Joao Vieira Climbs to the Top of Online Poker's All-Time

www.CardPlayer.com Vol. 34/No. 16 July 28, 2021

Phil Hellmuth Sweeps Daniel Negreanu On PokerGO's High Stakes Duel

Brian Altman Earns His Third World Poker Tour Title

Ben Scrogins Wins CPPT bestbet Jacksonville Main Event

JOAO VIEIRA CLIMBS TO THE TOP OF ONLINE POKER’S ALL-TIME MONEY LIST Former Portuguese Basketball Pro Ready To Dominate The Live Arena

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18 PokerGO ©

Features 20 Also In this Issue 22 Tournament Results 4 By Card Player News Team Joao Vieira Climbs To The Top Of Online About Us Poker’s All-Time Money List 36 By Steve Schult Strategies, Analysis Tournament Schedules 26 & Commentary 38 Phil Hellmuth Sweeps Daniel Negreanu Poker Leaderboards In Three Straight Matches To Win High 28 Stakes Duel II Always Look Both Ways By Steve Schult By Jonathan Little Tournament 29 Hand Matchups The Inside Straight Badugi: Donking The River By Kevin Haney 29 8 30 Vanessa Kade vs. Ivan Zufic Poker News Recap Returning To Live Poker After The 31 12 Pandemic: Part 1 David Peters vs. Dan Shak Head Games: Knowing Your Strengths By Steve Zolotow 33 And Identifying Weakness At The Table 32 By Craig Tapscott Ivan Zufic vs. David Peters Vanessa Kade’s Heater By Gavin Griffin 34 David Peters vs. Ivan Zufic Tournaments 33 16 Contracts and Poker: The Social Contract By Scott J. Burnham Player Of The Year Update By Erik Fast 18 Hometown Hero Ben Scrogins Wins CPPT bestbet Jacksonville Main Event By Erik Fast Cover image © Winamax

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the INSIDE STRAIGHT News, Reviews, and Interviews From Around the Poker World PHIL IVEY DEFEATS PATRIK ANTONIUS TO WIN WORLD POKER TOUR ONLINE HEADS-UP CHAMPIONSHIP By Erik Fast

Year Anthony Zinno. His next opponent was another POY winner in 2019 champion Stephen Chidwick. Ivey won two straight rounds to move into the semifi nals against Canadian online phenom Christopher Kruk. e two traded wins, setting up a rubber match for a seat in the fi nals. Kruk tried to run a big bluff only to run into a fl ush, earning $100,000 for his semifi nal showing. Antonius drew one of several non- professional poker players in the fi eld for his fi rst match. Gakuto “GACKT” Oshiro, a Japanese musician and actor, e inaugural $25,000 buy-in World Poker Tour was able to get one win, but failed to move on to Heads-Up Championship invitational featured 32 players, the round of 16. ere Antonius was met by three- ranging from top poker pros to online infl uencers and time WSOP bracelet winner and high-stakes heads-up content creators. In the end, it came down to an old- specialist Doug Polk. Polk was coming off of arguably the school showdown for the title between two living legends most hyped match of the fi rst round against Tom Dwan, of the game: Phil Ivey and Patrik Antonius. but was swept by Antonius in two straight matches. e pair have competed at the highest stakes games e quarterfi nal matchup pitted Antonius against Stefan in the world, from nosebleed stakes online to the largest ‘Stefan11222’ Burakov, a high-stakes player from Russia televised cash games ever. ey have also both won tens who made a deep run in the 2020 WSOP Online $10,000 of millions playing tournaments, with more than $42 mil- buy-in heads-up bracelet event. After dispatching him, lion in combined cashes between them. Antonius faced off against Canadian high roller and brace- After all was said and done, it was Ivey who emerged let winner Sam Greenwood. Once again, Antonius won victorious with the title and the top prize of $400,000. two straight, making the fi nals and sending Greenwood to e 44-year-old WPT champion and 10-time World Series the virtual rail with a $100,000 consolation prize. of Poker bracelet winner now has more than $31 million Other notable pros in the fi eld included Dan Smith, in lifetime tournament earnings to his name. Jean Robert Bellande, Timothy Adams, Brad Owen, Ivey faced four professional poker players on his way Daniel Dvoress, Andrew Lichtenberger, Darren Elias, to the title, starting with tournament specialist and Nick Petrangelo, Nick Schulman, Olivier Busquet, recent WSOP bracelet winner Manig Loeser in the Linus ‘LLinusLLove’ Loeliger, and Wiktor ‘Limitless’ round of 32. Ivey defeated Loeser, splitting the fi rst two Malinowski. rounds and winning the deciding third round to set up e fi nals featured a best-of-fi ve format, meaning the a sweet 16 match against 2015 Card Player Player of the champion would have to win three matches to earn the

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title and the top prize of $400,000. e first match saw and Antonius made the call. e turn brought the Ap to Ivey jump out to an early lead, making trip sevens on the give Antonius top two pair. Ivey bet and Antonius called. river to win the first pot of consequence against Antonius’ e 2p completed the board and Ivey moved all-in. flopped pair of queens. Not long after that the chips got Antonius called with his aces and sixes, only to find he had in preflop with Ivey holding pocket nines to Antonius’ Ao run into a straight. 8n. Neither player improved and Ivey took a 1-0 lead. Ivey took a commanding lead, leaving Antonius with e second match saw Ivey take another big lead, this less than nine big blinds. He managed to double up twice time by picking off a bluff with trips. Antonius later tried to get back to a playable stack, but was unable to keep up to run a multi-street bluff with an unimproved king high, the rally. He eventually called off the last of his chips with but Ivey sniffed it out again with pocket jacks to take a Qm Jm. Ivey held An 10o, and the board ran out 9m 5o 3o 2-0 lead. 3p 3m to give him the final pot of the tournament. e third round saw Antonius take a slight lead early Final Results on. In the key hand of the round, he raised from the 1 – Phil Ivey -- $400,00 button with Am 6m. Ivey defended his big blind with 4m 2 – Patrik Antonius -- $200,000 3p and the flop came down 6n 5n 2m. Ivey checked, and T3 – Sam Greenwood -- $100,000 Antonius bet with top pair, top kicker. Ivey check-raised T3 – Christopher Kruk -- $100,000 DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE DECLINES TO APPEAL LATEST WIRE ACT RULING, MAKES INTERSTATE ONLINE POKER LEGAL

By Steve Schult

Interstate online poker is officially legal as the saga surrounding the Wire Act appears to finally be over. e U.S. Department of Justice failed to file an appeal in the lawsuit between the DOJ and the New Hampshire Lottery before the June 21 deadline. In January, the First Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling that said the Wire Act only applies to sports betting, and not all forms of online gambling. By failing to appeal before the dealine, the DOJ has accepted the latest ruling and will not continue to fight for a Trump-era interpretation of the Wire Act, which would make interstate online poker compacts illegal. In January 2019, the DOJ released a memo that reversed compact in jeopardy by stating that all forms of interstate its 2011 opinion on the legislation. The original law, passed online gambling was illegal. in 1961, stated that using a “wire communication facility” While interstate compacts could dissolve and states could for gambling purposes was illegal. Its original intent was to go back to intrastate online poker, the New Hampshire curb organized crime activity as illegal sports betting was Lottery was running its servers from another state, which one of the mob’s largest business ventures. put the legality of the entire operation in question. e New It was one of the laws used to prosecute those during Hampshire Lottery filed suit against the DOJ and shortly the federal government’s crackdown of online poker in afterwords got a favorable ruling when a U.S. District 2011. After Black Friday, however, the DOJ issued a legal Judge struck down the DOJ’s new legal opinion on the law. opinion that stated the Wire Act only applied to sports In August, the DOJ filed an appeal, but the COVID-19 betting, which effectively made online poker legal in the pandemic delayed the process long enough so that the first United State. appeal wasn’t heard until last January, which upheld the As several states began legalizing and regulating the District Court’s ruling. activity, there was an appetite for interstate compacts to By the time the most recent ruling was made, President increase the traffic and ultimately, the liquidity of the player Joe Biden was elected into office and his administration had pool. When states first began licensing online cardrooms, much less of a desire to pursue this legal battle. During his poker players could only compete against those that were campaign, Biden said that his administration would revert also inside the state’s borders. to the 2011 view of the Wire Act. In 2014, however, Delaware and Nevada decided to Since the battle over the Wire Act began, Pennsylvania share player pools. Four years later, New Jersey jumped in and Michigan launched online poker markets, while West and allowed players in those three states to battle against Virginia and Connecticut legalized the activity. one another. WSOP.com is the only site licensed in all three With the most recent development ending any legal states, making it the only provider eligible for the compact. ambiguity, coupled with Michigan legislation that explic- PokerStars and the other providers in New Jersey are not itly allows for interstate online player pools, there is likely allowed to do business in Nevada or Delaware yet. an expansion in shared online poker player pools coming But in January 2019, the DOJ put the legality of that soon. m

008_News.indd 9 7/8/21 11:23 AM THE INSIDE STRAIGHT - News, reviews, and interviews from around the poker world OHIO SPORTS BETTING BILL ADVANCES By Steve Schult

e Ohio Senate passed a bill that would legalize sports which would once again keep smaller properties from betting in the Buckeye State by a whopping 30-2 margin acquiring it. with just one senator abstaining from the vote. Most states that share a border with Ohio have already e bill now heads to the house and if it passes through legalized sports betting. Michigan, Indiana, West Virginia, the lower chamber, it will head to Gov. Mike DeWine’s and Pennsylvania all have launched sports betting markets. desk where it could be signed into law. Earlier this year, Kentucky is the only neighboring state without it. DeWine called legalized sports betting “inevitable,” making e proposal would put the Ohio Casino Control it likely he will sign the legislation. Commission in charge of distributing the licenses and regu- According to a report from the Cincinnati Enquirer, SB lating the market. Betting on all professional and collegiate 176 passed after several months of hearings on the issue. sporting events would be allowed, including college games The bill that eventually passed would allow for both online that take place in the state. and retail sports betting within the state’s borders. Operators would pay a 10% tax rate to the state, most It puts 58 sports betting licenses up for grabs, with of which would fund the state’s public education programs, 33 allotted for brick-and-mortar facilities and another 25 with 2% of it funding problem gambling programs. It is available for online or mobile wagering. Casinos, racinos, estimated that passing the bill would bring in between $17 professional sports franchises, and other businesses could million and $23 million in additional annual tax revenue. apply for a retail license, but the $1 million fee will keep If everything goes smoothly and DeWine signs the bill smaller operations from obtaining one. this session, the earliest Ohioans could start placing bets In a last-minute change to the bill, bars and restaurants would be April 1, 2022. that sell alcohol could apply for a “Type C” license that It’s not guaranteed to be passed this session, however. would allow them to put up to two sports betting kiosks While it seems that those in the House are at least sympa- in their businesses. ese licenses cost much less than the thetic to sports betting, it’s reported that they are already other two with a $6,000 price tag attached to it, although preparing a lot of changes to the bill before they send it to the vendor would need to pay a $100,000 application fee, DeWine. m South Florida City Bans Gambling To Keep Donald Trump From Building Casino By Card Player News Team

A city in South Florida banned casinos just as former by DeSantis to help the President Donald Trump was likely getting ready to build Trump family establish one in it. a casino presence in the According to a report from Business Insider, the Doral state. city council voted 4-0 to ban gambling within its city “Obviously the fact limits. e city is home to Trump National Doral Miami, that the 15-mile bar- a golf resort owned by the former president and run by his rier was included in the son, Eric. compact is a pretty good Last March, the younger Trump told the Washington expression of the intent Post that he hoped to turn the property into a casino to of the governor and boost revenues for the struggling golf facility. When Gov. Legislature to give him what he wants,” said Gelber. Ron DeSantis agreed to a new gaming compact with the Donald Trump owned casinos in Atlantic City, Indiana, Seminole Tribe the following month, it opened the doors and California under the Trump Entertainment Resorts for Trump to turn that desire into a reality. company, which ﬁled for bankruptcy three times before it As part of the new compact, which will legalize sports eventually was bought by billionaire Carl Icahn in 2016. betting and expand gaming options at Seminole casinos if A 2018 story from e New York Times detailed Trump’s passed at the federal level, the Seminole Tribe gave up its time as a casino owner, reporting that he had to sell oﬀ his rights to oppose the state from issuing a gambling license late father’s estate to save his failing businesses, even while to any property that is more than 15 miles away from boasting about his supposed success. a Seminole-owned casino. e Trump National Doral Earlier this year, Icahn destroyed one of Trump’s for- Miami just barely reaches that threshold and the tribe mer Atlantic City casinos, as the Trump Plaza Hotel & would not have a legal route to stop the process. Casino imploded last February in a controlled demolition. Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber told the Miami He sold the Trump Taj Mahal to Hard Rock International Herald that the 15-mile mark was strategically put in place in 2016, which later became Hard Rock Atlantic City. m

