JOAO VIEIRA CLIMBS TO THE TOP OF ONLINE POKER’S ...6 Table of Contents - Card Player Vol. 34/No....

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

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

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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Table of Contents - Card Player Vol. 34/No. 16

CARDPLAYER.COM VOLUME 34 / ISSUE 16

Features22

Joao Vieira Climbs To The Top Of Online Poker’s All-Time Money List

By Steve Schult

26Phil Hellmuth Sweeps Daniel Negreanu In Three Straight Matches To Win High

Stakes Duel IIBy Steve Schult

The Inside Straight8

Poker News Recap

12Head Games: Knowing Your Strengths And Identifying Weakness At The Table

By Craig Tapscott

Tournaments16

Player Of The Year UpdateBy Erik Fast

18Hometown Hero Ben Scrogins Wins CPPT

bestbet Jacksonville Main EventBy Erik Fast

20Tournament Results

By Card Player News Team

Strategies, Analysis & Commentary

28Always Look Both Ways

By Jonathan Little

29Badugi: Donking The River

By Kevin Haney

30Returning To Live Poker After The

Pandemic: Part 1By Steve Zolotow

32Vanessa Kade’s Heater

By Gavin Griffin

33Contracts and Poker: The Social Contract

By Scott J. Burnham

Also In this Issue4

About Us

36Tournament Schedules

38Poker Leaderboards

Tournament Hand Matchups

29Vanessa Kade vs. Ivan Zufic

31David Peters vs. Dan Shak

33Ivan Zufic vs. David Peters

34David Peters vs. Ivan Zufic

22 26

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CARDPLAYER.COM 8 VOLUME 34 / ISSUE 16

� e inaugural $25,000 buy-in World Poker Tour Heads-Up Championship invitational featured 32 players, ranging from top poker pros to online infl uencers and content creators. In the end, it came down to an old-school showdown for the title between two living legends of the game: Phil Ivey and Patrik Antonius.

� e pair have competed at the highest stakes games in the world, from nosebleed stakes online to the largest televised cash games ever. � ey have also both won tens of millions playing tournaments, with more than $42 mil-lion in combined cashes between them.

After all was said and done, it was Ivey who emerged victorious with the title and the top prize of $400,000. � e 44-year-old WPT champion and 10-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner now has more than $31 million in lifetime tournament earnings to his name.

Ivey faced four professional poker players on his way to the title, starting with tournament specialist and recent WSOP bracelet winner Manig Loeser in the round of 32. Ivey defeated Loeser, splitting the fi rst two rounds and winning the deciding third round to set up a sweet 16 match against 2015 Card Player Player of the

Year Anthony Zinno. His next opponent was anoth-

er POY winner in 2019 cham-pion 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,

was able to get one win, but failed to move on to the round of 16. � ere Antonius was met by three-time WSOP bracelet winner and high-stakes heads-up specialist Doug Polk. Polk was coming off of arguably the most hyped match of the fi rst round against Tom Dwan, but was swept by Antonius in two straight matches.

� e quarterfi nal matchup pitted Antonius against Stefan ‘Stefan11222’ Burakov, a high-stakes player from Russia who made a deep run in the 2020 WSOP Online $10,000 buy-in heads-up bracelet event. After dispatching him, Antonius faced off against Canadian high roller and brace-let winner Sam Greenwood. Once again, Antonius won two straight, making the fi nals and sending Greenwood to the virtual rail with a $100,000 consolation prize.

Other notable pros in the fi eld included Dan Smith, Jean Robert Bellande, Timothy Adams, Brad Owen, Daniel Dvoress, Andrew Lichtenberger, Darren Elias, Nick Petrangelo, Nick Schulman, Olivier Busquet, Linus ‘LLinusLLove’ Loeliger, and Wiktor ‘Limitless’ Malinowski.

� e fi nals featured a best-of-fi ve format, meaning the champion would have to win three matches to earn the

THE INSIDE STRAIGHT

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PHIL IVEY DEFEATS PATRIK ANTONIUS TO WIN WORLD POKER TOUR ONLINE HEADS-UP CHAMPIONSHIPBy Erik Fast

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DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE DECLINES TO APPEAL LATEST WIRE ACT RULING, MAKES INTERSTATE ONLINE POKER LEGALBy Steve Schult

title and the top prize of $400,000. �e first match saw Ivey jump out to an early lead, making trip sevens on the river to win the first pot of consequence against Antonius’ flopped pair of queens. Not long after that the chips got in preflop with Ivey holding pocket nines to Antonius’ A� 8�. Neither player improved and Ivey took a 1-0 lead.

�e second match saw Ivey take another big lead, this time by picking off a bluff with trips. Antonius later tried to run a multi-street bluff with an unimproved king high, but Ivey sniffed it out again with pocket jacks to take a 2-0 lead.

�e third round saw Antonius take a slight lead early on. In the key hand of the round, he raised from the button with A� 6�. Ivey defended his big blind with 4� 3� and the flop came down 6� 5� 2�. Ivey checked, and Antonius bet with top pair, top kicker. Ivey check-raised

and Antonius made the call. �e turn brought the A� to give Antonius top two pair. Ivey bet and Antonius called. �e 2� completed the board and Ivey moved all-in. Antonius called with his aces and sixes, only to find he had run into a straight.

Ivey took a commanding lead, leaving Antonius with less than nine big blinds. He managed to double up twice to get back to a playable stack, but was unable to keep up the rally. He eventually called off the last of his chips with Q� J�. Ivey held A� 10�, and the board ran out 9� 5� 3� 3� 3� to give him the final pot of the tournament.

Final Results1 – Phil Ivey -- $400,002 – Patrik Antonius -- $200,000T3 – Sam Greenwood -- $100,000T3 – Christopher Kruk -- $100,000

Interstate online poker is officially legal as the saga sur-rounding 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 its 2011 opinion on the legislation. The original law, passed in 1961, stated that using a “wire communication facility” for gambling purposes was illegal. Its original intent was to curb organized crime activity as illegal sports betting was one of the mob’s largest business ventures.

It was one of the laws used to prosecute those during the federal government’s crackdown of online poker in 2011. After Black Friday, however, the DOJ issued a legal opinion that stated the Wire Act only applied to sports betting, which effectively made online poker legal in the United State.

As several states began legalizing and regulating the activity, there was an appetite for interstate compacts to increase the traffic and ultimately, the liquidity of the player pool. When states first began licensing online cardrooms, poker players could only compete against those that were also inside the state’s borders.

In 2014, however, Delaware and Nevada decided to share player pools. Four years later, New Jersey jumped in and allowed players in those three states to battle against one another. WSOP.com is the only site licensed in all three states, making it the only provider eligible for the compact. PokerStars and the other providers in New Jersey are not allowed to do business in Nevada or Delaware yet.

But in January 2019, the DOJ put the legality of that

compact in jeopardy by stating that all forms of interstate online gambling was illegal.

While interstate compacts could dissolve and states could go back to intrastate online poker, the New Hampshire Lottery was running its servers from another state, which put the legality of the entire operation in question. �e New Hampshire Lottery filed suit against the DOJ and shortly afterwords got a favorable ruling when a U.S. District Judge struck down the DOJ’s new legal opinion on the law.

In August, the DOJ filed an appeal, but the COVID-19 pandemic delayed the process long enough so that the first appeal wasn’t heard until last January, which upheld the District Court’s ruling.

By the time the most recent ruling was made, President Joe Biden was elected into office and his administration had much less of a desire to pursue this legal battle. During his campaign, Biden said that his administration would revert to the 2011 view of the Wire Act.

Since the battle over the Wire Act began, Pennsylvania and Michigan launched online poker markets, while West Virginia and Connecticut legalized the activity.

With the most recent development ending any legal ambiguity, coupled with Michigan legislation that explic-itly allows for interstate online player pools, there is likely an expansion in shared online poker player pools coming soon. �

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THE INSIDE STRAIGHT - News, reviews, and interviews from around the poker world

VOLUME 34 / ISSUE 16

OHIO SPORTS BETTING BILL ADVANCES By Steve Schult

South Florida City Bans Gambling To Keep Donald Trump From Building CasinoBy Card Player News Team

�e Ohio Senate passed a bill that would legalize sports betting in the Buckeye State by a whopping 30-2 margin with just one senator abstaining from the vote.

�e bill now heads to the house and if it passes through the lower chamber, it will head to Gov. Mike DeWine’s desk where it could be signed into law. Earlier this year, DeWine called legalized sports betting “inevitable,” making it likely he will sign the legislation.

According to a report from the Cincinnati Enquirer, SB 176 passed after several months of hearings on the issue. The bill that eventually passed would allow for both online and retail sports betting within the state’s borders.

It puts 58 sports betting licenses up for grabs, with 33 allotted for brick-and-mortar facilities and another 25 available for online or mobile wagering. Casinos, racinos, professional sports franchises, and other businesses could apply for a retail license, but the $1 million fee will keep smaller operations from obtaining one.

In a last-minute change to the bill, bars and restaurants that sell alcohol could apply for a “Type C” license that would allow them to put up to two sports betting kiosks in their businesses. �ese licenses cost much less than the other two with a $6,000 price tag attached to it, although the vendor would need to pay a $100,000 application fee,

which would once again keep smaller properties from acquiring it.

Most states that share a border with Ohio have already legalized sports betting. Michigan, Indiana, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania all have launched sports betting markets. Kentucky is the only neighboring state without it.

�e proposal would put the Ohio Casino Control Commission in charge of distributing the licenses and regu-lating the market. Betting on all professional and collegiate sporting events would be allowed, including college games that take place in the state.

Operators would pay a 10% tax rate to the state, most of which would fund the state’s public education programs, with 2% of it funding problem gambling programs. It is estimated that passing the bill would bring in between $17 million and $23 million in additional annual tax revenue.

If everything goes smoothly and DeWine signs the bill this session, the earliest Ohioans could start placing bets would be April 1, 2022.

