[JDesab]

Jman... first of all

i like this player.

i like his table image. if i'm sitting there.. he comes across as friendly... yet a bit shy. the right amount .. as if he's giving his respect to the players at the table. when DN talked to him a bit about being his agent he didn't jump into the conversation, but i don't think anyone took this as being rude just that he was new to the table and finding his spot. he is a friendly looking kid and i'm sure that the players wanted him to get comfortable with all of them.

hellmuth referring to him as a nit was not derogatory, in as much as he was making a spot for galfond among the table. i can't believe that i'm in such a minority that i play live. you assign nicknames to people and stereotypes. often you do it to get a reaction from the player. you're inviting him to speak about himself. you're trying to learn about him. galfond did exactly how DN read him. he offered no information. galfond, at that table was a mystery. he showed two hands..both pocket pairs... his image was that of a very tight player.

now... the T7 s hand.

i will say that i dislike this move. of course if he decided that he really wanted to play the T7 some say that raising it up with the hand is the best way to play. i disagree, from early position i would only raise with a hand that i'd have no problem making a continuation bet without improving. obviously jman was not committed to this move so i think he made a mistake in raising. i'm sure that he didn't want 5 callers... maybe that was the major impact on him checking the flop AK7. can't really blame him for that. if he had been in late position perhaps he would have taken a stab.


as the river goes checked... i "think" that jman should start believing that his 7 could be good. obviously he was sold on the fact that he couldn't possibly have the winner so he mucked. no biggy. it does happen live. we've all made that mistake and we say "ouch" and move on.

this one action by phil does not make him a donk or anything else.

it was not a hand that will further the image that all of you internet fans are portraying that the guy is a poker god. it also does not cement him in as a donkey either. it does further the argument that on that day, jman had no reason to leave the game and run his mouth about how he'd love to take on one of the established pros and assume he'd break the guy. that post from jman was out of line ... and maybe some of you are starting to see it.

imo internet success comes from multitabling and playing the nuts. your winnings are multiplied by the number of tables times the amount of easy money you can make off of mistakes by worse players than you. online he's intimidating.. the people he's playing against are not intimidated.

i actually see less wrong with his T7 hand than any of the two hands he's played before.



i think that there are interesting questions that have arisen as we watch him play though.

he says he had 710,000 available on that day. he was saving 500k for the next day as we all have read.

would jman not have been better served to put about 200 to 250k on the table? this would have afforded him some room to play.


was he concerned with going broke?

-you folks surely have a better read on this player than i... but the idea has come to me that the amount he brought to the game was likely a huge percentage of his bankroll and he was playing to protect it. that would explain a lot.

he was on HIGH STAKES POKER .. even you self absorbed internet players have to admit that playing on that show is a hell of an honor. perhaps he was content to get his mug on the camera's and the rest was gravy. I'm sure that he had it in his mind that he didn't want to lose.

perhaps we can take him at his word that he was really just filling time til the next day when he planned to really play.

note: i have only watched the first hand so far. i have not finished the episode yet.