Who is Isildur1?

Nobody knows who Isildur1 is. What everyone knows though, is that this guy is the poker gods’ gift to the game. Before he came along and took the nosebleed stakes tables by assault, what railbirds did for fun was to hang around the durrrr challenge tables, looking for Dwan and Antonius to put in a few hands, though the suffering that the series has become lately, took the fun right out of that one and railbirds slowly began to look for their online kicks elsewhere.

September 16th, 2009: enter Isildur1. A faceless player from Sweden, with a Lord of the Rings inspired nickname, Isildur1 meant serious business straight out of the gates. In the beginning, he didn’t look like much of a menace for Full Tilt Poker’s regulars. He spent about two weeks on the $25/$50 tables, where he was considered a fish ripe for the taking. A fish he wasn’t though. Even back then he must’ve been doing something right as he proved more than ready for his first real test: a match against Haseeb Qureshi, known online as INTERNETPOKERS. The two of them traded punches for a while on the $25/$50 tables, then moved to the $100/$200 ones (as one of them was probably eager to do some catching up). Eventually, the end of that session saw Isildur1 finish with a half a million dollars profit. That was his first truly significant move up the ranks and limits, and his first massive addition to a stack which would prove quite impossible to wreck later on.

Seeing one of their own fall victim to a newcomer, Full Tilt’s regulars jumped all over Isildur1, looking to exact some revenge. Isildur1 couldn’t have asked for a better opportunity though, to turn the drop he’d wringed out of the Qureshi session into a trickle and then into a full fledged flow.
UhotaBanana was among the first to tackle the unknown player. That match-up turned into a slaughter too, at the end of which Isildur1 walked away with $300k of his opponent’s money. That gave him enough of a boost to break into the $200/$400 and S300/$600 NL Holdem and PL Omaha tables, where the big boys played.
He did drop a little money to Hastings and Townsend on those limits, but he took Cole South for more than $700k which meant another huge boost for the Swede. That was the moment that Isildur1 finally established himself as a respect worthy presence at the highest stakes. Tom Dwan, everyone’s favorite Wonderkid and high stakes maniac came forth to teach the Swede a lesson. And what a lesson it turned out to be. The two of them put in almost as many hands in a few days’ time as Dwan and Antonius had at their durrrr challenge tables in over half a year. At the end of it all, despite a few downswings, it was Isildur1 who was around 3 million above the red line. This move opened up a world of possibilities for the Swede.
Dwan did try to get his money back, and he even challenged Isildur1 to a live encounter in London, however the illusive Swede didn’t take him up on that offer and he took a further $100k and some from Dwan in a re-match.
It wasn’t all smooth sailing for him though. The past weeks have been pretty rough for him, as he dropped around $3 million to Antonius, Phil Ivey, Ilari Sahamies and Brian Townsend. He managed to bounce back though, and in the process, he blew away several online poker records. He beat the biggest ever online poker pot record twice within a week’s time. The second time he dropped a $1.3 million pot to Patrick Antonius.

Watch the video here, complete with commentary and odds calculus

Whether or not Isiladur1 played that one right is debatable, but he sure did play another similarly sized pot well a couple of days later against Phil Ivey. That time, it was a $1.1 million whooper that he won from Ivey, the second biggest online poker pot ever played.
That made Isildur1 the only player who’s ever won and lost an online pot larger than $1 million.
He, Antonius and Ivey combined for 7 of the 10 largest pots in the history of online poker, all within the same week. Never has anything as big is Isildur1 hit the online poker world (in a good way of course) and I reckon it’s only fitting that he should be an anonymous online player: an exponent of the masses. Whoever he is, he sure revels in his anonymity. While others would’ve long stepped forward to claim the benefits of their fame, Isildur1 is happy to hide behind the stage and to do his work from obscurity. Some speculate that he is in fact Victor Blom, a young Swedish player who had had an Isiladur1-like incursion into the high stakes online territory months ago and who pretty much vanished with the loot following a successful run.

Another Swedish mystery man, “martonas” is also a suspect in the case, but some say Swedish soccer player Henrik Larsson may be the one behind the Isildur1 account. Still others have come up with the hypothesis that Isildur1 is in fact a conglomerate of Swedish players aiming to storm the online poker world and t make money off those who really have loads. A theory linking Isildur1 to Todd Brunson has also surfaced.
Whatever the case, one thing is certain: that fact that Isildur1 remains unknown only adds to the intrigue, and therefore I would personally prefer never to find out his true identity.

A glance at the state of the online poker industry at a crucial moment of its existence

This piece was written with the December 1 deadline in mind. As you probably know, December 1st was supposed to be the day when the full provisions of the UIGEA would be enforced. The entire online poker industry, players and poker room operators alike were holding their breath and wondering what a post Dec 1st world would be like.
Fortunately, amid all the bad news surrounding the industry and all the losses hitting it from every direction lately, a small glimmer of hope broke through the other day. Dec 1st won’t be such a crucial moment for the industry after all. The PPA together with Barney Frank and a host of other interested entities (like the folks from the thoroughbred association and the greyhound track owners association) managed to convince Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to offer the beleaguered poker and gambling industry a little bit of breathing space, postponing the implementation of the UIGEA’s provisions.

