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Server Time: 10/12/2008 4:38:17 AM PACIFIC |
 WPT - Who has impressed you so far this season?, SendMoney, 29. May 2003 20:28 | ||
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| I don't think I've caught every WPT show this season but I've seen most of them. For the most part I've been impressed by the guys who won the tournaments, and many of the time they had the big chip leads heading in, but from their play you could tell how they got there, anyway here are the guys who have impressed me: Juha Hellpi (spelling?) Aruba - He did get lucky when he knocked out Kathy Liebert with a J9o vs her Q10s, but it was poetic justice since she was the only pro at a table full of amatuers. His smack down on Phil Gordon in the heads up match was nothing short of awesome, although I don't know that Gordon is a great pro, he's more like a rich guy who will reach a lot of final tables because he's a pretty good player who has the bankroll to play for fun. Paul Darden - Lucky Chances - All of his plays were rock solid, and he had a big enough chip lead that he didn't have to take too many risks. Good tight/aggressive player who always punished players who made mistakes. Howard Lederer - Foxwoods - A very solid player similar to Paul Darden. He got fortunate when his KJo beat Layne Flack's AA trap, and his pocket pairs always held up when he called all-in bets pre-flop, his 99 beat 10Js, and his KK held up vs Phil Ivey's AQs. Like most champions he had some good luck but you always had the feeling he was in control. He made a great trap with a moderate sized raise with KK that looked like a semi-steal, but turned out to be a great bear trap. Phil Ivey - Foxwoods & Tunica MS- A solid aggressive pro who makes some strong moves which either make him look like a genius or a sucker...pending the results. I was impressed when he bullied a guy off a pair of Aces with a Q kicker, when he held a pair of 6s with a Q kicker, I guess he made a great read and knew his man well enough to make such a bold bluff. His aggressive play might have worked on an amatuer, but he shouldn't have tried the same play vs. a world class player like Howard Lederer, his AQs weren't strong enough to come all-in over the top of Lederer, in fact Doyle Brunson won't even play AQ under any circumstances. Antonio Esfandiari aka The Magician - Lucky Chances - You can't deny that this guy had a great read on Phil Hellmuth, but he's lucky Phil never had good enough cards to call his all-in re-raises. You also have to love the gratuitous arm-waving after he knocked out Hellmuth. Phil basically told him to "show some class and shake my hand" so it's obvious the Magician had gotten under his skin. Phil Hellmuth - Aruba & Lucky Chances - I have no doubt that Phil is one of the foremost poker players in the world, and that his WPT showings might not be a good indication of his ability as a player. Phil was getting rotten cards and had some poor luck. In Aruba he walked right into Queens full of Kings with his trip Queens, and into an ace high flush when he turned two pair. I don't really see how he could get away from his hands, but he shouldn't give away free cards on the flop when a flush draw is out there. In the SF tournament he was getting crappy cards and every time he made a move The Magician was breaking him off all-in, at least he had the smarts to lay down, his All-In move with KJo was OK, he was getting short stacked. David "Devil Fish" Ulliot - Tunica MS - A very solid aggressive, unpredicable player who's just as likely to bet a big hand as he is to bet a drawing hand. His play is very deceptive, he has a strong read on the table, and quite frankly he got lucky quite a bit. On the last had vs. Phil Ivey he needed a 4 or a 9 for a straight with his 56 when Ivey hit top pair with his K8, needless to say he got a 4 on the turn, and ironicly a 9 came on the river, not that he needed it. Christen Johansson - Paris - A very solid European player. Nothing really spectacular about his play, but he had a pretty good read on "All-In" Claude and got lucky when his pocket pair held up against Claude's AKs, although the pair is the favorite, the AKs was probably the best hand Claude had all day. Daniel Rentzer - LA Poker Classic - It was sort of the tale of two Daniels, for most of the show he was very solid, made great reads and calls, but later in the show he missed a crucial bet on the turn with his AJ vs. Gus Hansen's A6s, then he made some weak bluff attempts with Q10o, and some very weak calls vs. Hansen's KK. The problem with Daniel's game was he was mostly calling, not raising or re-raising, and he did not use his stack properly against Gus when he had the best of it. Maybe he watched the 2002 WSOP one too many times, he misplayed Q10o poorly a couple times, someone should tell him in spite of Varkonyi's success with it that it's a no-limit bitch hand. Gus Hansen - LA Poker Classic - What can you say about Gus? The guy is a bluffing machine, but I can't really fault his play, it has everybody else intimidated. When a guy is as likely to raise UTG with 103o as his is KK it can make decisions down the road all the more difficult. His wild play was successful in getting other players off their game, making misreads like David Phams over the top with A8 vs AQ, and getting Andy Bloch to call a 140k river bet when Gus was holding a full house. In the end Gus's advertising paid off, when other players made weak calls into his strong hands. So...who did you guys like? | ||
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| Re: WPT - Who has impressed you so far this season?, gary ford, 30. May 2003 10:52 | ||
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| Gus Hansen, Phil Ivey, Howard Lederer for the long term--the Magician for entertainment, and Phil Hellmuth, a brilliant player, but a spoiled, self-centered jerk. | ||
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| Re: WPT - Who has impressed you so far this season?, Keyser Soze, 30. May 2003 12:52 | ||
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| My 2 favorites so far are Phil Ivey and Gus. I would dread playing against Gus, just watching him drove me nutz!!! Scary player, but I like his style :) | ||
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| Re: WPT - Who has impressed you so far this season?, TKarrde, 30. May 2003 13:18 | ||
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| I've turned into a real Phil Ivey fan (4P's getting me an autograph, right?). It was neat seeing Andy Bloch play (I missed the Foxwoods). One of the first articles I read when I was getting interested in poker this past winter was The Andy Bloch Experiment. A guy recorded his hole cards at the WSOP and how everyone played for every hand until some players started complaining. Real interesting. Kinda like seeing the hole cards on the WPT but it showed it from the very first hand. Really neat. I just like seeing some of the characters. And there are some characters. Devilfish is a bad ass. And I think playing against Gus would drive me insane. And what about Tony G? Love or hate these guys they sure make it interesting. TK | ||
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| Re: WPT - Who has impressed you so far this season?, Wren, 30. May 2003 13:16 | ||
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| A friend of mine, Kev, who went to Aruba last year as well, recalled a hand he played against Helppi ("Peasant" on UB). It was the second level of the tournament but Helppi was already playing very aggressively, raising every 3rd hand or so preflop. On this hand, Helppi made it 400 with blinds of 50-100 and Kev decided to call on the cutoff with 22. Flop came 223 with 2 hearts. Helppi bet 1000 on the flop and Kev flat-called. Turn Jh. Helppi bet 2000 and Kev again flat-called. River 6c. Helppi bet 3000 and Kev pushed all-in for 5500 (only 2500 more). Helppi had Kev covered by about 3000 in chips. He immediately mucked 9h6h face up and said "you win". You've gotta be pretty damn hell confident to make a fold like that with a pot so big. Helppi was short-stacked after this hand (5500ish left) but fought his way back and ended up winning. I wish I could have seen it in person. Almost got there - placed 7th in the one tournament in which top 5 won trips - but almost isn't good enough :-/ | ||
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| Re: WPT - Who has impressed you so far this season?, Bond18, 1. Jun 2003 11:47 | ||
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| Phil Ivey, Gus, and Devilfish. I love that aggressive style of play that throws off opponents and those three are the best at it. I think Iveys is the most well rounded where as Gus and Devilfish tend to go a little further. Also i think Tony G is hilarious and everytime i win a pot when a player lays there hands down i offer them one card, man that cracked me up. | ||
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