-
Matusow Exploits Tell to Cripple Opponent’s Stack
Given one “TV table” for ESPN at the 2005 World Series of Poker (WSOP), who would you choose to play on that table: “Table A” with Mike “The Mouth” Matusow and nine unknown amateurs, or “Table B” with Hall-of-Famers Phil Ivey and John Juanda, alongside great players Can Hua and Farzad “Freddy” Bonyadi? Not surprisingly, ESPN chose the mouth and the nine amateurs.
Poker is about entertainment these days, and whether Matusow ever reaches the Hall of Fame, he is certainly entertaining to watch. You never know whether he will laugh or break down and cry, needle someone else, do the now famous “Matusow blow up” (giving away all of his chips in one fell swoop after days of great play), or get in a verbal fight with another player, resulting in a 10-minute penalty for him and the other player.
-
So You Want to Make a Deal?
With about six players left in the $5,000 buy-in championship event at Harrah’s “Carnavale of Poker” in January 2000, 1999 Card Player magazine “Player of the Year” Hieu “Tony” Ma whispered to me, “Phil, how sweet is it for you that this Frenchman keeps moving all-in pre-flop. You’re going to bust him for sure!” At the time I smiled and nodded at Tony; I too believed that Angelo Besnainou (the Frenchman)’s chips were mine to win. I love to play against a “slider” (someone who moves ALL of his chips into the middle, regardless of blind size), because once they do slide it all in, they can’t fold when I eventually pick up a powerful hand behind them.
So when the tournament came down to Farzad “Freddy” Bonyadi, the Frenchman and me, and the two of them asked me to make a deal (deals are common in all tournaments near the end), I told the Frenchman, “No deal.” His proposal was that we would take about $200,000 apiece off the top (I had more chips and stood to receive $250,000), and play for $100,000 for first, rather than for the scheduled $400,000 for first, $200,000 for second and $100,000 for third.
-
Wrong Time, Wrong Place for Pocket Kings?
In the $10,000 buy-in no limit Hold ‘Em Championship Event at the World Poker Open in 2002 in Tunica, Miss., the chips were flying! I was in the mood to last since this event was four days long and I had to make it to 300 out of 400 players to win.
Earlier, I had thrown away pocket kings on the flop after making a pre-flop raise only to have the board come down 7s-8s-10c. Three players checked to me, and then I bet out $1,700. Dolph Arnold check raised me $3,000 more, and made it $4,700 to go. I studied him and I was fairly certain that I had him beat. However, I thought that he had a big draw, and therefore I believed that I was only a small favorite to win this hand (maybe around 13-to-10 or so). So I saved my last $7,000 and threw my hand away because I felt like I would be a 4-1/2-to-1 favorite later on in the tournament if I could wait long enough.
-
Negreanu Takes Two Decisive Pots
Last month, 24 big-name poker players were invited to the $20,000 buy-in Fox Sports Net (FSN) Tournament held at the Wynn Las Vegas hotel and casino. We started with four tables of six players each with the final six playing “live” on FSN. The day was ideal for this tourney, since no other major sporting event was scheduled — a rarity indeed.
The 8:30 a.m. starting time. did not agree well with the players, who had just spent the month playing at noon for the World Series of Poker (WSOP). Further, we had to raise the blinds at a fast pace in order to eliminate players in time for the live part of the show. Still, no one complained — we knew what had to be done, and it was actually a fun event to play in!
All of us would have rather been playing poker that day at the Rio instead the Wynn because that would have meant participating in day five of the WSOP, the top honor in poker with a $7.5-million first prize.
-
I Dominated, and Still Lost
I recently wrote about the tactic of folding a lot of hands when my opponents reraise me, and how this eventually induces them to reraise me even with bad hands. In other words, they begin to count on me to fold when they reraise, thus expecting they can bluff me out with their weak hands. This line of logic pretty much explains how I lost the following pot at the $10,000-buy-in main event of the 2005 World Series of Poker (WSOP).
The blinds were $250-$500, with a $50 ante, and I was in the big blind. Everyone folded around to player Z in the small blind, and he fiddled around, then called the $500 bet and raised it $700 more. I looked down at my hand, a beautiful-looking A-K. At this point I was thinking, “OK, player Z has roughly $16,500 in chips to my $34,000. Finally, I have a powerful hand in a great situation. For a long time I have been folding when players reraise me. Z will probably stick to form and reraise me if I reraise him here. How can I induce him to move all-in here? Or have I already induced this sweet situation?”
-
Raymer’s Reign Ends With Pocket Kings
Greg Raymer had an amazing run in his quest to once again become the World Series of Poker (WSOP) champion. A huge field of 5,600 players had bought in initially, and with 54 players remaining, Raymer had become the chip leader. At the end of day five, with 27 players left, he was still going strong in third-chip position. Then, with 20 players remaining, a huge hand came up between Raymer and Aaron Kanter.
With the blinds at $20,000-$40,000 and an ante of $5,000 a player, Raymer opened for $100,000 to go, with Kh-Ks. Kanter called the $100,000 with Qh-Jh, and the flop came down 6d-5s-3h. Raymer bet out $150,000, and, for some reason, Kanter called the bet. At this point not much good could happen for Kanter: he was sitting only 7 percent to win the pot, and a queen or a jack on the turn could encourage him to put all of his money into the pot with only five “outs,” as an 8-to-1 underdog (39 losing cards against five winning cards).
™