The time bought is not overly impressive: 6 months only, but that may well prove enough for Frank to push through one of his legal initiatives to legalize and to regulate online poker and gambling.
Lately, bad news tied to various aspects of the poker industry has abounded. The loss of Jeffrey Pollack as WSOP commissioner is one of these ominous signs. Pollack had been around for quite a while, and he turned poker into the main stream sport that it is today. Considering his accomplishments and the changes he’s brought to the poker industry (and implicitly to the online poker one as well), Pollack may well be the person who did the most for the game of poker over the last 7-8 years. To see such a character go doesn’t exactly instill any optimism in those – one way or another – linked to the industry. I mean I personally have the uneasy feeling that there must be something terribly wrong if a major actor like Pollack decides to leave the stage behind. Then again, I know nothing about his personal or otherwise reasons so the hunch may be exaggerated and just plain wrong.

Of course, it’s not all gloom and doom in online poker: good things have happened too. Isildur1 is one of those good things. This guy whose identity continues to be a mystery (and quite frankly I prefer it that way too) has breathed new life into the high stakes online scene. He has taken the tables by storm, winning and losing big and generally creating all sorts of headline-worthy havoc. Had it not been for Isildur1, railbirds would still be glued to the durrrr challenge tables, waiting for Antonius and Dwan to show up for one of their monthly 200-hand sessions. Just who is Isildur’s though? There are plenty of speculations about his identity. Some say he is not even one person, that he is in fact a conglomerate of Swedish players hell bent on making tons of money off the nosebleed tables at Full Tilt.
Others say it’s Victor Blom, a young Swede who’s not too keen on becoming a poker celebrity. Still others believe that he is in fact “martonas” the other mystery player who’d stormed the tables in August before dropping all his winnings and fading back into obscurity.

Those with a more active imagination will even tell you that Isildur1 is Todd Brunson… Whoever he is, one thing is certain: his continued presence at the high stakes tables is a blessing for the industry, although some of the professionals he’s managed to fleece will probably say otherwise (Tom Dwan).
The mystery man thing only adds to the hype surrounding this guy. Nobody really knows who he is and when he decides to fade into the sunset with the millions accumulated at Full Tilt. If he does do that eventually, the stint will probably go down as one of the biggest legal heists of the 21st century. A new DB Cooper in the making? Could be…

Another “thing” that happened to poker in November was Joe Cada. Whether he’s a good thing or a bad thing for the industry remains to be seen. Those who argue he’s bad for poker base their assertions on the fact that he got extremely lucky several times to get to the top. His being lucky is yet another proof that poker may in the end be a game of chance… Well, the thing is, this is what poker is about. There’s luck in it too.You wouldn’t want to convince authorities to legalize the game based on false claims…or would you?
Anyway, the skill element is a long term one. One tournament is by far not enough to provide proof of its prevalence over the luck factor. It has already been proven though, so sit back and relax. Cada’s win is not going to toss scientific proof out the window.

Those who say Cada is good for poker, say it’s so because he’s basically the second coming of Chris Moneymaker. That assertion may be off the mark too though. I personally think that the situation is way too ripe for another Moneymaker effect to take place. Depending on what Cada has in mind to do following his win and on how he’ll perform if he decides to keep on playing, he’ll either just fade away or he’ll stick around. I don’t think he’ll have any sort of a significant impact on the game’s worldwide popularity or on its chances of getting legalized in the US.

The Isildur1 fleecing

With the current pace of events in the nosebleed stakes online poker world, writing one such “fleecing” article will probably become a weekly routine for me. Swedish mystery player Isildur1’s appearance or rather reappearance at the highest stakes tables at Full Tilt Poker has ignited an action-frenzy which just can’t seem to settle. He wins big, he loses big and he keeps all the railbirds stuck to their computer screens for hours on end each day. This guy is an anonymous spotlight hog.
Isildur1 has been stealing all the online poker headlines lately. First, he went on a rampage against Tom Dwan, winning around $3 million from the New Jersey wonderkid. Then, he took on Patrik Antonius at the $500/$1,000 tables to drop nearly all his “Dwan money” to him. Win or lose, this guy means business that’s for sure.

The session in which he won the $3 million was in fact a string of sessions in which he and Dwan played nearly as many hands as Dwan and Antonius have in their durrrr challenge series. It took them about a week to reach that mark. It only took Isildur1 2,189 hands to donate all those chips to Patrik Antonius though. As they say: easy come, easier go.

The whole Antonius meltdown thing began fairly dull for Isildur1. Having run out of $500/$1,000 NL Holdem opponents, he was logging some hands over at the $50/$100 PL Omaha tables against Prahlad Friedman and Jani Vilmunen. Tom Dwan had sworn that he’d exact revenge on him and take his money back (he even challenged him to a live heads-up match) but he was unavailable online, being busy with Full Tilt Poker’s Durrrr Million Dollar Challenge in London.
Ever the shrewd prospector, Antonius approached him and eventually talked him into playing with him at the $500/$1,000 PLO tables.

