Victory Poker Pro Sara Underwood Joins Poker2Nite – Poker News Daily

Victory Poker Pro Sara Underwood Joins Poker2Nite Poker News Daily More than 300000 votes have been cast for poker's version of an all-star game. On Ivey's popularity, “Poker2Nite” co-host Joe Sebok told viewers, … and more »

Victory Poker Pro Sara Underwood Joins Poker2Nite – Poker News Daily

Victory Poker Pro Sara Underwood Joins Poker2Nite Poker News Daily More than 300000 votes have been cast for poker's version of an all-star game. On Ivey's popularity, “Poker2Nite” co-host Joe Sebok told viewers, … and more »

Victory Poker Pro Sara Underwood Joins Poker2Nite – Poker News Daily

Victory Poker Pro Sara Underwood Joins Poker2Nite Poker News Daily More than 300000 votes have been cast for poker's version of an all-star game. On Ivey's popularity, “Poker2Nite” co-host Joe Sebok told viewers, … and more »

Poker world series raises ante again – Philadelphia Inquirer

PokerStrategy.com (blog)

Poker world series raises ante again Philadelphia Inquirer Last year, then 21-year-old Joe Cada, a pro from Michigan, became the youngest person ever to win the Main Event pocketing $8.5 million, which he shared … WSOP Offers TOC Seat to UK ResidentsPokerListings.com Phil Ivey Tops WSOP Tournament of Championship VotingTight Poker WSOP Bloggers Roundtable, Part 1betting.betfair.com (blog) all 21 news articles »

High Stakes Snapshot: The Old Triple Straddle

The hand in question starts off with David Benyamine posting his $400 small blind. Next is Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier, who posts his $800 big blind.

Then Daniel Negreanu puts on the $1,600 straddle. Eli Elezra posts the $3,200 straddle and, last but not least, Tom Dwan re-re-re-straddles to $6,400.

When you add in the $200 antes it adds up to $13,800 in the pot before the cards are even dealt.

Doyle Brunson, the first non-blind, looks down and sees A♥ Q♥. With the $6,400 straddle on, Doyle effectively has 24 big blinds.

With a solid hand and 24bb he chooses to just make the unexploitable play of moving all-in. Doyle would be more than happy win the blinds, antes, and straddles, but his hand is good enough that it has decent equity if called by anything but aces.

By moving all-in Doyle is guaranteed to see all five cards and can’t be forced to fold like he may have been had he made a smaller raise.

When Doyle moves in, he and the entire table burst out laughing, except for Mike Matusow. Matusow, directly on Doyle’s left, wakes up with K♠ K♣ and announces that he’s all-in too.

Doyle immediately stops laughing and let’s a hilarious “Oh no” slip.

The biggest nit at the table, who’s folded all but one hand, wakes up to kings when there’s three straddles and a $150,000 shove in front of him. Easy game.

Doyle realizes that once Matusow shoves he probably has AA or KK or sometimes QQ and that his A♥ Q♥ is in rough shape.

Each of the remaining blinds does his best to try and squeeze out AA to no avail.

When the dust clears Doyle and Matusow agree to run the whole board twice.

The first board’s flop comes out 3♣ 3♥ J♣. The turn brings the 8♥ and a backdoor flush draw for Doyle.

The river binks the 6♥ and the Grandfather of Poker sucks out with the backdoor flush to guarantee himself half the pot.

The second board’s flop comes K♦ J♦ 4♠ and this time Matusow has to dodge the gutshot.

The turn comes A♣ and the river bricks off the A♦ and Matusow somehow dodges and wins the second half.

After all that excitement the two end up splitting the $319,000 pot – a fairly anti-climactic ending to a pretty interesting situation.

If you haven’t seen the episode it’s worth it just to hear Doyle’s “Oh no” when Matusow moves in. It’s the best thing since his Ivey impression.

