The Pinnacle: High Rollers Shine in WCOOP; Polk Debates Staples; Greenwood v GTO Haters

Silence. 

Tongues of steel, please.

I know you have the Pinnacle burned into the back of your eyelids, so find a groove, close your eyes, and we’ll get going.

Last week, we opened with the British Poker Open (BPO), and a rather flat Super High Roller Bowl (SHRB) London. This week the current takes us to the shores of PokerStars and the World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP).

Before the last WCOOP, Shaun Deeb stood alone as the undisputed king, with six wins. Then Denis ‘aDreNalin710’ Strebkov got the bit between his teeth, pulled hard on the leash, and won five in little over a week, to take the crown with ten wins. 

In our previous Pinnacle, we told you that Deeb had closed the gap after beating Strebkov, heads-up, to win his seventh title. This week the gap is narrower after Deeb became the first double WCOOP champ of the series with a victory in Event #37: $530 Pot-Limit Omaha 6-Max. Deeb made 599-entrants his slave on his way to collecting the $52,371 first prize. 

Another player who earned his second WCOOP title of the series is Joao “Naza114’ Vieira. The Winamax pro turned a single into a couple after winning Event #52 (H) $530 No-Limit Hold’em Midweek Freeze for $86,876.70. 

Adrian Mateos conquered a field of 326-entrants to win the $130,468.21 first prize in Event #50 (H) $2,100 No-Limit Hold’em PKO for $130,468.21. Alex Foxen also made the final table. It was Mateos’s second WCOOP career title.

Bartlomiej “bartek901” Machon also won his second career title after beating 573-entrants to collect the $101,148 first prize in Event #31: (H) $1,050 No-Limit Hold’em. The former Triton Poker commentator, Celina Lin, finished ninth.

Michael ‘mczhang’ Zhang remains as locked into the high stakes orbit as Venus is to the Earth. The UK-based star vanquished 175-entrants to win Event #48 (H) $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em High Roller for $253,810.

Like Zhang, Thomas Boivin has also enjoyed recent success in live high rollers, and the Belgian translated that good fortune into the online surf. Boivin won Event #48: (M) $1,050 No-Limit Hold’em Super Tuesday, banishing 1,112-entrants to the rail on the way to collecting his $178,331 bounty.

Dario Sammartino is another high roller having the year of his life. The Italian finished runner-up to Hossain Ensan in the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event for $6m. Not that he needs the money, but another $371,186.76 joins the band after Sammartino took down the 148-entrant Event #57 (H) $10,300 No-Limit Hold’em 8-Max PKO High Roller. The final table housed David ‘dpeters17” Peters, and Steve “Mr. Tim Caum” O’Dwyer.

It’s WCOOP’s 18th year of war.

It’s never been bloodier. 

Live News: Doyle on Dead People; Ivey & Borgata Latest; Antonius Heading to Malta

Twitter can be a weary place, but not when you play ‘I Spy’ along the drainpipe of Doyle Brunson’s Twitter feed. We know that Doyle is the Godfather of Poker, we know he likes his guns, and this week we learned he also likes watching a spot of TV. 

So what’s on Doyle’s box?

Brian Koppelman’s ‘Billions’ is on his watchlist as are old reruns of Dallas.

Your read it right.

Doyle saw a guy get shot at the poker table. 

Why?

What happened?

I thought so.

From guns to chums, and this week it transpired that Daniel ‘Jungleman’ Cates had been helping his buddy Phil Ivey in the wake of his baccarat problems. Cates and Ilya Trincher backed Ivey into the $50,000 Poker Player’s Championships (PPC) at the World Series of Poker (WSOP). Ivey finished eighth, but the money went to the U.S. Marshall’s Office, and not the pockets of Cates and Trincher. 

You can read about the whole sorry mess, right here. 

Another good friend of Ivey’s is Patrik Antonius, and if you’re a fan of the iceman, and you live in Malta – you’re in luck. Antonius will star at the Battle of Malta in October. The Fin will host and play in a special €300 (unlimited rebuys) No-Limit Hold’em tournament christened the Patrik Antonius Poker Challenge (PAPC) Pop-Up Cup. Antonius is joining forces with the Battle of Malta to market his app: First Land of Poker (FLOP). The event takes place over two days: Fri 18 & Sat 19 Oct.

Finally, if you’ve been feeling like you’re stuck on a raft without any oars waiting for the next instalment of the Triton Poker Super High Roller Series Montenegro Short-Deck Cash Game action, you’re in luck.

Here is Episode #4.