The duo fired up 4 such tables and the slaughter got underway right out of the gate. Antonius made his intentions clear from the get go. He won the first $200k pot within minutes. The Swede had a two pair, but Antonius had flopped a J-high straight to win the pot. It only took about 30 more minutes for the Finn to score another massive pot. This time, his pocket rockets hung on to defeat Isildur1’s pocket Ks. This pot was a $287,000 one and 5 minutes later it was dwarfed by a $408,000 whooper. Needless to say, this one went to Antonius as well, and it wasn’t for lack of a good hand on Isildur1’s part: he had flopped a set of 7s, but Antonius made a wheel on the turn to obliterate him once again.
In about 45 minutes, Antonius was around $500k up on Isildur1. Things only went from bad to worse for the Swede from there. A little later, the two of them combined for the largest online poker pot ever played. The $878,958 monster found its way yet again to Antonius’ stack. That was the point when Isildur1 began to voice his discontent. After some back and forth, the two of them decided to play 2 HA tables, one PLO and a NL Holdem one. Isildur1 was obviously not looking forward to getting felted some more at the PL tables, as his style bests suits NL play. He soon found though that the HA tables that he’d just agreed to play were themselves PL ones. The two then agreed to play 2 NL tables and two PL ones and the slaughter continued. It took Antonius another 60 minutes to get $400k more off Isildur1. The problem for Isildur1 was that Antonius managed to keep the NL Holdem pots they played small, while in the same time escalating the PLO ones the best he could.

After taking down two monster pots, Antonius found himself $2 million above the red line. Slowly going on a tilt, Isildur1 asked Antonius to open up two more PLO tables, in an obvious effort to try to win his losses back. Antonius told him he could only play 4 tables, but even that couldn’t save Isildur1 from bleeding away a further $1 million. Antonius won monster pot after monster pot, including a $572,000 whooper in which Isildur1’s set was put to shame by Antonius’ turned straight.

The one sided whooping only ended when Antonius decided to take a meal break, and left the gold-mine unattended. While Antonius was away, Isildur1 started playing Brian Towsend at the $300/$600 PLO tables. Soon the besieged Swede was $600k up and having caught the scent of blood, he even offered to quit playing Antonius in order to open up a few more tables against Townsend. Townsend declined though and play continued at the 4 tables already open. After some more give and take, Townsend eventually quit, leaving the tables with a $440,000 loss. Left with no alternatives, Isildur1 returned to the Patrick Antonius tables, where the latter kept up his shrewd approach and repotted for less at the NL Holdem tables than at the PLO ones.
Realizing that he was being outsmarted, Isildur1 decided to go with the flow and quit both NL Holdem tables he was playing to add more PLO ones. He must’ve pulled himself together, because he managed to take about $300k back from Antonius, before the Finn decided to call it the day and to head to bed with the profits he’d accumulated.

The Tom Dwan Fleecing

Okay, it wasn’t really a fleecing, in the sense that there was nothing illegal about how $3 million – which at the beginning of last week represented Tom Dwan’s property – found their way to Swedish mystery player Isildur1’s pockets by the end of the week. The weird thing about the whole incident was the fact that Isildur1 seemed to have popped up with the express purpose of taking Dwan to school. Anyway, Dwan did drop the money and all he can do about it now is to stew in his own juice, at least till the wheel turns.
He did already issue Isildur1 a challenge to take him on in a live heads-up match at the “durrrr” Million Dollar Challenge in London. Drawing the Swede out of his comfort zone this way would probably give Dwan a good shot at recovering some of his losses, while in the same time the world would find out who Isildur1 really is.
As far as I’m concerned, I’m hoping that he won’t ever reveal his true identity. Now I’m not saying this would be fair or even sportsmanlike, but if I were him, I’d take the money and just disappear into the sunset. I’m not rooting against Dwan or anything, it would just be a nice change of pace to finally see someone take some dough off those nosebleed tables and not give it all back a week later. If that someone was to be anonymous, I’d like it that much better. Nameless, faceless guy walks away with poker superstar’s stack. You’ve got to love it…
Anyway, here’s a breakdown of what happened during the 19,000 hands the two players put in just over two days last week (putting the 10 months of the durrrr challenge to shame without remorse).

The first confrontation between the two occurred on Sunday to Monday night. They played at 5 and 6 tables, all $500/$1,000 NL Holdem and PL Omaha ones. Pots were massive, scores of them breaking the $200k mark and some of them swelling past $500k. During that session, Dwan dropped a painfully massive $1.2 million. The largest pot that developed was a $574,000 monster, which ended up in Isildur1’s pocket. Dwan kicked off the preflop betting and the two of them were up to $12,000 when the Qc, 8d, 5d flop fell. Isildur1 put the pedal to the metal with a $15,000 bet, Dwan called it and they saw a 9c fall on the turn. Confident in his pocket cards, Isildur1 bet $36,000 and Dwan shoved all-in in response. Isildur1 called it, and turned over pocket Qs for the flopped top set. Dwan had a 2c, 5c for the 4 card flush, but the 3h on the river sealed the deal.

