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The Scoop
The new $5,000 Heads-Up event at the World Series was won by Daniel “Rekrul” Schreiber. A former Starcraft player, Rekrul is famous for his high-stakes success on PokerStars, where he multi-tables 25-50 No Limit Hold’em, and for his experience in big Korean underground games.
A recent event at an artificial intelligence convention in Vancouver pitted Phil Laak and Ali Eslami against the program Polaris in Heads-Up Limit Hold’em. The match was played in “duplicate” style, which means that the same cards were dealt on both tables, with the computer’s hand on one table the same as the human’s hand on the other. Eslami and the Unabomber won, but narrowly, and took away almost $20,000 each.
High-stakes titans Jeff “ActionJeff” Garza and “Urindanger” squared off at Full Tilt’s $200/$400 Heads-Up No Limit tables early this month. Most observers doubted that these two big winners would give each other much action, but they did; and Urindanger ended up winning $65,000.
Few players are familiar with Chinese Poker tournaments, but the new Planet Hollywood poker room recently hosted one with a $5,000 buyin. The entrants included big names such as Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi, who hosted the event, and Amnon Filippi. Jesse Maggenti, a strong player who is often seen beating live mid-limit mixed games, won the tournament and nearly $70,000.
It is widely reported that Jean-Robert Bellande, a poker pro known both for his TV appearances and his charisma, will appear on the upcoming season of Survivor. Bellande, who used to own a nightclub, is known for his sense of humor, and can often be found in both high-stakes mixed games and No Limit Hold’em ring games in Las Vegas. The season was filmed in China and will appear on CBS this fall.
Emerging pro “Da Evils” had a setback recently when he lost $200,000 to Kristian Kjondal, a Norwegian player who plays on Full Tilt as “PokerKong1.” Da Evils, associated with a successful young New York City brain trust, lost the money over a long session of 100-200 Heads-Up No Limit.
Winners/Losers
Winners Results
1. pr1nnyraid $1,031,000
2. charzard $536,000
3. whitelime $525,000
4. Ace18 $503,000
5. Pokerkong1 $440,000
6. TheOcean0 $418,000
7. bawankawonk $372,000
8. trex313 $311,000
9. tkdcrew $242,000
10. perkyshmerky $229,000
>>>> At the biggest No Limit Hold’em games on Full Tilt, “pr1nnyraid” led all winners in July, netting over a million dollars. Three half-million-dollar winners followed him: “charzard” and “Ace18,” whose identities are unknown, and Emil “whitelime” Patel, who continued his strong year. They won their money from some of poker’s big names: David Benyamine and Gus Hansen are among the month’s biggest losers.
The Pot Limit Omaha tables saw even bigger rushes in July: KaiBuxxe won over 2 million dollars, and Benyamine compensated for his Hold’em losses by winning $672,000.
WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?
Full Tilt Poker Game #2981411471: Table Bennett (6-max) - $200/$400 - No Limit Hold’em - 2:06:05 ET
2007/07/18
Seat 1: TILTYBOY ($30,681.70)
Seat 2: Ace18 ($40,197)
Seat 3: whitelime ($171,025)
Seat 4: David Benyamine ($26,286)
Seat 5: YourTimeIsUp ($30,397)
Seat 6: Urindanger ($52,394)
TILTYBOY posts the small blind of $200
Ace18 posts the big blind of $400
The button is in seat #6
*** HOLE CARDS ***
whitelime folds
David Benyamine folds
YourTimeIsUp folds
Urindanger folds
TILTYBOY raises to $1,200
Ace18 calls $800
*** FLOP ***
[K♦K♠8♣]
TILTYBOY bets $1,800
Ace18 raises to $6,700
TILTYBOY raises to $12,000
Ace18 has requested TIME
Ace18 calls $5,300
*** TURN ***
[K♦K♠8♣] [8♥]
TILTYBOY checks
Ace18 bets $6,200
TILTYBOY raises to
$17,481.70, and is all in
Ace18 has requested
TIME
Ace18 calls $11,281.70
TILTYBOY shows [4♣3♣]
Ace18 shows [9♣Q♦]
*** RIVER ***
[K♦K♠8♣8♥] [7♦]
TILTYBOY shows two pair, kings and eights
Ace18 shows two pair, kings and eights
Ace18 wins the pot ($61,360.40) with two pair, kings and eights with a queen
TILTYBOY is sitting out
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $61,363.40 |
Rake $3
Board:
[K♦K♠8♣8♥7♦]
Seat 1: TILTYBOY (small blind) showed [4♣3♣] and lost with two pair, kings and eights
Seat 2: Ace18 (big blind) showed [9♣Q♦] and won ($61,360.40) with two pair, kings and eights with a queen
HAND ANALYSIS:
threejfr: This hand is so much fun. After it ended I sat in at the table just to compliment Ace18. With hands like this, there is just such a fine line between brilliance and being a fish. But it is definitely completely brilliant. When TILTYBOY makes it $12k on the flop it’s clear to Ace18 that he would rarely play trips this way, so he calls, planning on taking the pot on the turn. After he gets check-raised, he sticks with his initial read and makes one of the best calls, hands down, that there’s ever been in highstakes online poker. TILTYBOY actually played the hand decently on the turn, but Ace18 just completely owned him. No matter what, TILTYBOY wasn’t winning this hand.
