The Best In The Business

[moustache]

I've never felt more happy or proud to be part of the poker community as of today.

With 10 people left there were 7 times the short stack was all in and at risk, every time I was the second shortest stack. If they lost I would make €46,000 if they won I would be favourite to win €0. In none of the times was I anti railing the guy, in fact two clear occasions I really wanted them to win. Davide Kitai in one spot and Adrian in another spot JT v AT and he hit the Jack.

This isn't about me trying to be a great guy or not caring about the money or anything like that, of course I wanted to cash, but throughout the 4 days of playing these two high rollers in small field sizes (same 50 players basically) I've throughorly enjoyed every minute and every guy I've played with. From Dan Shak and my new friends from Dubai to the philosophical Gruissem and mischievious Schemion it's just really been a blast and I really enjoyed being part of the whole occasion.

I started thinking about how poker players are portrayed, by the public we are degenerates, by the poker rooms we are mostly were treated as scumbags, players who dare to win. The fact is every player who plays this tournament has something different about them, something that seperates then from others and that gives them that extra umpf to accumulate the wealth to be able to play tournaments like this. Whether that is through amazing business acumen, or if it's through winning a lot of money at poker over the years or even convincing others with money that their skill is enough that they should stake them into the tournament. Everybody in the field has somebody unique about them, when you look in the field everybody has their own DNA that's cool and quirky and keeps them interesting. Everybody has a really cool back story, whether that's Charlie Carrell and Ben Heath grinding up from NL10 to $100ks in the space of s couple of years or whether it's Orpen, the very smart regular who wears a face scarf and has sold his gaming company for 10x more than I've cashed at Pokerstars.

On the one hand I'm really sad that the successful players who have dedicated their last 5+ years to becoming the best in their profession are being treat like scumbags from poker sites and having to hear Negreanu telling them that "higher rake is good for the games" whilst cashing in his monthly million $.

On the other hand, I'm really happy that I was lucky to succeed in poker, a profession where it's all down to the hard work of yourself rather than having to rely on your Dad going to university with the manager of the company. What it means is that when you are successful and you're at the top of the tree you're surrounded by really good guys that are a pleasure to spend time with, not some Wall Street Coke heads or Eton boys club members.

I'm not sure where poker is heading in the next few years, nobody can really tell, but I think that whatever you do, don't have any regrets. Understand and plan what's best for you, if it's best to play a lot online, accumulate as much immediate wealth as possible, then that's fine. If it's playing satalites to as many live MTTs and seeing the world through WPTs and Unibet Opens then that's fine too, don't let this period slip by by being lazy and not putting the effort in to at least knowing what you want from this crazy game. I let too much time go by doing nothing and just waiting for the next series or next big trip. Moving forward I'm always going to be active in this poker world, whether that's intense studying to get better so I can accumulate money, or if it's travelling the live circuit or going into lockdown for 3 weeks of a series, I'm not going to just wake up, go to Kfc, play some Fifa and maybe watch a few documentaries. Poker was alive and strong in the 90s, it was a lot stronger and more alive in the 2000s, it's still giving us so many opportunities day to day in the 2010's, don't let it get to 2021 sitting in your office, writing your holiday request form to your manager and having flashbacks to 2017 where you decided not to go to WPT Brussels because you coudlnt really be bothered.

The People you meet there will be a lot more interesting and entertaining to you than your colleagues of the future.

At times this year I really felt lost, occasionally disillusioned, perhaps even momentarily out of love with poker, but tonight I go to bed appreciating the game, enjoying the roller coaster it presents us and promising myself to embrace every second of its diminishing future.

Beautiful post, thanks for making the effort to write for us

[pleno1]

Gg 2k lost v big pot at v t7ss on j8293sxxss

I bet big twice and he donked huge otr. Would have folded at my A game. Will play online tonight, really pumped to play.

[Doobs]

I've never felt more happy or proud to be part of the poker community as of today.

With 10 people left there were 7 times the short stack was all in and at risk, every time I was the second shortest stack. If they lost I would make €46,000 if they won I would be favourite to win €0. In none of the times was I anti railing the guy, in fact two clear occasions I really wanted them to win. Davide Kitai in one spot and Adrian in another spot JT v AT and he hit the Jack.

