24
#418 – Full Tilt Heads-Up Championship – Mr. Ivey’s 30 Minutes
I’m writing this as I watch the Full Tilt Heads-Up Championship, which starts at noon (Arizona time). With 4 minutes to go, there are 82 in the field. Now I look again and there are just 81. I thought there was no unregistering? It doesn’t matter because they’ll cut the field at 64 but I wonder what happened.
This has been billed as the biggest buy-in heads-up tournament ever, though that is not unambiguously true. As Craig Singer pointed out to me by e-mail, it’s only the biggest buy-in NO-LIMIT heads-up tournament. It is tied for the honor of the biggest buy-in with a tournament held at the Bellagio in December 2004. The event, part of Bellagio’s Five Diamond Tournament, was held as an enticement to get Andy Beal back to Las Vegas. It didn’t succeed but Craig Singer, Beal’s comptroller and poker friend, entered. He drew Howard Lederer in the first round – probably the player he least wanted to face – and had Howard down to just a few chips but couldn’t close the deal. Lederer won and went on to finish second, losing in the final to Jeffrey Lisandro.
I decided to watch one of the first round matches, complicated slightly by my computer freezing up just as they were beginning. I missed the first 5 minutes, but blinds started at 10-20 and limits were 12 minutes. Players started wtih 5,000 chips.
I decided to watch Phil Ivey play whitelime. After 5 minutes, Phil already held a lead of 5,500/4,500. It looked like Ivey was raising on his button every hand to 60. whiteline was sometimes raising, sometimes just calling the 20 big blind on the button. The first few times he did it, Phil raised. I also saw an early hand where whiteline raised and Phil reraised. After watching whitelime back down a couple times, it felt to me like Ivey was trying to take control with aggressiveness – no surprise there.
On one early hand, Phil raised after whitelime limped on the button, and bet all three streets on a board of Qc-Ah-9c-5h-6h. He showed As-Js to take the pot and a lead of 6,340/3,660 at 12:08. I just notice at the first match has already ended, with DaEvils beating FakeSky.
On whitelime’s next button, he limps but Phil doesn’t raise this time. He checks the ace-high flop and whitelime bets. Ivey folds. To me, it felt like whitelime was trying to trap and Phil didn’t bite. Two hands later, whitelime raises on his button, Phil reraises, and whitelime folds.
The impression I have just like when I watched Phil against Andy Beal: Phil Ivey is a wraith, impossible to grasp. He’s so aggressive that you either have to assume he has it or assume he doesn’t. If you assume he has it, then you have to retreat into a shell, from which it’s impossible to emerge without a superstrong hand (which wouldn’t get paid off). If you assume he doesn’t have it, then you’re constantly put to the test, dealing with escalating bets on every street of every hand.
At 12:12, whitelime raised to 60 on his button and Ivey called. After a flop of 8d-9d-Jh, Phil checked and whitelime checked. Phil then took over the betting and whitelime folded. We don’t know the cards but it seems like Ivey is taking control with his aggressivness.
At 12:13, he raises and bets all the way with the board of 9d-6h-Qs-5s-As. He turns over Ac-5c to take the pot. It must be maddening to face an opponent who is so aggressive but when you look him up, he either had it all along or, when it doesn’t have it, gets lucky and gets it. Phil’s ahead 6,850/3,150.
At 12:15, whitelime wins an interesting hand. He raises and Ivey calls but checks after a flop of 2-6-K, 3 suits. Phil bets after 4 shows up on the turn and whitelime calls. They both check the queen on the river. Phil shows pocket threes but whitelime takes it with A-6.
Why didn’t whitelime bet the flop with second pair? This seems like a major gaffe to me. He obviously wasn’t trapping, since his pair of sixes was vulnerable to subsequent overcards and he just called when Phil bet the turn. If he doesn’t bet when he hits but is vulnerable, he is going to need to win a huge pot against a second-best hand to stay in this match.
Ivey takes a big lead at 12:17, calling a raise before the flop and on the flop, but betting out on the turn with the board reading 6-T-6-T. With his opponent calling the turn and river, Phil showed T-9 for a full house. 7,835/2,120.
But here is how quickly everything turns around. At 12:19, whitelime doubled up with Q-J against Phil’s Q-T after a queen-high flop. Ivey still had the lead but it was just 5,700/4,300 and the momentum had shifted.
On the very next hand, whitelime took the lead, raising and betting all the way, moving all-in on the river after a board of Qs-6s-9d-Td-5h. Ivey folded so whitelime held the edge, 6,110/3,890. It was 12:20 and already 3 matches were over.
A few minutes later, whitelime and then bets after a flop of Ad-Ac-8s. Ivey folds and whitelime shows his hand, Js-Ts.
At 12:23, whitelime added to his momentum by successfully trapping Phil. Ivey reraised whitelime’s button-raise then bet out on the flop and turn with a board of 6s-Ad-Tc-7d. That’s when whitelime moved all-in and Ivey folded. This put whitelime ahead 8,500/1,500 and that margin made it harder for Phil to be so aggressive and easier for whitelime to counter any aggression as well as work some moves of his own.
By 12:29, by betting in a number of marginal situations and forcing Ivey to fold, he has a lead of 9,000/1,000. On the next hand, they get it all-in before the flop. Phil has the lead with A-J against whitelime’s Kc-Jc. But whitelime catches 2 clubs on the flop and a third on the turn to bust Phil Ivey.