The following night, Dwan was back, looking to get some of his money back. What followed though was quite the opposite though. He dropped $616,000 in a 12,000 hand session, which came to show that Dwan could indeed walk the walk when it came to chasing his money. Durrrr did take down the largest pot of that session (a $498,000 one) but Isildur1 busted one of his bluffs soon after, reclaiming $453,000.

Isildur1’s pocket 10s were up against Dwan’s A,K and the board brought a bunch of blanks. Dwan moved all in at the end of it, but the Swede knew his game by then and swooped in for the kill.
Tuesday night, the two continued right where they’d left off. Isildur1 took another $858,000 off Dwan, after having been $1.7 million down at one point during the session. A $694,953 pot also went down in this session, one that was supposedly the third largest pot ever shipped in online poker. The two players shoved all their chips in preflop, as Dwan held an A,K against Isildur1’s pocket rockets. Not surprisingly, the New Jersey wonderkid failed to catch up and Isildur1s comeback was complete.

Despite the fact that he earned the majority of his winnings off Dwan, Isildur1 had no trouble rounding up his budget from Cole South’s and Brian Townsend’s bankrolls. He took about $200k from each of the two players and even managed to hit Patrik Antonious for a measly $6,500 in a hurry.
Seeing that it was more difficult to wring juice from these guys though, Isildur1 soon returned to his favorite “fish”, Tom Dwan. Sure enough, he relieved durrrr of another $705,000, completely dominating a 2,100 hand session and winning all 5 major pots involved.
The largest pot of this farewell session was a $343,000 one which was shipped to the Swede after his flopped set of 7s made short work of Dwan’s flush draw again. Having taken set-mining to the extreme against Dwan, Isildur1 ended the week more than $3 million up on the American pro. Busy with other things, it’ll take Dwan some time to get back to the table in yet another attempt to exact some revenge. Will he recover any money or will he drop some more? Another question on my mind right now is just how deep are this guy’s pockets? Can he ever be busted?

WSOP 2009 Final table – Phil Ivey’s elimination

Phil Ivey’s elimination was beyond doubt one of the most significant moments of the November Nine showdown. This video segment covers two such key moments:

One of them is the Ivey vs Cada hand which doesn’t just cripple the Full Tilt pro, but which also sets Cada on course to becoming the eventual winner.
The hand, matching Cada’s pocket 4s against Ivey’s A,8 is joined in progress. It comes up shortly after Ivey folded his pocket Jacks when faced with Antoine Saout’s pocket 7s – a hand which I discussed in a previous blog post. This hand is the beginning of the end for Ivey, as his A,8o fails to improve and Cada’s flimsy pocket 4s hold up to give the 21 year old a much needed boost.

While the majority of the public present at the Penn and Teller theatre does root for Ivey, and while the outcome of this hand is a disappointment, it is just a coin-flip that doesn’t go Ivey’s way, there’s nothing particularly lucky or unlucky about it for either party involved. Cada does start with a flimsy lead and the board allows him to retain his lead. As a result of the loss, Ivey goes down to 9,375,000 chips, while Cada doubles up and reaches 12 million again, after a close brush with elimination. Ivey doesn’t seem particularly phased by the loss and Darvin Moon offers him mints to get the bad taste of the hand out of his mount.
Ironically, it’d be the same Darvin Moon who would have Ivey all-in for his tournament life a few hands later.

Ivey picks up an apple from his supporters and an A,K at the table he decides to trust his tournament life to. It’s not like he’s taking a swipe at the blinds. I think he is actually anxious to get someone to call him. The A,K is an excellent coin-flip hand, specially against a player who decides to make the call on a low pocket pair, as it so often happens this late in an event. Sure enough, Darvin Moon calls him and the reason Ivey doesn’t seem to be nervous at all is because he knows that at the very best, he’ll get a coin-flip. Moon gives him way better odds than a coin-flip, but unfortunately Lady Luck sides with the logger once again and lands a Q on the flop, silencing the “Ivey! Ivey!” chants. The rest, as they say, is history.
Limited to 3 outs, Ivey fails to make a hand on the turn and the river and his 2009 WSOP Main Event is over.
Ivey may have made some mistakes along the way, but this final hand of his was certainly not one of them. The odds were 75-25% in his favor before the flop: whatever was up to him, he did it. It was through no fault of his own that Moon had sold his soul to some sort of shady deity and scored that 3 outer on the flop. Had he not put himself into the position of being desperate for a double up, he may have played hands differently and history would’ve taken another course. Over a mere few hands he chipped Cada up though, setting him up for his eventually successful title run, and got himself out of the way… maybe it was just meant to be.

The video also shows a less significant hand between Begleiter and Saout. Less significant for the casual viewer that is, I’m quite sure it was not the least bit insignificant for those involved and their supporters. Begleiter picked up some suited connectors (7c, 8c) and decided to generate some action on them. Antoine Saout had Ah, Kh though, and after the flop, which fell 8h, 3c, 9h, something of a perfect hand situation developed. Saout picked up a 4-card flush, and a whole bunch of outs to improve past the hand that Begleiter was likely to have. Beglieter had a pair of 8s which was an already made hand on the flop, but thanks to the myriad of opportunities for Saout’s hand to improve, the odds were still 50-50. Of course, both players shoved all-in and as expected a 10h landed on the turn to give Saout the hand and to put him into the chip lead.