This isn't about me trying to be a great guy or not caring about the money or anything like that, of course I wanted to cash, but throughout the 4 days of playing these two high rollers in small field sizes (same 50 players basically) I've throughorly enjoyed every minute and every guy I've played with. From Dan Shak and my new friends from Dubai to the philosophical Gruissem and mischievious Schemion it's just really been a blast and I really enjoyed being part of the whole occasion.

I started thinking about how poker players are portrayed, by the public we are degenerates, by the poker rooms we are mostly were treated as scumbags, players who dare to win. The fact is every player who plays this tournament has something different about them, something that seperates then from others and that gives them that extra umpf to accumulate the wealth to be able to play tournaments like this. Whether that is through amazing business acumen, or if it's through winning a lot of money at poker over the years or even convincing others with money that their skill is enough that they should stake them into the tournament. Everybody in the field has somebody unique about them, when you look in the field everybody has their own DNA that's cool and quirky and keeps them interesting. Everybody has a really cool back story, whether that's Charlie Carrell and Ben Heath grinding up from NL10 to $100ks in the space of s couple of years or whether it's Orpen, the very smart regular who wears a face scarf and has sold his gaming company for 10x more than I've cashed at Pokerstars.

On the one hand I'm really sad that the successful players who have dedicated their last 5+ years to becoming the best in their profession are being treat like scumbags from poker sites and having to hear Negreanu telling them that "higher rake is good for the games" whilst cashing in his monthly million $.

On the other hand, I'm really happy that I was lucky to succeed in poker, a profession where it's all down to the hard work of yourself rather than having to rely on your Dad going to university with the manager of the company. What it means is that when you are successful and you're at the top of the tree you're surrounded by really good guys that are a pleasure to spend time with, not some Wall Street Coke heads or Eton boys club members.

I'm not sure where poker is heading in the next few years, nobody can really tell, but I think that whatever you do, don't have any regrets. Understand and plan what's best for you, if it's best to play a lot online, accumulate as much immediate wealth as possible, then that's fine. If it's playing satalites to as many live MTTs and seeing the world through WPTs and Unibet Opens then that's fine too, don't let this period slip by by being lazy and not putting the effort in to at least knowing what you want from this crazy game. I let too much time go by doing nothing and just waiting for the next series or next big trip. Moving forward I'm always going to be active in this poker world, whether that's intense studying to get better so I can accumulate money, or if it's travelling the live circuit or going into lockdown for 3 weeks of a series, I'm not going to just wake up, go to Kfc, play some Fifa and maybe watch a few documentaries. Poker was alive and strong in the 90s, it was a lot stronger and more alive in the 2000s, it's still giving us so many opportunities day to day in the 2010's, don't let it get to 2021 sitting in your office, writing your holiday request form to your manager and having flashbacks to 2017 where you decided not to go to WPT Brussels because you coudlnt really be bothered.

The People you meet there will be a lot more interesting and entertaining to you than your colleagues of the future.

At times this year I really felt lost, occasionally disillusioned, perhaps even momentarily out of love with poker, but tonight I go to bed appreciating the game, enjoying the roller coaster it presents us and promising myself to embrace every second of its diminishing future.

Thanks for the reply.  I wasn't expecting nearly as much.

[pleno1]

So flew home a few days ago from Malta (basically after my last post) now I know this is going to sound really stupid haha and will get a lot of flack for it, but I was in the lobby of Hilton and there was this weird looking guy, he didn't look weird, but I had a weird sense I guess, I walked down 2 flights of stairs and he walked behind me. I walked down the corridor (there was maybe 10-15 rooms this way out of the whole hotel) and he carried on walking behind me. I sped up as fast as I could without it being obvious and he was still behind me, just as close. I got to my door and turned around and he wasn't there. I went inside and just closed the door, gto would have been to look through the keyhole and see if anybody was about as could see kind of down the corridor. Even writing about it now gives me these weird chill creeps. There wasn't much to play anyway and the fields in Mala were pretty small so just decided to bounce and be with family in England for a few days, play 1-2 online sessions with a proper monitor and be in Nottingham from the very start for the WPT which I'm buzzing for.