 

More Strategy Snapshots from High Stakes Poker Season 6:

Episode 9: Big Mistakes Benifet Benyamine
Episode 8: Ivey Fivebets Light
Episode 7: Negreanu Bluffs Into The Nuts
Episode 6: Good2cRaSZi Bluffing
Episode 5: Welcome to Ivey World
Episode 4: Ivey Goes Vegetarian
Episode 3: Negreanu Bailed Out by River
Episode 2: Hoivold Sent Packing

Episode 1: Hellmuth Felted

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The Deconstruction of Ivey Continued

Ivey on Losing

In this PokerListings interview Phil said, with some passion. “In poker if you’re going to get good you have got to learn to lose. ‘Cause poker is just like any other game or sport.”

Now, everyone knows this; it’s become a poker cliché. It’s what Phil said next that is insightful.

“But you are going to have to learn how to deal with losing in order to become a better winner. That’s why I think poker is such a wonderful game. There are guys that play certain sports that (sic) hardly ever lose, but in poker, you are just going to have to lose.”

This is deeply interesting. It is also stunningly obvious but I have yet to hear anyone make this point explicitly. In our game the emotional stability needed to stay on top is of a different kind than in many other sports and games.

If you’re the best boxer in your weight class you practically never suffer defeat. If you’re on the best team in basketball you’re going to win the vast majority of your games and you will routinely thump the weaker opponents. Hell, the UConn women’s team is up to 78 straight now. Same for tennis and many other sports and games, like chess. An international grand master in chess can go for months, even years without losing a match.

But in poker you can be among the very best, the most skilled, the most feared, and routinely get smacked around the proverbial room, not just by another top flight pro, but by fish, donkeys, contributors who are so bad they couldn’t spell poker if you spotted them the ‘p’ and the ‘o’.

Losing here takes on a different psychological cast. If you cannot become a good loser, you have little chance of becoming a winner.

Ivey on playing style

When asked about his playing style Phil answered that he doesn’t have one. Think for a minute about how different this answer is from how the typical pro responds to such questions.

Phil looks to figure out how you’re playing and adjusts, which fits with a recent comment by Phil Galfond, who said that playing Ivey heads-up was unnerving. Ivey began check-raising him on virtually every hand (probably feeling Galfond was opening light). So Galfond adjusted, began checking behind more and re-raising —- only to have Ivey compensate within just a few hands.

Galfond tried shifting again; Ivey spotted the change and adjusted, Galfond noted, faster than anyone he’d ever encountered.

This flexibility is certainly one of Phil’s most effective weapons. It is also very hard to do. Most of us have our own personal styles, ways of playing our games, living our lives. His “anti-style,” or “stylistic emptiness” (it’s hard to know what to call it) is unusual; most of us would feel uncomfortable with it.

However, it meshes with what I recall from the times we played together in Atlantic City when he was a young (actually underage) kid and I was just another recreational player, like I still am.

I couldn’t put a label on him then and I still can’t (can you?). Sure he’s aggressive but then he’ll seem so passive at times. Sure he plays position but sometimes he’ll almost recklessly make moves from early position. It confused me then; it still does.

Of course, the reason I never figured it out is because I was looking in the wrong place. I was looking at Phil when I should have been looking at the other players.

Ivey on Dumping a Winning Hand

At last year’s WSOP main event Phil (in)famously misread his hand and mucked a winning flush.

Now this could be upsetting, and when told about it he didn’t look real happy but he made a remark that speaks volumes about his grasp of the larger picture. “If,” he smiled, “I do win that pot it would change everything that happened afterward and I may not have made the final table.” Yup. He’s right.

Ivey on Other Players

I don’t know anyone who has anything less than a positive opinion about Phil, certainly not in terms of his poker. But more importantly, he has what seems like a genuine affection for most of his fellow pros, unlike many of his fellow pros who seemed to revel in trashing each other.