2009 WSOP Final Table – Ivey’s mistake and Schulman’s coaching staff

With the WSOP’s final table finally over and with Phil Ivey eliminated in 7th place, bookmakers world over could breath a sigh of relief. Prior to the November Nine showdown, so much square money had come in on Ivey that balancing the bets became impossible for bookmakers who were forced to cover all those Ivey bets from their pockets. An Ivey win would’ve therefore pretty much ruined the smaller operations and it would’ve dealt big operations like Bodog and Party a major blow too. In that case, bettors would’ve been ones to celebrate.

Unfortunately for them though, Ivey has pretty much let them down. Contrary to reports that he committed no mistakes at the final table whatsoever and that it was only bad luck that prevented him from advancing any further, we can now safely say that Ivey did in fact commit at least a crucial mistake. Take a look at the following video and you’ll understand what I’m talking about:

The hand against Antoine Saout that Ivey plays in this video was probably the one that led to his eventual downfall.

At the beginning of the clip, Ivey is still very much in contention. He has a stack of 16,325,000 chips, just about 8% of all the chips in play, and he’s obviously looking for an opportunity to double up. Having picked up a pair of Js, he couldn’t possibly ask for a better opportunity. He raises to 1.25 million, possibly to warn off those looking for a free ride. Antoine Saout’s re-raise to 4.05 million puzzles him though. The Frenchman has pocket 7s against Ivey’s pocket J’s and he probably puts Ivey on something like A,K so he comes in looking to pressure the shorter stack into a coin-flip. Little does he know that with his pocket 7s he’s actually a 20-80% underdog, and as far from a coin-flip as possible. Ivey tries to get a read on him, and he obviously gets the wrong one as he decides to fold the 80% favorite. I’m pretty sure he put Saout on a higher pocket pair.

Now then, pocket Js are admittedly tricky to play, but this late in a tourney, when looking for a double up opportunity, a player of Ivey’s caliber just shouldn’t fold them when faced with a pocket 7s… Ivey’s mistake is not a huge one in terms of chips lost on this very hand, but rather in terms of a missed opportunity. This hand represents the turning point in his final table evolution. From this point onward, his stack starts heading south. He elects to take a coin-flip against Joe Cada a few hands later, which may be the right move mathematically speaking, but in light of the opportunity he missed with his pocket Js, it’s just plain wrong. The bottom line is: had Ivey not misread Antoine Saout with his pocket 7s, things may have turned out quite differently. We may have had bettors celebrating and the bookies mourning right now.

Another interesting thing in this video is the bit about the pre November Nine preparations and training that Jeff Schulman had apparently put in with Phil Hellmuth and co. I only have one thing to day about that: who knew? Who knew one could actually hire one of the most successful (and according to some the most obnoxious) poker professional ever to run a simulation of the actual final table, with each of the participants trying to mimic one of the actual November Nine members as closely as possible? I suppose when a few million dollars are on the line nothing is far fetched when it comes to bettering one’s odds.
Frankly, I would probably have done the same given the opportunity, but in an interview given shortly after the November Nine had been set back in the summer, Schulman discussed how disgusted he was with the way well known professionals were treated by WSOP organizers and staff, and how generally disappointed he was with the way business was done in the poker world. At that point I never would’ve imagined him hiring Phil Hellmuth to be his coach and mentor for the final table run.

Schulman did seem like a reasonable man in that interview too though, and I suppose it’s every bit as reasonable as can be to further his cause every which way he can.
As Phil Ivey notes in this video though, Jeff was the one who had complained about everyone not being treated equally, and about some of the better bankrolled players bringing their coaches onto the stage for support. Truth be said, Schulman’s coach was indeed kept on a short leash as far as talking was concerned, but all in all I suppose the whole coach-on-stage setup seems a hell of a lot less fair when you’re not one reaping its benefits. The second you can afford it though, the whole fairness and equal treatment issue is seen in an entire different light.

The nifty thing about Phil Hellmuth’s coaching segment in this video is that it offers us railbirds an inside look at how a contender prepares for the big showdown. Schulman’s coaching staff may be the most dysfunctional one this side of the Oakland Raiders, but as long as it helps…

10 key moments of the 2009 WSOP final table

After a few months of waiting and tons of hype surrounding it, the 2008 WSOP’s final table has finally yielded a winner. Bouncing back from the edge of extinction, Joe Cada took home the title, following a 20-hour marathon session stretched over two days, as well as countless suck outs and bad beats. The youngest ever Big Dance winner, Cada beat Peter Eastgate’s record, and saved bookmakers world over, who were positively dreading a Phil Ivey victory.

At 20 hours long, this final table was the longest one in WSOP history and as such it definitely had more than its fair share of surprising turnarounds, producing some of the best poker TV material ever.
Here are some of the most radical, hair raising and gut wrenching moments of the 2009 WSOP final table showdown.