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008_News.indd 10 7/8/21 11:23 AM PLAYER_16_HarrahsCherokee_FP.indd 3 7/7/21 8:26 AM THE INSIDE STRAIGHT - Head Games HEAD GAMES Head Games: Knowing Your Strengths And Identifying Weakness At The Table By Craig Tapscott

The Pros: Vanessa Kade, Jaime Staples, and Andrew naturally very talented, and things generally come easy Moreno for you, if you want to be among the best, it requires a Craig Tapscott: What are the three biggest strengths a lot of effort. A large amount of studying board textures tournament poker player should possess to be successful and learning what is considered optimal play with vari- and why? ous holdings is unavoidable and understanding a lot of Vanessa Kade: 1. Patience and Emotional Control deeper concepts will help you win more, lose less, more -- In tournament poker the biggest challenge is dealing accurately estimate your opponent’s hand, construct bet- with variance and managing your expectations. Unlike ter bluffs, and find good exploits that you never would cash games where you get to win most days, tournament on talent alone. players regularly can experience days, or weeks without Study can feel slow and tedious, especially if you’re seeing a profit. Emotionally, this can be very difficult, not accustomed to it, but it can also be very rewarding in especially as most of us are very competitive and feel a relatively short amount of time. A good place to start is strongly about losing. It’s important to be able to calmly to find a coach whose game you respect and book a cou- deal with lulls in tournament results, bad beats, and all ple hours for a leak-finding session. Depending on your the factors outside of our control, otherwise we will end coach, this could run anywhere from $200 to $1,000, up compounding our losses. but you can find a lot of leaks that are low-hanging fruit 2. Honesty and Humility -- ere’s a lot of ego in and will enable you to improve a lot, immediately. poker, and often an inclination to lie to ourselves about Jaime Staples: 1. Patience -- I mean this in a career our mistakes in order to protect that ego. Nothing holds and bankroll sense. Poker is extremely volatile. You can’t people back more than the inability to be objective depend on things to go well over the course of days, about their play and honest with themselves about their weeks, or even months. It doesn’t matter how good you mistakes. When you’re able to openly discuss optimal are, chance plays a large role in short-term results. You plays with players you respect, without feeling defensive must be patient with bad outcomes. at’s really impor- or digging in if you’re wrong, then you can really start tant for longevity. improving. 2. Determination -- Poker is a hard way to make an 3. Determination and Effort -- You can be profitable easy living. It is a game, but the mental swings you go without much work, but even if you are extremely smart, through along the way are brutal. Continuing to work

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Vanessa Kade Jaime Staples © PartyPoker ©

hard in the face of adversity after regular failure is hard. edging fear’s presence and moving forward with what Continuing to move forward in your career after you you think is right in the face of that fear. Making coura- have positive variance is also hard. Keeping your head geous plays becomes increasingly difficult as the pressure down and getting after it day after day is not a normal mounts and the dollar amounts increase exponentially. thing to do. Tournament players have to be determined. 3. Knowing When To Gamble, And When Not To 3. Extrapolate From One Data Point To Others -- An -- e best tournament players know when to gamble example would be learning the all-in shoving ranges for and when to play it safe. Tournament poker is a yin and 10 blinds deep on the button. at’s great. But what yang of risk and safety. Play it too safe, and you won’t about at 15 big blinds? What about from the cutoff give yourself a chance to win. Gamble too much, and the instead of the button? It’s impossible for a human to odds are that you’ll bust your stack. Finding the correct memorize all of the strategies, for all of the positions, all balance is an art form. Only study, work, and experience of the time. Getting to know a few fairly well and being will help you here. able to visualize how they change from position to posi- Craig Tapscott: What are the biggest weaknesses that tion, stack size to stack size, without being able to see you come across most often when evaluating opponents them is essential. High-level poker players do that very at the table? well. It comes with practice, and natural ability. Practice Vanessa Kade: Some common weaknesses include any can mostly make up for lack of born talent. But it’s an of the phone-based distractions like watching videos, important skill no matter what. playing other games, text conversations, and online shop- Andrew Moreno: 1. A Strong Mental Game -- I believe ping that prevent you from paying attention to the game. that is the single most valuable strength a tournament Poor bankroll management, not eating well or getting player can possess. It is the key to advance through each enough sleep, not bluffing enough, and playing incorrect phase of a tournament. Anyone can run good for a stretch opening ranges are some other big ones. and build a stack, but inevitably, adversity will come. e at said, ego and entitlement have got to be the question is when you get unlucky, can you make decisions single biggest, most consistent weaknesses for poker play- to preserve your stack and continue to advance? ers, both from a practical or technical standpoint, and a e best players in the world, not surprisingly, have the social one. Whether it prevents you from evaluating your strongest mental games. ey don’t vary their play based mistakes and improving, stops you from folding good on how things are going in the moment. is may sound hands you know are losing, causes you to play stakes obvious, but humans are emotional beings. When your higher than you should, or sometimes act condescending stack oscillates up or down, emotions will follow. Only to others and treat them badly - it’s virtually all bad and a trained mind can feel those emotions and not let them practicing humility will serve you well. As you improve affect their play, which is a skill trained off the table. your game, it’s easy to feel entitled to be winning more, I always suggest starting a meditation practice to which can lead to more intense frustration surrounding improve your mental game. Meditation will help you downswings. It’s very important to keep things in per- bring a quicker awareness of when your emotions are tak- spective and remember that short-term results are not a ing over your decision-making processes. Once you are reflection of recent improvement, and nobody is immune aware, you can take over the logic center of your brain. to variance. If meditation isn’t for you, simply get in the habit of Occasionally, some suffer from almost the opposite taking long slow deep breaths. Intentional breathing has problem to ego, which is a lack of confidence. And while two main benefits. It will help pull you into the present this doesn’t impede players from improving in the same moment and help you calm strong emotions. way an excess of ego does, it can negatively affect them in 2. Courage -- Fear is the most common emotion pres- other ways. Players who lack confidence might struggle ent in tournament poker. As you progress further along with mentally recovering after making a mistake in a in the tournament, the pressure builds, and fear mounts. tournament. ey can tend to be too hard on themselves Courage is not the absence of fear. Courage is acknowl- for hours and sometimes days afterward, and can start to

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Andrew Moreno weak ranges. Once you’ve committed opening ranges to memory, your understanding of post-flop play will also open up. It is impossible to formulate a sensible post-flop strategy if you don’t know what hands you’ll have in a given spot. How can you analyze your play without knowing your own range? e use of donk betting is a huge leak I see from many weaker players in tournament poker. Players donk-bet, most often with medium-strength hands, because they are afraid to check and not know what to do when their opponent bets. Or, they are betting to get more information. e problem is that donk betting is particularly dangerous versus good players because we can use that information more precisely against you. Let’s think about donk betting versus checking to the raiser. When you always check to the raiser, you have all your weak/medium/strong hands grouped together. Your feel as if they don’t deserve to win if they got lucky in a opponent has no additional information on your range. hand. An important thing to remember is that even the When you now donk bet instead of check, you are essen- best in the world makes mistakes every day. Literally no tially saying to your opponent that you don’t have any one plays perfectly. of the strongest hands or any of the weakest hands, so if Jaime Staples: I think the biggest thing is just a you continue, you can knowingly play against medium- knowledge gap. ere are a lot of things in poker that strength hands. Your opponent can play well in position, aren’t intuitive. For example, going all in from the small both value betting and bluffing that range appropriately. blind with K-2 offsuit for 10 blinds, feels wrong. It’s not Also, when you donk-bet with medium-strength natural, seems very risky, and is just not an enjoyable hands, in a future hand, when you do check to the experience to an amateur. raiser, you are saying, “I don’t have any medium-strength Let’s pretend you could give that hand, and that stack hands because I would have bet those. Instead, you can depth, to a non-poker player that understood the rules. play against all my weakest hands and all my strongest We poll 100 of them on what action they would like hands.” is makes continuation betting very profitable to take. Almost all of them would either call or fold. against a donk-better when he does check. Shoving all in there, is an unnatural urge. It’s a learned Another mistake I see from amateurs and pros alike is behavior. telegraphing your hand strength with bet sizing. Simply We get to shove all in because… 1. It’s fairly unlikely put, weak hands bet small, strong hands bet big. is is our opponent has a good enough hand to call. 2. ere are an easy strategy to catch onto and even easier to exploit. blinds and antes in the middle incentivizing us to win the Learning how and when to vary your bet sizes will go a pot. 3. Most of the time our opponent will fold, and we long way in making you more difficult to exploit. It will will take that money without having to show our hand. 4. also help your bluffs get through, and get you paid bigger When we do get caught with a not so great hand, we still on your value bets. m win sometimes. Combine that with the times they fold preflop, and we make a profit in the long run. Vanessa Kade joined the Americas Cardroom Pro Team this spring. at’s a very simple example of a learned strategy. A In March, the Canadian poker player crushed the PokerStars further example that’s more complex would be… What Sunday Million 15th Anniversary tournament to win more than $1.5 sort of hands should I call a raise with from the big blind million, and recently she made two final tables at the US Poker at a final table where there is payout pressure? Should it Open. Vanessa is a strong advocate for women in a game largely be different than it is with 100 left in the tournament? dominated by men. With powerful voices like Vanessa’s, poker is e answer is yes. Not because we are afraid of the changing for the better. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram @ money at stake, but because the risk/reward equation has VanessaKade. become more defined, and we get to adjust. Sometimes drastically. Jaime Staples has been a professional poker player for 11 years People aren’t born knowing that, or intuitively grasp- and is a member of PartyPoker team online. The Canadian is one ing that. It doesn’t just come to people after they play of the most popular poker streamers on Twitch and YouTube. You their 200th tournament. Poker players must study if they can find him on all media platforms @pokerstaples, and on Twitter wish to go beyond the average. ankfully in 2021, there and Instagram @JaimeStaples. are so many great resources to learn these things from players that have had to do the math without help. It’s Andrew Moreno has been playing poker for the better part of the golden age of poker knowledge. the last two decades. He has more than $2.5 million in career Andrew Moreno: e number one biggest weakness I tournament earnings, including a deep run in the 2015 WSOP see from the population in tournament poker is lack of main event and a final table in the 2016 WSOP Monster Stack. preparation. Just learning correct opening ranges will The Las Vegas-based pro won an event at the Venetian in June move you above the vast majority of amateur players. for $127,000 and followed it up by taking down the Wynn Millions Weak players playing solid preflop ranges are infinitely main event for a massive $1.4 million. Follow him on Twitter and more difficult to exploit than their counterparts playing Instagram @Amo4sho.

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012_HeadGames.indd 14 7/8/21 12:19 PM PLAYER_15_ACR_FP.indd 3 6/22/21 10:22 AM Tournaments As of 7-1-2021

Place Player Points Final Tables POY Earnings

1 Ali Imsirovic 3,858 15 $2,370,960

2 Qing Liu 3,674 10 $1,092,042

3 Sean Perry 2,964 11 $2,074,378

4 Brian Altman 2,928 4 $1,014,326

5 Matas Cimbolas 2,810 4 $1,064,605

6 Joseph McKeehen 2,740 4 $1,018,260

7 Tuan Mai 2,396 13 $300,008

8 James Anderson 2,392 5 $568,560

9 Ilyas Muradi 2,308 3 $760,920

10 James Carroll 2,160 2 $612,435

11 Balakrishna Patur 2,224 3 $1,075,985

12 Sung Joo Hyun 2,198 3 $533,608

13 Viet Vo 2,050 3 $822,480

14 Fernando Rodriguez-Vazquez 2,000 7 329,937

15 Daniel Sepiol 1,974 5 $312,282

16 Sean Winter 1,886 8 $1,588,090

17 Alex Foxen 1,858 10 $634,057

18 Chad Eveslage 1,848 2 $869,148

19 Steven Snyder 1,758 4 $938,317

20 Christopher Brewer 1,757 9 $1,006,250

SEAN PERRY WINS THIRD TITLE OF 2021, CLIMBS TO THIRD PLACE

Hot on the heels of the 2021 U.S. Poker Open, the ARIA Poker Room played host to another high-stakes tournament in mid-June. e $25,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em Sean Perry event attracted a fi eld of 28 total entries, building a prize pool of $675,000 that was paid out among the top four fi nishers. Sean Perry emerged victorious in the end, defeating Stephen Chidwick heads-up to capture his third title of the year. Perry earned $275,160 and 252 Card Player Player of the Year points for the win. is was his 11th fi nal-table fi nish so far in 2021. With $2,074,378 in year-to-date earnings and 2,964 points accrued, Perry moved into third place in the POY race standings. Alex Foxen fi nished third for his 10th fi nal-table showing of the year. e $108,000 and 168 points he took home for his strong showing were enough to see him climb into 17th place in the rankings.