It’s not guaranteed to be passed this session, however. While it seems that those in the House are at least sympa-thetic to sports betting, it’s reported that they are already preparing a lot of changes to the bill before they send it to DeWine. �

A city in South Florida banned casinos just as former President Donald Trump was likely getting ready to build one in it.

According to a report from Business Insider, the Doral city council voted 4-0 to ban gambling within its city limits. �e city is home to Trump National Doral Miami, a golf resort owned by the former president and run by his son, Eric.

Last March, the younger Trump told the Washington Post that he hoped to turn the property into a casino to boost revenues for the struggling golf facility. When Gov. Ron DeSantis agreed to a new gaming compact with the Seminole Tribe the following month, it opened the doors for Trump to turn that desire into a reality.

As part of the new compact, which will legalize sports betting and expand gaming options at Seminole casinos if passed at the federal level, the Seminole Tribe gave up its rights to oppose the state from issuing a gambling license to any property that is more than 15 miles away from a Seminole-owned casino. �e Trump National Doral Miami just barely reaches that threshold and the tribe would not have a legal route to stop the process.

Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber told the Miami Herald that the 15-mile mark was strategically put in place

by DeSantis to help the Trump family establish a casino presence in the state.

“Obviously the fact that the 15-mile bar-rier was included in the compact is a pretty good expression of the intent of the governor and Legislature to give him what he wants,” said Gelber.

Donald Trump owned casinos in Atlantic City, Indiana, and California under the Trump Entertainment Resorts company, which filed for bankruptcy three times before it eventually was bought by billionaire Carl Icahn in 2016. A 2018 story from �e New York Times detailed Trump’s time as a casino owner, reporting that he had to sell off his late father’s estate to save his failing businesses, even while boasting about his supposed success.

Earlier this year, Icahn destroyed one of Trump’s for-mer Atlantic City casinos, as the Trump Plaza Hotel & Casino imploded last February in a controlled demolition. He sold the Trump Taj Mahal to Hard Rock International in 2016, which later became Hard Rock Atlantic City. �

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THE INSIDE STRAIGHT - Head Games


HEAD GAMESHead Games: Knowing Your Strengths

And Identifying Weakness At The TableBy Craig Tapscott

The Pros: Vanessa Kade, Jaime Staples, and Andrew Moreno

Craig Tapscott: What are the three biggest strengths a tournament poker player should possess to be successful and why?

Vanessa Kade: 1. Patience and Emotional Control -- In tournament poker the biggest challenge is dealing with variance and managing your expectations. Unlike cash games where you get to win most days, tournament players regularly can experience days, or weeks without seeing a profit. Emotionally, this can be very difficult, especially as most of us are very competitive and feel strongly about losing. It’s important to be able to calmly deal with lulls in tournament results, bad beats, and all the factors outside of our control, otherwise we will end up compounding our losses.

2. Honesty and Humility -- �ere’s a lot of ego in poker, and often an inclination to lie to ourselves about our mistakes in order to protect that ego. Nothing holds people back more than the inability to be objective about their play and honest with themselves about their mistakes. When you’re able to openly discuss optimal plays with players you respect, without feeling defensive or digging in if you’re wrong, then you can really start improving.

3. Determination and Effort -- You can be profitable without much work, but even if you are extremely smart,

naturally very talented, and things generally come easy for you, if you want to be among the best, it requires a lot of effort. A large amount of studying board textures and learning what is considered optimal play with vari-ous holdings is unavoidable and understanding a lot of deeper concepts will help you win more, lose less, more accurately estimate your opponent’s hand, construct bet-ter bluffs, and find good exploits that you never would on talent alone.

Study can feel slow and tedious, especially if you’re not accustomed to it, but it can also be very rewarding in a relatively short amount of time. A good place to start is to find a coach whose game you respect and book a cou-ple hours for a leak-finding session. Depending on your coach, this could run anywhere from $200 to $1,000, but you can find a lot of leaks that are low-hanging fruit and will enable you to improve a lot, immediately.

Jaime Staples: 1. Patience -- I mean this in a career and bankroll sense. Poker is extremely volatile. You can’t depend on things to go well over the course of days, weeks, or even months. It doesn’t matter how good you are, chance plays a large role in short-term results. You must be patient with bad outcomes. �at’s really impor-tant for longevity.

2. Determination -- Poker is a hard way to make an easy living. It is a game, but the mental swings you go through along the way are brutal. Continuing to work

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THE INSIDE STRAIGHT

Vanessa Kade Jaime Staples

hard in the face of adversity after regular failure is hard. Continuing to move forward in your career after you have positive variance is also hard. Keeping your head down and getting after it day after day is not a normal thing to do. Tournament players have to be determined.

3. Extrapolate From One Data Point To Others -- An example would be learning the all-in shoving ranges for 10 blinds deep on the button. �at’s great. But what about at 15 big blinds? What about from the cutoff instead of the button? It’s impossible for a human to memorize all of the strategies, for all of the positions, all of the time. Getting to know a few fairly well and being able to visualize how they change from position to posi-tion, stack size to stack size, without being able to see them is essential. High-level poker players do that very well. It comes with practice, and natural ability. Practice can mostly make up for lack of born talent. But it’s an important skill no matter what.

Andrew Moreno: 1. A Strong Mental Game -- I believe that is the single most valuable strength a tournament player can possess. It is the key to advance through each phase of a tournament. Anyone can run good for a stretch and build a stack, but inevitably, adversity will come. �e question is when you get unlucky, can you make decisions to preserve your stack and continue to advance?

�e best players in the world, not surprisingly, have the strongest mental games. �ey don’t vary their play based on how things are going in the moment. �is may sound obvious, but humans are emotional beings. When your stack oscillates up or down, emotions will follow. Only a trained mind can feel those emotions and not let them affect their play, which is a skill trained off the table.

I always suggest starting a meditation practice to improve your mental game. Meditation will help you bring a quicker awareness of when your emotions are tak-ing over your decision-making processes. Once you are aware, you can take over the logic center of your brain. If meditation isn’t for you, simply get in the habit of taking long slow deep breaths. Intentional breathing has two main benefits. It will help pull you into the present moment and help you calm strong emotions.

2. Courage -- Fear is the most common emotion pres-ent in tournament poker. As you progress further along in the tournament, the pressure builds, and fear mounts. Courage is not the absence of fear. Courage is acknowl-

edging fear’s presence and moving forward with what you think is right in the face of that fear. Making coura-geous plays becomes increasingly difficult as the pressure mounts and the dollar amounts increase exponentially.

3. Knowing When To Gamble, And When Not To -- �e best tournament players know when to gamble and when to play it safe. Tournament poker is a yin and yang of risk and safety. Play it too safe, and you won’t give yourself a chance to win. Gamble too much, and the odds are that you’ll bust your stack. Finding the correct balance is an art form. Only study, work, and experience will help you here.

Craig Tapscott: What are the biggest weaknesses that you come across most often when evaluating opponents at the table?

Vanessa Kade: Some common weaknesses include any of the phone-based distractions like watching videos, playing other games, text conversations, and online shop-ping that prevent you from paying attention to the game. Poor bankroll management, not eating well or getting enough sleep, not bluffing enough, and playing incorrect opening ranges are some other big ones.

�at said, ego and entitlement have got to be the single biggest, most consistent weaknesses for poker play-ers, both from a practical or technical standpoint, and a social one. Whether it prevents you from evaluating your mistakes and improving, stops you from folding good hands you know are losing, causes you to play stakes higher than you should, or sometimes act condescending to others and treat them badly - it’s virtually all bad and practicing humility will serve you well. As you improve your game, it’s easy to feel entitled to be winning more, which can lead to more intense frustration surrounding downswings. It’s very important to keep things in per-spective and remember that short-term results are not a reflection of recent improvement, and nobody is immune to variance.

Occasionally, some suffer from almost the opposite problem to ego, which is a lack of confidence. And while this doesn’t impede players from improving in the same way an excess of ego does, it can negatively affect them in other ways. Players who lack confidence might struggle with mentally recovering after making a mistake in a tournament. �ey can tend to be too hard on themselves for hours and sometimes days afterward, and can start to

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CARDPLAYER.COM 14

THE INSIDE STRAIGHT - Head Games


feel as if they don’t deserve to win if they got lucky in a hand. An important thing to remember is that even the best in the world makes mistakes every day. Literally no one plays perfectly.

Jaime Staples: I think the biggest thing is just a knowledge gap. �ere are a lot of things in poker that aren’t intuitive. For example, going all in from the small blind with K-2 offsuit for 10 blinds, feels wrong. It’s not natural, seems very risky, and is just not an enjoyable experience to an amateur.

Let’s pretend you could give that hand, and that stack depth, to a non-poker player that understood the rules. We poll 100 of them on what action they would like to take. Almost all of them would either call or fold. Shoving all in there, is an unnatural urge. It’s a learned behavior.

We get to shove all in because… 1. It’s fairly unlikely our opponent has a good enough hand to call. 2. �ere are blinds and antes in the middle incentivizing us to win the pot. 3. Most of the time our opponent will fold, and we will take that money without having to show our hand. 4. When we do get caught with a not so great hand, we still win sometimes. Combine that with the times they fold preflop, and we make a profit in the long run.

�at’s a very simple example of a learned strategy. A further example that’s more complex would be… What sort of hands should I call a raise with from the big blind at a final table where there is payout pressure? Should it be different than it is with 100 left in the tournament? �e answer is yes. Not because we are afraid of the money at stake, but because the risk/reward equation has become more defined, and we get to adjust. Sometimes drastically.

People aren’t born knowing that, or intuitively grasp-ing that. It doesn’t just come to people after they play their 200th tournament. Poker players must study if they wish to go beyond the average. �ankfully in 2021, there are so many great resources to learn these things from players that have had to do the math without help. It’s the golden age of poker knowledge.

Andrew Moreno: �e number one biggest weakness I see from the population in tournament poker is lack of preparation. Just learning correct opening ranges will move you above the vast majority of amateur players. Weak players playing solid preflop ranges are infinitely more difficult to exploit than their counterparts playing

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 informa-tion. �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 opponent has no additional information on your range. When you now donk bet instead of check, you are essen-tially saying to your opponent that you don’t have any of the strongest hands or any of the weakest hands, so if you continue, you can knowingly play against medium-strength hands. Your opponent can play well in position, both value betting and bluffing that range appropriately.

