FULL TILT POKER BLOG

#366 – NBC Heads-Up Championship #16 – The First Quarterfinals

Posted by Editor | Filed under Andy Bloch, NBC Heads-Up Championship

GAME FACE

In the first pair of matches in the quarterfinals, everybody has their game face on. Seed v. Benyamine, Bloch v. Hershiser.

I sat in the front row next to the seats reserved for Hershiser’s group because I wanted to watch Andy Bloch. I’ve been friendly with Orel in a few brief conversations and he sat down next to me to ask me a question. “Does it seem to you the blinds are smaller for some of the levels than they were for the first three rounds?”

He points out that the starting stacks are 160,000 and blinds begin at 1000-2000. Looking through the four rounds, he is correct that for the first two levels and then every alternating level starting with the fourth, the blinds are proportionately somewhat smaller than in previous rounds.

It’s not like that’s going to give him an edge over Andy Bloch, but it was a very astute observation and somewhat revealing about the level of his thinking about how to play this particular tournament.

I eventually got booted from the front row and had to move back to the cheap seats. I understand that Mormons have big families and his is big enough, apparently, to include Mark Gregorich. (Actually, I don’t even know if Oral is a member of LDS. He has a reputation of being a spiritual, religious person. He uttered a curse word in casual conversation and apologized to the female camera operator behind him. In poker, that makes you a Mormon. But he also hangs around with Gavin Smith, so it’s anybody’s guess.)

As they get ready for the group picture, the Sunday Brawl starts on Full Tilt. It’s killing me that I’m not playing it. It was only out of curiosity that I discovered I was registered for it, the result of collecting more scalps than anyone in last week’s Brawl. Because of the new “Tournament $” feature, which is still don’t quite understand, I was allowed to unregister and bank the entry money in a separate account. I’ll try to play it next week.

Cards are in the air at 11:12 AM. Someone from Full Tilt told me that Andy had something up his sleeve for the match. He reveals just before the first hand that he is wearing under his shirt a San Francisco Giants jersey. Orel laughs and everybody else laughs. Hershiser leans forward to give him a good-natured handshake … then pulls his hand back.

At 11:57, Huck Seed and David Benyamine play the decisive pot of their match. On a board of 2-3-7-3-5, David moves all-in on the river. Huck, with the chip lead, calls. David shows 9-3 for trip threes. But Seed shows 2-2 for a full house. He advances to the semifinals.

PROTECT YOUR HAND AT ALL TIMES

At 12:05 PM, I notice that Andy Bloch is starting to limp on his button. Two years ago, when I saw Chris Ferguson doing this in the final against Ted Forrest, I erroneously thought Ted was confounding him. Now I understand better – not completely, but better.

When your position-raise costs more than 10% of the smaller stack, the positions are reversed. The player on the button has the disadvantage preflop and the player considering the always-raising opponent’s bet now has the edge. He understands that the preflop raise doesn’t automatically signify a premium hand. If he plays back, he’s got the button pretty much committed without a premium hand.

Andy had the chip lead for most of the first hour, until they got all-in at 12:06 and Orel doubled up with A-5 against Andy’s Q-T.

Hershiser played very well but he made, in my opinion, a serious mistake at 12:20 and it turned the match significantly in Andy’s favor. With the blinds up to 5,000-10,000, he had a 2-to-1 lead over Bloch. On the first hand at this level, Orel limped and Andy moved all-in.

Orel folded, showing Q-To.

I turned to Tim Lavali, with whom I was talking during the match, and said, “He should not have shown that to Andy.” Tim, a first-class poker writer and shrink (he’s working on a book with Mike Matusow so he’ll need both talents in abundance), instantly agreed. As we know, Bloch would call with Q-T in that situation, since he did when the blinds were even lower. He can easily conclude that Orel’s going to play too tight from here on and start stealing.

On the next seven hands, Andy takes the blinds every time, either moving all-in or because Orel folded his button. After the seventh hand, Andy had the lead, 170,000 to 150,000.

Bloch eventually ran the string to eleven hands, with a couple limps on his button and bets after Orel led out by checking the flop, one all-in and fold, and one fold by Orel of his button.

On the twelfth hand, Hershiser moved all-in and Andy folded.

By 12:35, seeing only two flops and one turn since Orel folded and showed that Q-T, Andy Bloch had a 222,000-98,000 chip lead.

At 12:36, Andy moved all-in on his button. Orel immediately called. Andy showed A-9o, Orel J-To. Bloch’s hand held up and he moved on to the semifinals.

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