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016_POY.indd 16 7/8/21 12:24 PM Tournaments

BRIAN ALTMAN SURGES INTO FOURTH PLACE WITH WIN IN WPT SEMINOLE HARD ROCK TAMPA MAIN EVENT

Brian Altman is year’s World Poker Tour Seminole Hard Rock Tampa $3,500 buy-in main event saw a total of 1,165 entries made before registration closed. e huge turnout created a prize pool worth $3,728,000, which nearly doubled the $2 million guarantee. Altman took home the lion’s share of that money when he overcame Gabriel Abusada heads-up to secure his third WPT title. e Massachusetts poker pro earned $613,225 and 1,440 points for his fourth fi nal-table fi nish of the year. Altman won a $1,100 buy-in preliminary event during the WPT Venetian series in March for $58,134 and 408 points. In May he fi nished third in the 2020 WPT Borgata Winter Poker Open main event, picking up $333,012 and 960 points for his strong fi nish at that fi nal table that was delayed for more than a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He now occupies the fourth-place spot on the POY leaderboard thanks to his impressive fi rst half of 2021.

WPT WINNER ILYAS MURADI MAKES HIS THIRD FINAL TABLE

Ilyas Muradi outlasted a fi eld of 1,573 entries to win the WPT Lucky Hearts Poker Open for Ilyas Muradi $620,000 and 1,620 points back in late January. He notched his second POY-qualifi ed score of the year by fi nishing seventh in the $50,000 high roller during the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown in April. at score added $81,480 and 128 to his totals. e circuit newcomer ran deep yet again in June, fi nishing third in a $1,100 buy-in Venetian DeepStack Championship Poker Series event to earn $59,440 and 560 points. With 2,308 total points and $760,920 in year-to-date earnings, Muradi rejoined the top ten in the POY standings, landing in ninth place for the time being. Andrew Moreno was the outright winner in the $1,100 event that Muradi placed third in, taking home $127,740 and 840 points. e victory marked Moreno’s third POY-qualifi ed score of the year, all of which have come since the start of May. He now sits in 58th place in the rankings.

LAPC CHAMPION BALAKRISHNA PATUR WINS SECOND TITLE

Balakrishna Balakrishna Patur won the long-delayed 2020 WPT L.A. Poker Classic in May, coming Patur away with $1,015,000 and 1,800 points as the champion of the $10,000 buy-in event that had drawn 490 entries. Patur recently secured his second title of the year at his third POY- qualifi ed fi nal table of 2021, overcoming a fi eld of 222 entries in a $1,100 buy-in no-limit hold’em side event at the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Tampa. He banked $55,785 and 384 points as the champion. e score was enough to see Patur move to 11th place on the POY leaderboard. e fi nal table also featured bracelet winners Loni Harwood and Fred Goldberg.

FERNANDO RODRIGUEZ-VAZQUEZ MAKES ANOTHER FINAL TABLE

Fernando Rodriguez-Vazquez has now made seven fi nal tables in 2021, with four titles won Fernando Rodriguez- along the way. ree of those wins came in January, the biggest of which came at the Lucky Hearts Vazquez Poker Open for $205,000. Rodriguez-Vazquez’s latest deep run saw him fi nish as the runner-up in the $1,200 buy-in no-limit hold’em six-max event at the Card Player Poker Tour bestbet Jacksonville series. He navigated his way through a fi eld of 115 entries to set up a heads-up showdown for the title, ultimately losing to Raminder Singh. Rodriguez-Vazquez took home $20,000 and 200 points for his latest deep run, climbing into 14th place in the standings as a result. His four titles won this year is the second most of any player, behind only POY-race leader Ali Imsirovic, who has already won a remarkable six titles in 2021 m

016_POY.indd 17 7/8/21 12:24 PM HOMETOWN HERO BEN SCROGINS WINS CARD PLAYER POKER TOUR BESTBET JACKSONVILLE MAIN EVENT 25-Year-Old Poker Pro Defeats A Field of 339 Entries To Win $158,915 By Erik Fast

Ben Scroggins entered one of his first live poker tourna- Scrogins also earned 720 Card Player Player of the Year ments at bestbet Jacksonville back in 2015, a $25 buy-in points. is was his first POY-qualified score of the year, event geared towards college-aged players. In the years moving him into 162nd place in the 2021 standings, which since, the player from nearby Atlantic Beach has gone on are sponsored by Global Poker. to enter more than 200 tournaments at his hometown is was the eighth time that the CPPT teamed up cardroom, racking up multiple deep runs and a victory in a with bestbet Jacksonville for a tournament series, and the WPT preliminary event. first time that the main event featured the $2,500 buy-in On Monday, June 28, Scrogins earned his largest ever price point. Scrogins’ six-figure top prize was the largest tournament title, defending his home turf by defeating a ever awarded to a CPPT bestbet Jacksonville main event field of 339 entries in the 2021 Card Player Poker Tour best- champion. Here is a look back at how this event played out. bet Jacksonville $2,500 buy-in no-limit hold’em main event. Strong Turnout Builds $759,360 Prize Pool Scrogins earned $158,915 as the champion after defeating is tournament featured two starting flights, with WSOP bracelet winner and eight-time WSOP Circuit ring unlimited re-entry and late registration available for the winner Kyle Cartwright heads-up for the title. first 10 levels of play. Day 1A drew 133 entries by the time e 25-year-old secured the victory in front of a rail that registration closed, with another 206 entering on Day 1B, was dominated by his family and friends. bringing the total number of entries to 339 and creating a “Having the whole rail here made it feel even better. I prize pool of $759,360 to be paid out among the top 43 almost cried for a second, but I got myself together,” said finishers. Scrogins after the final cards were dealt. Players started with 30,000 in chips, and a structure “My experience here has been amazing,” Scrogins with 40-minute blind levels. When the dust settled on the continued. “is is my home and I love everybody here. I first day of play, just 62 players advanced, with top poker know most of the dealers by name, and every time I walk pro Jeremy Joseph taking the Day 1A chip lead. into the door, it’s ‘Hey Ben, how are you doing?’ It’s first- Joseph closed out the day by eliminating WPT cham- name basis. It really is like a home away from home. I got pion Jonathan Jaffe in a preflop cooler, with his pocket a second family here for sure.” kings prevailing against Jaffe’s An Ko. While Jaffe’s first is was Scrogins’ first six-figure tournament score. His bullet ended with a loss in a massive pot, he managed to largest win prior to this event came when he took down bounce back in a big way on his second attempt, ending up the 2017 Heartland Poker Tour Daytona Beach Kennel Club with the largest stack on Day 1B. main event for $94,515. He now has $378,499 in lifetime Setting The Final Table live tournament cashes to his name. ere were 19 players to be eliminated before the money In addition to the title and the six-figure payday, bubble burst on Day 2. Christopher Okoli was the last

18 CARDPLAYER.COM VOLUME 34 / ISSUE 16

018_CPPT.indd 18 7/8/21 11:32 AM THE INSIDE STRAIGHT

Cai lost a sizable pot to Scrogins, and then ran her open-ended straight draw into the top pair, top kicker of Cartwright for the remainder of her stack. Jessica, who is married to 2019 WSOP main event sixth-place fi nisher Zhen Cai, earned $43,669 as the fi fth-place fi nisher. Davis battled his way on the short stack to the fi nal four to lock up a healthy payout. He was unable to ladder up any higher than fourth player to be sent home without a payday after having been place, however, banking $77,910. whittled down to less than a big blind. Scrogins raised with pocket kings and Holladay called e bustouts came quickly after that, with the remain- from the small blind with pocket sixes. e 6n 4m 4n fl o p ing 43 players having locked up at least $3,929 for their saw Holladay fl op a full house. He checked and Scrogins eff orts. It took just four hours to narrow the fi eld from 43 checked behind with his overpair. e Kp on the turn gave down to the fi nal two tables. With 16 remaining, recent Scrogins the bigger full house, and all the money went in Palm Beach Summer Classic fi nal tablist Jessica Cai scored a by the river. Holladay earned $77,910 for his third-place double knockout when her pocket jacks held up against the showing. J-10 suited held by Jaff e and the A-K of Matthew Leecy to Heads-up play began with Scrogins holding a nearly catapult her towards the top of the leaderboard. 4:1 chip advantage. Cartwright, who has more than $2.5 Raminder Singh was looking for his second title of the million in tournament earnings, was able to mount a quick series and was among the biggest stacks in the room with comeback, winning a few sizable pots and then doubling 14 remaining, but he lost a huge chunk of his stack when up to take the chip lead. his An Qm ran into the Ao Kn of Scrogins. Singh failed Scrogins was not deterred, however, and regained the to come from behind and was left short, fi nishing 11th for advantage not long after that when his fl opped top pair $12,738. With that, Scrogins vaulted toward the top of the held up against the nut fl ush draw of Cartwright. On the chip counts with a fi nal-table berth in sight. fi nal hand, Scrogins raised the button with Qp 6m and e eight-handed fi nal table was offi cially set after Cartwright called from the big blind holding 9p 7n. Jeremy Eyer’s A-K clashed with the pocket aces of Joseph e Q o Qm 8m prompted Cartwright to check. Scrogins Crowley. e board brought Eyer no help and he was sent bet with his trip queens and Cartwright called. e 6n on to the rail in ninth place, earning $15,891 for his deep run. the turn gave Cartwright an open-ended straight draw. He Deciding A Champion checked and Scrogins bet again with his full house. e fi nal table was broadcast on bestbetLIVE, the Cartwright check-raised all in, and Scrogins snap- venue’s high-quality live streaming show, which showcases called, leaving Cartwright drawing dead. He earned cash games and tournaments from the poker room with $105,942 for his runner-up fi nish in this event. Cartwright cards-up coverage and commentary. e popular show can was also awarded 600 POY points for his deep run. is be viewed on Twitch, YouTube, and Facebook LIVE. was his third fi nal-table fi nish of the year, including a Dustin Holladay held the chip lead, while Scrogins third-place fi nish in the Spring Series $2,500 buy-in main was essentially tied for second place with Cai. Joseph was event at bestbet Jacksonville back in March. He now sits among the shorter stacks at the table when play resumed, in 30th place in the 2021 POY race standings as a result. and he was ultimately the fi rst to be eliminated after losing Final Table Results much of his stack with pocket jacks against the straight of Lamare Davis. Joseph hit the rail in eighth place, earning Place Player Payout POY Points $20,081. 1 Ben Scrogins $158,915 720 Mac Johnson was the next to fall. e Jacksonville 2 Kyle Cartwright $105,942 600 local came into the day as the shortest stack but managed an early double to stay alive. His run came to an end in 3 Dustin Holladay $77,910 480 seventh place when his Kn 10n ran into the Am Jo of 4 Lamare Davis $57,979 360 Cartwright. e fl op gave Cartwright top two pair and he 5 Jessica Cai $43,669 300 held from there to send Johnson home with $25,695. 6 Joseph Crowley $33,292 240 Crowley got the last of his chips in the middle with Jn 10m on a 10o 8n 3n 2p board, but ran into the 10p 8m 7 Mac Johnson $25,695 180 of Scrogins. e 6o river was of no help to Crowley and he 8 Jeremy Joseph $20,081 120 was knocked out in sixth place for $33,292.