Very likely the guy was just walking to his room, just had a weird feeling, will be interesting to see if anybody has anything happen there. Fwiw, Hilton was an amazing hotel this time round. 2 years ago the maids stole money from my room and was a big dispute but this time round they were exceptionally nice and went very far to make my stay enjoyable. Anyway, happy to be home now and settled.

I was thinking about the 10k/25knmarkups. And they were really quite silly.

In both the fields you had basically the exactly same regs and exactly same fish
In the 25k you had a far superior structure
In the 25k you had a live satalite bringing 5-10 additional players

I think almost every single regular sold the 25k at 300% less than the 10k which seems kind of stupid. I'm almost certain that my roi in the 25k was higher than in the 10k. Kind of strange actually, definitely something to look out for in the future too and I'll sell the bullets differently next time.

Was actually funny, a nice guy and good reg was super surprised I sold any action in the 25k and the 10k. I started thinking about bankroll management and stuff, what do you guys think is an appropriate BRM to use for live tournaments that

1) you have big edge in but large field size (like EPT mains etc)
2) smaller fields with small Rois

[pleno1]

Ooh good luck Pads.

When you have the time, how long do you think you have to make money from poker.  Of course crush the highroller first.

I was thinking this as I was playing the Monday plo8.  I had Isildur sat on my left.  I was thinking this probably isn't a good sign for cash or MTTs.  I eventually got him, had about 5 minutes relief, only for jungleman to sit in his place.  Think I lost hope at this stage.

Maybe high stakes hold em is so competitive that the only hope is O8?  Though given my record in the 320s, and the make up of some of the tables, maybe there is little hope in them too. 

Poker is so far from being solved. This is the age of experiment. People are using solvers, using different tools. In the past people did random experimenting (clicking buttons) not people are using strategic experimenting. For example...

Flop is 862 co vs bb pot is 10, stacks are 100. What do you think the best sizing to use here is? There's a sizing I use that around 10 guys in the world are currently using. Is it good? Who knows, maybe, maybe not. Everybody is doing different things and then when you take into tournament preservation, survival, Icm etc everything gets more complex.

There's minimum 2+ more years of very winnable games online, even if good players transition over it will take them many years to understand how to play close to optimally in such a a different game type. I mean less than a year ago I wasn't 3b calling KQs sb vs vo for 30bbs.

I think as long as I want to, I'll be able to make money from poker and teach a large amount of other people to make money from poker until there is ether bots completely taking over or rake is priced at an unbeatable amount. Both of which are out of my hands, so worrying about them really is not gto.

Now more than ever you need a good support group. There were people who used to crush by their own intuition years ago, now you need a support group of probably 5+ discussing and sharing studying resources to really keep up.

Interesting fact from my stable (we only take on good winning players) on average a player playing for my stable makes 64% more money than when they playing on their own money) most people are petrified to give away 50% of their income, when in reality they would be increasing it, never mind improving their chances of future income after they leave the stable etc.

If Jungleman and Isildur are there it's great, very likely they use a sizing that you currently don't and you can put that in your game and then improve, The best way to get good in poker is imitation. For all their good stuff they do they will likely punt it off and do poor tournament specific stuff that you will directly profit from.

Fuck em!

[moustache]

My opinion on BRM is very fluid depending on your needs, wants and risk profile. For myself I like to deal with the needs side of things with a deep roll at double the size of game I can make a comfortable living in ( around 80-100 buyins for cash and stts or 200 for mtts) This gives me the option to drop down stakes when I'm on a bad run or feeling not so great about how I'm playing. On top of that I will be very aggressive with shot taking at a level that I can achieve goals with when significant winning streaks happen (e.g. 50k to buy a small flat to rent). In your situation with 25k tournaments it's whether you favour increased equity or reduced risk of ruin while being able to compete within the top flight of the game. Also bear in mind the benefit selling to people has on developing and maintaining relationships within the game. I'm not sure that above the level you need to maintain yourself the way you want to, your roi or the field sizes make too much of a difference. Hope that ramble helped a bit. 😀

[pleno1]

Have been part of a coaching team for the final table for last couple of months, can't see who just yet, but sweating this, really enjoying the final table, very fun to watch when you've thought a lot about it.

