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You May Win Even When Your Hand Looks Dead
For the last four weeks, I have been discussing the NBC National Heads Up Poker Championship matches, which were broadcast recently on NBC. After advancing past Men “the Master” Nguyen, Paul Phillips, World Champion Huck Seed, Lyle Berman, and Antonio “The Magician” Esfandiari, I found myself staring down World Champion Chris “Jesus” Ferguson in the finals.
The final round, unlike all of the other rounds, was best two out of three. After breezing through the first match with Ferguson, I was feeling pretty good. I had won six matches in a row, and was on the cusp of being champion. But I knew the rules, and now I had a big 1-0 lead.
Just as I had in the first match, I drew the button (meaning I would bet last) and won the first two pots. Now I remembered that at this point in the last match, I called before the flop, and then Chris raised it up and I folded. Looking down at Ah-3s, I again called. I was thinking that it wouldn’t surprise me if Ferguson raised it up again, trying to win the pot right there, just as he had the last time.
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Don’t Let Yourself Get Run Over
After the first three rounds of NBC’s “National Heads Up Poker Championship” (which airs on the network during weekends in May), I found myself amongst the “final four” players.
The NCAA style “bracket” tournament had whittled down over 60 of the top players in the world and now one side of the draw now featured Chris “Jesus” Ferguson v. T. J. Cloutier in a rematch of the 2000 World Series of Poker finals that saw Ferguson emerge as a certified world champion after outdrawing Cloutier in several key pots down the stretch. On the other side of the draw, it was Antonio “The Magician” Esfandiari against me.
After beating Men “the Master” Nguyen, Paul Phillips, WSOP Champ Huck Seed, and Lyle Berman, I was now facing a different type of challenge. All of the aforementioned players play no-limit hold’em at a reasonable pace, but I knew Antonio would come out raising and re-raising at a breakneck pace. He would try to run me over, and knock me off my game.
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Don’t Let a Close Call Get Under Your Skin
After beating Men “the Master” Nguyen in round one, and Paul Phillips in round two, I was staring at the 1996 World Champion of Poker Huck Seed in round three of NBC’s “National Heads Up Poker Championship” (which airs on Sundays in May). The field that started from 60 of the top players in the world had been whittled down to 16 in a bracketed structure similar to the NCAA basketball tournament and from personal experience, I knew that Seed would be a tough opponent.
For about three straight years in the late 1990s he was considered the best no-limit Hold’em player in the world. In 1999, after dusting off 250 other players, we found ourselves heads up in one of the year’s major tournaments, at the Rio Hotel. That time around, Seed beat me. (You can read more about that showdown in “Bad Beats and Lucky Draws.”)
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When To Let Your Opponent Raise You
In my last column, I talked about the first round in NBC’s “National Heads-Up Poker Championship” (on NBC during Sundays in May), a competition that features nearly all of the top poker players in the world. With an NCAA tournament-style structure, 64 would start and 32 would survive round 1 — which is where this column begins. After beating Men “the Master” Nguyen in round 1, I was facing Paul Phillips in round 2.
If Phillips played very aggressively (bet and raised a ton), that was fine. I had a standard counter-strategy and was ready to implement it: Let him do all of the bidding when I had a strong hand and trapping him like a fox in a chicken house, checking all of my strong hands to him.
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The Art of Heads-Up Poker
Welcome to televised poker in a new and exciting format. On Sundays during the month of May, NBC will be broadcasting the “National Heads-Up Poker Championship” — a $20,000 buy-in event featuring one-on-one match-ups between the world’s best poker players.
The format is unique: players will compete in an NCAA-like elimination tournament (losers go home). That will yield a “sweet 16,” an “elite 8,” and a “final 4.” The first show will air in most markets on Sunday, May 1. Amazingly, 60 of the best 60 poker players in the world played in this tournament alongside a few celebrities.
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Knowing When to Fold ‘Em
On Saturday, April 8th, 2000, I did what I hadn’t been able to do for two years: I won a poker tournament. While a year or two drought happens to all the best players in the world, it’s always nice when the dry spell is over.
On my path to victory, the following two hands came up at the final table of the $1,500 buy-in no-limit Hold’em event at the World Poker Open. Both pots were played against a very tough no-limit Hold’em player named David “the Dragon” Pham, and, in combination, the two pots illustrate that you should sometimes fold the best hand in a no-limit Hold’em tournament.
In pot number one, the antes were $100 a man and the blinds were $400-$800. I raised the bet to $2,800 with Kd-10d in my hand, and David called in the big blind with Qc-9c. (For those unfamiliar with Big Blind terminology, David only had to put in the $800 big blind amount to call.)
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