018_CPPT.indd 19 7/8/21 11:32 AM Tournaments TOURNAMENT RESULTS

Andrew Moreno Event Player Payout (POY points) Aria High Roller 1. Sean Perry $275,160 (252) Series 2. Stephen Chidwick $224,340 (210)

Aria Resort & Casino 3. Alex Foxen $108,000 (168) Las Vegas, NV 4. Nick Petrangelo $67,500 (126)

$25,000 NLHE June 15 Entries: 28 Prizepool: $675,000

Victor Figueroa Event Player Payout (POY points) DeepStack 1. Andrew Moreno $127,740 (840) Championship 2. Michael Rossitto $84,969 (700) Poker Series 3. Ilyas Muradi $59,440 (560) Venetian 4. Katie Lindsay $43,418 (420) Las Vegas, NV 5. Stephen Foutty $32,166 (350) $1,100 NLHE 6. Sebastian Grax $24,033 (280) June 14-16 7. Demo Kiriopoulos $18,223 (210) $300,000 GTD 8. Mukul Pahuja $13,882 (140) Entries: 637 Prizepool: $611,520 9. Nadezhda Magnus $10,702 (70) Event Player Payout Event Player Payout (POY points) (POY points) WPT Seminole 1. Victor Figueroa $80,872 (336) DeepStack 1. David Yokoyama $59,395 (384) Hard Rock Tampa 2. William Parker $51,266 (280) Championship 2. Steven Ferrell $41,456 (320) Poker Series Seminole Hard 3. Tai Cao $30,174 (224) 3. Zachary Andrews $28,673 (256) Rock Casino 4. Ryan Van Sanford $18,318 (168) Venetian 4. Joseph Walters $21,252 (192) Tampa, FL 5. Raymond McBeth $14,208 (140) Las Vegas, NV 5. Sang Ho $16,192 (160) $1,700 NLHE 6. Steven Snyder $11,733 (112) 6. Karan Chadha $12,481 (128) $400 NLHE June 20-21 7. Anthony Lambert $10,253 (84) June 17-19 7. Joshua Suyat $9,783 (96) Entries: 189 8. Javier Zarco $9,155 (56) $200,000 GTD Prizepool: $292,950 8. Bilguun Odgerel $7,421 (64) Entries: 1,013 Sanchez Prizepool: $337,329 9. Jessica Vierling $6,072 (32) 9. Dhimitri Lleshi $8,088 (30)

Event Player Payout Event Player Payout (POY points) (POY points) DeepStack 1. Scott Roberts $63,287 WPT Seminole 1. Balakrishna Patur $55,785 (384) Championship 2. Gerald Siemienas $45,171 Hard Rock Tampa 2. Jason Giles $37,415 (320) Poker Series 3. Bobby Holmes $41,451 Seminole Hard 3. Derek Bowers $22,072 (256) Venetian 4. Rebekah Emmons $37,791 Rock Casino 4. Sanjib Acharya $13,426 (192) Las Vegas, NV Tampa, FL 5. Tho Nguyen $24,475 5. Loni Harwood $10,369 (160) $800 NLHE Seniors 6. Laurette Thurber $24,235 $1,100 NLHE 6. Thomas Boyden $8,592 (128) June 20-22 7. Eugene Lang $23,215 June 16 7. David Dibernardi $7,322 (96) $300,000 GTD Entries: 222 8. Michael Kushlan $22,855 8. Fred Goldberg $6,439 (64) Entries: 634 Prizepool: $215,340 Prizepool: $438,728 9. Alberto Sabogali $14,756 9. Tsz Shing $5,579 (32)

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020_TournamentResults.indd 20 7/8/21 11:32 AM Tournaments

Event Player Payout Edward Mroczkowski (POY points) WPT Seminole 1. Hassan El Hakim $75,347 (312) Hard Rock Tampa 2. Aaron Thivyanathan $63,498 (260)

Seminole Hard 3. William Parker $52,639 (208) Rock Casino 4. Rodney Turvin $27,837 (156) Tampa, FL 5. Andrew Barfield $20,201 (130) $2,200 NLHE 6. Daniel Sepiol $15,142 (104) June 17 7. Jesse Lonis $11,737 (78) Entries: 167 8. Mohsin Virani $9,418 (52) Prizepool: $334,000

Event Player Payout (POY points) Event Player Payout WPT Seminole 1. Brian Altman $613,225 (1440) (POY points) Hard Rock Tampa 2. Gabriel Abusada $408,825 (1200) Card Player Poker Tour 1. Eddy Mroczkowski $41,248 (420) 3. Zachary Smiley $302,200 (960) 2. James Brown $41,247 (350) Seminole Hard bestbet Jacksonville Rock Casino 4. Jonathan Jaffee $225,675 (720) Jacksonville, FL 3. Yekaterina Lukina $24,367 (280) Tampa, FL 5. John Haas $170,275 (600) 4. Christopher Conrad $18,185 (210) $560 NLHE 6. William Berry $129,825 (480) 5. Charles Campos $13,716 (175) $3,500 NLHE June 17-20 June 18-22 7. David Berman $100,030 (360) Entries: 525 6. Eric Chastain $10,457 (140) $2,000,000 GTD 8. Steve Queen $77,900 (240) Prizepool: $257,250 7. Brandon Maner $8,060 (105) Entries: 1,165 9. Timothy Miles $61,325 (120) 8. Sherri Manassa $6,281 (70) Prizepool: $3,728,000 Event Player Payout George Antonakos (POY points) Card Player Poker Tour 1. Raminder Singh $24,726 (240) 2. Fernando $20,000 (200) bestbet Jacksonville Rodriguez-Vazquez Jacksonville, FL 3. James Shibley $17,000 (160)

$1,200 NLHE Six Max 4. Michael Cooper $14,000 (120) June 24 5. Edgardo $11,739 (100) Entries: 115 Rosario Figueroa Prizepool: $121,900 6. Dustin Holladay $5,951 (80)

Event Player Payout (POY points) Summer Poker Series 1. Jared Palmer $32,451 (384) 2. Rudy Ayala $29,500 (320) Orleans Hotel & Casino Las Vegas, NV 3. Dan Beecher $29,000 (256) Event Player Payout 4. Kyle Grosshanten $14,105 (192) $300 NLHE (POY points) 5. She Wong $9,750 (160) June 18-21 Wynn Summer 1. George Antonakos $293,530 (960) $222,222 GTD 6. Vito Distefano $6,107 (128) Classic 2. Mostapha El Kabir $201,422 (800) Entries: 1,187 7. Carlos Loving $4,653 (96) Prizepool: $290,815 Wynn 3. David Mowery $134,309 (640) 8. Donald Garofalo $3,853 (64) Las Vegas, NV 4. Alex Visbisky $95,120 (480) 9. Mario Delgrado $3,272 (32) 5. Sergio Aido $70,351 (400) $1,600 NLHE 6. Patrick Truong $54,884 (320) June 17-21 Visit CardPlayer.com for the world’s most accurate $1,000,000 GTD 7. Taurean Shawdon $44,098 (240) tournament database, including upcoming daily and Entries: 1,312 8. Dave Alfa $36,621 (160) series schedules, more than 400,000 player profiles, and Prizepool: $1,902,400 over 1.6 million results and counting. Contact 9. Paul Bergen $30,901 (80) [email protected] for more information.

020_TournamentResults.indd 21 7/8/21 11:32 AM JOAO VIEIRA CLIMBS TO THE TOP OF ONLINE POKER’S ALL-TIME MONEY LIST Former Portuguese Basketball Pro Ready To Dominate The Live Arena

By Steve Schult

From an early age, Joao Vieira million in earnings. later, the relationship paid off when seemed destined for success. But And although he thrives online, he Vieira took down one of the toughest those early projections stemmed from has also carved out time to become tournaments on the World Series of his prowess on the basketball court. Portugal’s all-time live tournament Poker schedule. He earned $758,011 While his pro basketball career didn’t earnings leader as well, with $3.8 in the $5,000 no-limit hold’em six- quite pan out like he wanted, the million won over the years, including max event, along with his first career Madeira, Portugal native has instead seven titles. bracelet. become one of the most successful But despite these accolades, you’d e win gave Vieira a career-best online poker players on the planet. be forgiven if this is the first time score and put his name on the map in Over the last several months, you’ve heard of the 31-year-old poker the poker world. For the first time, the nobody has been more successful play- pro. North American audience would be ing high-stakes online poker tourna- “I’ve been doing this for a while,” forced to take note of his ability. For ments than Vieira. In April, Vieira said Vieira. “It just hasn’t been Vieira, however, the victory was a long racked up more than $2.2 million noticed.” time coming. in online cashes. He cashed for more Part of Vieira’s ability to fly under “I had been a winning player at than $600,000 the following month. the radar comes from the general ano- the highest stakes online since 2013, It was a heater that most could only nymity surrounding online poker and but I had never really had the big dream of, including a handful of days the tendency of the poker world to breakthrough live win,” said Vieira. with multiple six-figure scores. As a fixate on happenings in the live arena. “I never really had live success. at result, his career online tournament In 2018, however, popular tournament was more like a weight résumé now sits atop the PocketFives. European online poker site Winamax off my shoulders. More like… I finally com All-Time Money List, with more took notice of Vieira’s game and signed got it. It was more validation than

than 11,600 cashes totaling over $24.8 him to a sponsorship deal. Just a year breakthrough. I felt more relief than Winamax ©

22 CARDPLAYER.COM VOLUME 34 / ISSUE 16

022_CoverStory.indd 22 7/8/21 11:34 AM gritty. You know they’re going to push back. is is kind of like the place I grew up. You may lose, but you’re going to fight back.” Vieira basically described his basketball career as the Portuguese version of Kwame Brown, the first overall pick of the 2001 NBA draft with lofty expectations that were never filled. ough if it wasn’t for his basketball career, Vieira likely wouldn’t be the poker player he is today. During his time with CAB Madeira in the Portugal Liga Professional, he was introduced to poker through his teammates. Specifically, his American teammates. “When I was 16 or 17, I used to hang around the American pros,” said Vieira. “We would be allowed to have anything else.” town. “We are known to be gritty, three or four American players per Vieira’s English is basically flaw- hardworking, and humble. I think team. I started playing poker with less, but the language barrier is one all of the islanders have this mindset them. ey were 21, 22, or 23 and they of the reasons he claims many of because we grew up by the ocean. You were playing a lot of poker. We would the European-based online crushers have to rely on yourself and rely on play on the plane and bus rides.” are kept out of the limelight on the the people that are close to you. It also From there, Vieira was hooked. In world’s stage. It takes live success to brings out the competitiveness in us.” between his morning and afternoon bust through that barrier and get some Before he found poker, those quali- basketball practices, he would study recognition. ties helped him succeed at an unprec- the game and play online. He eventu- “Until you get these Adrian edented level on the basketball court. ally transitioned to multi-table tourna- Mateos-like kind of scores, you kind Vieira was essentially a prodigy. At ments, but given the rigorous training of just fly under the radar,” said Vieira. just 15 years old, he was already being schedule of a professional athlete, he Mateos, of course, is a Triple approached by professional teams and was forced to start with sit-n-go’s. Crown winner from Spain who has as a junior played for the Portuguese “I didn’t have time to play anything cemented himself among the elite national team. In fact, he signed a else,” he explained. with more than $21.3 million in live contract before most American teens Sure. He could have made the foray tournament earnings. would be allowed to drive. into online cash games. But the struc- Going undetected in the poker Standing just 5’9” tall and still ture never appealed to him. In basket- world didn’t necessarily bother Vieira, years away from becoming an adult, he ball, there is a winner and there is a though. It fit right in with how he was needed the determination and tough- loser. Vieira needed that same incentive raised. Growing up in Funchal, a city ness to keep up with fully-developed when it came to the poker table. on the Madeira Islands in Portugal, professional athletes, which he once “[Tournaments] appeal more he developed a personality that he felt again attributed to the island attitude to competitive mindsets,” he said. was common among the rest of the he developed from his upbringing. “Someone is going to win. Someone is island. “Imagine you’re up against an going to lose. Someone will get second, “We kind of have the underdog MMA fighter from Hawaii,” said third, fourth. ere’s going to be some- mindset,” said Vieira about his home- Vieira. “You know he’s going to be thing to base your results on. at is something that just doesn’t happen in Top Tournament Scores cash games. Cash games are never end- Date Event Finish Prize ing. It’s just, get in and get out. at’s the main reason I never got into those July 2019 WSOP $5,000 NLH Six-Max 1st $758,011 games. ere’s no ranking.” April 2021 PokerStars SCOOP $25,000 Super High Roller 1st $469,987 From what started out as playing small-stakes games with teammates on April 2021 GGPoker $25,000 Sunday $5 Million GTD 4th $464,392 road trips quickly turned into a viable Sept. 2019 PokerStars WCOOP $10,000 PLO Main Event 1st $384,948 option for side income away from the May 2018 EPT Monte Carlo €25,000 NLH High Roller 5th $251,052 basketball court. Vieira became friendly with a couple Nov. 2018 partypoker Millions Caribbean $25,000 NLH 9th $250,000 of semi-professional poker players and Jan. 2020 partypoker Millions UK $10,000 NLH 1st $250,000 they helped him improve his game even April 2021 partypoker Powerfest $10,000 High Roller 1st $249,791 further. His newfound acquaintances gave him access to their accounts on April 2021 GGPoker $10,000 Super Tuesday 2nd $241,721 one of the several training sites that May 2020 PokerStars SCOOP $25,000 Super High Roller 4th $240,744 were available at the time.