Also, when you donk-bet with medium-strength hands, in a future hand, when you do check to the raiser, you are saying, “I don’t have any medium-strength hands because I would have bet those. Instead, you can play against all my weakest hands and all my strongest hands.” �is makes continuation betting very profitable against a donk-better when he does check.

Another mistake I see from amateurs and pros alike is telegraphing your hand strength with bet sizing. Simply put, weak hands bet small, strong hands bet big. �is is an easy strategy to catch onto and even easier to exploit. Learning how and when to vary your bet sizes will go a long way in making you more difficult to exploit. It will also help your bluffs get through, and get you paid bigger on your value bets. �

Vanessa Kade joined the Americas Cardroom Pro Team this spring. In March, the Canadian poker player crushed the PokerStars Sunday Million 15th Anniversary tournament to win more than $1.5 million, and recently she made two final tables at the US Poker Open. Vanessa is a strong advocate for women in a game largely dominated by men. With powerful voices like Vanessa’s, poker is changing for the better. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram @VanessaKade.

Jaime Staples has been a professional poker player for 11 years and is a member of PartyPoker team online. The Canadian is one of the most popular poker streamers on Twitch and YouTube. You can find him on all media platforms @pokerstaples, and on Twitter and Instagram @JaimeStaples.

Andrew Moreno has been playing poker for the better part of the last two decades. He has more than $2.5 million in career tournament earnings, including a deep run in the 2015 WSOP main event and a final table in the 2016 WSOP Monster Stack. The Las Vegas-based pro won an event at the Venetian in June for $127,000 and followed it up by taking down the Wynn Millions main event for a massive $1.4 million. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram @Amo4sho.

Andrew Moreno


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Tournaments

SEAN PERRY WINS THIRD TITLE OF 2021, CLIMBS TO THIRD PLACEHot 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 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.

As of 7-1-2021

Sean Perry

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

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

� 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 Openmain 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 TABLEIlyas Muradi outlasted a fi eld of 1,573 entries to win the WPT Lucky Hearts Poker Open for

$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, tak-ing 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 TITLEBalakrishna Patur won the long-delayed 2020 WPT L.A. Poker Classic in May, coming

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 TABLEFernando Rodriguez-Vazquez has now made seven fi nal tables in 2021, with four titles won

along the way. � ree of those wins came in January, the biggest of which came at the Lucky Hearts 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 �

Brian Altman

Balakrishna Patur

Fernando Rodriguez-Vazquez

Ilyas Muradi

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 $158,915By Erik Fast

Ben Scroggins entered one of his first live poker tourna-ments at bestbet Jacksonville back in 2015, a $25 buy-in event geared towards college-aged players. In the years since, the player from nearby Atlantic Beach has gone on to enter more than 200 tournaments at his hometown cardroom, racking up multiple deep runs and a victory in a WPT preliminary event.

On Monday, June 28, Scrogins earned his largest ever tournament title, defending his home turf by defeating a field of 339 entries in the 2021 Card Player Poker Tour best-bet Jacksonville $2,500 buy-in no-limit hold’em main event. Scrogins earned $158,915 as the champion after defeating WSOP bracelet winner and eight-time WSOP Circuit ring winner Kyle Cartwright heads-up for the title.

�e 25-year-old secured the victory in front of a rail that was dominated by his family and friends.

“Having the whole rail here made it feel even better. I almost cried for a second, but I got myself together,” said Scrogins after the final cards were dealt.

“My experience here has been amazing,” Scrogins continued. “�is is my home and I love everybody here. I know most of the dealers by name, and every time I walk into the door, it’s ‘Hey Ben, how are you doing?’ It’s first-name basis. It really is like a home away from home. I got a second family here for sure.”

�is was Scrogins’ first six-figure tournament score. His largest win prior to this event came when he took down the 2017 Heartland Poker Tour Daytona Beach Kennel Club main event for $94,515. He now has $378,499 in lifetime live tournament cashes to his name.

In addition to the title and the six-figure payday,

Scrogins also earned 720 Card Player Player of the Year points. �is was his first POY-qualified score of the year, moving him into 162nd place in the 2021 standings, which are sponsored by Global Poker.

�is was the eighth time that the CPPT teamed up with bestbet Jacksonville for a tournament series, and the first time that the main event featured the $2,500 buy-in price point. Scrogins’ six-figure top prize was the largest ever awarded to a CPPT bestbet Jacksonville main event champion. Here is a look back at how this event played out.

Strong Turnout Builds $759,360 Prize Pool�is tournament featured two starting flights, with

unlimited re-entry and late registration available for the first 10 levels of play. Day 1A drew 133 entries by the time registration closed, with another 206 entering on Day 1B, bringing the total number of entries to 339 and creating a prize pool of $759,360 to be paid out among the top 43 finishers.

Players started with 30,000 in chips, and a structure with 40-minute blind levels. When the dust settled on the first day of play, just 62 players advanced, with top poker pro Jeremy Joseph taking the Day 1A chip lead.

Joseph closed out the day by eliminating WPT cham-pion Jonathan Jaffe in a preflop cooler, with his pocket kings prevailing against Jaffe’s A� K�. While Jaffe’s first bullet ended with a loss in a massive pot, he managed to bounce back in a big way on his second attempt, ending up with the largest stack on Day 1B.

Setting The Final Table�ere were 19 players to be eliminated before the money

bubble burst on Day 2. Christopher Okoli was the last

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


THE INSIDE STRAIGHT

player to be sent home without a payday after having been whittled down to less than a big blind.

� e bustouts came quickly after that, with the remain-ing 43 players having locked up at least $3,929 for their eff orts. It took just four hours to narrow the fi eld from 43 down to the fi nal two tables. With 16 remaining, recent Palm Beach Summer Classic fi nal tablist Jessica Cai scored a double knockout when her pocket jacks held up against the J-10 suited held by Jaff e and the A-K of Matthew Leecy to catapult her towards the top of the leaderboard.

Raminder Singh was looking for his second title of the series and was among the biggest stacks in the room with 14 remaining, but he lost a huge chunk of his stack when his A� Q� ran into the A� K� of Scrogins. Singh failed to come from behind and was left short, fi nishing 11th for $12,738. With that, Scrogins vaulted toward the top of the chip counts with a fi nal-table berth in sight.

� e eight-handed fi nal table was offi cially set after Jeremy Eyer’s A-K clashed with the pocket aces of Joseph Crowley. � e board brought Eyer no help and he was sent to the rail in ninth place, earning $15,891 for his deep run.

Deciding A Champion� e fi nal table was broadcast on bestbetLIVE, the

venue’s high-quality live streaming show, which showcases cash games and tournaments from the poker room with cards-up coverage and commentary. � e popular show can be viewed on Twitch, YouTube, and Facebook LIVE.

Dustin Holladay held the chip lead, while Scrogins was essentially tied for second place with Cai. Joseph was among the shorter stacks at the table when play resumed, and he was ultimately the fi rst to be eliminated after losing much of his stack with pocket jacks against the straight of Lamare Davis. Joseph hit the rail in eighth place, earning $20,081.

Mac Johnson was the next to fall. � e Jacksonville local came into the day as the shortest stack but managed an early double to stay alive. His run came to an end in seventh place when his K� 10� ran into the A� J� of Cartwright. � e fl op gave Cartwright top two pair and he held from there to send Johnson home with $25,695.

Crowley got the last of his chips in the middle with J� 10� on a 10� 8� 3� 2� board, but ran into the 10� 8�of Scrogins. � e 6� river was of no help to Crowley and he was knocked out in sixth place for $33,292.

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

place, however, banking $77,910.Scrogins raised with pocket kings and Holladay called

from the small blind with pocket sixes. � e 6� 4� 4� fl op saw Holladay fl op a full house. He checked and Scrogins checked behind with his overpair. � e K� on the turn gave Scrogins the bigger full house, and all the money went in by the river. Holladay earned $77,910 for his third-place showing.

Heads-up play began with Scrogins holding a nearly 4:1 chip advantage. Cartwright, who has more than $2.5 million in tournament earnings, was able to mount a quick comeback, winning a few sizable pots and then doubling up to take the chip lead.

Scrogins was not deterred, however, and regained the advantage not long after that when his fl opped top pair held up against the nut fl ush draw of Cartwright. On the fi nal hand, Scrogins raised the button with Q� 6� and Cartwright called from the big blind holding 9� 7�.

� e Q� Q� 8� prompted Cartwright to check. Scrogins bet with his trip queens and Cartwright called. � e 6� on the turn gave Cartwright an open-ended straight draw. He checked and Scrogins bet again with his full house.

Cartwright check-raised all in, and Scrogins snap-called, leaving Cartwright drawing dead. He earned $105,942 for his runner-up fi nish in this event. Cartwright was also awarded 600 POY points for his deep run. � is was his third fi nal-table fi nish of the year, including a third-place fi nish in the Spring Series $2,500 buy-in main event at bestbet Jacksonville back in March. He now sits in 30th place in the 2021 POY race standings as a result.

