Esfandiari wins $18M WSOP event

[ZBTHorton]

re: Phil Hellmuth - Some is an act, some isn't. He's obviously not a complete spaz all the time or else nobody would ever be around him, but he definitely has that side to him ready to come out.

re: Quad fold - Heh, it's a pretty absurd fold and Hos it's definitely not a weakness if you can't fold quads. I've never folded quads, nor would I ever fold quads(in hold'em anyway).

re: Pocket Tens - Pocket Tens are a great hand pretty much regardless of circumstance, and they are an amazingly strong hand in HU. The NBC HU Event is very short stacked and Tom is very very aggressive. Those chips are going into the middle every single time in that spot, and they should.

 

[yimyammer]

I don't want to step on anyones toes or anything, but I saw this thread and decided to pop in.

I've been a professional poker player for 7 years now. Played numerous WSOP events, have FT'd a few of the big tournaments up at Winstar, won the Stars Sunday Million(back when we could play it, etc.).

I'd be glad to answer any questions people have about poker players or whatever.

As far as the % Antonio had, I would be fairly shocked if he had less than 20-30% of himself. If he sold at a markup, and invested any money at all, he'd be at that number. He also backed Brian Rast at one time(and may still) so who knows how that all worked out.

Good to have a 2+2er here at CZ, listen to this guy he knows his stuff (all the rumors I mentioned were gleaned from 2+2). What do you think the guy had who won the pot when the Russian folded quads?

Are you at the WSOP currently? Playing in the main event?

 

[cowboy_ron]

Me too!

Did you hear what % Antonio had of his action? I've heard rumors as small as 10%

It very well could be..I know Helmuth only had 15% and he finished 4th with like 2.6M, so he got like 340K

 

[cowboy_ron]

I could not fold quads under any circumstance. Maybe that is a weakness, but I do respect him for doing it if he was beat. I can't quite figure out if he was or not. It jumps around a little too much for me to place who had what cards.

It looks very much to me like he folded the winning hand.

no, you won't make much of a living folding quads, I don't care if 3/5 of a royal flopped..play %'s and you'll win more times than not.

 

[cowboy_ron]

I don't want to step on anyones toes or anything, but I saw this thread and decided to pop in.

I've been a professional poker player for 7 years now. Played numerous WSOP events, have FT'd a few of the big tournaments up at Winstar, won the Stars Sunday Million(back when we could play it, etc.).

I'd be glad to answer any questions people have about poker players or whatever.

As far as the % Antonio had, I would be fairly shocked if he had less than 20-30% of himself. If he sold at a markup, and invested any money at all, he'd be at that number. He also backed Brian Rast at one time(and may still) so who knows how that all worked out.

Nice to see you posting ZB... I see you had pretty good run with online poker...something I never could do...I play the player as much as the cards and that's kind of hard to do online..atleast for me....in fact I never even look at my hole cards until I watch facial expressions as the others look at theirs...just something I've done for a few years now.

 

[Teren_Kanan]

18M is a somewhat low number for a 1M entry fee. But With a fee that high I can't see it drawing too large a crowd.

Daniel Negreanu is my favorite player to watch when he is on as far as reading other players.

Completely Agree. Daniel is one of the most entertaining people to watch. his ability to read his opponents is shocking at times.

I'll tell you why I don't like Phil Helmuth even though he is a great poker player. He doesn't respect the game. Phil doesn't believe anyone should ever bluff him. Phil believes the dealers cost him hands. Phil thinks online poker players aren't learning the game. Phil is never at fault for being outplayed.

Lol. There's a reason he's called the Brat. Though I do believe that a part of that is just him being somewhat in "character". I've seen him use it to paint a target on himself and make people play aggressively against him due to being annoyed.

The brash player I like watching is Matusow. I am not 100% sure why, but he entertains me, while Phil to me is all about himself. I have heard though that Phil is a truly nice guy when not playing poker. When those two go at it, I always laugh.

Matusow is fun to watch. He's amazing with numbers. He'll call his odds of winning hands and be almost 100% accurate, it's pretty neat.

 

[cowboy_ron]

Good to have a 2+2er here at CZ, listen to this guy he knows his stuff (all the rumors I mentioned were gleaned from 2+2). What do you think the guy had who won the pot when the Russian folded quads?

Are you at the WSOP currently? Playing in the main event?

I can't envision a situation where I would fold quads...he's going to have to show me he has the straight flush or royal I'm not going to lay down for him that easy.

I forgot to mention in my reply to your PM...originally I had no plans to go up there yesterday but I saw that Mike Sexton was playing day 1A and I wanted to say hi to him.....I did stop by the Brasalia room and watched a little of the national championship tourney while I was up there, it was down to 37 players when I was there.