022_CoverStory.indd 23 7/8/21 11:34 AM that could beat the old guard without any real sophisticated training content on the market. “You got to go with Shaun Deeb,” said Vieira. “ ere’s no way around it. Also Calvin Anderson. He plays all the games that there is to play. Jason Mercier, and Stephen Chidwick. ose guys had a ton of success when nobody knew anything, and they had to figure it out for themselves.” Regardless of the list, he acknowl- edges not only how tough it is to get to the top of the game, but how small the edges are once you get there. “ e difference between the high- stakes players today is really small,” said Vieira. “ ere are 30-50 players “ ey gave me access to this video once you get to a certain level, you that are just really, really good at library of 300-400 videos,” said Vieira. have to study on your own,” he said. poker. Both live poker and online. It’s “ is is when I started to actually get “Now, pretty much all the studying really tough to separate them.” good at this game. I was playing cash I do is done by myself. e main Even though he’s known for his games for €10 or €20, and then a year guys won’t give up the things that online play, Vieira has plenty of skills later in 2010, I was the biggest winner will make you succeed at the high- to showcase on the live felt, despite at six-max sit-n-go’s.” est stakes. at kind of material just limited experience. ere was no pro- Eventually, Vieira’s basketball doesn’t exist. You might have a high- gression for him in that arena. ere career came to an end, although he stakes winning player putting videos were no small-stakes, single table tour- still does commentate on some of the out there, but he’s going to keep some naments where he could get his feet league’s games when he is back in his of that to himself.” wet, so he dove headfirst into the deep native city. Once his basketball career When asked to construct a Mount end. was behind him, Vieira developed into Rushmore of online poker, the ability His first cash came in the €5,000 the multi-table tournament crusher he to play more than one game was a big European Poker Tour Barcelona main is today. Without the grueling train- factor in the peers he selected. event in 2012. He finished 41st for ing schedule of a professional athlete, “I really want to go with the guys €16,800 and followed that up with a he had more time on his hands to play that can play all the games,” said final table appearance a few days later large field tournaments. And more Vieira. “If you play poker, you play in the €10,000 high roller. He picked time to study. all the forms of poker. Not just no- up €32,630 for his eighth-place finish He said that once he watched every limit hold’em. ere are very few guys and never looked back. Incredibly, he single video on the training site he was that could play a $100,000 no-limit says he has never played a live tourna- gifted access to, he then signed him- hold’em high roller and also play the ment with a buy-in of less than €1,000. self up for another. To get to the top of $50,000 Poker Players Championship.” “I’m from this small island, so the game, however, Vieira believes you He also said that he valued the “old there’s no real live poker here,” said need to get beyond videos and put in school” online players that “paved the Vieira. “So I jumped straight into the work yourself. way” for newer players. Vieira appreci- the shark tank. Maybe that wasn’t “You can learn from videos, but ated the ability to construct a strategy advisable, but there was no real way for me to ladder. On my local island, maybe I can play a €50 buy-in once or Online Poker’s All-Time Tournament Money List, According to PocketFives.com twice a year. ere’s a couple tourna- Rank Player Earnings Country ments that I could play. And there are tournaments that I could play on the 1 Joao ‘Naza114’ Vieira $24.8 million Portugal mainland for a couple hundred bucks, 2 Niklas ‘lena900’ Astedt $22.3 million Sweden but the flight would be more expen- sive than the tournament is worth. If 3 Sami ‘LarsLuzak’ Kelopuro $21.6 million Finland you’re going to play live poker and get 4 Jonathan ‘apestyles’ Van Fleet $19.4 million U.S off the island, you’re going to have to 5 Peter ‘Belabacsi’ Traply $19.1 million Hungary play high stakes. I had to do what I had to do.” 6 Chris ‘moorman1’ Moorman $18.8 million U.K You might think that Vieira prefers 7 Simon ‘C Darwin2’ Mattsson $17.6 million Sweden online play, given his status, but he 8 Chris ‘Getting Daize’ Oliver $15.5 million U.S. would rather play live poker if given the chance. 9 Andreas ‘r4ndomr4gs’ Berggren $15.4 million Sweden “I know that I cut my teeth online,

10 Conor ‘1_conor_b_1’ Beresford $15.3 million U.K. and I know that I got most of my © WPT

24 CARDPLAYER.COM VOLUME 34 / ISSUE 16

022_CoverStory.indd 24 7/8/21 11:34 AM © Winamax © experience online, but I still prefer live,” said Vieira. “I think I’m better playing live.” Unlike some other prominent online pros, Vieira believes that there is something to the live element of poker. ere is something to seeing the other player and watching his man- nerisms while he makes a decision and puts chips in the pot. “It’s the purest form of poker,” said Vieira about playing live. “Online is more fundamentally sound. It’s more oriented towards game theory optimal play, but I think live is more pure. You can be playing online and you’ll have a

certain decision that you have to make © WSOP based on frequencies or patterns or game theory. In live, you have those too, but Vieira left Portugal for other He left so that he could continue to you can focus more on your opponent parts of the European Union when compete against the game’s best and and make a more concrete decision.” PokerStars roped off the player pool stay out of an intra-country pool, but He took words from another domi- in Portugal. His move out of Portugal it also gives him some more opportu- nant European pro, three-time WSOP offered him the chance to play in nities to showcase his live skills now bracelet winner and fellow Winamax America and compete against some that he has easier access to brick-and- team member Davidi Kitai, to sum up of the top high roller pros as well. It’s mortar cardrooms. his thoughts on the difference. not like he couldn’t physically make “I think I have a lot of live skills “He once told me, ‘It doesn’t really the trip from Portugal before, but his that I just haven’t had the chance to matter what kind of GTO frequencies government essentially added on rake display,” said Vieira. “I was playing I’m supposed to use if I can look the through taxation, making American on a small island out in the middle of guy straight in the eye and know that tournaments nearly unbeatable. nowhere. I never really had a chance to he doesn’t have it. If he doesn’t have it, “Portugal residents pay a really show how good I am at live poker, just he doesn’t have it. It doesn’t matter if heavy tax on American winnings,” he as much as I’ve shown how well I can it’s supposed to be a 30% mixed strat- said. “I started playing the series when play online poker.” egy in that spot. If I know he doesn’t I left Portugal and was paying taxes With the pandemic slowly fading have it, I’m going to get it right 100% out of the Czech Republic, and later and live tournaments returning, Vieira of the time.’” on, out of the U.K.” is about to get his chance. m

022_CoverStory.indd 25 7/8/21 11:34 AM PHIL HELLMUTH SWEEPS DANIEL NEGREANU IN THREE STRAIGHT MATCHES TO WIN HIGH STAKES DUEL II By Steve Schult

With yet another win in June, Phil give Hellmuth a six-match winning around. But unlike the first match, Hellmuth has quieted the haters by streak and $700,000 in total profit. Hellmuth amped up the aggression sweeping Daniel Negreanu, earning “Where’s the window, baby?” before he got too short on chips. victories in three consecutive heads-up Hellmuth said after his third match e match turned when he five-bet matches to be crowned the champion with the six-time WSOP bracelet win- 8p 3p preflop against Negreanu’s of High Stakes Duel II. ner. “I know Mori [Eskandari] is not pocket deuces. Hellmuth floated the Per the format of the PokerGO happy to hear that, but I would like to jack-high flop with nothing but eight series, the buy-in doubled with every go to the cash out window.” high and led the turn when he picked passing match. Following a Hellmuth Hellmuth had the option to let his up a flush draw. Negreanu mucked his win in April in a $50,000 buy-in winnings ride and allow a challenger hand after using several time exten- match, the 15-time World Series of to play a $400,000 buy-in match in a sions and Hellmuth officially took over Poker bracelet winner then won a sec- potential round 4, but he decided to the chip lead. ond $100,000 rematch. play it safe, call it quits, and collect his Negreanu won a few pots to regain e final showdown in June fea- money. Every High Stakes Duel series a small lead, but Hellmuth struck tured a buy-in of $200,000, giving must go a minimum of three matches. again in a big way when he three-bet Negreanu a chance to recoup his In Hellmuth’s first match, Qn 3n and flopped trips on a 3p 3m losses. After a long, see-saw battle Negreanu jumped out to a huge lead 2m board against Negreanu’s pocket between the two poker legends, how- early, forcing Hellmuth to mount a nines. Hellmuth check-called the flop ever, Hellmuth came out on top. sizable comeback to win the round. and then check-raised all in on the His three straight victories netted It looked like Hellmuth was going to 5p turn. Negreanu thought for quite him a tidy profit of $350,000, mimick- need another improbable come-from- a while before calling. Hellmuth’s trips ing his series sweep in the first edition behind victory in the third battle held up, giving him a nearly 5:1 chip of High Stakes Duel against Antonio as Negreanu got out in front with a advantage.

Esfandiari in 2020. e two sweeps nearly identical start to their ﬁrst go- A short time later, both play- PokerGO ©

26 CARDPLAYER.COM VOLUME 34 / ISSUE 16

026_Feature.indd 26 7/8/21 11:44 AM ers picked up pocket kings preflop. Negreanu. e turn was the 8n, giving body is like, ‘e game has passed Phil All the chips got into the middle, both players a straight, but Hellmuth’s by,’ and then I win a bracelet, and they with Negreanu tabling Ko Kn and was bigger. All the money went in the say, ‘Phil is the greatest of all time.’ Hellmuth showing Kp Km. e hand middle and Negreanu was drawing So there is a lot of current bullshit was supposed to result in a chopped dead to a chop. He didn’t hit on the going on, and people judge people by pot nearly 96% of the time, accord- river to stay alive and Hellmuth col- the current stuff. I’m frustrated that I ing to the Card Player Poker Odds lected his money, along with his sec- beat the biggest and most important Calculator, but an all-diamond flop ond consecutive High Stakes Duel belt. tournaments around the world for 32 gave Negreanu a freeroll, which he “Good game,” said Negreanu after years, and now their knock is that ‘he drilled when the 8o came on the river. the river card was dealt. “You played doesn’t play enough high rollers, he’s Just like that, stacks were about even. great. You deserve it.” not good, he’s not as great as the young Negreanu may have expected “I think you’re one of the all-time players.’ Well, I just can’t wait to step Hellmuth to blow up following the greats,” responded Hellmuth. “I really into that ring in July for the PokerGO beat, telling media before the match mean that.” Cup, and I can play some tournaments that, “when [Hellmuth] goes on mon- e exchange was a definitive with those guys, and we’ll see how it key tilt, he starts three-betting with change in tone from the drama that goes.” trash. It’s ingrained in him, he’s just a sparked the heads-up match in the first Hellmuth pointed to his unique tilter at the core.” place. Following Negreanu’s $1.2 mil- reading ability as the reason for his Despite the terrible luck, the Poker lion heads-up challenge loss to Doug undefeated stretch on High Stakes Duel. Brat was undeterred. Over the next Polk, Hellmuth criticized Negreanu’s “ere’s just something weird couple of hours, there were no major approach. about heads-up where I think a lot of showdowns, but he managed to win “I was disappointed in the way he the guys are just pure math guys and the majority of the pots. With the played,” said Hellmuth last February. think they’ve figured it out. And they blinds getting bigger, those pots added e critique drew irritation from have figured it out on the internet, but up and Hellmuth opened a nearly 2:1 Negreanu, who responded on Twitter they haven’t figured it out in the real chip lead. with some shots at Hellmuth’s poker world. ere is some stuff that I’ve But once again, Negreanu found a strategy and challenged him to a been working on for a long time. I key double-up. Hellmuth raised on the heads-up grudge match of their own. will discuss heads-up no-limit hold’em button and Negreanu moved all in for Negreanu was the betting favorite, strategy with zero people. I don’t talk about 20 big blinds. Hellmuth called with the line set at -150. Most of about it with anybody because I think with A-Q and was in the lead against the poker world seemed to agree he there are a few things I do that every- Negreanu’s K-3. e flop was queen- had the advantage before play started, body thinks that are wrong that I’ll high, leaving Negreanu drawing very given his recent study in the format for just continue to do.” thin, but a king came on the turn to the match with Polk. “I think this strategy that I have put him back in the match, facing a When asked about the grief he gets right now is the best maybe I’ll ever much smaller deficit. from other members of the poker com- play,” he continued. “I’m playing a Eventually, a cold deck finally went munity, Hellmuth explained that he’s strategy that is heavily dependent on Hellmuth’s way, and he finished off been dealing with it for a long time. reading your opponent. ey can do the Poker Hall of Famer. Negreanu “I think there are always going to whatever they want. If they’re play- limped in on the button with 6m be haters, and I remember all these ing online, they can hide. If they’re 5m and Hellmuth checked his option tournaments I’ve won over the last ten playing in the real world, they can put with 10o 6o. years. It’s a crazy number. I just keep stuff over their face, but even then, I’m e flop was 9o 7m 2o and getting down there. And if I don’t do going to figure some stuff out. White Hellmuth check-called a bet from anything for two years, then every- magic, I call it.” m