Final Table Results

Place Player Payout POY Points

1 Ben Scrogins $158,915 720

2 Kyle Cartwright $105,942 600

3 Dustin Holladay $77,910 480

4 Lamare Davis $57,979 360

5 Jessica Cai $43,669 300

6 Joseph Crowley $33,292 240

7 Mac Johnson $25,695 180

8 Jeremy Joseph $20,081 120

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


Tournaments

TOURNAMENT RESULTSTournaments

Event Player Payout (POY points)

DeepStack ChampionshipPoker Series

Venetian Las Vegas, NV

$1,100 NLHEJune 14-16$300,000 GTDEntries: 637Prizepool: $611,520

1. Andrew Moreno $127,740 (840)

2. Michael Rossitto $84,969 (700)

3. Ilyas Muradi $59,440 (560)

4. Katie Lindsay $43,418 (420)

5. Stephen Foutty $32,166 (350)

6. Sebastian Grax $24,033 (280)

7. Demo Kiriopoulos $18,223 (210)

8. Mukul Pahuja $13,882 (140)

9. Nadezhda Magnus $10,702 (70)


DeepStack Championship Poker Series

VenetianLas Vegas, NV

$400 NLHEJune 17-19$200,000 GTDEntries: 1,013Prizepool: $337,329

1. David Yokoyama $59,395 (384)

2. Steven Ferrell $41,456 (320)

3. Zachary Andrews $28,673 (256)

4. Joseph Walters $21,252 (192)

5. Sang Ho $16,192 (160)

6. Karan Chadha $12,481 (128)

7. Joshua Suyat $9,783 (96)

8. Bilguun Odgerel $7,421 (64)

9. Jessica Vierling $6,072 (32)


DeepStack Championship Poker Series

Venetian Las Vegas, NV

$800 NLHE SeniorsJune 20-22$300,000 GTDEntries: 634Prizepool: $438,728

1. Scott Roberts $63,287

2. Gerald Siemienas $45,171

3. Bobby Holmes $41,451

4. Rebekah Emmons $37,791

5. Tho Nguyen $24,475

6. Laurette Thurber $24,235

7. Eugene Lang $23,215

8. Michael Kushlan $22,855

9. Alberto Sabogali $14,756


Aria High Roller Series

Aria Resort & CasinoLas Vegas, NV

$25,000 NLHEJune 15Entries: 28Prizepool: $675,000

1. Sean Perry $275,160 (252)

2. Stephen Chidwick $224,340 (210)

3. Alex Foxen $108,000 (168)

4. Nick Petrangelo $67,500 (126)

Andrew Moreno

Victor Figueroa


WPT Seminole Hard Rock Tampa

Seminole Hard Rock CasinoTampa, FL

$1,700 NLHEJune 20-21Entries: 189Prizepool: $292,950

1. Victor Figueroa $80,872 (336)

2. William Parker $51,266 (280)

3. Tai Cao $30,174 (224)

4. Ryan Van Sanford $18,318 (168)

5. Raymond McBeth $14,208 (140)

6. Steven Snyder $11,733 (112)

7. Anthony Lambert $10,253 (84)

8. Javier Zarco Sanchez

$9,155 (56)

9. Dhimitri Lleshi $8,088 (30)





1. Balakrishna Patur $55,785 (384)

2. Jason Giles $37,415 (320)

3. Derek Bowers $22,072 (256)

4. Sanjib Acharya $13,426 (192)

5. Loni Harwood $10,369 (160)

6. Thomas Boyden $8,592 (128)

7. David Dibernardi $7,322 (96)

8. Fred Goldberg $6,439 (64)

9. Tsz Shing $5,579 (32)

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


Tournaments

Visit CardPlayer.com for the world’s most accurate tournament database, including upcoming daily and

series schedules, more than 400,000 player profiles, and over 1.6 million results and counting. Contact [email protected] for more information.





1. Hassan El Hakim $75,347 (312)

2. Aaron Thivyanathan $63,498 (260)

3. William Parker $52,639 (208)

4. Rodney Turvin $27,837 (156)

5. Andrew Barfield $20,201 (130)

6. Daniel Sepiol $15,142 (104)

7. Jesse Lonis $11,737 (78)

8. Mohsin Virani $9,418 (52)




$3,500 NLHEJune 18-22$2,000,000 GTDEntries: 1,165Prizepool: $3,728,000

1. Brian Altman $613,225 (1440)

2. Gabriel Abusada $408,825 (1200)

3. Zachary Smiley $302,200 (960)

4. Jonathan Jaffee $225,675 (720)

5. John Haas $170,275 (600)

6. William Berry $129,825 (480)

7. David Berman $100,030 (360)

8. Steve Queen $77,900 (240)

9. Timothy Miles $61,325 (120)

Edward Mroczkowski

George Antonakos


Card Player Poker Tour

bestbet JacksonvilleJacksonville, FL

$560 NLHEJune 17-20Entries: 525Prizepool: $257,250

1. Eddy Mroczkowski $41,248 (420)

2. James Brown $41,247 (350)

3. Yekaterina Lukina $24,367 (280)

4. Christopher Conrad $18,185 (210)

5. Charles Campos $13,716 (175)

6. Eric Chastain $10,457 (140)

7. Brandon Maner $8,060 (105)

8. Sherri Manassa $6,281 (70)


Card Player Poker Tour

bestbet JacksonvilleJacksonville, FL

$1,200 NLHE Six MaxJune 24Entries: 115Prizepool: $121,900

1. Raminder Singh $24,726 (240)

2. Fernando Rodriguez-Vazquez

$20,000 (200)

3. James Shibley $17,000 (160)

4. Michael Cooper $14,000 (120)

5. Edgardo Rosario Figueroa

$11,739 (100)

6. Dustin Holladay $5,951 (80)

Event Player Payout(POY points)

Summer Poker Series

Orleans Hotel & CasinoLas Vegas, NV

$300 NLHEJune 18-21$222,222 GTDEntries: 1,187Prizepool: $290,815

1. Jared Palmer $32,451 (384)

2. Rudy Ayala $29,500 (320)

3. Dan Beecher $29,000 (256)

4. Kyle Grosshanten $14,105 (192)

5. She Wong $9,750 (160)

6. Vito Distefano $6,107 (128)

7. Carlos Loving $4,653 (96)

8. Donald Garofalo $3,853 (64)

9. Mario Delgrado $3,272 (32)


Wynn Summer Classic

WynnLas Vegas, NV

$1,600 NLHEJune 17-21$1,000,000 GTDEntries: 1,312Prizepool: $1,902,400

1. George Antonakos $293,530 (960)

2. Mostapha El Kabir $201,422 (800)

3. David Mowery $134,309 (640)

4. Alex Visbisky $95,120 (480)

5. Sergio Aido $70,351 (400)

6. Patrick Truong $54,884 (320)

7. Taurean Shawdon $44,098 (240)

8. Dave Alfa $36,621 (160)

9. Paul Bergen $30,901 (80)

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


From an early age, Joao Vieira seemed destined for success. But those early projections stemmed from his prowess on the basketball court. While his pro basketball career didn’t quite pan out like he wanted, the Madeira, Portugal native has instead become one of the most successful online poker players on the planet.

Over the last several months, nobody has been more successful play-ing high-stakes online poker tourna-ments than Vieira. In April, Vieira racked up more than $2.2 million in online cashes. He cashed for more than $600,000 the following month.

It was a heater that most could only dream of, including a handful of days with multiple six-figure scores. As a result, his career online tournament résumé now sits atop the PocketFives.com All-Time Money List, with more than 11,600 cashes totaling over $24.8

million in earnings. And although he thrives online, he

has also carved out time to become Portugal’s all-time live tournament earnings leader as well, with $3.8 million won over the years, including seven titles.

But despite these accolades, you’d be forgiven if this is the first time you’ve heard of the 31-year-old poker pro.

“I’ve been doing this for a while,” said Vieira. “It just hasn’t been noticed.”

Part of Vieira’s ability to fly under the radar comes from the general ano-nymity surrounding online poker and the tendency of the poker world to fixate on happenings in the live arena.

In 2018, however, popular European online poker site Winamax took notice of Vieira’s game and signed him to a sponsorship deal. Just a year

later, the relationship paid off when Vieira took down one of the toughest tournaments on the World Series of Poker schedule. He earned $758,011 in the $5,000 no-limit hold’em six-max event, along with his first career bracelet.

�e win gave Vieira a career-best score and put his name on the map in the poker world. For the first time, the North American audience would be forced to take note of his ability. For Vieira, however, the victory was a long time coming.

“I had been a winning player at the highest stakes online since 2013, but I had never really had the big breakthrough live win,” said Vieira. “I never really had live success. �at tournament was more like a weight off my shoulders. More like… I finally got it. It was more validation than breakthrough. I felt more relief than

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

By Steve Schult

© W

inam

ax

022_CoverStory.indd 22 7/8/21 11:34 AM


anything else.” Vieira’s English is basically flaw-

less, but the language barrier is one of the reasons he claims many of the European-based online crushers are kept out of the limelight on the world’s stage. It takes live success to bust through that barrier and get some recognition.

“Until you get these Adrian Mateos-like kind of scores, you kind of just fly under the radar,” said Vieira.

Mateos, of course, is a Triple Crown winner from Spain who has cemented himself among the elite with more than $21.3 million in live tournament earnings.

Going undetected in the poker world didn’t necessarily bother Vieira, though. It fit right in with how he was raised. Growing up in Funchal, a city on the Madeira Islands in Portugal, he developed a personality that he felt was common among the rest of the island.

“We kind of have the underdog mindset,” said Vieira about his home-

town. “We are known to be gritty, hardworking, and humble. I think all of the islanders have this mindset because we grew up by the ocean. You have to rely on yourself and rely on the people that are close to you. It also brings out the competitiveness in us.”

Before he found poker, those quali-ties helped him succeed at an unprec-edented level on the basketball court. Vieira was essentially a prodigy. At just 15 years old, he was already being approached by professional teams and as a junior played for the Portuguese national team. In fact, he signed a contract before most American teens would be allowed to drive.

Standing just 5’9” tall and still years away from becoming an adult, he needed the determination and tough-ness to keep up with fully-developed professional athletes, which he once again attributed to the island attitude he developed from his upbringing.

“Imagine you’re up against an MMA fighter from Hawaii,” said Vieira. “You know he’s going to be

Top Tournament Scores

Date Event Finish Prize

July 2019 WSOP $5,000 NLH Six-Max 1st $758,011

April 2021 PokerStars SCOOP $25,000 Super High Roller 1st $469,987

April 2021 GGPoker $25,000 Sunday $5 Million GTD 4th $464,392

Sept. 2019 PokerStars WCOOP $10,000 PLO Main Event 1st $384,948

May 2018 EPT Monte Carlo €25,000 NLH High Roller 5th $251,052

Nov. 2018 partypoker Millions Caribbean $25,000 NLH 9th $250,000

Jan. 2020 partypoker Millions UK $10,000 NLH 1st $250,000

April 2021 partypoker Powerfest $10,000 High Roller 1st $249,791

April 2021 GGPoker $10,000 Super Tuesday 2nd $241,721

May 2020 PokerStars SCOOP $25,000 Super High Roller 4th $240,744

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 basket-ball career as the Portuguese version of Kwame Brown, the first overall pick of the 2001 NBA draft with lofty expecta-tions 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 three or four American players per team. I started playing poker with them. �ey were 21, 22, or 23 and they were playing a lot of poker. We would play on the plane and bus rides.”

