25
#423 – Full Tilt Heads-Up Championship – whitelime = Balls, but David Singer = Champion
Congratulations to David Singer for his victory in the Full Tilt Heads-Up Championship. He defeated whitelime after whitelime defeated Andy Bloch and Singer prevailed over Brian Hastings in the semi-finals.
Here’s how the final hand went down:
Singer had a big chip lead, 260,000/60,000. whitelime limped on his button (blinds were 800-1,600 with 200 antes). David raised to 5,200. whitelime pushed all-in for the rest of his 60,000. Singer thought it over for several seconds and called.
whitelime: T-3o
David Singer: 8-8
Singer’s eights held up and he took the Championship (and, more significantly, $560,000).
For David Singer, it’s more much-deserved lucre and recognition. I mean, what does the guy have to do to get some respect? He’s made 2 WPT final tables, 1 WSOP Main Event final table, won a 7-figure Main Event championship at Caesars, won another major heads-up tournament (the Mirage Showdown in 2006), and made the final table both years in the $50,000 HORSE.
Having watched him play some, I believe his matches went longer, on average, than any other player’s. Small bets, small raises, marginal calls, marginal folds – always keeping in the game, waiting for a mistake or a big moment. He played superb small-bet, deep-stack, long-game heads-up poker.
And what about his opponent in the final, whitelime, who pushed all-in – reraising – with T-3o?
The strategy that cost him the last of his chips was also responsible for an impressive string of victories. My admiration grew for him with each round.
Perhaps I should know whitelime’s identity, either because it’s publicly available or he is a well-known pro or I should make it my business to investigate. Apologies. For me, for now, it’s enough that I know that, whoever he is, he has my utmost respect.
I watched his match against Phil Ivey and much of his match against Andy Bloch. In a competition where most of the competitors tossed $25,000 into the ring like it was no big deal, you’re mostly dealing with fearless gamblers accustomed to taking risks. But even in that crowd, whitelime stood out. Either I didn’t see it or I didn’t appreciate it in the Phil Ivey match, but his willingness to make play big-bet poker was a great counter-strategy to the measured aggressiveness of players like Andy Bloch and David Singer.
Granted, it’s a tightrope act. whitelime had to find just the right point to reraise or bet out at a big pot in a marginal situation. Playing this way increases the risks of being wrong. You can steal some big pots but if you get pressured or looked up when you’re stealing, you can lose a lot of chips.
But when it works, you not only pick up those pots where the other player doesn’t want to fight but the suspicion you raise can lead to you getting paid off for some big hands. That’s what I saw in the Andy Bloch match, with whitelime making a lot of big bets and frequently getting called with strong hands or weak hands where he picked up something good by the river. I think whitelime’s matches on average were among the shortest of anyone in the tournament.
What happened in the finals was that Singer had the right timing. David put in fourth and even fifth bets, moving all-in and getting whitelime to fold. (Obviously, not knowing the cards, any number of things could have been going on in those hands.) And when whitelime tried his last move, Singer had a good enough hand to call.
So congratulations to both players on making the finals and for ably demonstrating contrasting approaches to heads-up play.