Ryan Daut: After some standard pre-flop action, Ace bluff-raises tiltyboy’s continuation bet because on a board like K-K-x it’s very unlikely that your opponent who has a wide range actually has a good enough hand to make a stand; and if he does make a stand it’s often a rebluff. Tiltyboy realizes that Ace18 is bluff-raising a good percentage of the time and decides to rebluff. Ace knows that tilty knows that Ace knows that tilty knows that Ace knows that tilty knows, etc, etc, so he flat calls the reraise to try and take it away on the turn, expecting tilty to shutdown.
Tilty checks the turn 8 and Ace follows through with his plan to take down the pot. The interesting part is the pot is roughly 25k and he only bets 6k of his remaining 18k. I think that Ace expected tilty to make some out-of-line attempt at the pot for the last bit of money he had left, so instead of just shoving the turn and hoping for a fold, Ace made a tiny bet in order to induce a bluff, and then called it with just queen high, ‘cause he didn’t think tilty would do this with an ace and thought it was unlikely tilty had an 8 or king. Really genius turn bet by Ace and is definitely the most interesting part of the hand. There really is no logical difference between betting small and calling a shove or shoving yourself except for the fact that you can induce bluffs. Ace is not getting any better hand to fold that would otherwise call by taking either route. However, this small bet is actually a value-inducing bluff, and is one of the most brilliant plays I’ve ever seen.
Mike “Schneids” Schneider is one of the most prominent Limit Hold’em cash game specialists in the world. He is a regular in the 200/400 games online but plays all the way up to $1,000/$2,000 online or live. He was the winner of the Party Poker Million V for $1,000,000, which is the most prestigious Limit Hold’em tournament in the world.
CR: Is it true that you will play in the biggest Limit Hold’em games whenever they run?
Schneids: It’s true to an extent. I’ll play if I think I have an edge at the table, though you’re never going to have much of an edge in a 1k/2k game. During the 2006 World Series of Poker, I played in a 1k/2k game that went for about 24 hours, though I sold a lot of my action and only won one pot in 2 hours in that game.
CR: Do you feel you have a significant edge over most of the ‘name professionals’ you play live poker with? Do most of them know who you are right now and give you a lot of respect?
Schneids: Without naming specific names, yeah I feel like I have a sizeable edge over the ‘name professionals,’ though there are several cash game pros who most people don’t know of who I’d say are as good as or better than myself. One time during the 2007 WSOP, we were trying to get a 300/600 game started, and they called off a dozen names or so. I went and got chips, and sat at the table by myself. Another live pro came over and jokingly said, “Hey Schneids, I think we’ve got a better chance of getting this game started if you don’t sit at the table waiting by yourself.”
CR: Is there a lot of argument between Limit and No-Limit pros as to which form of poker is more difficult to beat at big levels or requires more skill? Do you play any No-Limit? What are the qualities a high-stakes limit pro need that might differ from those of a No-Limit pro?
Schneids: I don’t play much No-Limit, but I’d contend that it’s tougher to beat big Limit games because by nature LHE is a game where it’s tougher to ever get any big edge against someone. It’s a grueling game at times and in Limit it’s a hell of a lot more likely for you to go through long, long breakeven or losing stretches simply due to the nature of the game. I don’t think the best No-Limit players have to deal with this mental aspect of the game, and also is one of the most important skills that is highly underrated. Being able to weather the storm and take your hits over and over is tough.
CR: Any advice to aspiring Limit Hold’em players starting their bankroll in the CR community?
Schneids: Try to learn how to play short-handed well and play tight, but aggressively and definitely steal with more hands than feels right from the button, and liberally defend your big blind in blind steal situations. Also, if pots are taken heads-up to the flop, it’s almost always going to be right to show down pairs unless the board gets super scary or you know the opponent is a very tight player, whereas in No-Limit, it’s much easier to fold in those situations.
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