From there, Vieira was hooked. In between his morning and afternoon basketball practices, he would study the game and play online. He eventu-ally transitioned to multi-table tourna-ments, but given the rigorous training schedule of a professional athlete, he was forced to start with sit-n-go’s.

“I didn’t have time to play anything else,” he explained.

Sure. He could have made the foray into online cash games. But the struc-ture never appealed to him. In basket-ball, there is a winner and there is a loser. Vieira needed that same incentive when it came to the poker table.

“[Tournaments] appeal more to competitive mindsets,” he said. “Someone is going to win. Someone is going to lose. Someone will get second, third, fourth. �ere’s going to be some-thing to base your results on. �at is something that just doesn’t happen in cash games. Cash games are never end-ing. It’s just, get in and get out. �at’s the main reason I never got into those games. �ere’s no ranking.”

From what started out as playing small-stakes games with teammates on road trips quickly turned into a viable option for side income away from the basketball court.

Vieira became friendly with a couple of semi-professional poker players and they helped him improve his game even further. His newfound acquaintances gave him access to their accounts on one of the several training sites that were available at the time.



“�ey gave me access to this video library of 300-400 videos,” said Vieira. “�is is when I started to actually get good at this game. I was playing cash games for €10 or €20, and then a year later in 2010, I was the biggest winner at six-max sit-n-go’s.”

Eventually, Vieira’s basketball career came to an end, although he still does commentate on some of the league’s games when he is back in his native city. Once his basketball career was behind him, Vieira developed into the multi-table tournament crusher he is today. Without the grueling train-ing schedule of a professional athlete, he had more time on his hands to play large field tournaments. And more time to study.

He said that once he watched every single video on the training site he was gifted access to, he then signed him-self up for another. To get to the top of the game, however, Vieira believes you need to get beyond videos and put in the work yourself.

“You can learn from videos, but

once you get to a certain level, you have to study on your own,” he said. “Now, pretty much all the studying I do is done by myself. �e main guys won’t give up the things that will make you succeed at the high-est stakes. �at kind of material just doesn’t exist. You might have a high-stakes winning player putting videos out there, but he’s going to keep some of that to himself.”

When asked to construct a Mount Rushmore of online poker, the ability to play more than one game was a big factor in the peers he selected.

“I really want to go with the guys that can play all the games,” said Vieira. “If you play poker, you play all the forms of poker. Not just no-limit hold’em. �ere are very few guys that could play a $100,000 no-limit hold’em high roller and also play the $50,000 Poker Players Championship.”

He also said that he valued the “old school” online players that “paved the way” for newer players. Vieira appreci-ated the ability to construct a strategy

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Online Poker’s All-Time Tournament Money List, According to PocketFives.com

Rank Player Earnings Country

1 Joao ‘Naza114’ Vieira $24.8 million Portugal

2 Niklas ‘lena900’ Astedt $22.3 million Sweden

3 Sami ‘LarsLuzak’ Kelopuro $21.6 million Finland

4 Jonathan ‘apestyles’ Van Fleet $19.4 million U.S

5 Peter ‘Belabacsi’ Traply $19.1 million Hungary

6 Chris ‘moorman1’ Moorman $18.8 million U.K

7 Simon ‘C Darwin2’ Mattsson $17.6 million Sweden

8 Chris ‘Getting Daize’ Oliver $15.5 million U.S.

9 Andreas ‘r4ndomr4gs’ Berggren $15.4 million Sweden

10 Conor ‘1_conor_b_1’ Beresford $15.3 million U.K.

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 that are just really, really good at poker. Both live poker and online. It’s really tough to separate them.”

Even though he’s known for his online play, Vieira has plenty of skills to showcase on the live felt, despite limited experience. �ere was no pro-gression for him in that arena. �ere were no small-stakes, single table tour-naments where he could get his feet wet, so he dove headfirst into the deep end.

His first cash came in the €5,000 European Poker Tour Barcelona main event in 2012. He finished 41st for €16,800 and followed that up with a final table appearance a few days later in the €10,000 high roller. He picked up €32,630 for his eighth-place finish and never looked back. Incredibly, he says he has never played a live tourna-ment with a buy-in of less than €1,000.

“I’m from this small island, so there’s no real live poker here,” said Vieira. “So I jumped straight into the shark tank. Maybe that wasn’t 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 twice a year. �ere’s a couple tourna-ments that I could play. And there are tournaments that I could play on the mainland for a couple hundred bucks, but the flight would be more expen-sive than the tournament is worth. If you’re going to play live poker and get off the island, you’re going to have to play high stakes. I had to do what I had to do.”

You might think that Vieira prefers online play, given his status, but he would rather play live poker if given the chance.

“I know that I cut my teeth online, and I know that I got most of my



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 based on frequencies or patterns or game theory. In live, you have those too, but you can focus more on your opponent and make a more concrete decision.”

He took words from another domi-nant European pro, three-time WSOP bracelet winner and fellow Winamax team member Davidi Kitai, to sum up his thoughts on the difference.

“He once told me, ‘It doesn’t really matter what kind of GTO frequencies I’m supposed to use if I can look the guy straight in the eye and know that he doesn’t have it. If he doesn’t have it, he doesn’t have it. It doesn’t matter if it’s supposed to be a 30% mixed strat-egy in that spot. If I know he doesn’t have it, I’m going to get it right 100% of the time.’”

Vieira left Portugal for other parts of the European Union when PokerStars roped off the player pool in Portugal. His move out of Portugal offered him the chance to play in America and compete against some of the top high roller pros as well. It’s not like he couldn’t physically make the trip from Portugal before, but his government essentially added on rake through taxation, making American tournaments nearly unbeatable.

“Portugal residents pay a really heavy tax on American winnings,” he said. “I started playing the series when I left Portugal and was paying taxes out of the Czech Republic, and later on, out of the U.K.”

He left so that he could continue to compete against the game’s best and stay out of an intra-country pool, but it also gives him some more opportu-nities to showcase his live skills now that he has easier access to brick-and-mortar cardrooms.

“I think I have a lot of live skills that I just haven’t had the chance to display,” said Vieira. “I was playing on a small island out in the middle of nowhere. I never really had a chance to show how good I am at live poker, just as much as I’ve shown how well I can play online poker.”

With the pandemic slowly fading and live tournaments returning, Vieira is about to get his chance. �

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PHIL HELLMUTH SWEEPS DANIEL NEGREANU IN THREE STRAIGHT MATCHES TO WIN HIGH

STAKES DUEL IIBy Steve Schult

With yet another win in June, Phil Hellmuth has quieted the haters by sweeping Daniel Negreanu, earning victories in three consecutive heads-up matches to be crowned the champion of High Stakes Duel II.

Per the format of the PokerGO series, the buy-in doubled with every passing match. Following a Hellmuth win in April in a $50,000 buy-in match, the 15-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner then won a sec-ond $100,000 rematch.

�e final showdown in June fea-tured a buy-in of $200,000, giving Negreanu a chance to recoup his losses. After a long, see-saw battle between the two poker legends, how-ever, Hellmuth came out on top.

His three straight victories netted him a tidy profit of $350,000, mimick-ing his series sweep in the first edition of High Stakes Duel against Antonio Esfandiari in 2020. �e two sweeps

give Hellmuth a six-match winning streak and $700,000 in total profit.

“Where’s the window, baby?” Hellmuth said after his third match with the six-time WSOP bracelet win-ner. “I know Mori [Eskandari] is not happy to hear that, but I would like to go to the cash out window.”

Hellmuth had the option to let his winnings ride and allow a challenger to play a $400,000 buy-in match in a potential round 4, but he decided to play it safe, call it quits, and collect his money. Every High Stakes Duel series must go a minimum of three matches.

In Hellmuth’s first match, Negreanu jumped out to a huge lead early, forcing Hellmuth to mount a sizable comeback to win the round. It looked like Hellmuth was going to need another improbable come-from-behind victory in the third battle as Negreanu got out in front with a nearly identical start to their first go-

around. But unlike the first match, Hellmuth amped up the aggression before he got too short on chips.

�e match turned when he five-bet 8� 3� preflop against Negreanu’s pocket deuces. Hellmuth floated the jack-high flop with nothing but eight high and led the turn when he picked up a flush draw. Negreanu mucked his hand after using several time exten-sions and Hellmuth officially took over the chip lead.

Negreanu won a few pots to regain a small lead, but Hellmuth struck again in a big way when he three-bet Q� 3� and flopped trips on a 3� 3� 2� board against Negreanu’s pocket nines. Hellmuth check-called the flop and then check-raised all in on the 5� turn. Negreanu thought for quite a while before calling. Hellmuth’s trips held up, giving him a nearly 5:1 chip advantage.

A short time later, both play- © P

oker

GO

026_Feature.indd 26 7/8/21 11:44 AM


ers picked up pocket kings preflop. All the chips got into the middle, with Negreanu tabling K� K� and Hellmuth showing K� K�. �e hand was supposed to result in a chopped pot nearly 96% of the time, accord-ing to the Card Player Poker Odds Calculator, but an all-diamond flop gave Negreanu a freeroll, which he drilled when the 8� came on the river. Just like that, stacks were about even.

Negreanu may have expected Hellmuth to blow up following the beat, telling media before the match that, “when [Hellmuth] goes on mon-key tilt, he starts three-betting with trash. It’s ingrained in him, he’s just a tilter at the core.”

