Speedyfold Poker Blog

February isnt even over yet and the race for the first player to reach Supernova Elite in 2011 on Pokerstars is well and truely on. Several players are up around 700,000 VPPs, with 1 million VPPs being the target to get the coveted stauts.

One person in the running, Isildur1 has been playing long sessions of heads-up 25/50 and also Heads-up $5600 SNGs. However despite this volume he is nonchalent or previously oblivious to the SNE race. Pretty sick to be one of the main contenders without really trying for it or not particularly caring. This is highlighted best by the following conversation at the table where azntracker is talking about given up on the race if Isildur1 plans to keep playing the volume he’s playing.

azntracker: Hey isildur, i was just wondering what your intentions are for VPPs
azntracker: Right now it’s me and you #1/#2
Isildur1: What
Isildur1: u mean 1 and 2
Isildur1: i got no intentions
azntracker: ah cool
Isildur1: why?
azntracker: ah, well ive been playing a ton to try get 1mm as soon as i can
Isildur1: how much u got now
azntracker: but your 5k HU will kill me if you keep going
azntracker: i got 623k now, u?
Isildur1: ok
Isildur1: little less than you i think
Isildur1: is there any prize?
azntracker: are you going to be grinding these as much as you have been?
azntracker: no prize
Isildur1: k, no idea
azntracker: if so, i’m gonna stop playing as much as i have been, save me misery haha
Isildur1: u play sng to?
Isildur1: lol
azntracker: yes, but i gotta play 30-40 table all high stakes
Isildur1: right now im playing pretty much
Isildur1: kk
azntracker: by the way, we played at the same PCA table, u busted med day 2 with QQ vs my ATs
azntracker: i had KK two times i 3bet you previously but u folded
Isildur1: ok:/
azntracker: yea you are playing sooo much now
azntracker: are you going to continue playing so much everyday, next week or 2?
Isildur1: yeah mb
Isildur1: what does it matter for u
azntracker: oh well i’d just like to know if i should keep killing myself to get 1mm vpp first
Isildur1: ok, i dont know sry
Isildur1: ilprolly play pretty much
azntracker: it’s just a personal goal of mine to get 1mm first, that’s all
Isildur1: ok well sry i plat theese 5k so much
Isildur1: gonna get some food
Isildur1: glgl
azntracker: good luck!

There was a pretty interesting event at the fixed limit tables recently. In an act of politcal correctness IhateJuice has forced by Full Tilt Poker to change his screen name becamse of complaints that it was phonetically too much like “I hate Jews”. Considering juice/rake is a perfectly reasonable thing for a poker player to hate this seems heavy handed, but what can you do eh. The powers that be have spoken.

Now, IhateJuice is a very good FL Holdem player who has made over $2 million in profit at the FLHE tables on Full Tilt over the last couple of years, mainly at stakes $30/$60 thru to $2000/$4000. More lately it has been very much the higher of these levels.

So, Full Tilt, aware that name changes (particular of such good regulars) are a sensitive issue, informed the FL Holdem regulars via email that IhateJuice has changed his name to “Kagome Kagome” (his chosen alternative).

But he was also allowed to change his location from Germany (where he lives) to Japan, in what he later described as “just for fun”.

Now herein lies the controversy. A player called bicyclekick noticed this guy from Japan by the name of Kagome Kagome whom he had never seen sat at the 30/60 tables. He decided to take a shot against him. bicyclekick started to win some dollars and decided to push Kagome Kagome to play at higher limits. He agreed to this but then bicyclekick went on to lose $7200 until he found out his opponent was in fact IhateJuice. He quit the game but felt he had been hustled by him hiding his identity and allegedly playing sub-par at 30/60 to lead him to believe he had an edge, a fact which IhateJuice denies.

In a generous act IhateJuice shipped 33% of his profits from the game back to bicyclekick, but he was still a little annoyed about the possible unethical nature of the game.