Surprised to see how a few of them are playing.

[pleno1]

Had first real sports bets this weekend in a long long time. Really felt the odds in all three of these games were wrong (posted Twitter/tft)

burnley 18/1 vs Man U
Watford 3/4 vs hull
Stoke 11/10 vs Swansea

Went big singles on the latter too, a cheeky single and treble and then an unnecessary double on wat/stoke.

In before we blow the whole roll on football betting, must remind myself I'm not a football betting expert and the bookies will likely win. Nice to best bet stars though

Got the train to Nottingham today, very fun £5300 event, made day 2 with above average, was nice to play with some people today, Sinon Higgins, Dubai and a few others. Feels like very special atmosphere this week at dtd, lots of crack and fun, not many serious players with headphone.

Day 2 tomorrow so will sleep.

Let's go Qui!!!!!

[Doobs]

Have been part of a coaching team for the final table for last couple of months, can't see who just yet, but sweating this, really enjoying the final table, very fun to watch when you've thought a lot about it.

Surprised to see how a few of them are playing.

Will be the greatest aftertime ever if you come out and say you coached Nguyen after he wins the WSOP. 

[SuuPRlim]

I would bet huge money it's Kenny.

[pleno1]

Devilfish cup was realllllllllly fun, busted 2 bullets but made money in the end due to my one swap coming third. Ariiiiiiiba.

Tournament was great fun, busted first bullet with TT vs Mizrachis AA. He was playing absolutely mental vpip, like conpletely crazy as he does and I thought tens were the true nuts sent down from heaven... Was a big pot too, no getting away from it I don't think.

Rebought and lost standard flip vs my amigo Sergi AQ v 44 btn v bb.

Really enjoyed the whole tournament, lots of interesting hands.

Skipped day 1 of the main as I was watching WSOP main till really late, I actually streamed it on twitch with Joey Ingram which was fun.

Going to write my review of the final table now..

[pleno1]

I've been very vocal about the final table, probably seemed bitter, but I really enjoyed watching the final. I'm sure the things I said people should do this year I will think are terrible next year. I'm sure some of the stuff guys did was next level to what I can even think about, all of it is possible, but being a poker fan (and I'm a huge poker fanboy) is being able to say he should have done X/y/z. Just like in soccer (sorry dad) it's fine to say "he should have used his other foot" he should have done X y or z. The realllllllly cool thing about poker is that any of us can be there on the final table and that's way there's thousands of entrants year on year. If Ngyuen can do it then so can I, so can you and so can anybody else and that's incredibly motivating.

I'm going to give an honest assessment of each players play from my eyes, things I thought they did well, things I may have done differently etc. fwiw I missed most of day 2, but watched entire day 1/3.

9th place - Fernando Pons

Think he played perfect, there was one ATo reship spot, but completely fine folding too. Wp imo

8th place - Jerry Wong

Obviously wasn't around for long either, I would have probably folded the Ax in the sb vs Kenny with little fold equity because staying alive is cool and everybody else was playing aggressive. The thing with Icm is if people are making errors then you should play significantly tighter. Example, 600 left in main event and 595 pay. Let's say guy jams on you and you should call 77+, AQ in a spot. It's very very likely that the Icm model is incorrect here because some crazy guy called pads1161 is going to try and bluff some farmer off Aces and Ivar from Sweden is "playing for the win" and calling off 55, A9 in the exact same spot, thus we will cash than we should yada yada. I will say Jerry seemed like the most likeable guy at the table, really cool guy and took it all really well.

7th place - Griffin Benger

I was so shocked to see Griffin play so tight/poor, he spoke a lot about how it was crazy he hadn't won a hand yet, a lot of that was down to him now playing many. He was coached by Igor so really expected him to be playing loose, r/f off shallow stacks, defend correctly etc. there was a spot where Vayo opened 66 and he folded q9 in the bb. Often in poker things just "cant be right" like Vayo folding t6 and Ngyuen cbetting 42 on jt5. Folding the q9 in this spot was an error I think. There were also a couple of other spots where he took the passive route. Anyways, I gave Griffin hard time and would like to somewhat apologize for that. It must be so tough to be under so much scrutiny after his comments and whilst maybe he deserved it, I've been a bigger dick in my life and would be pretty sad to be reminded about the out of character experience every single minute in Twitter. Very poor performance and it wouldn't surprise me if he quit poker for good now.