People that have never been to the WSOP don't realize that there are literally hundreds of tourneys during the series but only see what is on TV and most of that is the main event because it's the most popular with the largest field....you can kind of look at the main event as the grand finale of a fireworks show.......there is a lot of $ to be made without ever even plaing the main event.

 

[cowboy_ron]

Well, poker freaks (haha) I'm outta here for a bit for some R&R...I may check in from time to time, but if I don't I'll talk to guys when I get back.

 

[ZBTHorton]

Good to have a 2+2er here at CZ, listen to this guy he knows his stuff (all the rumors I mentioned were gleaned from 2+2). What do you think the guy had who won the pot when the Russian folded quads?

Are you at the WSOP currently? Playing in the main event?

I have a very tough time believing he wouldn't have eventually admitted to having the straight flush. Everyone loves to show straight flushes, and everyone loves to talk about them. On the other hand, not everyone wants to rub a bad fold in another players face in the most high profile event of all time. But I really have no idea. I wish he would tell what he had though, good for poker, etc.

This is my first year without the WSOP. I had a baby this past year and telling the wife I'm leaving town for 2 weeks just doesn't seem like the best idea I've ever had. I have missed it in some ways, but playing the WSOP is a massive grind and not nearly as fun as it sounds anyway. I could just go for the Main Event, but that kinda seems like a potential waste of airfare/hotel/etc.

 

[ZBTHorton]

Nice to see you posting ZB... I see you had pretty good run with online poker...something I never could do...I play the player as much as the cards and that's kind of hard to do online..atleast for me....in fact I never even look at my hole cards until I watch facial expressions as the others look at theirs...just something I've done for a few years now.

Yeah, it wasn't for everyone for sure. Online poker created a weird dynamic where online poker made you a much better live player, but live poker didn't make you a better online player. (usually).

The way you look at your cards is the way most top live pros do it. I have a tough time being that disciplined at the table.

 

[ZBTHorton]

18M is a somewhat low number for a 1M entry fee. But With a fee that high I can't see it drawing too large a crowd.

Yeah, the event had to have a high rake/charity donation in order for some of the businessmen to justify playing in it. The businessmen were needed in order to get the pros to pony up the cash. Vicious cycle. We'll see if it happens again next year.

They also made the payout structure flatter than a normal tournament in order to attract more players. It was a well run and thought out event, hopefully it happens again.

 

[Hostile]

Two poker pros. This thread just got even more interesting. Okay, I have a question for you guys. There is a female poker player, whose name escapes me right now. Supposedly she played a tournament where she never looked at her hole cards, just played based upon position, and won it.

That doesn't seem possible to me. Maybe I just don't understand playing position as well as I should. What can you guys tell me about this?

 

[ZBTHorton]

Two poker pros. This thread just got even more interesting. Okay, I have a question for you guys. There is a female poker player, whose name escapes me right now. Supposedly she played a tournament where she never looked at her hole cards, just played based upon position, and won it.

That doesn't seem possible to me. Maybe I just don't understand playing position as well as I should. What can you guys tell me about this?

That would be Annette "Annette_15" Obrestad. She did it in an online tournament. It was very low stakes, I believe it was a 2$ 180 man tournament on 'Stars.

I don't remember the exact strategy she used, but I would imagine she played fairly tight and made lots of late position shoves where it would be +EV to shove with almost any two cards. Then she got really lucky.

You can watch the tournament by googling for it.

 

[Hostile]

That would be Annette "Annette_15" Obrestad. She did it in an online tournament. It was very low stakes, I believe it was a 2$ 180 man tournament on 'Stars.

I don't remember the exact strategy she used, but I would imagine she played fairly tight and made lots of late position shoves where it would be +EV to shove with almost any two cards. Then she got really lucky.

You can watch the tournament by googling for it.

That is her. I believe everyone gets lucky in poker, so I can't hold that against her.

I may indeed watch it, because I might learn something about playing position.

 

[yimyammer]

That is her. I believe everyone gets lucky in poker, so I can't hold that against her.

I may indeed watch it, because I might learn something about playing position.

you will and its fun to do, I tried it online and managed to come in 7th, it was eye opening. Surprisingly when I pushed all-in at the final table I had pocket 10's but someone called with 78 suited and knocked me out

 

[FloridaRob]

I played last night at the Hard Rock-Wasn't a good night. You know it is not going to be a good night the first hand you play you raise preflop with pocket jacks, get called in two places, the flop comes Jack -Rag-Rag and lose the hand- Guy slow played Pocket Aces and hit an ace on the river. Second stack I lose was KQ suited, flop comes A-J-10- Love it except the board pairs 10s on the river with a guy holdng J-10.