026_Feature.indd 27 7/8/21 11:44 AM Strategies, ANALYSIS & Commentary

Always Look Both Ways

By Jonathan Little

will probably lose the pot when you fold to a continuation bet. As you can see, you are essentially dodging cars on the interstate by playing this hand. You are likely to either lose a large pot or win a small pot, making a fold the clear best play. Suppose instead of A-10, you had Jp 10p. Now, you will not lose your whole stack if you make one pair because it will be a marginal made hand. But if you fl op a premium hand or a good draw and improve to a premium hand by the river, you will often win a large pot. You will also fi nd numerous semi- bluffi ng opportunities, which will allow you to win some pots when your opponent misses. is is a situation where you will either lose a small pot or win a large one, which is a fi ne outcome. Poker, like all games, is about trying to fi gure out the optimal decision for each situation. Each decision in poker is not made in a vacuum. Because of this, you need to constantly think about how each decision will impact the next. As long as you think We are constantly thinking ahead While A-10 is normally a decent ahead and always have a plan, you will in life, and when you are playing hand, in this situation, it is an easy rarely fi nd yourself too lost. poker, you should make it a point to fold because of the many bad things If you fi nd that you are consistently do the same. that can happen on the future betting confused, you are either making poor When you cross the street, you rounds. A holding like A-10 could cer- decisions on the earlier betting rounds don’t just blindly wander into traffi c tainly be the best hand at the moment, or you have not studied the game near- and hope for the best. You stop, take a but you must consider how the hand ly enough. To learn about numerous look in both directions, and hopefully will play out. other ways where thinking ahead can have a plan if you suddenly see a bus Before the fl op, you could easily be greatly improve your win rate, check heading straight for you. dominated by the initial raiser, putting out my book, Mastering Small Stakes In poker, before you make any bet, you in bad shape. To make matters No-Limit Hold’em and my training stop and think about what the result worse, someone yet to act could three- site PokerCoaching.com/cardplayer. of that bet will be, both in the current bet behind you, forcing you to either Good luck in your games! m betting round, as well as the future put in more money behind or to fold betting rounds. From there, you can without seeing a fl op. Jonathan Little is a two- determine if the probable results are in If you happen to fl op an ace and time WPT champion with your best interest. the initial raiser has a better ace, you more than $7 million in Suppose someone raises under the will lose a lot of money. If an ace fl ops live tournament earnings, gun to three big blinds out of their 100 and your opponent does not have an best-selling author of big blind stack and you are in second ace, you will win a small pot. If a 10 15 educational poker position with An 10o. Cheap spot to comes and they have an overpair, you books, and 2019 GPI Poker Personality of the see a fl op, right? Not so fast. Again, will lose a lot of money. If a 10 comes Year. If you want to increase your poker skills you have to look both ways before you and they have worse than a 10, you and learn to crush the games, check out his cross the street. will win a small pot. If you miss, you training site at PokerCoaching.com/cardplayer.

28 CARDPLAYER.COM VOLUME 34 / ISSUE 16

028_SA.indd 28 7/8/21 11:49 AM Strategies, ANALYSIS & Commentary BADUGI: DONKING THE RIVER By Kevin Haney

I have now written several articles on Badugi, but since it no means possess a lock hand. is not that widely played, a quick refresher on the rules may When a player leads out on a street after being a caller on be helpful to some readers. the previous one, it is often referred to as “donking.” Let’s Badugi is a triple draw lowball variant where the object examine a few situations where it may be correct to do so in of the game is to obtain the lowest hand possible with cards Badugi with a relatively marginal holding. of all different suits and ranks. When holding four differ- Example 1 ent ranks with all different suits, you have made a badugi. Suppose we open from the cutoff with Ao 2m 4n X, For example, 8o 6p 5n 2m is an eight badugi. Aces are get reraised by the button, and just call. We draw one and considered low, so the best possible holding is A-2-3-4 of our opponent is pat. Regardless of if our opponent is ultra- all different suits. aggressive or more on the passive side, the vast majority of When you do not hold four different ranks of different players would three-bet any badugi against a cutoff open. suits your hand is considered “incomplete.” For example, is is important because whenever a villain’s entire badugi Ao 3p 4n Kp is not a badugi because it lacks four different range is in play, his median hand is a queen or a rough jack suits, and this holding is referred to as a three-card badugi and it’s correct for us to take all three draws to try and run or tri hand. it down. One of the more unique aspects of Badugi is that the We fail to improve on the first two draws, but on the best draw is also the best hand, and can win unimproved. third and final draw we make Ao 2m 4n Jp. is is a spot For example, at showdown, Ao 3p 4n Kp beats 2p 5n 6m where we should lead on the river because checking would 7m as neither player holds a badugi, and a four-high tri hand simply allow our opponent to bet his strong badugis and tap is superior to a three-card six. behind with his kings, queens, and rougher jacks. In this article, we will be talking about some river deci- Our lead may end up costing us money when villain sions that draw upon fundamental concepts discussed in specifically has a ten badugi, a hand some players would previous issues. In Badugi, as in all forms of poker, it can choose to check behind on the river, but that’s probably it. sometimes be correct to lead the river even though our Most opponents will bet any nine or better on the opponent had the betting initiative on the turn and we by river, so in most cases, donking the river won’t cause

ANALYSISAnalysis TOURNAMENT HAND MATCHUP e $25,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em event at the 2021 U.S. Poker Open attracted a total of 69 entries, creating 2021 U.S. Poker Open a prize pool worth $1,725,000 that was paid out among the top ten fi nishers in the high-stakes event. With fi ve $25,000 No-Limit Hold’em Event players remaining, the two largest stacks at the table clashed after being dealt a couple of big hands. David Vanessa Kade Ivan Zufic Peters got the ball rolling with a min-raise as the fi rst to act with K-Q off suit. On his direct left, Vanessa 2,855,000 Chips 2,585,000 Chips Kade picked up pocket jacks and three-bet to three times the size of Peters’ open. Ivan Zufi c, who was at J J A Q his second fi nal table of the series, looked down at A-Q Winning Percentage Winning Percentage off suit. Maria Ho, who was commentating the event

Before Flop: 57.0% Before Flop: 43.0% for PokerGO, noted the tough spot that Zuﬁ c found

himself in. “If you four-bet and get fi ve-bet shoved on J J Q After Flop: 76.0% A After Flop: 22.0% After Turn: 14.0% here, clearly your A-Q isn’t good and you’d have put After Turn: 77.0% so much in the middle. But, if you just smooth call this three-bet, that also makes it pretty tough to play and maneuver post-fl op.” Zufi c opted for the more PREFLOP aggressive approach, making it 750,000 to go. Kade came along and the fl op improved neither player. Zufi c With fi ve players remaining and blinds of 25,000-50,000 and a big blind checked as the fi rst to act and Kade checked behind, perhaps fi guring that she was either way ahead or way ante of 50,000, David Peters raised to 100,000 from under the gun. behind. e turn brought four cards to a straight, but Vanessa Kade three-bet to 300,000 from the cutoff , and Ivan Zufi c four- given the prefl op action, Kade likely wasn’t too con- cerned about Zufi c holding a 7-X card combination. bet to 750,000 from the small blind. Peters folded, and Kade called. She bet 575,000 into the 1,700,000 pot and Zufi c made the call, leaving himself with roughly half of a pot-sized 8 6 4 5 8 bet remaining behind. e board paired on the river, which likely didn’t do much to change Zufi c’s mind

FLOP if he thought A-Q high might be the best hand on the TURN

RIVER turn. He checked again and Kade made a small value

5 8 6 4 8 bet, downsizing to 500,000 into a pot of 2,850,000. Zufi c called and fell to the shortest stack at the table, while Kade extended her chip lead. She went on to fi n- Zufi c checked, and Zufi c checked, and Zufi c checked, and ish fi fth in this event for $138,000. is was the largest Kade checked. Kade bet 575,000. Kade bet 500,000. live tournament cash of her career, adding to her resume just a few months after her $1.5 million win online in Z u fi c c a l l e d . Z u fi c c a l l e d . the PokerStars Sunday Million 15th Anniversary event.

NOTE: WINNING PERCENTAGES DO NOT INCLUDE TIES. ODDS PROVIDED BY CARDPLAYER.COM/POKER-TOOLS/ODDS-CALCULATOR/TEXAS-HOLDEM

028_SA.indd 29 7/8/21 11:49 AM Strategies, ANALYSIS & Commentary

us to lose any additional money. the river will typically only do so with hands that beat In addition, a drawing hand that has potentially made a us. He will somewhat happily check back three-card fi ves badugi is on average quite strong, so we shouldn’t get raised and sixes, and it is these hands that we are targeting with that often. Our opponent generally requires an initial dealt our river lead. Also, since our opponent opened from the eight or better badugi, which would only be approximately hijack, he will often have a three-card hand good enough 5% of his initial pat range. to try and pick off a bluff . Example 2 Even though we may be a small underdog to have the In this hand, we are in the big blind with Ap 3n X X best hand when our opponent calls (or raises); leading out and defend against a hijack open. On the fi rst draw we take here may produce a higher expectation than checking. two and our opponent draws one. We fail to improve on In both of these examples, sometimes our play will cost the fi rst draw, but make a standard call on the small bet- us money the times our opponent calls with a hand that he ting round with a smooth two-card hand. On the second would have checked behind. However, we can’t be results draw, we again take two and our opponent is still drawing oriented and should remain focused on maximizing our one. expectation wherever we can. Betting marginal hands from We improve to Ap 3n 4m X and decide to just check- out of position is somewhat akin to hitting a 16 against call the turn even though we now often have the best hand the dealer’s 10 in Blackjack. While it’s never fun to bust and are often up against someone betting 100% of their your own hand, we do so since the rules stipulate that we holdings. While we may have around 60-65% equity, a must act fi rst and hitting is unquestionably the correct turn raise may not reap as much value as one may think as mathematical play. it re-opens the betting for villain to three-bet many of his Of course, poker situations are not as clear cut, but made badugis, against which we are a big underdog. in cases where our opponents will usually only bet hands Also, since we are out of position our opponent will that beat us and check behind everything else, it is often never break a badugi once he sees us drawing. If we were in correct for us to lead. ere’s an understandable aversion position, a turn raise with Ap 3n 4m X would make more to leading out on the river with marginal hands, however, sense because we will occasionally get our opponent to if we feel it’s the higher expectation play we must fi ght any break his weak badugis, but that is not the situation here. possible innate desire to play it safe. m Additionally, when we check-raise the turn with our strongest draws, it dramatically weakens our check-calling Kevin Haney is a former actuary of MetLife but range, making our other holdings more or less face up. left the corporate job to focus on his passions Getting back to the hand, we decided to check-call the for poker and fitness. He is co-owner of Elite turn and failed to improve on the third and fi nal draw. Fitness Club in Oceanport, NJ and is a certified However, in a move that may appear to be inconsistent personal trainer. With regards to poker he got with our turn play, we opt to lead out with Ap 3n 4m X his start way back in 2003 and particularly on the river. enjoys taking new players interested in mixed games under his So why would we “donk” the river, but not lead or wing and quickly making them proficient in all variants. If inter- check-raise the turn? e main reason is that our oppo- ested in learning more, playing mixed games online, or just saying nent is betting the turn with virtually everything, but on hello he can be reached at [email protected]. RETURNING TO LIVE POKER AFTER THE PANDEMIC: PART 1 By Steve Zolotow