The jury is out. IhateJuice didnt want to change his name, and also for a period had been mentioning it to players at the table after it had happened. It was also decent of him to ship some money back. However name changes are very rare and the “Japan” location does hint at the slight possibilty of a desire to bypass a few bumhunters’ lack of desire to play him. All in all I think IhateJuice didnt do anything wrong really. It was reasonable in-my-opinion to just let Full Tilt inform possible opposition, and carry on as normal. Affected opponents should probably be a little less sensitive, if that doesnt sound a bit harsh. Especially when they often base a lot of their player selection on info that isnt officially permitted by the sites (such as P&L databases).

Chiren80 is perhaps more famous for his other online gaming exploits. He was one of the top players at World of Warcraft (WoW), playing under the name of Athene. During this time he created increasingly more outlandish videos of his games and encounters and lifestyle. This lead to him become somewhat of an online celebrity if there is such a thing.

Athene decided to turn to poker where his experience of WoW is generally thought to be useful in the sense of quick decision making and information processing. At Pokerstars he adopted the screen name Chiren80. Well not content with being average Chiren80 quickly established himself as a high volume regular which let to him eventually becoming a member of Team Pokerstars Online. He is now taken that volume to the extreme and is attempting to play 1 million hands in a month. This is some insane grinding when you work it out. It is 32,358 hands a day, every day for a month. If he plays for 12 straight hours a day that is 2688 hands an hour every hour. Well if he plays 24 tables constantly for those 12 hours then that is still 112 hands an hour. Many tables play slower than that so that basically means he need to play 24 tables at the same time, for a period of longer than 12 hours a day for 31 consecutive days. A truely remarkable feet of grinding if he pulls it off.

And it seems he is actually on target also. He is up to over 750,000 hands with still about a week left. It is going to be close, but if he gets there then it’s a very unique accomplishment that is unlikely to be acheived again any time remotely soon.

You can follow his progress at Pokerstars

After many years as the key big names promoting the Ultimate Bet (UB) poker brand Phil Hellmuth and Annie Duke have called it quits and moved on, by mutual agreement. Hellmuth famous for his grand WSOP entrances and similar UB marketing stunts is reported to possibly be moving on to promote the WSOP itself and/or some of the major Las Vegas casinos. With 11 WSOP bracelets to his name he is certainly well suited in that sort of capacity. Annie Duke is reported to not be considering any endorsement deals right now. Her profile is pretty high with her taking part in Celebrity Apprentice and other TV shows. So she could be a valuable marketing asset at some site.

The reasons for them leaving have not been fully disclosed but it is widely thought to be a combination of factors such as the negativity surrounding the superuser scandal that Hellmuth and Duke whilst defending UB have carried around and been affected by a little of the stigma. Other factors such as UB adopting a more youthful marketing approach have also been mentioned with a move towards a much lower average age for the Team UB pros.

The mysterious Swedish player Isidur1 has joined Pokerstars as one of their official online pros. Isildur1 (widely thought to be Viktor Blom) first came to the world’s attention at the high stakes tables on Full Tilt. In some extreme Heads-up multi-tablling he took on all comers at all stakes. He managed to take $4 million of Tom Dwan’s money in the process, but then ended up losing that to Brian Hastings. A few short-lived comebacks never really fully materialised but with the intense coverage the online sensation received Pokerstars saw him no doubt as a great marketing opporunity. There are Superstar Showdown Challenges planned, and expect to see Isildur as a regular fixture at the high stakes tables on Pokerstars very soon.

The mysterious Isildur1 on Full Tilt has been revealed as retired Swedish ice hockey pro Mats Sundin. He played 11 seasons with the Torono Maple Leafs, the majority of them as team captain.

Since his retirement in Sept 2009 he has been playing a huge amount of online poker player with a view to it being a career post-hockey. Ironically he has already done endorsement work for Full Tilt’s bitter rivals Pokerstars in 2008, although that deal was only a temporary one whilst he was still a NHL player.

