World Cup Finals
Start at 12:30 today
pm msn if I don't have you already for the chat.
Seriously I hope Watts gets lots of time. Negreanu is a liability in any hand against the Romanians. IMHO he plays them far too soft.
Read his blog:
http://www.pokerpages.com/blog-players/daniel-negreanu.htm
pm msn if I don't have you already for the chat.
Seriously I hope Watts gets lots of time. Negreanu is a liability in any hand against the Romanians. IMHO he plays them far too soft.
Read his blog:
http://www.pokerpages.com/blog-players/daniel-negreanu.htm
Comments
Hello again and welcome back to Barcelona for the final of the PokerStars.com World Cup of Poker.
It's been a fascinating three days, pitting five representatives from each of the eight qualifying countries in five single-table sit and goes to determine who returns here today. And after leaving Mexico, Ireland, Portugal and Germany on the beach, the top four from the heats -- Iceland, Romania, Canada and the United States -- have one more match to play to determine who will be crowned World Champions.
Rules for this final showdown are simple, and they are complicated.
The simple stuff: The game is no limit Texas hold 'em. Players start with 25,000 in chips and will play 30 minute levels, starting at 50-100.
There's serious money at stake:
1st: $100,000 ($20,000 per person)
2nd: $60,000 ($12,000 per person)
3rd: $40,000 ($8,000 per person)
4th: $20,000 ($4,000 per person)
Now the tricky stuff.
The final table is a tag-team event, with team captains able to substitute players during proceedings. In fact, they MUST make substitutions. Although only one player from each team can be at the table at any one time, at least three players from each team must have played at least two levels by the end of level eight (unless the country has been eliminated).
That means that at least four of the country's five representatives will play (again assuming that the country is not eliminated). After level eight, a final substitution can be made and that player - the "closer" - can play until the end.
There are two very famous names in the line-ups today. Daniel Negreanu takes his place as the star of Team Canada, while Greg Raymer lines up for Team USA. Captains will deploy these stars as and when they seem fit.
But neither of these players won their heats, proving once again the strength in depth among PokerStars players. And it's highly likely that one of these players will have the final say:
Iceland (topped heats with 45 points)
Friorik Jorgensson
Halldor Sverrisson
Einar Sveinsson
Andri Arnthorsson
Magnus Johannesson
Romania (44 points)
Razvan Bengulescu
Florin Constantin
Rajala Cristian Mihai
Cristian Tardea
Cristian Dragomir
Canada (40 points)
Michael Watson (our very own Sir Watts)
Otto Byrne
Daniel Negreanu
Jody Thompson
Ed Byrne
United States (37 points)
Greg Raymer
John Kenlan
Randy Principe
Tyler Netter
Shaun Deeb
Cards are in the air. Follow all the action here.
watts not in yet
Rob says:
that puts him in the final 2
Rob says:
chip stack pretty much even
Rob says:
romania 25790
Rob says:
us
Rob says:
us 25420
Rob says:
can 25870
Rob says:
iceland 22920
Rob says:
150/300 blinds
/g2
/g2
/g2
stp
Shortstacked, knowing the US would be aggressive, he kind of had to there, didn't he?
Oh I get it, he should have known the K was coming on the turn, right?
/g2
Disclaimer: if you're not insulting his 77 bustout hand, my bad
/g2
and 10BB is the red zone for Daniel? sometime too much confidence is a bad thing; granted it wasn't a full table but I still think he could have tried to out play the other players after the flop.
How else is he supposed to play the hand? The US big stack is going to be opening like every other pot. Pushing with 77 is like the only conceivably reasonable play. You can't "out play other players after the flop" with a short stack, because you're commiting yourself to the pot long before that...
/g2
Sorry, disagree on this one. I have come back in a lot of tournaments to finish in the final table with under 10BB. I didn't feel a need to push at this point with any pair or AK, AQ, etc.
So you're waiting on AA, KK, QQ here with 10BB 4 handed? You're apt to get one of those hands every 74 hands. So folding everything up to that point only costs you about 28BB (assuming no antes). Great.
I think that's sort of backwards. With an unadjusted M of more than 5, less than 10 (I forget what the blinds were for DN and how many players), I push with the very good hands (middle pairs, AK, AQ, some other hands) with the only hands I might not push being the exceptional ones - QQ, KK, AA, depending on my exact M, my position and number of players in the pot already. In this way, with more suspect hands, you're worsening the odds for a call and taking away the opportunity for your opponent to maneuver post-flop but still providing for an opportunity to get paid off with exceptional hands.
With a raiser in front as Daniel had, absolutely, a push is appropriate. It wasn't a full table - the blinds would have eaten him up in no time.
That's not my point; rather its the pushing I didn't like. He is a much better post flop player, than the rest. Anyway, good run Sir Watts and nice victory in round 1!
Yes, but you don't seem to understand my point. If he's not pushing then he can either fold or flat call, both of which I think are terrible alternatives to pushing.
If he's folding, he's blinding himself to death as I've already mentioned.
If he flat calls, he's possibly inviting in the blinds as well, and he is pot committing himself no matter what comes by putting in like 1/3 of his stack. On top of that it's not like he can even stop and go either, since he's the button.
This is a trivially easy push.
Yeah but we're talking about D fkkin' N here.
He's like Chuck Norris, he doesn't even need chips to win tournaments!
I can't believe there's been 13 posts on whether this is a push or a fold.
Daniel Negreanu doesn't shove his chips. They back themselves into the middle, away from something as powerful as Daniel Negreanu.
/g2
I can't believe it's not butter!
If he doesn't need chips to win the tournament, then the push makes sense. I wasn't aware of this fact so I now understand the rationale.