trex313 $278,000
2. Phil Ivey $267,000
3. FinddaGrind $196,000
4. mjorgenson13 $173,000
5. Spiked $162,000
6. xSt0n3rx $118,000
7. TerrorOfSweden $110,000
8. traheho $104,000
9. ymg $103,000
10. Aeron73 $64,000
September’s biggest winner at the high stakes No Limit Hold’em tables on Full Tilt was “trex313,” whose identity is unknown but who has been battling at the biggest stakes for months now. Right behind him is Phil Ivey, who won over a quarter million despite playing only three and a half hours of NLHE. Next are “FinddaGrind,” rumored to be the newest incarnation of Patrik Antonius, and Isaac “mjorgenson13/Mr. Menlo” Baron, a CardRunners instructor. Other notable winners include “TerrorOf- Sweden,” the highly aggressive longtime regular, and “traheho,” whose Hold’em winnings on the year now exceed $750,000.
WHAT WERE
THEY THINKING?
Full Tilt Poker
Game #3695585928:
Table Halbert (heads up) - $300/$600 - No Limit Hold’em - 10:06:22 ET - 2007/09/28
Seat 1: OMGClayAiken ($77,397.50)
Seat 2: Phil Ivey ($145,478.50)
Phil Ivey posts the small blind of $300
OMGClayAiken posts the big blind of $600
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Phil Ivey has 15 seconds left to act
Phil Ivey raises to $1,800
OMGClayAiken raises to $6,600
Phil Ivey calls $4,800
*** FLOP ***
[9♦7♦A♦]
OMGClayAiken checks
Phil Ivey has 15 seconds left to act
Phil Ivey bets $10,800
OMGClayAiken calls $10,800
*** TURN ***
[9♦7♦A♦] [10♣]
OMGClayAiken checks
Phil Ivey has 15 seconds left to act
Phil Ivey bets $27,600
OMGClayAiken has 15 seconds left to act
OMGClayAiken has requested TIME
OMGClayAiken raises to $59,997.50, and is all in
Phil Ivey calls $32,397.50
OMGClayAiken shows [9♣ 7♣]
Phil Ivey shows [8♥J♥]
*** RIVER ***
[9♦7♦A♦10♣] [Q♥]
OMGClayAiken shows two pair, nines and sevens
Phil Ivey shows a straight, queen high
Phil Ivey wins the pot
($154,794.50) with a straight, queen high
OMGClayAiken is sitting out
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $154,795 | Rake $0.50
Board: [9♦7♦A♦10♣Q♥]
Seat 1: OMGClayAiken (big blind) showed [9♣7♣] and lost with two pair, nines and sevens
Seat 2: Phil Ivey (small blind) showed [8h Jh] and won ($154,794.50) with a straight, queen high
— FROM BRIAN “STINGER88” HASTINGS
In this hand Jman reraises Ivey’s button raise with a suited gapper, a common move among good heads-up players because it makes it much more diffi cult to put him on a hand post-fl op. Ivey defends with a suited two-gapper, again fairly common in an aggressive heads-up match.
Jman flops bottom two pair and decides to play his hand tricky. There are two benefits of doing this. One is that if he waits for a safe turn to get his money in, his equity will be greatly improved against hands like AxQ♦. On the flop he’d be about even money or maybe even a small underdog against that hand, but on the turn he’d be a decent favorite. Also, Phil Ivey is a very aggressive player; so by checking, Jman induces bluffs from many hands that would simply fold to a flop bet. The main disadvantages are that the turn could be a scare card that would make him fold the best hand, or the turn could be a harmless looking card that actually gives Ivey the best hand and allows him to stack Jman. That’s exactly what happened, as a harmless looking off-suit ten rolled off, giving Ivey a gutshot straight.
Ivey bet his turned straight and, as he had planned all along, Jman check-raised all-in on this “safe” turn. Ivey made the simple call and won a $154,000 pot on one of three cards in the deck that likely would have allowed him to do so. Poker is a crazy game sometimes.
IN THE SPOTLIGHT
— JOSH BONDS
Josh Bonds is a CardRunners member, a poker enthusiast, and a combat soldier who recently returned from Iraq. He maintained an updated blog while in active duty, becoming an incredibly popular member on the CardRunners’ message board.
CR: Tell us a little about your poker career. When did you find poker and what stakes do you play?
JB: My poker “career” started back in mid to late 2005. I had just arrived in Fort Lewis, WA to join up with my active-duty Army unit, and I remember walking into one of my best friend’s barracks room to see him playing some sit-n-goes on Party. After I learned that he was playing for real money, I asked him, “How do I join?” After a couple deposits to Party, I found myself always back in the same spot: broke. I found Cardrunners.com, and that is where it all “officially” started.
CR: How did you make the decision to join the service? Were you nervous heading over to Iraq?
JB: I was not one of the people who dreamed about being in the Army one day, but what really sparked me to join was September 11. I remember staying up very late on school days watching the news networks to get a glimpse of the war in Iraq. It took only a few hours of viewing before I knew that I had to go and join that fi ght. The memory of the day I left for basic training is still clear as day. Honestly, though, when I was leaving for Iraq, there were so many emotions and feelings going on that I do not even remember what it felt like. All I knew was: “I am a combat soldier going to Iraq to fi ght.” That in itself is terrifying to many, but that is what I joined to do. I think my mother was more frightened about my leaving for Iraq than I was. It’s awkward to say that, because you would think that a soldier going to Iraq to be shot at and blown up would be beyond scared, right? I am not going to sit here and tell you I was not scared, because that is not the truth. I guess I was just going to complete what I have been trained to do ever since I joined the service.
CR: You remained active on the CardRunners forums while in Iraq, keeping members up to date through your picture blog. What was computer access like, and did you ever get to play any poker?
JB: I kept a running blog throughout my tour to keep up friends’ and family’s spirits, because having anybody go to Iraq is devastating in itself, so I tried to make it as easy as possible on family and friends. I tried to play poker as often as I could, because it was a way for me to get away from the daily life in Iraq. Due to the Internet and often combat operations, in order for me to play poker I would have to wake up at about 1am. That is when the majority of the soldiers would be sleeping and I would have enough bandwidth to load up the poker sites without their timing out during hands. Although the Internet was not the greatest, I was able to cash in my two largest tournaments. That helped grow my bankroll to about triple the size it was before I left Iraq.
CR: Will you be able to apply any of the skills you learned in Iraq to your poker game? Or vice versa?
JB: What I learned from Iraq was discipline. I know what it takes to keep myself alive and healthy on a daily basis in Iraq, and I try to take that same attitude when I am playing poker. In Iraq, I could not just quit when things got hard. I take that same approach to the tables, which translates to my putting a lot of time into studying and reviewing hands. I strive to be the best at anything I do and, I feel that having gone to Iraq, I am now well prepared for anything poker has to throw at me. One thing I did notice, not just from my tour in Iraq but from joining the Army in general, was that the discipline that is forced into our heads from the Army can relate VERY well to anything in my future. I am very thankful for serving our great country, and if I were asked to do it all over again, I would ask, “Where’s the paperwork and a pen!”
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