6th place finish - Kenny Hallaet

As many of you know I was on "Team Kenny" that was Organised by Fedor, but I was pretty busy in WCOOP playing every day, Barcelona and then Malta that I didn't do that much but I was involved quite a lot in the process and knew what was happening and not.

Kenny said afterwards he was really happy with how he played and I also think he didn't do anything wrong. I can't think of a single hand off my head where I'd think "wow that was so bad" the a8ss hand got a lot of criticism but imo it was unfair. I think the turn barrel was pretty good and was just very unfortunate to get Vojtech to shove here. I think Vojtech would fast play sets on the flip quite often etc so barreling big gets a lot of one pair hands to fold and we block hands that could semi bluff shove vs us.

The one thing I would do differently would be to cover up, wear glasses/shades, usually you see in WSOP main event that people come out with no "protection on day 1" and then as the days go on they "wrap up" more and more. I think even Van Hoof was wearing shades against Jacobson on the final day. All of the players will have guys looking ONLY for live tells, I would obviously pay a specialist to be on the rail with the sole intention of finding tells, so I would make sure I was very well wrapped up and motionless when playing. I don't even think the audience mind.

Well played Kenny and very nice working with you, such an incredibly nice guy and imo one of the hardest working guys around, expect big things from him in the next 6-18 months.

5th place - Michael Ruane

Played well imo, again, a guy who seems very nice. Good manners, cool look. I think he'd have been a very good champion. Main mistake I can remember is c/f AK bvb on 942 (it was correct because Vayo had t9o) but you will see later Vayo was stabbing wide when checked to (Kto on 467 so this would likely be a big mistake when our outs are usually live and we can have the best hand and even bluff some run outs.

4th place - Vojtech

Many people's favourite player of the final. I spoke to him on day 2 and he wasn't 100% happy with how he played on day 1 which would be surprising to a lot of people, but not surprising to me because I know how hard he works. He's a huge beast and boss both online and live but is very humble and always wants to learn. I remember he bought a hand history that I played a while ago and also remember final tabling the thrill against him and he doing some very good adjustments to my strategy that people basically never do thus making me need to rethink. I think the one dubious thing I saw was the AJ 3bet from the big blind vs Kenny. I think it's just the wrong hand to choose here, however if he thinks Fedor is very sticky and would have coached Kenny to call a lot vs 3bets then it's a clear value 3bet. I know he was playing some 500z and working out ranges (he was buying in shallow) but cash/mtts is a little different.

Great composure and felt like he was really in control throughout and wasn't afraid at all to pull the trigger.

3rd place - Cliff Jospehy

I think Josephy clearly played the worst at the final table which is very surprising because his two coaches (Shaun Deeb and a Chance Kornuth) are both very very very very good players. A lot of their play is from feel and knowing when to bluff, who to bluff, how much to bluff, but they're also very experienced and good enough to prepare somebody perfectly.

His whole tournament seemed like a car crash for me.

Early on he chose to 3bet q9o very deep which was a very poor candidate to choose.

He then froze up after this early mis step and was folding hands like 95s to a single raise in the big blind when there were big antes and he was very deep. The game has changed a lot since he used to play so sure he may not be used to it, but that's what the 3 months is for.

Anyway, something he should know is shove/fold spots, early on it took him over 2 minutes to call a very simple short stack shove and that was really surprising to me, surely he's ran the numbers millions of times years ago and a lot recently too.

Later on in the tournament he chose very peculiar hand selection to bluff, 3bet jammed way too wide, and made a very bad call to end his tournament. Yes he had a set but on k324fd in a 3 way 3bet pot of the king is the flush card you basically can never call off here. He NEEDS Vayo to be committing worth KQ here and that simply would never happen. If only he could have tagged in Chance for that one.

Again another player I expect to disappear until next years main event.