Normally my poker routine consists of pot-limit real time, while I’m playing. Omaha at Aria, no-limit hold’em at Bellagio, and a hand- I have been playing this game for close to 70 years, ful of events each summer at the World Series of Poker. All but modern poker and game theory have uncovered of that was unavailable during COVID. many new concepts. Renowned futurist Alvin Toffl er My wife and I spent most of the pandemic, close to once predicted that “the illiterate of the 21st century will a year and a half, self-quarantined in a relatively small not be those who cannot read and write, but those who space. We have never been TV watchers, but suddenly we cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.” During all this time were caught up in a variety of series. (I could go on a fi ne playing, I had picked up a lot of bad habits that needed rant on how bad most American TV series are, but that’s to be corrected. a little far away from my topic.) I also started to study and I wanted to spend a lot of time studying, especially play a lot of bridge and poker online. no-limit hold’em, for both tournaments and cash games. Online poker is almost a completely diff erent game PokerTracker is also a great tool for studying hands you’ve than live poker. I have always felt live reads and tells were played. You can review all your hands, and even sort them a big part of the game, but now they were gone. In their into specifi c categories like continuation bets on the turn place was a HUD, a Heads Up Display for those of you or big blind vs a raise. e internet has made available a who are uninitiated. I chose PokerTracker, and I’ve been lot of great poker content. happy with it, although I might not be making as full My top recommendation is Jonathan Little’s use of it as I should. It tells me in great detail what each PokerCoaching.com/CardPlayer. There is also regular opponent has done in a variety of situations in a lot of great study material on UpswingPoker.com,

30 CARDPLAYER.COM VOLUME 34 / ISSUE 16

028_SA.indd 30 7/8/21 11:49 AM Strategies, ANALYSIS & Commentary

I have been playing this game for close to 70 years, but modern poker and game theory have uncovered many new concepts. Renowned futurist Alvin Toffler once predicted that “the illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.” During all this time playing, I had picked up a lot of bad habits that needed to be corrected.

SolveForWhyAcademy.com, RunItOnce.com, and provided a big windfall. e first was getting involved SplitSuit.com. If you enjoy watching players actually with Bitcoin for financial transactions on ACR. Somehow playing, while listening to expert commentary, PokerGO my timing was flawless, and I made a big profit there. I is the best option, but you can also search YouTube for a assumed that I wouldn’t be alone in wanting to play a lot lot of readily-available content. of online poker, so I also decided to invest in PokerStars, Lastly, there is some great software for hand analysis, whose stock traded in Canada as e Stars Group. Within like PioSOLVER and ICMizer. While I haven’t really a few months of my investment, they were acquired by leaped into using them, I have two friends/coaches (Matt Flutter Entertainment, resulting in another nice profit. Affleck and Justin Saliba) who have provided me with After I was vaccinated and the pandemic seemed to some output. be winding down, I was ready to return to live poker. I started playing on Americas Cardroom and some I endured a few sessions at Aria and Bellagio behind other sites, and my actual playing result was a small plexiglass partitions. In May, even those started to be loss (perhaps somewhat due to experimentation and the removed. implementation of new strategies and tactics.) Since much of my online play and study had I also had two somewhat accidental brilliancies that focused on tournaments, I wanted to play some live

ANALYSISAnalysis TOURNAMENT HAND MATCHUP In the four days prior to making the fi nal table of this $25,000 buy-in event, David Peters had made three 2021 U.S. Poker Open fi nal tables and won two titles. By making the top $25,000 No-Limit Hold’em Event three, Peters had moved into fi rst place in the player of the series race for the U.S. Poker Open. e 2016 Dan Shak Card Player Player of the Year award recipient and David Peters World Series of Poker bracelet winner once again found 4,940,000 Chips 2,025,000 Chips himself in the lead at the business end of an event, and was looking to convert that advantage into his 36th 9 5 9 6 career title. Peters picked up a less-than-exciting 9-5 Winning Percentage Winning Percentage off suit in the small blind, but opted to limp in, likely

Before Flop: 21.0% Before Flop: 45.0% with the intention of outmaneuvering his opponent

9 5 6 After Flop: 8.0% 9 After Flop: 92.0% post-fl op. Dan Shak, a businessman with the resume After Turn: 0% After Turn: 100% of a poker pro (including more than $12 million in career tournament cashes) checked his option with 9-6 suited. Peters fl opped no pair, no draw, but began his PREFLOP campaign to take down the pot without showdown by making a bet of one-third the size of the pot. Shak had With three players remaining and blinds of 30,000-60,000 and a big fl opped middle pair on a board with a diamond fl ush blind ante of 60,000, David Peters limped in from the small blind. Dan draw. He called in position and the turn brought an Shak checked his option from the big blind. ace. Neither player could very credibly represent that card, and both checked. e river brought the 10n and Peters sprung into action once again, fi ring 240,000 into the pot of 300,000. Peters was likely trying to K 6 2 A 10 target hands like unimproved queen-high holdings and perhaps even weak pairs of sixes and deuces with his FLOP

TURN bet. Shak made the call after some consideration and

RIVER looked a bit surprised by the hand he was shown as he

A 10 6 2 K dragged the pot. “Nine high?” he queried, “Yeah,” came the quick reply from the always-reserved Peters. Shak Peters bet 60,000, and Shak Peters checked, Peters bet was ultimately eliminated in third place in this event, and Shak 240,000, and securing $224,250 for the 29th six-ﬁ gure score of his called. tournament career. checked. Shak called.

NOTE: WINNING PERCENTAGES DO NOT INCLUDE TIES. ODDS PROVIDED BY CARDPLAYER.COM/POKER-TOOLS/ODDS-CALCULATOR/TEXAS-HOLDEM

028_SA.indd 31 7/8/21 11:49 AM Strategies, ANALYSIS & Commentary

events. e US Poker Open in the PokerGO studio at hands involved. m Aria was on deck, consisting of a series of $10,000 buy-in events, followed by a $25,000 and a $50,000 event. ese Steve ‘Zee’ Zolotow aka The Bald Eagle or events were by no means soft, and promised to be fi lled Zebra is a very successful gamesplayer. He has with the best tournament players in the world. been a full-time gambler for over 40 years. With I decided I could aff ord to play somewhere around two WSOP bracelets, over 60 cashes, and a few million in tournament cashes, he is easing into three to fi ve of the $10,000 tournaments, looking at it as retirement. He currently devotes most of his more of a learning opportunity than as a plus-equity ven- Vegas gaming time to poker, and can be found ture. My modest goal was to break even, while observing in cash games at Aria and Bellagio and at tournaments during the what these sharks did and learn from them. WSOP. When escaping from poker, he spends the spring and the fall In my next column, I’ll reveal how I did (Editor’s in New York City where he hangs out at his bars: Doc Holliday’s, The Spoiler: Pretty damn good!) and discuss some of the Library, and DBA. VANESSA KADE’S HEATER By Gavin Griffi n

Sometimes it feels like the poker responded by calling her a derogatory gods can be out to get you. You can name. feel that, no matter what you do, no e fallout was that she was then matter how big of a favorite you are, swept up in a whirlwind of poker that a bad card is waiting for you on media takes about the subject and, the river. subsequently released from her affi liate And then there are times where it deal with GGPoker as a result. feels like nothing can go wrong, you Americas Cardroom jumped on the are always making the right decision, opportunity to add her to their own and you are always up against exactly team, and the move paid off big almost every hand that’s going on at the table. the right hand. immediately after. Just a few days You’re paying attention to the little I had a nearly year-long stretch after announcing that she would be an things that make up a live poker game where I won or fi nal-tabled some huge ambassador for ACR, Vanessa won the that you don’t get in an online tourna- percentage of the tournaments I played 15th Anniversary Sunday Million tour- ment, like who’s feeling tilted, who is from 2007 to 2008. I didn’t enter that nament for around $1.5 million. e feeling full of themselves, what banter many events, but I managed to cash tournament had just under 70,000 is going on, who is drunk or nearly for around $4 million. e vast major- entrants and she won it outright, with there. All of these things make you feel ity of that was profi t as there weren’t no deal, a feat that is even more rare. more in tune with the game around $100,000 buy-in high roller events at After racking up some more online you and, in my opinion, off ers a more the time and if there were, I certainly results, she’s now heading to the live holistic feeling of pride and excitement wouldn’t have been playing in them. arena to take on a diff erent game. than you get from doing well in online One player who currently fi nds Doing well in Sunday tournaments tournaments. themselves on a heater is Vanessa online is an incredible feat and takes I’ve watched players I don’t know go Kade, and it feels like a karmic justice. great skill (as well as luck.) Playing on a run and even gotten tired of seeing First, the disclaimer. Saying some- well and winning a bunch in $10,000 their name everywhere (I’m looking at one is having a good run of results to $25,000 buy-in, small-fi eld live you Fedor Holz). I’ve witnessed people doesn’t mean that you think they’re tournaments, however, is a diff erent I don’t think are very good win a bunch only having success because of good beast altogether. as well (I’m not naming any). And I’ve luck. Every person who plays poker Kade ventured to Las Vegas for the seen people that I consider friends have experiences runs of good and bad luck recent US Poker Open, and it was there incredible stretches (Justin Bonomo) at diff erent points in their career. A that she proved herself among the and been rooting for more for them. run of good luck makes bad players game’s best with two fi nal tables, and Hopefully Vanessa’s heater is just get- look good, good players look great, nearly a quarter of a million dollars in ting started. m and great players look like the best that earnings. have ever lived. e feeling of doing well in a live Gavin Griffin was the If you’re out of the loop on why tournament is almost irreplaceable. first poker player to this feels like karmic justice, allow When playing online, you’re often capture a World Series me to catch you up. Earlier this year, playing multiple tournaments at once, of Poker, European Poker Tour and World perhaps watching a TV show, cram- Vanessa chose to speak up about Poker Tour title and has GGPoker’s signing of Dan Bilzerian ming food in your face so you can amassed nearly $5 mil- as a brand ambassador. She took issue keep your energy up. When you’re lion in lifetime tournament winnings. Griffin is with his behavior toward women, and going deep in a live tournament, the sponsored by HeroPoker.com. You can follow as if to really drive home her point, he focus is diff erent. You’re engaged in him on Twitter @NHGG

32 CARDPLAYER.COM VOLUME 34 / ISSUE 16

028_SA.indd 32 7/8/21 11:49 AM Strategies, ANALYSIS & Commentary

Contracts and Poker: The Social Contract By Scott J. Burnham

n this column I have often discussed the terms of in the sole and absolute discretion of Rio, is inconsistent the contract that is formed informally with the with the official rules or best interests of the Tournament.” poker room or casino when you enter a tournament. Similarly, TDA Rule 1 permits the floor to make decisions Sometimes the contract may be more formal, as in “the best interest of the game and fairness”: Iwhen you enter a tournament sponsored by the WPT or WSOP, or when you play online, and you have to agree to Floor Decisions. e best interest of the game and a multitude of terms and conditions. fairness are top priorities in decision-making. Unusual But it can also be helpful to think of your relationship circumstances occasionally dictate that common-sense with the other players at the table or in the tournament decisions in the interest of fairness take priority over as if you had a contract with them. Players sometimes say technical rules. there is no rule to cover a particular situation, but this is not so. ere is always a rule to cover a situation, even if Contract law can help us discover what is in “the best it can’t be found in print in the Rules of the Tournament interest of the game.” Directors Association (TDA) or the WSOP. When we agree to a contract, we give up some of our For example, a number of years ago there was a fellow autonomy for the benefit of those in the contract with us. playing at the WSOP main event who thought it would is idea goes way back, probably further than Rousseau’s make him luckier if he did not bathe for the duration of Social Contract of 1762, but you can find it there if you the tournament. Unfortunately for those seated near him, want to look. he made a deep run. But the good news is that a contract is a win-win situ- Finally, after complaints to the floor, he was led away, ation for the parties who agree to it. We enter into it vol- screaming, “Show me where in the rules it says you have untarily because, as the economists would put it, we are to take a shower!” In fact, the WSOP later adopted such getting something that has more utility for us than what a rule, but even without an express rule on point, the we are giving up. ose in the contract are looking WSOP Rules state that “Rio will penalize any act that, out for their own interests, but they have to respect