Despite the terrible luck, the Poker Brat was undeterred. Over the next couple of hours, there were no major showdowns, but he managed to win the majority of the pots. With the blinds getting bigger, those pots added up and Hellmuth opened a nearly 2:1 chip lead.

But once again, Negreanu found a key double-up. Hellmuth raised on the button and Negreanu moved all in for about 20 big blinds. Hellmuth called with A-Q and was in the lead against Negreanu’s K-3. �e flop was queen-high, leaving Negreanu drawing very thin, but a king came on the turn to put him back in the match, facing a much smaller deficit.

Eventually, a cold deck finally went Hellmuth’s way, and he finished off the Poker Hall of Famer. Negreanu limped in on the button with 6� 5� and Hellmuth checked his option with 10� 6�.

�e flop was 9� 7� 2� and Hellmuth check-called a bet from

Negreanu. �e turn was the 8�, giving both players a straight, but Hellmuth’s was bigger. All the money went in the middle and Negreanu was drawing dead to a chop. He didn’t hit on the river to stay alive and Hellmuth col-lected his money, along with his sec-ond consecutive High Stakes Duel belt.

“Good game,” said Negreanu after the river card was dealt. “You played great. You deserve it.”

“I think you’re one of the all-time greats,” responded Hellmuth. “I really mean that.”

�e exchange was a definitive change in tone from the drama that sparked the heads-up match in the first place. Following Negreanu’s $1.2 mil-lion heads-up challenge loss to Doug Polk, Hellmuth criticized Negreanu’s approach.

“I was disappointed in the way he played,” said Hellmuth last February.

�e critique drew irritation from Negreanu, who responded on Twitter with some shots at Hellmuth’s poker strategy and challenged him to a heads-up grudge match of their own. Negreanu was the betting favorite, with the line set at -150. Most of the poker world seemed to agree he had the advantage before play started, given his recent study in the format for the match with Polk.

When asked about the grief he gets from other members of the poker com-munity, Hellmuth explained that he’s been dealing with it for a long time.

“I think there are always going to be haters, and I remember all these tournaments I’ve won over the last ten years. It’s a crazy number. I just keep getting down there. And if I don’t do anything for two years, then every-

body is like, ‘�e game has passed Phil by,’ and then I win a bracelet, and they say, ‘Phil is the greatest of all time.’ So there is a lot of current bullshit going on, and people judge people by the current stuff. I’m frustrated that I beat the biggest and most important tournaments around the world for 32 years, and now their knock is that ‘he doesn’t play enough high rollers, he’s not good, he’s not as great as the young players.’ Well, I just can’t wait to step into that ring in July for the PokerGO Cup, and I can play some tournaments with those guys, and we’ll see how it goes.”

Hellmuth pointed to his unique reading ability as the reason for his undefeated stretch on High Stakes Duel.

“�ere’s just something weird about heads-up where I think a lot of the guys are just pure math guys and think they’ve figured it out. And they have figured it out on the internet, but they haven’t figured it out in the real world. �ere is some stuff that I’ve been working on for a long time. I will discuss heads-up no-limit hold’em strategy with zero people. I don’t talk about it with anybody because I think there are a few things I do that every-body thinks that are wrong that I’ll just continue to do.”

“I think this strategy that I have right now is the best maybe I’ll ever play,” he continued. “I’m playing a strategy that is heavily dependent on reading your opponent. �ey can do whatever they want. If they’re play-ing online, they can hide. If they’re playing in the real world, they can put stuff over their face, but even then, I’m going to figure some stuff out. White magic, I call it.” �

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CARDPLAYER.COM 28

Strategies, ANALYSIS & Commentary


We are constantly thinking ahead in life, and when you are playing poker, you should make it a point to do the same.

When you cross the street, you don’t just blindly wander into traffi c and hope for the best. You stop, take a look in both directions, and hopefully have a plan if you suddenly see a bus heading straight for you.

In poker, before you make any bet, stop and think about what the result of that bet will be, both in the current betting round, as well as the future betting rounds. From there, you can determine if the probable results are in your best interest.

Suppose someone raises under the gun to three big blinds out of their 100 big blind stack and you are in second position with A� 10�. Cheap spot to see a fl op, right? Not so fast. Again, you have to look both ways before you cross the street.

While A-10 is normally a decent hand, in this situation, it is an easy fold because of the many bad things that can happen on the future betting rounds. A holding like A-10 could cer-tainly be the best hand at the moment, but you must consider how the hand will play out.

Before the fl op, you could easily be dominated by the initial raiser, putting you in bad shape. To make matters worse, someone yet to act could three-bet behind you, forcing you to either put in more money behind or to fold without seeing a fl op.

If you happen to fl op an ace and the initial raiser has a better ace, you will lose a lot of money. If an ace fl ops and your opponent does not have an ace, you will win a small pot. If a 10 comes and they have an overpair, you will lose a lot of money. If a 10 comes and they have worse than a 10, you will win a small pot. If you miss, you

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 play-ing 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 J� 10�. 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 pre-mium 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 situa-tion 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 try-ing to fi gure out the optimal deci-sion 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 ahead and always have a plan, you will rarely fi nd yourself too lost.

If you fi nd that you are consistently confused, you are either making poor decisions on the earlier betting rounds or you have not studied the game near-ly enough. To learn about numerous other ways where thinking ahead can greatly improve your win rate, check out my book, Mastering Small Stakes No-Limit Hold’em and my training site PokerCoaching.com/cardplayer. Good luck in your games! �

Jonathan Little is a two-time WPT champion with more than $7 million in live tournament earnings, best-selling author of 15 educational poker

books, and 2019 GPI Poker Personality of the Year. If you want to increase your poker skills and learn to crush the games, check out his training site at PokerCoaching.com/cardplayer.

Always Look Both WaysBy Jonathan Little

books, and 2019 GPI Poker Personality of the

028_SA.indd 28 7/8/21 11:49 AM

29FOLLOW US ON TWITTER CardPlayerMedia


CARDPLAYER.COM 2929

I have now written several articles on Badugi, but since it is not that widely played, a quick refresher on the rules may be helpful to some readers.

Badugi is a triple draw lowball variant where the object of the game is to obtain the lowest hand possible with cards of all different suits and ranks. When holding four differ-ent ranks with all different suits, you have made a badugi. For example, 8� 6� 5� 2� is an eight badugi. Aces are considered low, so the best possible holding is A-2-3-4 of all different suits.

When you do not hold four different ranks of different suits your hand is considered “incomplete.” For example, A� 3� 4� K� is not a badugi because it lacks four different suits, and this holding is referred to as a three-card badugi or tri hand.

One of the more unique aspects of Badugi is that the best draw is also the best hand, and can win unimproved. For example, at showdown, A� 3� 4� K� beats 2� 5� 6� 7� as neither player holds a badugi, and a four-high tri hand is superior to a three-card six.

In this article, we will be talking about some river deci-sions that draw upon fundamental concepts discussed in previous issues. In Badugi, as in all forms of poker, it can sometimes be correct to lead the river even though our opponent had the betting initiative on the turn and we by

no means possess a lock hand. When a player leads out on a street after being a caller on

the previous one, it is often referred to as “donking.” Let’s examine a few situations where it may be correct to do so in Badugi with a relatively marginal holding.

Example 1Suppose we open from the cutoff with A� 2� 4� X,

get reraised by the button, and just call. We draw one and our opponent is pat. Regardless of if our opponent is ultra-aggressive or more on the passive side, the vast majority of players would three-bet any badugi against a cutoff open. �is is important because whenever a villain’s entire badugi range is in play, his median hand is a queen or a rough jack and it’s correct for us to take all three draws to try and run it down.

We fail to improve on the first two draws, but on the third and final draw we make A� 2� 4� J�. �is is a spot where we should lead on the river because checking would simply allow our opponent to bet his strong badugis and tap behind with his kings, queens, and rougher jacks.

Our lead may end up costing us money when villain specifically has a ten badugi, a hand some players would choose to check behind on the river, but that’s probably it. Most opponents will bet any nine or better on the river, so in most cases, donking the river won’t cause

BADUGI: DONKING THE RIVER By Kevin Haney

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

AnalysisTOURNAMENT 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 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 players remaining, the two largest stacks at the table clashed after being dealt a couple of big hands. David 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 Kade picked up pocket jacks and three-bet to three times the size of Peters’ open. Ivan Zufi c, who was at his second fi nal table of the series, looked down at A-Q off suit. Maria Ho, who was commentating the event for PokerGO, noted the tough spot that Zufi c found himself in. “If you four-bet and get fi ve-bet shoved on here, clearly your A-Q isn’t good and you’d have put 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 aggressive approach, making it 750,000 to go. Kade came along and the fl op improved neither player. Zufi c checked as the fi rst to act and Kade checked behind, perhaps fi guring that she was either way ahead or way behind. � e turn brought four cards to a straight, but given the prefl op action, Kade likely wasn’t too con-cerned about Zufi c holding a 7-X card combination. 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 bet remaining behind. � e board paired on the river, which likely didn’t do much to change Zufi c’s mind if he thought A-Q high might be the best hand on the turn. He checked again and Kade made a small value 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-ish fi fth in this event for $138,000. � is was the largest live tournament cash of her career, adding to her resume just a few months after her $1.5 million win online in the PokerStars Sunday Million 15th Anniversary event.

J

J

J

J

A

A

Q

Q

8

8

6

6

4

4

8

8

5

5

Zufi c checked, and Kade checked.

Zufi c checked, and Kade bet 575,000. Zufi c called.

Zufi c checked, and Kade bet 500,000. Zufi c called.

With fi ve players remaining and blinds of 25,000-50,000 and a big blind ante of 50,000, David Peters raised to 100,000 from under the gun.

Vanessa Kade three-bet to 300,000 from the cutoff , and Ivan Zufi c four-bet to 750,000 from the small blind. Peters folded, and Kade called.