The first such moment is undoubtedly Darwin Moon’s stone cold Ace-high bluff, with which he managed to double Antoine Saout up, without ever having any sort of equity in the hand. The whole thing started of innocently enough. Saout decided to take a swipe at the pot from the cut-off with J,2o. He got called by Moon though who was probably growing impatient to see someone eliminated. Moon was sitting in the SB. The flop fell K,J,2 rainbow, giving Saout a definitive lead in the hand. Moon bet 2.5 million and happy to see some action, the Frenchman quickly made it 6.7 million. For some reason (again, the urge to see someone eliminated thus putting him closer to the prize may have clouded Moon’s mind), Moon put Saout all-in. Happy to hit such an outstanding opportunity, Saout made the call without giving it any more thought. Everybody was surprised to see that Moon had made the move on nothing but an A-high. The 3 that feel on the turn did look like an attempt from Lady Luck to once again turn things around Moon’s way, but the 2 on the river sealed the deal and doubled Saout up, prolonging the lease on his tournament life.

Given the fact that he eventually walked away the winner, and that he had been down to 4 BBs at one stage, every hand that Cada was involved in was obviously a key one. One such key Cada-moment was the double up he earned from Darvin Moon, which effectively catapulted him back into contention, raising his stack to Buchman’s and Saout’s level.
Moon was the one who kicked off the hostilities in this hand, firing out a bet on a K,9. Cada had an itching trigger finger with the pocket rockets he was sitting on, so he was quick to make it 5.6 million. In response, Moon moved all-in. Seizing the golden opportunity, Cada wasted no time and made the call. The flop fell 9,6,3 and Moon once again looked like he was going to catch up. The turn and the river bricked out though, and Cada caught up with the other competitors stacks-wise.
Shaffel’s elimination at the hands of Eric Buchman would go down as another key moment. The two players were all-in on a K,K vs A,A match-up, Shaffel’s side of the hall delighted with the odds. They weren’t that happy after the flop though as it brought about a K to give Buchman the lead. The turn added insult to injury though, as it not only failed to bail Shaffel out, it landed the 4th K, giving Buchman quads and Shaffel a trip to the rail.

Following all the amateurish calls and suck-outs, a textbook hand between Cada and Moon (during their heads-up confrontation) also made my list. This one featured a skillful move on Moon’s part and a borderline genius call from Cada. With the board having fallen 10,9,5,10, Cada was faced with a decision for all his chips holding a J,9o in his pocket. He pondered about the call for 5 whole minutes before deciding to take his chances. His two pair was indeed in the lead at that point as Moon had 7s, 8s and plenty of outs. The 3h on the river gave Cada the pot.

Darvin Moon’s A,Qo, the same hand that sent Phil Ivey packing in 7th place, definitely deserves a mention in this list, as it cost Steve Begleiter his tournament life too. Having been turned into a deadly weapon in Moon’s hands by Lady Luck, the A,Qo claimed yet another final table scalp when Begleiter shoved all-in on his pocket Qs and got called by Moon. As everyone had grown to expect it by that stage, Moon spiked an A on the river to bounce Begleiter. Begleiter had his hand shaken by Phil Hellmuth then, who told him he was impressed with the way he’d handled himself at the final table.

Akenhead’s miracle definitely belongs on this list too. He decided to pin his tournament hopes on a K,Qo he’d picked up, which would’ve been ok, had it not been for Eric Buchman’s A,K with which he was called. The flop landed a bunch of blanks and the K on the turn wasn’t of much help for Akenhead either. He needed a Q on the river to survive, and that’s exactly what he got. His supporters went berserk following the river card, and all types of jubilant behavior erupted.
Phil Ivey’s elimination was probably the biggest turning point of the final table. The Full Tilt pro got all his chips in good on an A,Ko against Moon’s A,Qo. The flop brought a Q and Ivey’s title bid came to an abrupt end in 7th place.
There were other defining moments at the final table too, but I need to wrap this piece up somehow. More in another post.

Joe Cada, Darwin Moon and Lady Luck

That’s right, the title of this post is not meant to belittle Joey Cada and Darwin Moon’s November Nine showdown accomplishments, but if we look at it from a neutral angle, the trio from the title is exactly what it took to set up the heads-up match for the bracelet. The fact that luck played a big role in their ascent to the final stage of the Main Event is by no means taking anything away from the two. It is well known that no poker player can ever win a MTT without having Lady Luck by his side. Given the sheer size and the quality of the competition at an event like the Big Dance, I reckon it’s safe to say that making it to the final table took enormous amounts of luck too.

Is it better to be lucky than to be skilled? Phil Ivey’s 7th place elimination seems to testify for that statement. The Full Tilt pro didn’t commit a single mistake, he played everything by the book. He got unlucky on two occasions though and that seems to have been enough to hasten his demise.

