FULL TILT POKER BLOG

#367 – NBC Heads-Up Championship #17 – The Other Quarterfinals, or, It’s a Tilt-Eat-Tilt World

Posted by Editor | Filed under Chris Ferguson, Gus Hansen, NBC Heads-Up Championship, Phil Ivey, Red Full Tilt pros

The two semifinalists from the morning round, Andy Bloch and Huckleberry Seed, are both red pros. Three of the four in the afternoon quarterfinals are Team Tilters, Ivey/Hansen and Chris Ferguson. Jonathan Little is also wearing the colors. So when they announced it was time to take the team picture, the picture of all the competitors at the start of the match, it really WAS a team picture.

Cards in the air at 1:15 PM. At 1:18 PM, Uncle Tilty slapped a Full Tilt patch on the back of Gus’s hoodie. That way, if the camera focuses on Phil Ivey and people somehow don’t notice the logos on his hat and shirt, they can see it on Gus’s back.

The tone of the Gus & Ivey show is set pretty quickly. These guys are playing so far above the rim that it appears there’s no difference between playing skillfully and playing randomly. There’s limping, check-raising, calling then taking over the lead, reraising then folding to the third raise – undecipherable languages that they seem to understand, though Ivey is slightly more fluent, winning the balance of these pots.

Jonathan Little takes an immediate and significant lead against Chris Ferguson. Chris stays in the match by winning an all-in but still lagging. The hand that turns it around for Ferguson is one that Jon might not have played correctly. Perhaps he was stuck but I can’t figure out his motivation for limping on the button with 4-4.

He had a significant chip lead, about 220,000 to 100,000 (maybe a bit more) and blinds were 2000-4000. Chris raised and Jonathan moved all-in. Chris instantly called and doubled up with 9-9.

He couldn’t have been trapping, right? I don’t think Chris is likely to put a move on but even if he did, it would be with two overcards so Jon would be trapping to get himself into a race.

And it’s not the opposite: he can’t fold if Chris moves in. So maybe the right move would have been to push with the fours so he didn’t give Chris a flop that, without a four, would leave him with a tough decision. That way, Chris would fold something like T-9, a hand that’s trouble in a limped pot. (Granted, in this instance, if Little moves in, Chris calls and wins.)

Limping works okay if all you lose with 4-4 is the initial preflop bet. But you’re working off a pretty thin margin, trying to hit your 7-to-1 shot for a set, with an opponent who simultaneously makes a big enough hand to bust, all for about 20x BB.

I guess Jonathon was just stuck. Next time he pushed, it was with T-7s and Chris called with 9-9 again and eliminated him. It was a great run for Jonathan and he had control of the early part of the quarterfinal match, but Ferguson came into the biggest pots with the biggest hands.

The end of Gus Hansen came fast. After a 9-high flop with three hearts, they got all-in and Phil showed Kh-Qh for a made flush. Gus had 9-3 for top pair and the three of hearts. As Jordan, the studio announcer, started winding through runner-runner straight-flush and runner-runner full-house possibilities, it was clear the match was over. A moment later, it was.

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