Hoss TBF - part of Think Tank?

[J_V]

It seemed from some chat that this HossTBF character might be part of the Chen/Ankenmann/Prock/Chan? crew - which I will call the "Think Tank" for brevity from now on. If you've read Mathematics of Poker - or bought and used as firewood because you couldn't understand it like me - are keenly aware that these guys know an illegal amount of math to be playing our friendly game.

I've played with Hoss (which was a while ago) after his landfall tourney win, he seemed to be very good in the very aggressive, good hand reader type of way, but I would never have expected him to be a "mathy" player. He just seemed loaded with a lot of talent and a solid winner at the highest stakes.

Anyway, if this rumor is true, thats pretty damn scary. I guess I have no real content, other than this guy isn't on my list of people I am will ever play heads up? I figure some of you with more experience against him might have some insight.

[Justin A]

It's about time we had another J_V thread in this forum.

[Ian J]

Yes I know for certain that he is part of the "think tank." He's a friend of a friend and yes he is extremely intelligent/mathy. My friend who is also a high stakes player said and I quote "I think Matt (Hawrilenko, Hoss TBF) and Bill have solved shorthanded online limit holdem." It was funny because I was thinking there's just no way, but after seeing Matt's results in the last year I can't really argue.

[Victor]

anyone have stats on how these guys play shorthanded?

[NNNNOOOOONAN]

[ QUOTE ]
"I think Matt (Hawrilenko, Hoss TBF) and Bill have solved shorthanded online limit holdem."

[/ QUOTE ]

Not a high stakes player, but I have to ask, if this is true, why isn't Bill Chen playing the highest limit games available also?

[DeathDonkey]

Basically he is maniacal preflop in a shorthanded game. He will reraise a CO open from the button or a button open from the SB with damn near any two cards and then play them expertly postflop. Note I haven't played with him ever this is from a friend who is more of a regular in those stars games.

-DeathDonkey

[Victor]

well, im just wondering if they have the same statistical similiarities to my alleged ub bots. namely 48% wsd no matter how many players.

[newhizzle]

ive played probably as many hu hands againt hoss as i have against anyone else, hes very tough and i dont play him anymore, i generally hate sitting in any game when hes behind me, although he will 3-bet pretty much any two cards from the SB, and btw, one thing i would not call him is a good hand reader, he loves to go animal on draws when theres no shot of getting a fold, and im not sure that ive ever seen him fold a pair that has no shot of winning, but i think all that works with his style and he is definately someone i do not like playing with, especially when hes on a heater like he has been recently

but i love playing with jerrod, chen, and prock, for whatever thats worth, they all play pretty much an exact opposite style from hoss

[J_V]

Hasn't he been on a heater forever? Everytime I hear anything about the online limit scene, something like HossTBF on a heater always comes up.

Weird that they would all play different styles, but I think I agree. Hoss is way way more aggressive than the other Chen, Jerrod.

[Micturition Man]

I didn't know he was Hawrilenko. I did know Hawrilenko worked with Jerrod and Bill.

FWIW I think Terrence is just an acquaintance rather than a 'coworker' of those guys.

I also think it makes a lot of sense in retrospect to hear that Hoss is a game theory guy, because he makes ridiculously thin call downs.

As someone else said he seems to literally never fold a pair, which is probably far closer to game theoretically correct than the seemingly more reasonable way that most people play.

I never really noticed that he was super aggro preflop... I thought he was just a bit looser (with respect to his 3-betting hands) than what I consider proper.

Oh and anyone who thinks they've literally solved sh LHE doesn't know what that means.