Speedyfold Poker Blog

You dont need to know the game to win a tournament

JohnnyBax is a poor PL Omaha Hi-Lo player, that is certain. He lacks experience, and his game needs huge amounts of refinement and work. I am one of the few actually qualified to make this statement. Slightly arrogant I know, but nevertheless it is a fact.

However JohnnyBax is a great poker player. One of the best no quesion about it. A legend in his own time.

His recent win in the FTOPS PL Omaha Hi-Lo is testiment to the fact that you dont really need to know a game that well to win. And I am not saying JohnnyBax was lucky either. What I am saying is that his poker instincts are so good that the actual ability or experience in the specific game didnt really matter.

Recently in the 2008 WSOP we also saw a similar case. Mike Matusow freely admitted he had no clue how to play 2-7 Triple Draw. But what the man knew was how to play No Limit. His ability in terms of reads/timing, and piling on the pressure against selected opponents at the right stages of the tournament (etc) was enough to win the bracelet. A refined ability and understanding in the game was not important.

WCOOP 2008 Main Event

This is the current online MTT stats of the final table players

ckingusc $55,623 profit
liberace $79,181 profit
AJKHoosier1 $379,240 profit
Markush13 - Negative ROI from 333 MTTs, Qualified via a $215 satellite
ShoesRDurrty - Negative ROI from 11 MTTs, ABI $20!
Sumpas - Negative ROI from 335 MTTs, Qualified via a $215 satellite
klslcz - Negative ROI from 558 MTTs
BOLLPOKER - Negative ROI from 125 MTTs
kovi99 - Negative ROI from 801 MTTs

125 players entered the $10,300 HORSE Event in the WCOOP. A tough contest saw DocHolatchya beat PokerStars Pro aakkari to the bracelet

1 DocHolatchya United States $287,500.00
2 aakkari Brazil $200,000.00
3 crazyjanie United States $150,000.00
4 pycb United States $112,500.00
5 pumped4good United States $75,000.00
6 djk123 United States $59,375.00
7 7CardRyon United States $46,875.00
8 gipsy74 Russian Federation $38,750.00
9 MadCaddy United States $25,000.00
10 Empire2000 United States $25,000.00
11 goodolehank United States $25,000.00
12 MrSmokey1 United States $25,000.00
13 Humberto B. Costa Rica $18,750.00
14 ozenc Netherlands $18,750.00
15 floes United States $18,750.00
16 jerrod United States $18,750.00
17 Exclusive Netherlands $13,125.00
18 double joker United States $13,125.00
19 THAY3R United States $13,125.00
20 LeeNelsonP* New Zealand $13,125.00
21 gibralter11 United States $13,125.00
22 bigjoe2003 United States $13,125.00
23 str8flushin5 United States $13,125.00
24 astarisborn United States $13,125.00

WCOOP Event 5 - NL Holdem

A great event to look forward to is Event 5 of the WCOOP on PokerStars on 7th Sept. This is the high roller $10,300 buy-in NLHE.  Standard table size of 9 players at a table.

Currently there are 36 entrants, 13 of which are from Team PokerStars itself.  Those entrants are as follows:

aakkari (Team PokerStars)
Allingomes
Bebop86
Born2Dogbaby
ChadBrownPRO
Dariominieri (Team PokerStars)
DOTTT
Exclusive (Team PokerStars)
GavinGriffin (Team PokerStars)
Goral
holla @ yoboy
HouseeLover
jcamby33
John Duthie (Team PokerStars)
Katja Thater (Team PokerStars)
klslcz
Kravchenko (Team Pokerstars)
LadyMaverick (Team PokerStars)
LucaPagano (Team PokerStars)
MiniTilt
Money800 (Team PokerStars)
Moorman1
nofingclue11
snake8484
stevesbets
stevejpa (Team PokerStars)
stpauli111
taktloss47
Telefonkiosk
THE__D__RY
tjbentham
Tom McEvoy (Team PokerStars)
Tulkaz
VictorRamdin (Team PokerStars)
William

Each player gets 25,000 starting chips and the blind speed is 30 mins per level, starting at 25/50

lilholdem954 on PokerStars, jse81 on Full Tilt, M8kingmoves on Party Poker, Chad Batista in real life.

Ultra aggressive and a feared player on all major sites. Not a professer of the math, but a natural of judgement and timing. Has the discipline when needed as well.

Has won :-
Party Poker Sunday Million (also a 3rd as well)
FullTilt Sunday Million
40 MTTs on Stars (including numerous $109 rebuys)
PokerStars $1k Super Tuesday
FullTilt $1k Monday (x2)
FullTilt New Years Resolution ($46,000)

Winnings
Stars - over $1.5 million
Full Tilt - over $800K
Party Poker - over $300K
Live - over $400K

pbdrunks is definately, increasinly, becoming one of the top online players. This was even more evident when he recently final tabled a Sunday Million, finishing 8th, for $26K. This was not longer after winning 15k in a $55 rebuy.

Here are pbdrunks’s stats:-

Winnings :- $491,219
Profit $233,690
ROI :- 91%
Tournaments :- 2460
Average Buy-in :- $105
Top Ten Percent of field :- 15% of tourneys

ComeOnPhish has had a great January, but he is still slightly lower than some of the great online players with his TTP stat. I nevertheless rate him as quite possibly the best rebuy player online.

ComeOnPhish Stats :-

Winnings :- $287,121
Profit :- $180,155

ROI = 168%
ITM = 14% (88 cashes from 622 tourneys)
TTP (Top Ten Percent of field) = 12%

11 Wins
6 Second places

Annette_15 is a truely awesome player. She shows what is possible if you are prepared to grind it up over the years

Annette_15 Stats :-

$530,931 winnings
$389,111 Profit

274% ROI
134 cashes out of 790 tourneys
Equilvalent to 17% ITM

Top Ten Percent of field = 15% of time

11 tourney wins
10 tourney second places

Rizen (Poker Stars) - big tournament winner online plus good WSOP cashes
Strassa2 (Poker Stars) - Winner of a major WCOOP title
Bigriskkyy (Party Poker) - Consistent performer with a 40k Fri night special and a WSOP bracelet under his belt
Wealthyfish (Party Poker) - consistant performer over many years (formerly Lordhutty)
KidWonder (Party Poker) - An Omaha pro and big cash game player
Kvelerslange (Party Poker) - 2 time winner of the Party Poker Million
phatcat (Poker Stars) - a consistant performer on many sites
Annette_15 (Poker Stars) - final table finisher in the WCOOP 2006 main event
kwob20 (Poker Stars) - 2 times bracelet winner in the 2006 WCOOP
Theo_Retical (Party Poker) - prolific on Party, particularly in Omaha
DrParkinson (Party Poker) - simirly to above
ComeOnPhish - a NL rebuy legend
CrazyMarco (Poker Stars) - a very consistant performer on many sites
SamENole (Poker Stars) - many impressive big cashes on Poker Stars
Apestyles (Poker Stars) - a very consistant performer on many sites

Please feel free to comment giving additional suggestions. I will gradually update the list and achievements.