2021 U.S. Poker Open$25,000 No-Limit Hold’em Event

ANALYSIS

Vanessa Kade2,855,000 Chips

Ivan Zufic2,585,000 Chips

Winning PercentageBefore Flop: 57.0%

After Flop: 76.0%After Turn: 77.0%

Winning PercentageBefore Flop: 43.0%After Flop: 22.0%After Turn: 14.0%

FLOP

PREFLOP

TURN

RIVE

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VOLUME 34 / ISSUE 16CARDPLAYER.COM 30

us to lose any additional money. In addition, a drawing hand that has potentially made a

badugi is on average quite strong, so we shouldn’t get raised that often. Our opponent generally requires an initial dealt eight or better badugi, which would only be approximately 5% of his initial pat range.

Example 2In this hand, we are in the big blind with A� 3� X X

and defend against a hijack open. On the fi rst draw we take two and our opponent draws one. We fail to improve on the fi rst draw, but make a standard call on the small bet-ting round with a smooth two-card hand. On the second draw, we again take two and our opponent is still drawing one.

We improve to A� 3� 4� X and decide to just check-call the turn even though we now often have the best hand and are often up against someone betting 100% of their holdings. While we may have around 60-65% equity, a turn raise may not reap as much value as one may think as it re-opens the betting for villain to three-bet many of his made badugis, against which we are a big underdog.

Also, since we are out of position our opponent will never break a badugi once he sees us drawing. If we were in position, a turn raise with A� 3� 4� X would make more sense because we will occasionally get our opponent to break his weak badugis, but that is not the situation here.

Additionally, when we check-raise the turn with our strongest draws, it dramatically weakens our check-calling range, making our other holdings more or less face up.

Getting back to the hand, we decided to check-call the turn and failed to improve on the third and fi nal draw. However, in a move that may appear to be inconsistent with our turn play, we opt to lead out with A� 3� 4� X on the river.

So why would we “donk” the river, but not lead or check-raise the turn? � e main reason is that our oppo-nent is betting the turn with virtually everything, but on

the river will typically only do so with hands that beat us. He will somewhat happily check back three-card fi ves and sixes, and it is these hands that we are targeting with our river lead. Also, since our opponent opened from the hijack, he will often have a three-card hand good enough to try and pick off a bluff .

Even though we may be a small underdog to have the best hand when our opponent calls (or raises); leading out here may produce a higher expectation than checking.

In both of these examples, sometimes our play will cost us money the times our opponent calls with a hand that he would have checked behind. However, we can’t be results oriented and should remain focused on maximizing our expectation wherever we can. Betting marginal hands from out of position is somewhat akin to hitting a 16 against the dealer’s 10 in Blackjack. While it’s never fun to bust your own hand, we do so since the rules stipulate that we must act fi rst and hitting is unquestionably the correct mathematical play.

Of course, poker situations are not as clear cut, but in cases where our opponents will usually only bet hands that beat us and check behind everything else, it is often correct for us to lead. � ere’s an understandable aversion to leading out on the river with marginal hands, however, if we feel it’s the higher expectation play we must fi ght any possible innate desire to play it safe. �

Kevin Haney is a former actuary of MetLife but left the corporate job to focus on his passions for poker and fitness. He is co-owner of Elite Fitness Club in Oceanport, NJ and is a certified personal trainer. With regards to poker he got his start way back in 2003 and particularly

enjoys taking new players interested in mixed games under his wing and quickly making them proficient in all variants. If inter-ested in learning more, playing mixed games online, or just saying hello he can be reached at [email protected].

RETURNING TO LIVE POKER AFTER THE PANDEMIC: PART 1By Steve Zolotow

Normally my poker routine consists of pot-limit Omaha at Aria, no-limit hold’em at Bellagio, and a hand-ful of events each summer at the World Series of Poker. All of that was unavailable during COVID.

My wife and I spent most of the pandemic, close to a year and a half, self-quarantined in a relatively small space. We have never been TV watchers, but suddenly we were caught up in a variety of series. (I could go on a fi ne rant on how bad most American TV series are, but that’s a little far away from my topic.) I also started to study and play a lot of bridge and poker online.

Online poker is almost a completely diff erent game than live poker. I have always felt live reads and tells were a big part of the game, but now they were gone. In their place was a HUD, a Heads Up Display for those of you who are uninitiated. I chose PokerTracker, and I’ve been happy with it, although I might not be making as full use of it as I should. It tells me in great detail what each regular opponent has done in a variety of situations in

real time, while I’m playing. 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 Toffl er 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.

I wanted to spend a lot of time studying, especially no-limit hold’em, for both tournaments and cash games. PokerTracker is also a great tool for studying hands you’ve played. You can review all your hands, and even sort them into specifi c categories like continuation bets on the turn or big blind vs a raise. � e internet has made available a lot of great poker content.

My top recommendation is Jonathan Little’s PokerCoaching.com/CardPlayer. There is also a lot of great study material on UpswingPoker.com,

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SolveForWhyAcademy.com, RunItOnce.com, and SplitSuit.com. If you enjoy watching players actually playing, while listening to expert commentary, PokerGO is the best option, but you can also search YouTube for a lot of readily-available content.

Lastly, there is some great software for hand analysis, like PioSOLVER and ICMizer. While I haven’t really leaped into using them, I have two friends/coaches (Matt Affleck and Justin Saliba) who have provided me with some output.

I started playing on Americas Cardroom and some other sites, and my actual playing result was a small loss (perhaps somewhat due to experimentation and the implementation of new strategies and tactics.)

I also had two somewhat accidental brilliancies that

provided a big windfall. �e first was getting involved with Bitcoin for financial transactions on ACR. Somehow my timing was flawless, and I made a big profit there. I assumed that I wouldn’t be alone in wanting to play a lot of online poker, so I also decided to invest in PokerStars, whose stock traded in Canada as �e Stars Group. Within a few months of my investment, they were acquired by Flutter Entertainment, resulting in another nice profit.

After I was vaccinated and the pandemic seemed to be winding down, I was ready to return to live poker. I endured a few sessions at Aria and Bellagio behind plexiglass partitions. In May, even those started to be removed.

Since much of my online play and study had focused on tournaments, I wanted to play some live

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.


AnalysisTOURNAMENT 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 fi nal tables and won two titles. By making the top three, Peters had moved into fi rst place in the player of the series race for the U.S. Poker Open. � e 2016 Card Player Player of the Year award recipient and World Series of Poker bracelet winner once again found himself in the lead at the business end of an event, and was looking to convert that advantage into his 36th career title. Peters picked up a less-than-exciting 9-5 off suit in the small blind, but opted to limp in, likely with the intention of outmaneuvering his opponent post-fl op. Dan Shak, a businessman with the resume 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 campaign to take down the pot without showdown by making a bet of one-third the size of the pot. Shak had fl opped middle pair on a board with a diamond fl ush draw. He called in position and the turn brought an ace. Neither player could very credibly represent that card, and both checked. � e river brought the 10� and Peters sprung into action once again, fi ring 240,000 into the pot of 300,000. Peters was likely trying to target hands like unimproved queen-high holdings and perhaps even weak pairs of sixes and deuces with his bet. Shak made the call after some consideration and looked a bit surprised by the hand he was shown as he dragged the pot. “Nine high?” he queried, “Yeah,” came the quick reply from the always-reserved Peters. Shak was ultimately eliminated in third place in this event, securing $224,250 for the 29th six-fi gure score of his tournament career.

9

9

5

5

9

9

6

6

K

K

6

6

2

2

10

10

A

A

Peters bet 60,000, and Shak called.

Peters checked, and Shak checked.

Peters bet 240,000, and Shak called.

With three players remaining and blinds of 30,000-60,000 and a big blind ante of 60,000, David Peters limped in from the small blind. Dan

Shak checked his option from the big blind.

ANALYSIS

David Peters4,940,000 Chips

Dan Shak2,025,000 Chips


After Flop: 8.0%After Turn: 0%

Winning PercentageBefore Flop: 45.0%After Flop: 92.0%After Turn: 100%

FLOP

PREFLOP

TURN

RIVE

R


028_SA.indd 31 7/8/21 11:49 AM

CARDPLAYER.COM 32



Sometimes it feels like the poker gods can be out to get you. You can feel that, no matter what you do, no matter how big of a favorite you are, that a bad card is waiting for you on the river.

And then there are times where it feels like nothing can go wrong, you are always making the right decision, and you are always up against exactly the right hand.

I had a nearly year-long stretch where I won or fi nal-tabled some huge percentage of the tournaments I played from 2007 to 2008. I didn’t enter that many events, but I managed to cash for around $4 million. � e vast major-ity of that was profi t as there weren’t $100,000 buy-in high roller events at the time and if there were, I certainly wouldn’t have been playing in them.

One player who currently fi nds themselves on a heater is Vanessa Kade, and it feels like a karmic justice.

First, the disclaimer. Saying some-one is having a good run of results doesn’t mean that you think they’re only having success because of good luck. Every person who plays poker experiences runs of good and bad luck at diff erent points in their career. A run of good luck makes bad players look good, good players look great, and great players look like the best that have ever lived.

If you’re out of the loop on why this feels like karmic justice, allow me to catch you up. Earlier this year, Vanessa chose to speak up about GGPoker’s signing of Dan Bilzerian as a brand ambassador. She took issue with his behavior toward women, and as if to really drive home her point, he

responded by calling her a derogatory name.

� e fallout was that she was then swept up in a whirlwind of poker media takes about the subject and, subsequently released from her affi liate deal with GGPoker as a result.

Americas Cardroom jumped on the opportunity to add her to their own team, and the move paid off big almost immediately after. Just a few days after announcing that she would be an ambassador for ACR, Vanessa won the 15th Anniversary Sunday Million tour-nament for around $1.5 million. � e tournament had just under 70,000 entrants and she won it outright, with no deal, a feat that is even more rare.

After racking up some more online results, she’s now heading to the live arena to take on a diff erent game. Doing well in Sunday tournaments online is an incredible feat and takes great skill (as well as luck.) Playing well and winning a bunch in $10,000 to $25,000 buy-in, small-fi eld live tournaments, however, is a diff erent beast altogether.

Kade ventured to Las Vegas for the recent US Poker Open, and it was there that she proved herself among the game’s best with two fi nal tables, and nearly a quarter of a million dollars in earnings.