2nd place - Gordon Vayo

I'll start this by saying, Vayo does seem like a nice guy, I apologize for hating on him at times but he does come across well in the interviews that I've seen and he does seem very knowledgable about poker. The 55 fold bvb vs Kenny was absolutely incredible imo. With everything considered, Kenny not winning many pots, coached by Fedor, Vayo with tight image etc folding here would be absolutely or of the question for me here, so unless he picked up on a live read I have no clue how he could fold. Fwiw I know how Kenny would have played that exact spot and 55 would not be a fold.

Early on Vayo seemed like he wanted to avoid confrontation, the ATo fold pales in significance compared to some stuff we saw later, but I think the 77 was a somewhat inexcusable fold. Overall, his strategy was to play right and adjust, I don't think he played overly poor on day 1, just played solid/tight and wasn't going to give away a lot of chips and others would still pay him off when he had it (Josephy with the set for example) so overall the game plan I think was somewhat reasonable.. However arguments that the pay out structure was incredibly flat until final 3 would merit a rather aggressive approach, but then again if everybody else is going bananas then it's correct to sit back and fold. Every time you fold you probably make something like $10,000 in ev, which is a relatively good hourly :p

Heads up he fell apart, you simply can't keep playing tight when heads up. The overall strategy was poor simply because Ngyuen is the guy who picks up on weakness. He knows when you're weak and will go after you, so limping and min raising etc is going to just set off the inner honey badger and he will explode. You may say this is ok, wait for him to explode, 2 problems..

1) in heads up you have to pay blinds and antes (15%!) every hand and thus you will blind or if you "wait for top 10%" and

2) when he did find the effective hits (too pair) he folded in a spot where Ngyuen was evidently massively overbluffing. Same as the A9 fold vs the flush, everybody was like OMG amazing fold, but vs Ngyuen it wasn't a particularly good fold because he will have so much shit so much of the time. I think Vayo won't regret his final table performance and maybe he shouldn't but the q9 fold will haunt him for a long time. Win that hand, Ngyuen would blow the rest in the next hour and he would be $4m richer and the world champion.

Oh well, hopefully can buy him a beer at the next live stop. He will stay around the scene imo and my prediction is he will crush for the next 6-18 months too.

Your Champion - Ngyuen!

I mean this guy really had the heart of a lion. He played awesomeness throughout and was really fun to watch. Ofc at times things didn't always work out, but if you look at the pots he lost, he more than made up for then in non showdown pots. He had great intuition for when to bluff, when to induce, how long to take to induce, how to make himself look strong etc. when he bluffed the j5 (theoretically awful bluff on turn/river) he checked his cards on the river as if to see if he had made the wheel, was genius.

Team Kenny thought we had established some really strong reads on him from back home in Europe, and it was a little frustrating to see these were stone Oreo cookie reads as he played 3-4 handed. Not much to say really, at one point though I was very suspicious that he was using some kind of cheating mechanism. 2 big blinds in a row he 1) defended 52o 2) folded 98o. Obviously he plays with his gut but some things just felt off to me, when Bax busted, he open folded 87s on the button. There was a stage of the match where he was barreling a lot. He opens button, cbets, checks, folds on qq765 with 54. Turn was a really good spot to double barrel and the opponent had QQQ.. Anyway, let's give him the benefit of the doubt and just say he has amazing reads and intuition and a really really big heart.

I love poker, I love Wsop and I love the November 9. I've been a huge fan boy for a long time of it. Next year id really like to be there haha but if not I'd love to dedicate the 3 months to helping somebody. There's so many cool ideas I have for peak performance that I think people aren't doing and most Importantly whilst I have the determination and desire to be involved I strongly believe my closest friends in poker are the best in the world and they would be great assets (everybody thinks their group of friends are the best though obviously)

Will close this chapter, have no more bitterness, apologise to those who I berated and congratulate those who I think played great.

Until next year!

[bobAlike]

Great write up Pads, out of interest what would you expect as a financial reward for helping/coaching a November 9er?

[pleno1]

Day 3 of WPT UK worth 420k coming back to 6k bb on Ze bubble.

[Rexas]

Poor Gilly