For a long time Viktor Blom was widely suspected as Isidur1 but always denied it. Sundin is perhaps a surprise to some but things do add up easy in retrospect. Ex-sportsmen like Benamine and Antonius often look for a new competitive persuit post-retirement. And with Sundin having very substantial amounts of cash and assets and a heavily competitive spirit, poker really fits the bill. At age 39 he is still relateively young in sense of careers vs retirement. With a bit more discipline he could quite easily turn his talents into long term success on the green felt.

Mats Sundin will be playing in the Party Poker Big Game in mid April following his friendly relationship and backing relationship with Tony G (who is heavily involved as a Party Poker Pro)

Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier, the PokerStars Pro, has made an attempt on the SNG volume world record. He needed to make a overall profit from all the simulataneous SNG games in order for the volume to qualify.

After a few feeler attempts, he loaded up a whopping 62 (yes sixty two!) $6.50 SNGs accross 4 screens. Witnessed by an audience of spectators on a big screen he then proceeded to covert the 62 SNGs into an overall profit of $24.67 thus breaking the World Record!!!

That is one crazy volume to manage to convert to profit. Probably needs a warning of “dont try this at home” Congratulations to Elky. It may be a while before anyone gets near to breaking that one

Speculation is always quick to come of “Busto soon” when a new poker player emerges through the ranks on a heater and then heads on a downswing. The chances of the busto soon speculation actually becoming a reality is obviously a lot to do with Bankroll Management and the faith of any backers to stick with the player in question.

We have seen it time and time again, players coming and then blowing their bankroll, with probably the most recent being Kaibuxxe emerging and running up a $3 million profit, but then losing a not disimilar amount after joining the Full Tilt ranks under the new ID of Niki Jedlika.

Now durrrr is the man of the moment, but he has started to run cold and inevitably some calls of “durrrr busto soon” are starting to emerge.

He ran up a $5.4 million profit on Full Tilt in 2008, but this year he is more than $3 million down to date. He is also behind in his 50,000 hand challenge against Patrik Antonius. Should he finish that behind he needs to find $1.5 million to pay off the prize. Now if a player were rolled really really deep, or has very wealthy and patient backers, then it might not be a problem. Sometimes backers are few and far between though for a young maverick at nosebleed stakes. Dangerous waters certainly seem to be approaching.

The problem always comes from the apparent inabililty of a player below about 25 years-old to step down stakes after reaching the top. Blowing the whole roll at the top level is so so much more likely than gradually dropping down the levels. It’s partly to do with ego and partly to do with chasing the losses, thinking it will be impossible to turn them round any time soon by dropping down.

So back to the player in point. Tom “durrrr” Dwan. An excellent cash player, that is certainly not in doubt. But can he control the roll? and can he convince anyone with very deep pockets that millions of dollars of backing are a “sure thing”? Time will tell. I would like to see durrrr emerge and hold-up at the top stakes, but that is far from certain. High stakes cash poker is a cruel game, and the next busto-soon baller is always just around the corner. Good luck durrrr, dont let it be you.

PokerStars pro Gavin Griffin has no shortage of poker talent. He is the first player ever to win titles in all three of the following: WSOP, WPT and EPT

And, he’s not too bad at multi-tabling either. On Sunday I spotted him playing 15 tables at once. Keep up the good work Gavin

Phil Ivey won a near half-million dollar pot last night playing heads-up PLO on Full tilt. Here is how the hand played out:

Ziigmund raises to $3K from the SB
Ivey re-raised to $9K
Ziigmund re-raised to $27K
Ivey re-raied to $81K
Ziigmund calls

Flop: 6d Qd 9c

Ivey bets the pot ($162K)

Ziigmund raises for 2k more, and is all-in

Ivey shows: Ac As 2s 4d
Ziigmund shows: Ks 9s 2c 7c

Turn: 6c
River: Th

Ivey takes down the $491,891 pot