FULL TILT POKER BLOG

#024 – FTOPS #5 – Six-Handed, Hosted by John Juanda

Posted by Editor | Filed under FTOPS, John Juanda

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Tonight’s FTOPS event is the Six-Handed No-Limit Hold ‘Em event. John Juanda is the host. The buy-in is $200 + $16, and the guarantee is $350,000. Because I once won a six-handed event less than 1/10th the size, naturally I am picking myself as the favorite to take down the big prize, which should exceed the guarantee amount of $70,000. I promise I won’t let the money change me, except that I might pay my bills on time for am month.

John Juanda and I are friendly but I don’t know him very well. I told you my best Juanda stories back in Entry #001, from when I first met him as part of Mike Matusow’s group at the end of the 2005 World Series of Poker. But I’ll amplify one point.

I sat behind John and Erik Seidel in the bleachers at Binion’s as Mike tried (successfully, of course) to make it from the final 27 to the final table. It wasn’t possible to see the cards on the table, so whenever there was an all-in confrontation, every head in the room shot up to look at the giant overhead monitor. It took several seconds for the dealer to position the cards, and sometimes it was unclear (looking at the cards on the monitor) which player had which hand.

John and Erik were talking about the hands held by the all-in players in those moments before we could see them. Juanda, even more than Seidel, was calling out particular hands. Though he was really talking about a range, he would state specific hands and, using just the stack sizes, betting progression, and length of time the players were taking to make their decisions (none of these things being especially easy to see from our vantage point), he was uncanny in calling out the hands.

There was a tiny bit of luck involved. John could have deduced “pocket sevens” for one player and if the hand was pocket sixes (compared with, say, ace-queen), you’d still have to say his reasoning and conclusion were correct. But he was hitting them exactly.

I was honestly very, very impressed, and I told him so each time it happened. One time, he put the original raiser (and all-in caller) on pocket sevens and the re-raiser on pocket nines.

When those were the exact hands, he turned back toward me with a little, satisfied smirk.

“What’s the big deal, John?” I said, “You didn’t even TRY to guess the suits.”

He is a phenomenally talented poker player, with tournament wins, in addition to millions in prize money in Limit Hold ‘Em, Pot Limit Hold ‘Em, No-Limit Hold ‘Em, in Stud (WSOP), HORSE, Omaha EOB, Stud EOB (including a bracelet), ace-to-five lowball (bracelet), Stud, and PLO (bracelet).

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