FULL TILT POKER BLOG

#370 – NBC Heads-Up Championship #20 – The Brain Trust – Match One – Bloch

Posted by Editor | Filed under Andy Bloch, Chris Ferguson, Full Tilt Poker Strategy Guide - Tournament Edition, NBC Heads-Up Championship

To me, this is almost an anticlimax. Andy Bloch? Chris Ferguson? How could I choose between them. They both enriched the FULL TILT POKER STRATEGY GUIDE tremendously, and well as my own skills and my life. Two of the best things I’ve ever written were magazine profiles of Andy and Chris. I picked my regular spot in the cheap seats because I couldn’t figure out where I wanted to sit.

I’m going to just start running facts about these two at you as the match starts. (By the way, I’m just dying over not being able to defend my win in the Sunday HORSE last week. “Fortunately” the internet connection in the tournament room is so bad that it’s not too much of an issue to withhold pulling the trigger in the minute before the start.)

Andy Bloch has two degrees from MIT (bachelors and masters in engineering) and one from Harvard (law).

Chris has a Ph.D. in computer science from UCLA. He completed his dissertation after 14 years only because they told him they were kicking him out if he didn’t finish.

Andy didn’t discover the MIT Blackjack Team until after he left the school. It was while he was at Harvard that he played and served as team manager.

Chris has been looking for a house in Las Vegas for as long as I’ve known him – early 2006. The other day, he asked with genuine lack of comprehension how people can quickly decide on a how or build a house. I said, “Chris, in the time it will take you to find a house, you could build one … with your own two hands.”

Cards were in the air at about 6:15. At 7:05, Chris had a lead of about 700k-300k. Chris called a raise on Andy’s button. The flop was A-J-8, 2 diamonds. Chris checked. Andy bet 100k. Chris called. The turn was the five of diamonds. Chris bet to put Andy all-in and he called. Chris had 8-8 for a set. Andy had two diamonds for a flush. Chris didn’t hit any of his outs for a full house on the river and Andy doubled up. He bet Chris out of the next pot on the turn and has the chip lead.

Andy got arrested at the Golden Nugget for leaving a tip at the buffet. (He was invited on the reality show about the casino – unbeknownst to him – so they could bar him. He took it in stride and later that year had dinner with a friend (I think Rafe Furst but I could be wrong about that) at the buffet during a break in a tournament at the Union Plaza right after the WSOP. He went back because he realized he didn’t leave a tip at the table and the security guy who read him the Trespass Act spotted him, detailed him, and had him arrested for disobeying his earlier barring.

Chris made his first tournament cash in a form of poker known as “Asian Stud.”

Andy wrote his first gambling computer program to figure out a winning strategy for betting jai alai.

Chris was recruited – okay, this may have been informally – as a spy by a man in a kilt at the Correspondents Dinner in Washington, D.C. The man, Jeff “Skunk” Baxter, was a member of the Doobie Brothers and Steely Dan and became a self-taught weapons expert. He is now a highly sought anti-terrorism expert and he and Chris were seated at the same table.

At 7:17 PM, with blinds of 15k-30k, Andy limped on his button, a strategy I described earlier that they both understand (way better than me). [By the way, part of it is that the short stacks take away the benefit of position, something I neglected to mention before.] Chris raised to 75,000. Andy called. The flop was A-99. Chris bet 150,000. Andy looked down for a few moments, tilted his head, and moved all-in. Chris called.

Andy had Td-9h for trip nines.

Chris had Ad-Kd for a pair of aces.

The turn and river of Js and 6h did not help Chris and Andy wins the first round of the match.

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