WPT World Poker Challenge thread
 

Tonight's show helps bring WPT Season 5 closer to its conclusion with the World Poker Challenge held in Reno. Tonight's final table only lasts 65 hands, so there will be plenty of tournament action covered. This final table featured:


Seat 1: JC Tran - T904,000
Seat 2: David Pham - T1,655,000
Seat 3: JC Alvarado - T1,107,000
Seat 4: Danny Wong - T623,000
Seat 5: John Hom - T119,000
Seat 6: Mark Seif - T325,000

Re: WPT World Poker Challenge thread
 

"He's digging the hole, putting the twigs and branches over it. This is great poker, Mike..."

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lol Mark Seif. "Hey, I have an A and a low kicker, just so you know you're getting odds with a nice range of hands, let's ask the audience, ok, let's go."

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I hate VVP.

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This self-proclaimed "best player from Mexico" is terrible, he doesn't win this does he?

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Wow @ Danny Wong stacking off ~40BBs with AQo to a 4-bet shove.

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Juan Carlos is actually a very good player. He had a pretty good run in 2006 live and online. He's had numerous offers from the top tourney backers.

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Lol, donkaments. If that guy is the best poker player Mexico has to offer, I'm moving to Mexico.

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There are a lot of good aspects of Juan Carlos's play.

Barry

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Lol at people hating on JC, he's sick talented and a really nice guy. He should have FT'ed WPT Mandalay right before the series started, and instead got 8th.

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You don't have to move to mexico....bring your cash to L.A. for next month's WPT...Juan Carlos will be there.

You might want to ask some of the top tourney pros what they think of Juan Carlos...you will find that his game is held in high esteem.

Re: WPT World Poker Challenge thread
 

I'll bite, what's good about Juan Carlos's game? It seems like the amount of money he's putting in the pot is inversely proportional to the strength of his hand, with him keeping the pot small with the nuts while grossly overbetting with some crap that's beyond marginal. That was compounded by the fact that he was always so frozen and twitchy every time he made a bluff, making it relatively easy to pick off with stuff that's only marginally less marginal.

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Amazing how the tv experts judge a person's game by watching someone play maybe 8 or so hands. You have no clue sir.

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lol Mark Seif. "Hey, I have an A and a low kicker, just so you know you're getting odds with a nice range of hands, let's ask the audience, ok, let's go."

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and

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Wow @ Danny Wong stacking off ~40BBs with AQo to a 4-bet shove.

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Do you really need an elaborate trap made from twigs and sticks to beat these players? Just wait until the fish jumps in the boat and then whack it with the oar.

Also, yeah, I have to ask what would be considered good about Juan Carlos' game. He acts like he's played too many $11 SNGs.

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Alvarado and Wong are both good.

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T5 vs 97 hand was entertaining

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Good (very good, even) players sometimes make non-good moves. Shocking!

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Pham called more than a telemarketer.

And T5 v 97 was sick.

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Wow @ Danny Wong stacking off ~40BBs with AQo to a 4-bet shove.

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that made me go wtf too, I mean seriously the guy just 4-bet you a ton more chips early on in the FT and you insta-call w/ AQ? I mean seriously learn to play poker.

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If you play a very aggressive style of poker and you're playing 6 handed you're going to have to call 4 bets with AQ.

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Alvarado and Wong are both good.

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Well, Wong wasn't in very long. I don't know exactly how someone would think AQo was any good facing a 4-bet all-in from JC Tran when his opening raise came over two big stacks, but it's hard to stay neutral when we see the cards before the action.

Alvarado overbetting draw-free flops against good players with middle pair no kicker doesn't strike me as very enlightened. The hand has some showdown value and doesn't really benefit from any folding equity if JC is calling him with TPnK. I liked his play with the 45 though.

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If you play a very aggressive style of poker and you're playing 6 handed you're going to have to call 4 bets with AQ.

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In fact that's really the only reason you 3bet, because otherwise 3betting AQ is bad. [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

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And T5 v 97 was sick.

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players that can fire the third barrel for all their chips w/ 10 high are a rare breed...well done JC

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This self-proclaimed "best player from Mexico" is terrible, he doesn't win this does he?

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Christ, give the kid a break. He was making a joke. He said he has only met two other Mexican poker players and they were not any good, thus he's the best of the three. While not funny, that does't seem like enough to start chopping him up

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I have a question: Was Pham's turn call (on JC's T5 bluff) horrible or very good? I mean, with a raise from JC PF, sure it coulda just been a steal, but he very easily coulda had any Ace as well. So maybe the flop call was ok (maybe a raise woulda been better?), but did Pham really think he was ahead on the turn or was he just trying to spike trips or two pair on the river?

Well, either way, it was a fun hand to watch.

