FULL TILT POKER BLOG

#369 – NBC Heads-Up Championship #19 – The Beaver Cup

Posted by Editor | Filed under Andy Bloch, Chris Ferguson, NBC Heads-Up Championship, Phil Ivey

The match drawing the most attention is Chris Ferguson v. Phil Ivey and deservedly so. They each have five bracelets. Phil is the biggest cash-game winner, Chris the most theoretically cool tournament winner. But Phil could argue that he’s the best tournament player in the world. And Chris could point out that holding on to and accumulating everything you’ve ever won has a value superior to being the best at risking it in other games. Then there’s Ivey’s heads-up rep, winning $17 million in the biggest heads-up cash game in history, against Chris’s unmatched record in heads-up tournament play.

But the Andy Bloch-Huck Seed match is pretty cool for its own reasons.

Andy holds two degrees from MIT. Huck dropped out of Cal Tech because he thought poker would be more intellectually stimulating. It’s not well known in the poker world but the two schools, the premiere institutions of engineering, have a fierce rivalry. They have pulled monstrous pranks against each other more, more often, others to demonstrate their superiority over the other. I think both schools have messed with nationally-televised college football bowl games to insert messages in favor of their schools. And didn’t I read somewhere that Cal Tech managed to change the famous “Hollywood” sign to read “Cal Tech”?

Both schools have a beaver as their mascot and their yearly intercollege hockey game is known as the Beaver Cup. I figure Andy Bloch is under great pressure here. If he loses, Cal Tech is going to get maximum publicity about how one of its DROPOUTS bested someone with two MIT degrees.

But Bloch seems to be handling the pressure. I saw him at the food court before the match and we grabbed a quick bite, marveling over how he wasn’t even in the field a couple weeks ago. A very nice woman approached who I thought was going to ask for Andy’s autograph. Instead, she introduced herself as Carol Wasicka, Paul’s mom.

“I’m the Paul Wasicka of this year,” Andy quickly noted, a reference to Paul getting into last year’s field because Doyle Brunson dropped out. (Andy is here only because the writer’s strike settled in Hollywood and Brad Garrett had to get back to work.)

That wasn’t Carol’s purpose in stopping by. “Are you married?” she asked. Bloch quickly told her that he’s engaged.

“Oh, that’s too bad for me. I have a beautiful daughter who I thought I could marry to a poker player.”

Andy Bloch would be a great catch for any mother’s daughter if he was available, but I assume she has very specific standards about WHICH poker players she is lining up for her daughter.

They played a very spirited matched, which Seed almost won early. On a jack-high flop, Huck bet 11,000. Andy called. On the turn, Huck bet 45,000. Andy called. On the river, Huck bet 115,000. Andy thought about it for awhile and folded.

I found out later that Huck had A-J. Andy folded Q-J.

Andy entered the match under the impression that Huck would play (too) tight. That was a tough laydown but I wouldn’t be surprised if Bloch had Seed on something even better than top-pair top-kicker.

This gave Huck the lead but Andy retook it through a series of small pots, possibly confirming his view that Huck would fold too easily. He made a number of laydowns when confronted and, long after the Ferguson-Ivey match had concluded, held a 2-to-1 lead. With blinds of 8000-16,000, Andy on his button put Huck all-in. Huck quickly called.

Andy had A-Q, Huck 9-9.

Andy caught an ace on the river to advance to the finals against Chris Ferguson. Seed played well as he always does and ended up on the wrong side of a coin flip. After Chris Ferguson’s remarkable record in this competition, Huckleberry Seed deserves some recognition for his skill as a heads-up warrior.

….

OK, now that that’s out of the way, we’re looking at final of two of my closest friends in poker, longtime friends, two biggest collaborators on the STRATEGY GUIDE, golfing buddies (they’re taking up the game together), and possessors of very similar styles and theoretical frameworks.

I shouldn’t be sitting in the front row of this. I should be dealing it.

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