Moon and Cada on the other hand got incredibly lucky on quite a few occasions. Here’s a rundown of the critical hands the two of them won in order to advance through the field. While Moon did commit his share of final table mistakes, due to the large stack on which he started, these mistakes never really put his tournament life into immediate danger. Cada on the other hand, danced on the edge quite a few times, needing several double ups and lucky breaks to thread the needle. After he made the mistake of calling Jeff Schulman’s all in with A,Jo against A,K o, and lost most of his stack, he was left with 2.25 million chips, barely hanging on. He really needed Lady Luck’s intervention at that stage, and sure enough he got it. He first doubled up through Eric Buchman whose 4c, 5c proved to be no match for his J,4o. That win though still had him short-stacked at 4.8 million chips. What followed was a double up frenzy, and with luck firmly by his side, Cada delivered the strike that would change the entire evolution of the final table. With 5.8 million chips in his stack, Cada locked horns with none other than Phil Ivey. Still with little to lose, he shoved all in on pocket 4s, in response to Ivey’s preflop raise. Ivey thought about the call for a while and he eventually made it, holding A,8o. The board failed to tip the coin-flip his way and thus Ivey’s stack went to 10.3 million, pushing him further away from a healthy shot at the title. Cada on the other hand, chipped up to 12.5 million, thus effectively returning to the real battle.
Phil Ivey’s elimination in 7th place bore Lady Luck’s mark as well. This time, it was Darvin Moon who benefited from the luck factor. The two players got all their chips in with Ivey’s A,K ahead of Moon’s A,Q. The Q on the flop changed the situation though, and the turn and the river failed to hit Ivey too.
An even luckier hand for Darvin Moon was the one that sealed Steve Begleiter’s fate. Moon got it all-in again with A,Q against Begleiter’s pocket Qs. All Begleiter needed to do was to fade another Ace, and right up to the turn that’s exactly what he did. The river though, brought an A, and Begleiter was done for the day. The move earned Moon more than 23 million chips, allowing him to reclaim the chip lead.

Of all November Nine members, Frenchman Antoine Saout was the one who showed the most skill (Ivey didn’t really get the chance to do so), with all that though, he was no match for the tag team of Lady Luck and Joey Cada. Saout got his chips in on pocket Qs against Cada’s pocket deuces first, but a 2 on the flop blew the whole thing up in his face.

The final blow was only a coin-flip (Saout’s pocket 8s vs Cada’s A,Ko) but at this stage, luck had already made up its mind about who it was going to back.
This elimination set the heads-up stage and offered Cada a more than 2-1 chip advantage going into it.

Moon was the one who took care of Eric Buchman, when his Kd,Jd got lucky against Buchman’s A,5o. Moon spiked a K on the turn to send Buchman to the rail, his lucky streak as hot as ever.

Of course, we shouldn’t forget the way Cada crippled Jeff Schulman either. Schulman got his chips in good on a pair of Js and Cada shoved all-in on his pocket 3s for his tournament life. The 3 on the flop meant that he got a ticket to hang around while Schulman’s stack was hit badly.

Which of the two finalists was luckier though? They both had luck firmly planted in their corner, but while Cada managed to turn an 13,215,000 stack into a 135,950,000 one, Moon’s 58,930,000 chip final table starting stack dwindled to 58,850,000. That kind of explains why Cada eventually won it all too…

Darvin Moon and the final table

Beyond doubt and beyond all the public money going in on Phil Ivey at the books, Darvin Moon was the statistical favorite of the November Nine showdown. He was the chip leader and as such – as someone so fittingly noted – he could afford to fall asleep at the final table and still make it to 3rd or 4th.

Just how did the admittedly ultra tight player manage to maneuver himself into this position though? A big chunk of his 58,930,000 chips came from Billy Kopp, in a controversial hand (well the reporting of which was controversial anyway), which thrust him right into the November Nine, and which pretty much killed Kopp’s chances to make it to the final table. In the said hand, Moon and Kopp both flopped flushes, however Moon’s flush was higher than Kopp’s.
Faced with this typical perfect hand situation, there was no way for Kopp to duck the bullet. Moon later said about the hand that he got incredibly lucky and that the flop hit him over the head, that’s why he decided to commit to such a big move, despite the fact that he was a super tight player.

Now then, the controversy seeped into the hand when correspondents reported that the board had in fact paired and that there was a chance Moon’s flush wasn’t good. Those who disputed his call pointed to the fact that a super tight player may have laid that hand down, whilst Moon went ahead and ended up crippling Kopp. When asked about the possibilities generated by the paired board, Darvin Moon said the board wasn’t paired. As later reviews of the hand in question proved it though, it had in fact paired and those reporting it had in fact been correct in the firstplace. One thing is obvious from this whole confusion: Moon had misread the board, and he made his calls accordingly.

The funny thing about it all was Kopp had played perfect poker all through the event, right up to the hand in question. According to Moon it was that single slip that cost Kopp the final table appearance and a massive cash, which his stack would probably have made possible, had he not lost it.

Being the super tight player that he was, Moon said he got lucky time and time again too. He said when he was strong preflop, the flop didn‘t hurt him, and when he was weak preflop, flops helped him out. He never got his chips in without being certain his hand was indeed the best one at the table. The crucial perfect hand that he scored against Kopp was one where he made a pretty accurate read on a player who barely played any hands and who had played perfect poker up until that point.
Going into the final table with the biggest stack, Moon is obviously the favorite to win the title. He could probably afford to not even show up and he’d still make it to a nice spot before blinding out. In regards to the strategy he would deploy at the final table, Moon said he’d be extra tight trying to take advantage of his large stack.

