Poker From The Rail

More than $2 million

Just over $400K

The survey seems to say that $2 million is more than $400K, so it’s time to move on to the next category. To be fair, Adams is more of a cash game player than a tourney player, so these stats are going to be pretty skewed in Fischman’s favor. Scott gets off to the early lead.

Two WSOP bracelets

Even though it’s not his specialty, Brandon is a pretty good tourney player and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him win a bracelet one of these days. Until then, this category will belong to Fischman, the youngest player to win back-to-back bracelets in the same year. Fischman leads 2-0.

Prolific tourney player both live and online.

No big tourney scores yet, although he did make the final table of a WSOP PLO event.

So I’ve noticed lately that these heads-up “matches” are weighted heavily in favor of the tourney players rather than the cash game specialists, which really isn’t fair at all. Cash game players deserve just as much recognition for their stellar play as their tourney counterparts, but that’s probably never going to happen. Oh well, no one ever said that life was fair. How else do you explain a no-talent goofball like myself falling into a sweet gig like this? At any rate, we all know where I’m going with this one – Fischman continues to steamroll his way to victory and leads 3-0.

Scott is a jack of all trades when it comes to poker, but it certainly seems like he’s more interested in tourney play at this point in his career rather than the side games.

Brandon is a regular high-stakes player in the biggest cash games in the world.

And the cash game guys finally get some redemption! I know there’s a ton of money floating around on the tourney circuit, but the amount of cash that gets passed back and forth in the ring games must be absolutely mind boggling. Brandon has probably been involved in a few of those “holy crap, that’s a lot of money in the pot right now” hands, including his well chronicled heads-up PLO battle with Sammy Farha where Farha gave Adams the button on every hand. Bad move Sammy, as Brandon wound up taking almost $1 million off of him. Needless to say, this category belongs to Adams. Welcome to the match Brandon, he trails Scott by a score of 3-1.

Scott is well versed in all poker games, proving his versatility by winning the WSOP $2K HORSE event in 2004. But his best game is probably still good old NLHE.

PLO all the way baby!

By this point we should all be aware of my love of No-Limit Hold ‘em and my hatred of all games that are not NLHE. But I’ve recently been trying my hand at PLO and having a pretty good time. PLO is certainly an action game, and I always love myself some good action (except for the fact that I’m usually on the wrong end of it). With that said, I still can’t betray my one true love. It’s NLHE for the win, as Fischman continues to distance himself from Adams.

Young gun slinger

Methodical madness

OK, so I haven’t seen either of these guys play enough to really determine the style they use. Sue me. Based on what I know about these two, Scott probably has that Internet player mentality where you’re either aggressive or you die and Brandon comes from a more old school approach of tight and solid play. Considering that I’m an Internet player through and through, I’m going to have to go with Scott again on this one. Poor Brandon, he’s done nothing wrong and is still getting his ass kicked because of my personal biases. Man, life really isn’t fair. Scott now leads by a score of 5-1.

The Fish Tank

Nickname TBD

Yeah, neither of these guys are really the nickname type of player. Nicknames are pretty overrated anyway. They’ve taken to calling me “The Poo Flinger” around here at the office, and honestly, it only happened once. Let it go people! Anyway, you should probably forget everything I just said. The Fish Tank takes this one by default (the two greatest words in the English language, thank you Homer Simpson). The score stands at 6-1 for Fischman.

Not much really. Scott was a dealer before he turned pro, and now he writes columns for a few different poker magazines.

Helps teach a game theory class at Harvard, so that must mean he’s smart or something. Brandon also wrote a book called Broke: A Poker Novel. Hmm, I wonder what that one’s about…

I could easily go either way on this one (that’s what she said). But it’s time to give some love to Brandon. I haven’t read his novel yet, but I have a feeling I’m pretty much living it right now. Plus, he’s got to be pretty brainy to teach a class at Harvard, so he’s got that going for him. The score is 6-2 in favor of Fischman heading into the final frame of action.

Playing Six-Handed SNGs

Getting Started in Pot-Limit Omaha

Scott’s tip on SNGs is pretty solid, but has a “been there done that” feel to it. Adams’ PLO tip is actually a must read for anyone thinking about getting into Omaha. For instance, I learned that you can only use two cards from your hand in PLO instead of all four. It’s good to know things like that. Adams takes down the last category, but it’s a case of too little too late as Fischman’s had this one wrapped up for a while now.