It’s time to get on bended knee.

It’s time for the beef.

The Beef: Polk v Venetian; Deeb v Identity Theft; Yong v NYC Poker Rules

Dinner is served, and there is a lashing of irony as Doug Polk refuses to dine with The Venetian Poker Room. 

The live poker room, situated on the Las Vegas Strip, belongs to Sheldon Adelson, one of the men responsible for the stunted growth of legal and regulated online poker in the not so United States of America. 

Given the villain operates a live poker room, you would think that the live pros would have boycotted the gaff a long time ago. Not so. But this week, Doug Polk has led the charge for a boycott, this time because of a tournament format designed to bleed poker players dry. 

The $225,000 GTD Lucky Shot Poker Series runs Oct 21-27, and the highlight is a $250 buy-in, $150,000 GTD No-Limit Hold’em event. The fine print dictates that irrespective of the final headcount, all funds above $150k go to the poker room, and not disseminated to the players as is standard in all tournament formats. 

Polk is not happy.

One of the few states that don’t treat online poker players like law officials treat people suffering from erotonophonophilia is New Jersey. A skipping stone’s throw away is New York City, but you can’t play online poker in the Big Apple because it’s illegal. 

Here is partypoker’s Rob Yong highlighting the stupidity.

💪

Rob Yong was our guest on ‘I am High Stakes Poker’ this week. His mother wasn’t happy and gave him a telling off for saying his parents never said ‘well done’ when he was a kid. 

Before U.S online poker laws became so rigid, Shaun Deeb used to crush the New York scene. At the top of the article, we described how Deeb had won his eighth WCOOP title. It could be his last if PokerStars doesn’t do something to halt the agony of stalling in the high stakes limit games.

Deeb also has a beef with partypoker.

During the recent whitewash of player identities, Deeb was a little slow off the mark in reclaiming the name that has made him such a legend (the imaginatively titled ‘shaundeeb’). Someone grabbed it though, and it’s ruining Deeb’s image. 

The Debate: Greenwood v GTO Haters; Staples v Polk

The sky is blue, and that’s how a portion of the poker community feel when watching high stakes poker players deploying Game Theory Optimal (GTO) strategy during live tournaments. 

Erik Seidel leapt to GTO’s defence after hailing Stephen Chidwick as a GTO operational genius during the BPO. Sam Greenwood backed the legend by breaking down a hand between Chidwick and Christoph Vogelsang. 

It’s a fabulous read, and it starts here.

After Polk’s ‘Boycott The Venetian’ march, he debated Jaime Staples. The matter at hand was starting bankroll for a poker pro. Polk believes that figure is $100,000; Staples, thinks it’s a lot lower – here are the two debating the issue.

The Business: It’s Fedor Holz Again

When it comes to bankrolls, few have built one as quickly as Fedor Holz has, earning $32m in five-years. 

Holz rarely plays these days, preferring to spend his time public speaking and building products. His current project is called The Poker Code.

Here he is talking to Robbie Strazynski at Cardplayer Lifestyle about the new project (https://cardplayerlifestyle.com/an-in-depth-interview-with-fedor-holz-about-pokercode-and-impacting-the-future/), and he found time to set up a YouTube Q&A.

Check it out.

Life Outside of Poker: DNegs Wants Rounders 2; Voulgaris on Holiday.

‘Hope for Prisoners’ is a foundation helping prepare the incarcerated to re-enter a fast evolving life without bars. This week, Daniel Negreanu appeared as a guest speaker at one of their events. 

Negreanu also found the time to watch ‘Rounders’ for the billionth time. Desperate, Kid Poker wrote to Brian Koppelman demanding a sequel, and the Koppelman gave poker fans hope with his response.

Ryan Holiday has a new read called ‘Stillness is the Key’. A free copy ended up on the desk of the recent Triton Million London competitor, Haralabos Voulgaris. Holiday is the author of ‘The Obstacle is the Way’, ‘Ego is the Enemy’, and ‘The Daily Stoic’ – books that seem to go down well in poker circles.

The Polls: Polk on Religion, and Negreanu on the Man With The White-Glove

Two polls this week to give you a flavour of the poker community’s belief systems. 

Doug Polk on religion.

Daniel Negreanu on Michael Jackson.

The Quote of the Week

Michael was scheduled too moonwalk us over the finishing line with a sterling rendition of ‘Man in the Mirror.’ After that poll, I will hand the honours to Tim Gallwey courtesy of David Benefield.

And that’s a wrap for this week’s pinnacle.