Re: WPT World Poker Challenge thread
 

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I have a question: Was Pham's turn call (on JC's T5 bluff) horrible or very good? I mean, with a raise from JC PF, sure it coulda just been a steal, but he very easily coulda had any Ace as well. So maybe the flop call was ok (maybe a raise woulda been better?), but did Pham really think he was ahead on the turn or was he just trying to spike trips or two pair on the river?

Well, either way, it was a fun hand to watch.

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The A is such a perfect card for JC to fire at, and he knows that he knows. So JC would bet here if he had it, but he'd also bet almost anything else he got to this point with, at least some of the time, whereas he'd usually give up if the turn was a 3 or whatev. Of course, David was assuming JC would give up on the river if he was bluffing.

Re: WPT World Poker Challenge thread
 

I suspect that a lot of people who say that "Juan Carlos" sucks are talking about two hands: one was when he made the wheel straight and the other is when he overbet with 76o on a 8 7 2 board. In the first example, given Pham's range, I think checking back on the turn is entirely appropriate. In the second, I'm not at all in love with his play here, but given JC's range (wasn't this a limped pot) + the FE he has (not unreasonable to think JC folds an 8 and some 7s here) + that JC MAY call with a limped 66 (not likely), I think this is an OK play.

I wouldn't want to [censored] with Juan Carlos. He seems to have a few gears and is becoming adept at using all of them.

Barry

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Besdies, it's so much more entertaining to make fun of Mark Seif.

Barry

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Besdies, it's so much more entertaining to make fun of Mark Seif.

Barry

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So true. I liked how he was able to stare into JC Tran's soul and see that his A6o was good. Forget obvious betting patterns. It's all about the stone-cold reads, baby.

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I missed the end, who did win?

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I missed the end, who did win?

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Hooray for teh internets!

http://www.cardplayer.com/tournaments/results/7057

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So true. I liked how he was able to stare into JC Tran's soul and see that his A6o was good. Forget obvious betting patterns. It's all about the stone-cold reads, baby.

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The A6o shove into a guy who is pot committed is soooooo bad

Re: WPT World Poker Challenge thread
 

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This self-proclaimed "best player from Mexico" is terrible, he doesn't win this does he?

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Lol...damn, now I'm really insecure about my ability as a poker player. I mean, when Nam, Jc, Wasika, Sebok and a bunch of other feared circuit pro's said I was sick I thought I was probably pretty good...but now that tpir and dima2000 say I suck, I don't know anymore, I guess I do suck. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Gotta love 2+2 for that non-stop analysis of uninformed HH's. I'm not a fan of people that get offended when their play gets critiqued, and I'm not offended. I just get annoyed by the standard online know it-alls that love to analyze hands with like 25% of the actual information at hand.

That said, I admitted about 500 times before the episode aired that I played bad. I was drunk, nervous about the TV and I was getting played back at EVERY hand I played (like 4 weren't shown). Not to mention I was playing possibly the top two most consistant tourney players of the past 5 years (they would have owned either of you way before you could make the final 3 [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img])... Once I saw the episode though I didn't feel bad at all about my play because David had two pair or better almost every time against me. I don't think I ever had top pair, and I only had 1 pair preflop (folded around) and no hands above A8 I think, I had QK about 3 times and bricked every flop/got shoved on pre, the one time I did hit a pair it was on the river once the turn paired pham's kicker.

The only hand I think I actually made a decent mistake in was that 76 hand..I don't know if you noticed but I went from 1.5 mil after the 92 hand back down to a bit over 600k, I was frustrated FOR SURE and felt I was getting owned. I don't think I can ever check fold there, jc is betting at least 90% of the time when he's checked to on that flop imo, he could have any 2. The big shove was a combo of me missreading my stack (thought I had a bit over 500k behind before the hand, I had just lost a pot so I didn't count, that was a pretty bad mistake) and the fear of being outplayed again if I just call. Jc loves firing two barrels if you check twice so I thought there was no way giving him a free card would benefit me when I was oop. I thought about making it like 165 or so but I didn't want to get shipped on by 910 and have to make a bad fold with huge odds, also I thought a big bet might get him to lay down a weak 8 or better 7 because he knows I'll do that with bottom 2 or 910 (flipping) or A8, it actually took him like 3 mins to call...all in all I think my biggest mistake was that I had a pretty huge physical tell that I've been working on after a legit pro told me about it a month ago. Live and learn I guess.

Anyway, I just felt like explaining a bit. Good luck in the daily $150's.

Re: WPT World Poker Challenge thread
 

<3 J.C.

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<3 J.C.

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<3 J.C.

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<3 prtypsux

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<3 J.C.

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Lol...damn, now I'm really insecure about my ability as a poker player. I mean, when Nam, Jc, Wasika, Sebok and a bunch of other feared circuit pro's said I was sick I thought I was probably pretty good...but now that tpir and dima2000 say I suck, I don't know anymore, I guess I do suck.

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Lol - I like your style!

Re: WPT World Poker Challenge thread
 

jc > internet know-it-alls.