ANALYSISAnalysis TOURNAMENT HAND MATCHUP Ivan Zufi c was the fi rst Croation player to ever win a 2021 U.S. Poker Open World Series of Poker bracelet. He overcame a fi eld of 15,205 entries to win $843,460 as the champion of the $25,000 No-Limit Hold’em Event $500 buy-in ‘mini main event’ during the international segment of the 2020 WSOP Online. Zufi c fell to the Ivan Zufic David Peters shortest stack at this fi nal table with fi ve players remaining, but managed to fi ght his way back into contention 2,215,000 Chips 5,450,000 Chips with daring moves like the one he pulled in this hand. Zufi c was still the shortest stack but had rebuilt to more 9 7 A 8 than 27 big blinds by the time he picked up 9-7 suited Winning Percentage Winning Percentage on the button. Zufi c min-raised to 160,000. David

Before Flop: 43.0% Before Flop: 57.0% Peters, who sat with nearly 70 big blinds, looked down

9 7 A After Flop: N/A 8 After Flop: N/A at A-8 suited and decided to three-bet, making it 3.25 After Turn: N/A After Turn: N/A times the size of Zufi c’s initial raise to continue. Peters likely fi gured that Zufi c could open a wide range of hands from the button and might not be so keen to take PREFLOP a fl op with much of that range with roughly 1.7 million behind and a pot that had ballooned to 1.2 million. With three players remaining and blinds of 40,000-80,000 and a big Zufi c was likely aware that Peters could three-bet him blind ante of 80,000, Ivan Zufi c raised to 160,000 from the button. light given the stack dynamic, and opted to counter David Peters three-bet to 520,000 from the small blind. Zufi c four-bet that tactic by four-betting all-in with his lowly suited one-gapper. Zufi c was likely freed up to make a move all-in for 2,215,000 total, and Peters folded. like this by the fact that he was the shortest stack at the table, even if he was less than four big blinds behind the second-largest stack. From an ICM (Independent Chip Model) perspective, the short stack can be more open to taking a stand like Zufi c did in this hand than the medium-stacked player, who should be wary of busting before the shorter player given the $120,750 payjump between third and second. Zufi c took down the pot with his shove, and in the process moved into second place on the chip counts. ree-handed play continued for more than two hours, with many more shifts in the stack dynamics along the way.

NOTE: WINNING PERCENTAGES DO NOT INCLUDE TIES. ODDS PROVIDED BY CARDPLAYER.COM/POKER-TOOLS/ODDS-CALCULATOR/TEXAS-HOLDEM

028_SA.indd 33 7/8/21 11:50 AM Strategies, ANALYSIS & Commentary

the interests of the other party to the contract as well. able. e other day I was watching the U.S. Poker Open. For example, there is a book by Tracy Kidder called A player coughed into his elbow, and was complimented House about a wealthy man who hired a couple of local by the announcers, but moments later the same player craftsmen to build a house. He was very tough during coughed loudly into his hand and proceeded to handle negotiations and extracted a number of concessions for the cards and chips as if nothing had happened. e his benefi t. But while performing the contract, the build- announcers were aghast, though as far as I could see, his ers often had a number of decision points where they fellow players remained silent. ough not specifi cally could either do a fi rst-class job or one that was “good against any rules, certainly it is not reasonable to spread enough.” Holding a grudge because of their treatment germs in this manner, even if there were not a pandemic. during negotiations, they often chose the latter. Contracts also have a mechanism for resolving dis- One principle that guides our behavior in a contract putes. As a last resort, it might mean going to court, but is “custom and usage.” In contract law, the custom and few disputes end up there. Most of them are worked out usage that supplements the terms of a contract often by the parties, and contract law encourages the parties to comes from a trade or business. For example, if you talk to each other to try to work things out. If that doesn’t agreed to purchase 100,000 bushels of wheat and received work, informal procedures like mediation and arbitra- only 98,000, you would know better than to scream tion might resolve it. Similarly, the players at a table can breach of contract at the seller, because in that trade, apply peer pressure to try to control a player who is out of amounts are not exact, but can vary by up to 5%. And line. If that doesn’t work, the dispute can be taken to the even if you don’t actually know it, you are still bound by dealer or ultimately resolved by the fl oor. the usage because you should know it. Similarly, in poker, So, in summary, when you are playing at the table, feel in addition to the written rules, such as TDA Rules and free to try to maximize your return by beating the pants House Rules, there are other rules that everyone who off the other players. But also remember that we are all in plays the game ought to know. this together. If you think of yourself as having a contract Another guiding principle is to act in “good faith.” In with the other players and do your best to be honest and contract law, good faith means being honest and reason- reasonable while performing that contract, you will fi nd able. ese principles should keep the “angle-shooter” that everyone benefi ts. m in check. A player who habitually lies about where the button is supposed to be, or how many chips he has when Scott J. Burnham is Professor Emeritus asked, is probably not breaking any rules, but is not act- at Gonzaga University School of Law in ing in good faith and should not be welcome at the table. Spokane, Washington. He can be reached at In addition to being honest, a player should be reason- [email protected]. ANALYSISAnalysis TOURNAMENT HAND MATCHUP e fi rst hand of heads-up play in this event was also 2021 U.S. Poker Open the last. e fi nal two players both picked up pocket pairs, but the chips did not all get in the middle pre- $25,000 No-Limit Hold’em Event fl op. Defending USPO champion David Peters took an interesting approach to playing his hand, starting by limping in with his pocket tens from the button. David Peters Ivan Zufic Ivan Zufi c raised with his pocket nines, making it 8,125,000 Chips 2,225,000 Chips 475,000 to go. Peters could have three-bet all-in at this point, and could have very well received a call. 10 10 9 9 Instead he opted to just call. e fl op brought a single Winning Percentage Winning Percentage overcard to both players’ pocket pairs. Zufi c had the

Before Flop: 81.0% Before Flop: 18.0% lead, and opted to bet 375,000 of his remaining

10 10 1,600,000. Peters called and the turn brought the 9 After Flop: 92.0% 9 After Flop: 8.0% After Turn: 91.0% After Turn: 9.0% 10p to give him a set. With another overcard to his pair now out there, Zufi c decided to check. Peters checked behind with his set of tens and the river PREFLOP brought a blank. Zufi c checked again after about 25 seconds of consideration. Peters went into the tank for just shy of a minute before he announced that he With two players remaining and blinds of 75,000-150,000 and a big was all-in, putting Zufi c to the test for his remaining blind ante of 150,000, David Peters limped in from the button. Zufi c 1,225,000. “We both can see that if Peters chose to raised to 475,000 from the big blind, and Peters called. fast-play prefl op, all the chips would have gone in, but the way that this hand has gone post-fl op, he might actually get Ivan to commit either way,” commented PokerGO analyst Maria Ho. After more than a minute of thought, Zufi c made the call with his pocket Q 8 3 10 4 nines, hoping to pick off a bluff from Peters, who was

FLOP obviously more than capable of making such a move. TURN

RIVER Zuﬁ c’s hand was second best this time, however, and

10 4 8 3 Q he was eliminated. e Croatian took home $345,000 as the runner-up fi nisher, the largest live tournament score of his career. Peters secured his third title of the Zufi c bet 375,000, and Zufi c checked, Zufi c checked, and Peters USPO, securing the $465,750 top prize and a lead in Peters called. and Peters moved all-in. Zufi c called the series standings. is victory helped him secure checked. all-in for 1,225,000. his second consecutive USPO player of the series title.

NOTE: WINNING PERCENTAGES DO NOT INCLUDE TIES. ODDS PROVIDED BY CARDPLAYER.COM/POKER-TOOLS/ODDS-CALCULATOR/TEXAS-HOLDEM

34 CARDPLAYER.COM VOLUME 34 / ISSUE 16

028_SA.indd 34 7/8/21 11:50 AM Vol. 33/No. 23 November 4, 2020 www.CardPlayer.com Vol. 33/No. 15 July 15, 2020

www.CardPlayer.com New Jersey Sets Record For Online Gaming Revenue

Life Variance And What To Do During A Pandemic

Making The Best Deal Michael Addamo Wins$100K WPT World Online Championships High Roller

Jonathan Little: Stop Raising With Top Pair

Kevin Haney: Having A Scoop -Better Advantage -InOr FARID JATTIN’S BREAKOUT Stud Eight YEAR ON PAUSE HIGH-STAKES POKER PRO KAHLE BURNSCOLOMBIAN TRAVELS PRO, NOW WITH MORE THAN $5.6 MILLION IN LIFETIME THE WORLD LOOKING FOR ACTIONWINNINGS, HAD RACKED UP MORE THAN $1.2 MILLION IN 2020 31-Year-Old High Roller Nears The Top Of Australia’s All-Time Money List

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36 CARDPLAYER.COM VOLUME 34 / ISSUE 16

036_Schedules.indd 36 7/8/21 11:50 AM Schedules

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036_Schedules.indd 37 7/8/21 11:50 AM Poker Leaderboards

Brian Altman

Gus Hansen

Darren Elias

James Carroll WPT MAIN EVENT TITLES

Player(s) WPT Titles Darren Elias 4 Brian Altman, Carlos Mortensen, Gus Hansen, Anthony Zinno, Eric Afriat, Chino Rheem 3

Daniel Negreanu, Mcihael Mizrachi, Tuan Le, Jonathan Little, Alan Goehring, J.C. Tran, Hoyt Corkins, Erick Lindgren, Antonio Esfandiari, Mohsin Charania, James Carroll, Cornel Cimpan, Kevin Eyster, Barry Greenstein, Sam Panzica, Tommy Vedes, Marvin Rettenmaier, Matthew Waxman, Daniel 2 Weinman, Art Papazyan, Randal Flowers, Aaron Mermelstein, Erkut Yilmaz, Tony Ruberto, Matt Giannetti

There are 188 players who have won a World Poker Tour main tour title since the first WPT event was taken down by Gus Hansen at the Bellagio back in 2002. Only 32 of those players have managed to win multiple main tour titles in the 19 years since. The all-time leader in main tour titles for the WPT is Darren Elias, with four such wins to his name. The 34-year- old poker professional earned his first victory on the tour in September of 2014 by taking down the Borgata Poker Open main event for $843,744. Less than two months later he won the WPT Caribbean main event for another $127,680. Elias’ third victory came in the 2017 WPT Fallsview Poker Classic, which saw him earn another $335,436. In the spring of 2018, he became the first player to ever win four main tour titles by emerging victorious in the WPT Bobby Baldwin Classic, banking another $387,580. The New Jersey native also leads the tour in final tables (12) and overall cashes (41). There are six players who can join Elias at the top of the leaderboard with another win on the WPT. Brian Altman joined that three-time winner’s club in June by overcoming a field of 1,165 entries to win the 2021 WPT Seminole Hard Rock Tampa main event for $613,225. Prior to this win, Altman had already secured a unique distinction in the WPT history books as the first player to ever win the same main event twice. Altman’s first title came in the 2015 Lucky Hearts Poker Open. He defeated a field of 1,027 entries that year for $723,008, and went on to win that exact event five years later, outlasting 843 entries to earn another $482,636. With his latest title, Altman joins the likes of Elias, Carlos Mortensen, Gus Hansen, Anthony Zinno, Eric Afriat, and Chino Rheem as one of just seven players to have won three or more WPT victories. Two-time WPT champion James Carroll recently had a chance to join the three-timers club, but ultimately fell just short when he finished third in the 2020 L.A. Poker Classic. The tournament played out in May after being delayed for more than a year due to the pandemic. Though he didn’t win, he did manage to improve on his seventh-place finish in that event from the year prior.

38 CARDPLAYER.COM VOLUME 34 / ISSUE 16

038_Leaderboard.indd 38 7/8/21 11:47 AM PLAYER_16_OceansEleven_FP.indd 3 7/7/21 8:26 AM PLAYER_16_TheBike_FP.indd 3 7/7/21 8:25 AM