The classic case is Phil Hellmuth, the guy everyone loves to hate. Ivey has been at four final tables with Hellmuth. Four times he won. Rather than denigrate Hellmuth’s game, he merely refers to him as “His good-luck charm.”

Is this tactical diplomacy? Or is Ivey just a nice guy? Does it matter? Nah.

Tell us what you think in the comment section below.

More Guest Blog posts from Arthur S. Reber

Walking the Fine Line: The C Word
Stakes: Steaks or Hamburgers?

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Online Poker Roundup: Ivey, Dwan and Antonius Thrash It Out – Gaming Supermarket

PokerListings.com

Online Poker Roundup: Ivey, Dwan and Antonius Thrash It Out Gaming Supermarket It was not too long before Dwan had made back much of his $316000 loss, this time against Justin Bonomo. This time the game was no limit Texas Hold'em … Online Poker: Dwan, Ivey and Antonius Book Big Bank Holiday WinsGambling Online Magazine 2010 Looking Up For Online Poker Player Tom Durrrr DwanGambling911.com The Online Railbird Report: Ivey Returns, Dwan Crushes, and Antonius Stages a …PokerNews.com PokerListings.com all 9 news articles »

Online Poker: Dwan, Ivey and Antonius Book Big Bank Holiday Wins – Gambling Online Magazine

Gambling Online Magazine

Online Poker: Dwan, Ivey and Antonius Book Big Bank Holiday Wins Gambling Online Magazine … a dominant spell playing heads-up and short-handed cash against Justin “ZeeJustin” Bonomo, Ashton Griffin and Isaac Haxton saw him emerge a big winner. … 2010 Looking Up For Online Poker Player Tom Durrrr DwanGambling911.com The Online Railbird Report: Ivey Returns, Dwan Crushes, and Antonius Stages a …PokerNews.com all 7 news articles »

High Stakes Poker Snapshot: Welcome to Ivey World

It took five episodes of High Stakes Poker Season 6 to bring us an episode with some real action.

Episode five, which aired yesterday, had just that – and loads of it.

We had Dario spazzing vs durrrr, Gus getting felted for 200k vs. Negreanu, Mercier vs. Ivey and, of course, durrrr three-barelling Ivey.

Any one of those hands would make a great strategy snapshot. But, sadly, we had to narrow it down to the single greatest.

IMO, it’s a close race between Ivey “picking off” Mercier’s bluff and durrrr’s three-barrel.

Though the Ivey-durrrr hand might have been more exciting, I believe there’s more to talk about in the Mercier-Ivey hand.

The durrrr hand was just a sick three-barrel in a three-bet pot. Of course, had Ivey called like he was contemplating with his pair of sixes, we would really have something to talk about.

However, I wouldn’t be able to provide much insight on fifteenth-level soul-reading so it’s a good thing he folded.

The Mercier hand, though, is very interesting and not just because he’s a PokerListings blogger.

Visit PokerListings.com

Snapshot: Welcome to Ivey World

It took five episodes of High Stakes Poker Season 6 to bring us an episode with some real action.

Episode five, which aired yesterday, had just that – and loads of it.

We had Dario spazzing vs durrrr, Gus getting felted for 200k vs. Negreanu, Mercier vs. Ivey and, of course, durrrr three-barelling Ivey.

Any one of those hands would make a great strategy snapshot. But, sadly, we had to narrow it down to the single greatest.

IMO, it’s a close race between Ivey “picking off” Mercier’s bluff and durrrr’s three-barrel.

Though the Ivey-durrrr hand might have been more exciting, I believe there’s more to talk about in the Mercier-Ivey hand.

The durrrr hand was just a sick three-barrel in a three-bet pot. Of course, had Ivey called like he was contemplating with his pair of sixes, we would really have something to talk about.

However, I wouldn’t be able to provide much insight on fifteenth-level soul-reading so it’s a good thing he folded.

The Mercier hand, though, is very interesting and not just because he’s a PokerListings blogger.

Visit PokerListings.com

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