� e feeling of doing well in a live tournament is almost irreplaceable. When playing online, you’re often playing multiple tournaments at once, perhaps watching a TV show, cram-ming food in your face so you can keep your energy up. When you’re going deep in a live tournament, the focus is diff erent. You’re engaged in

every hand that’s going on at the table. You’re paying attention to the little things that make up a live poker game that you don’t get in an online tourna-ment, like who’s feeling tilted, who is feeling full of themselves, what banter is going on, who is drunk or nearly there. All of these things make you feel more in tune with the game around you and, in my opinion, off ers a more holistic feeling of pride and excitement than you get from doing well in online tournaments.

I’ve watched players I don’t know go on a run and even gotten tired of seeing their name everywhere (I’m looking at you Fedor Holz). I’ve witnessed people I don’t think are very good win a bunch as well (I’m not naming any). And I’ve seen people that I consider friends have incredible stretches (Justin Bonomo) and been rooting for more for them. Hopefully Vanessa’s heater is just get-ting started. �

Gavin Griffin was the first poker player to capture a World Series of Poker, European Poker Tour and World Poker Tour title and has amassed nearly $5 mil-

lion in lifetime tournament winnings. Griffin is sponsored by HeroPoker.com. You can follow him on Twitter @NHGG

VANESSA KADE’S HEATERBy Gavin Griffi n

events. � e US Poker Open in the PokerGO studio at 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 events were by no means soft, and promised to be fi lled with the best tournament players in the world.

I decided I could aff ord to play somewhere around three to fi ve of the $10,000 tournaments, looking at it as more of a learning opportunity than as a plus-equity ven-ture. My modest goal was to break even, while observing what these sharks did and learn from them.

In my next column, I’ll reveal how I did (Editor’s Spoiler: Pretty damn good!) and discuss some of the

hands involved. �

Steve ‘Zee’ Zolotow aka The Bald Eagle or Zebra is a very successful gamesplayer. He has been a full-time gambler for over 40 years. With two WSOP bracelets, over 60 cashes, and a few million in tournament cashes, he is easing into retirement. He currently devotes most of his Vegas gaming time to poker, and can be found

in cash games at Aria and Bellagio and at tournaments during the WSOP. When escaping from poker, he spends the spring and the fall in New York City where he hangs out at his bars: Doc Holliday’s, The Library, and DBA.

028_SA.indd 32 7/8/21 11:49 AM



CARDPLAYER.COM 3333

Contracts and Poker: The Social ContractBy Scott J. Burnham

In this column I have often discussed the terms of the contract that is formed informally with the poker room or casino when you enter a tournament. Sometimes the contract may be more formal, as

when you enter a tournament sponsored by the WPT or WSOP, or when you play online, and you have to agree to a multitude of terms and conditions.

But it can also be helpful to think of your relationship with the other players at the table or in the tournament as if you had a contract with them. Players sometimes say 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 it can’t be found in print in the Rules of the Tournament Directors Association (TDA) or the WSOP.

For example, a number of years ago there was a fellow playing at the WSOP main event who thought it would make him luckier if he did not bathe for the duration of the tournament. Unfortunately for those seated near him, he made a deep run.

Finally, after complaints to the floor, he was led away, screaming, “Show me where in the rules it says you have to take a shower!” In fact, the WSOP later adopted such a rule, but even without an express rule on point, the WSOP Rules state that “Rio will penalize any act that,

in the sole and absolute discretion of Rio, is inconsistent with the official rules or best interests of the Tournament.” Similarly, TDA Rule 1 permits the floor to make decisions in “the best interest of the game and fairness”:

Floor Decisions. �e best interest of the game and fairness are top priorities in decision-making. Unusual circumstances occasionally dictate that common-sense decisions in the interest of fairness take priority over technical rules.

Contract law can help us discover what is in “the best interest of the game.”

When we agree to a contract, we give up some of our autonomy for the benefit of those in the contract with us. �is idea goes way back, probably further than Rousseau’s Social Contract of 1762, but you can find it there if you want to look.

But the good news is that a contract is a win-win situ-ation for the parties who agree to it. We enter into it vol-untarily because, as the economists would put it, we are getting something that has more utility for us than what we are giving up. �ose in the contract are looking out for their own interests, but they have to respect


AnalysisTOURNAMENT HAND MATCHUP Ivan Zufi c was the fi rst Croation player to ever win a World Series of Poker bracelet. He overcame a fi eld of 15,205 entries to win $843,460 as the champion of the $500 buy-in ‘mini main event’ during the international segment of the 2020 WSOP Online. Zufi c fell to the shortest stack at this fi nal table with fi ve players remain-ing, but managed to fi ght his way back into contention with daring moves like the one he pulled in this hand. Zufi c was still the shortest stack but had rebuilt to more than 27 big blinds by the time he picked up 9-7 suited on the button. Zufi c min-raised to 160,000. David Peters, who sat with nearly 70 big blinds, looked down at A-8 suited and decided to three-bet, making it 3.25 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 a fl op with much of that range with roughly 1.7 million behind and a pot that had ballooned to 1.2 million. Zufi c was likely aware that Peters could three-bet him light given the stack dynamic, and opted to counter that tactic by four-betting all-in with his lowly suited one-gapper. Zufi c was likely freed up to make a move 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.

9

9

7

7

A

A

8

8

With three players remaining and blinds of 40,000-80,000 and a big blind ante of 80,000, Ivan Zufi c raised to 160,000 from the button.

David Peters three-bet to 520,000 from the small blind. Zufi c four-bet all-in for 2,215,000 total, and Peters folded.

ANALYSIS




After Flop: N/AAfter Turn: N/A

Winning PercentageBefore Flop: 57.0%After Flop: N/AAfter Turn: N/A

PREFLOP


028_SA.indd 33 7/8/21 11:50 AM



the interests of the other party to the contract as well. For example, there is a book by Tracy Kidder called

House about a wealthy man who hired a couple of local craftsmen to build a house. He was very tough during negotiations and extracted a number of concessions for his benefi t. But while performing the contract, the build-ers often had a number of decision points where they could either do a fi rst-class job or one that was “good enough.” Holding a grudge because of their treatment during negotiations, they often chose the latter.

One principle that guides our behavior in a contract is “custom and usage.” In contract law, the custom and usage that supplements the terms of a contract often comes from a trade or business. For example, if you agreed to purchase 100,000 bushels of wheat and received only 98,000, you would know better than to scream breach of contract at the seller, because in that trade, amounts are not exact, but can vary by up to 5%. And even if you don’t actually know it, you are still bound by the usage because you should know it. Similarly, in poker, in addition to the written rules, such as TDA Rules and House Rules, there are other rules that everyone who plays the game ought to know.

Another guiding principle is to act in “good faith.” In contract law, good faith means being honest and reason-able. � ese principles should keep the “angle-shooter” in check. A player who habitually lies about where the button is supposed to be, or how many chips he has when asked, is probably not breaking any rules, but is not act-ing in good faith and should not be welcome at the table.

In addition to being honest, a player should be reason-

able. � e other day I was watching the U.S. Poker Open. A player coughed into his elbow, and was complimented by the announcers, but moments later the same player coughed loudly into his hand and proceeded to handle the cards and chips as if nothing had happened. � e announcers were aghast, though as far as I could see, his fellow players remained silent. � ough not specifi cally against any rules, certainly it is not reasonable to spread germs in this manner, even if there were not a pandemic.

Contracts also have a mechanism for resolving dis-putes. As a last resort, it might mean going to court, but few disputes end up there. Most of them are worked out by the parties, and contract law encourages the parties to talk to each other to try to work things out. If that doesn’t work, informal procedures like mediation and arbitra-tion might resolve it. Similarly, the players at a table can apply peer pressure to try to control a player who is out of line. If that doesn’t work, the dispute can be taken to the dealer or ultimately resolved by the fl oor.

So, in summary, when you are playing at the table, feel free to try to maximize your return by beating the pants off the other players. But also remember that we are all in this together. If you think of yourself as having a contract with the other players and do your best to be honest and reasonable while performing that contract, you will fi nd

that everyone benefi ts. �

Scott J. Burnham is Professor Emeritus at Gonzaga University School of Law in Spokane, Washington. He can be reached at [email protected].


AnalysisTOURNAMENT HAND MATCHUP � e fi rst hand of heads-up play in this event was also the last. � e fi nal two players both picked up pocket pairs, but the chips did not all get in the middle pre-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. Ivan Zufi c raised with his pocket nines, making it 475,000 to go. Peters could have three-bet all-in at this point, and could have very well received a call. Instead he opted to just call. � e fl op brought a single overcard to both players’ pocket pairs. Zufi c had the lead, and opted to bet 375,000 of his remaining 1,600,000. Peters called and the turn brought the 10� 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 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 was all-in, putting Zufi c to the test for his remaining 1,225,000. “We both can see that if Peters chose to 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 min-ute of thought, Zufi c made the call with his pocket nines, hoping to pick off a bluff from Peters, who was obviously more than capable of making such a move. Zufi c’s hand was second best this time, however, and 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 USPO, securing the $465,750 top prize and a lead in the series standings. � is victory helped him secure his second consecutive USPO player of the series title.

10

10

10

10

9

9

9

9

Q

Q

8

8

3

3

4

4

10

10

Zufi c bet 375,000, and Peters called.

Zufi c checked, and Peters checked.

Zufi c checked, and Peters moved all-in. Zufi c called all-in for 1,225,000.

With two players remaining and blinds of 75,000-150,000 and a big blind ante of 150,000, David Peters limped in from the button. Zufi c

raised to 475,000 from the big blind, and Peters called.

ANALYSIS





FLOP

PREFLOP

TURN

RIVE

R


028_SA.indd 34 7/8/21 11:50 AM

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Poker Leaderboards

WPT MAIN EVENT TITLESPlayer(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 Weinman, Art Papazyan, Randal Flowers, Aaron Mermelstein, Erkut Yilmaz, Tony Ruberto, Matt Giannetti

2

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.

Brian Altman

Gus Hansen

Darren Elias

James Carroll

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