Update: Sure enough, he did just that and made it to the heads-up stage without problems, albeit on a shorter stack than Joe Cada. Proving to be the master of shifting gears though, Moon began to pile on the pressure and from being 2-1 down, he is currently 2-1 up on Cada and still going strong. The bout so far looks like a real heavyweight battle. The two of them are exchanging heavy punches but no serious damage has been inflicted thus far.

Update: Joe Cada is the 2009 WSOP Main Event champion.

10 key moments of the 2009 WSOP final table

After a few months of waiting and tons of hype surrounding it, the 2008 WSOP’s final table has finally yielded a winner. Bouncing back from the edge of extinction, Joe Cada took home the title, following a 20-hour marathon session stretched over two days, as well as countless suck outs and bad beats. The youngest ever Big Dance winner, Cada beat Peter Eastgate’s record, and saved bookmakers world over, who were positively dreading a Phil Ivey victory.

At 20 hours long, this final table was the longest one in WSOP history and as such it definitely had more than its fair share of surprising turnarounds, producing some of the best poker TV material ever.
Here are some of the most radical, hair raising and gut wrenching moments of the 2009 WSOP final table showdown.

The first such moment is undoubtedly Darwin Moon’s stone cold Ace-high bluff, with which he managed to double Antoine Saout up, without ever having any sort of equity in the hand. The whole thing started of innocently enough. Saout decided to take a swipe at the pot from the cut-off with J,2o. He got called by Moon though who was probably growing impatient to see someone eliminated. Moon was sitting in the SB. The flop fell K,J,2 rainbow, giving Saout a definitive lead in the hand. Moon bet 2.5 million and happy to see some action, the Frenchman quickly made it 6.7 million. For some reason (again, the urge to see someone eliminated thus putting him closer to the prize may have clouded Moon’s mind), Moon put Saout all-in. Happy to hit such an outstanding opportunity, Saout made the call without giving it any more thought. Everybody was surprised to see that Moon had made the move on nothing but an A-high. The 3 that feel on the turn did look like an attempt from Lady Luck to once again turn things around Moon’s way, but the 2 on the river sealed the deal and doubled Saout up, prolonging the lease on his tournament life.

Given the fact that he eventually walked away the winner, and that he had been down to 4 BBs at one stage, every hand that Cada was involved in was obviously a key one. One such key Cada-moment was the double up he earned from Darvin Moon, which effectively catapulted him back into contention, raising his stack to Buchman’s and Saout’s level.
Moon was the one who kicked off the hostilities in this hand, firing out a bet on a K,9. Cada had an itching trigger finger with the pocket rockets he was sitting on, so he was quick to make it 5.6 million. In response, Moon moved all-in. Seizing the golden opportunity, Cada wasted no time and made the call. The flop fell 9,6,3 and Moon once again looked like he was going to catch up. The turn and the river bricked out though, and Cada caught up with the other competitors stacks-wise.
Shaffel’s elimination at the hands of Eric Buchman would go down as another key moment. The two players were all-in on a K,K vs A,A match-up, Shaffel’s side of the hall delighted with the odds. They weren’t that happy after the flop though as it brought about a K to give Buchman the lead. The turn added insult to injury though, as it not only failed to bail Shaffel out, it landed the 4th K, giving Buchman quads and Shaffel a trip to the rail.

Following all the amateurish calls and suck-outs, a textbook hand between Cada and Moon (during their heads-up confrontation) also made my list. This one featured a skillful move on Moon’s part and a borderline genius call from Cada. With the board having fallen 10,9,5,10, Cada was faced with a decision for all his chips holding a J,9o in his pocket. He pondered about the call for 5 whole minutes before deciding to take his chances. His two pair was indeed in the lead at that point as Moon had 7s, 8s and plenty of outs. The 3h on the river gave Cada the pot.

Darvin Moon’s A,Qo, the same hand that sent Phil Ivey packing in 7th place, definitely deserves a mention in this list, as it cost Steve Begleiter his tournament life too. Having been turned into a deadly weapon in Moon’s hands by Lady Luck, the A,Qo claimed yet another final table scalp when Begleiter shoved all-in on his pocket Qs and got called by Moon. As everyone had grown to expect it by that stage, Moon spiked an A on the river to bounce Begleiter. Begleiter had his hand shaken by Phil Hellmuth then, who told him he was impressed with the way he’d handled himself at the final table.

Akenhead’s miracle definitely belongs on this list too. He decided to pin his tournament hopes on a K,Qo he’d picked up, which would’ve been ok, had it not been for Eric Buchman’s A,K with which he was called. The flop landed a bunch of blanks and the K on the turn wasn’t of much help for Akenhead either. He needed a Q on the river to survive, and that’s exactly what he got. His supporters went berserk following the river card, and all types of jubilant behavior erupted.
Phil Ivey’s elimination was probably the biggest turning point of the final table. The Full Tilt pro got all his chips in good on an A,Ko against Moon’s A,Qo. The flop brought a Q and Ivey’s title bid came to an abrupt end in 7th place.
There were other defining moments at the final table too, but I need to wrap this piece up somehow. More in another post.

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