Home / Poker News December 2010 / The first round of the SuperStar Showdown in hindsight
The first round of the SuperStar Showdown in hindsight
Posted by: James Carter. - Sun, 2010-12-26 09:14
The first round of
PokerStars’SuperStars Showdown is in the books and the time to take a look back at the action is here. It’s fairly safe to say that things have pretty much gone down as expected. Isildur1 did put up a fight, but in the end experience and prowess came through for his opponent. Or was it just blind luck? A couple of days after the conclusion of the confrontation, the two parties involved gave their opinions on the matter.
Barely had the war of actions ended that the one of words commenced. Isildur1 declared in the wake of his losing effort that he wanted to play Haxton again. He said he felt Haxton wasn’t that good (thus indirectly suggesting that his SuperStar Showdown win was nothing more than mere luck).
Much more gracious in victory than his opponent in defeat, Haxton admitted that Isildur1 was indeed a formidable opponent. He said that no one had really managed to make him feel as miserable while playing as the Swede, something which – coming from a player of Haxton’s stature – is quite a compliment indeed.
To top things off, Haxton also said that he felt more uncomfortable playing the mystery Swede than he did playing the great Phil Ivey.
Isildur1’s aggressive style of play is apparently by no means only about aggression. It is also a carefully balanced style on top of the aggression, and that makes it extremely dangerous.
Despite all the praise he dished out (thereby shedding an ever more favorable light on his own accomplishment as well), Haxton stopped short of declaring Isildur1 the best player he had ever played.
In stark contrast to Haxton’s statements, Isildur1 wasn’t particularly chivalrous about the ordeal, calling Haxton “too tight” and a “weak player”. Weak or not, at this point one thing is certain: after having stuck it to the Swedish mystery man, Haxton is now the real deal in high stakes heads-up NLHE.
