En af de bedste entries jeg nogensinde har læst i en online pokerblog.
Skrevet af INTERNETPOKERS (2+2'erne kender ham som DogIsHead), postet på CardRunners side som jeg ikke kan linke til pga. forumregler.
Jeg har copy/pastet indlægget her, men find det evt. selv på CR-siden (under blogs -> Internetpokers)
♠An Unstoppable Force Meets...♠
It’s been a while since I’ve written a blog post. Poker hasn’t really picked up any for me, but I felt like I should keep writing in this blog and try my best to keep it alive in some way. Today I’m going to sell out a bit and write not about myself, but about online poker and recent events. My topic is vague enough that this post may wander through different topics, but it will be centered around Isildur and his recent appearance in high stakes online poker. It is largely a product of my curiosity, experience, and confusion, and I hope that some of these ideas might speak to some of you as well.
One of the reasons why I wanted to write something like this was because, as most of you know, we have just witnessed a monumental event in the history of online poker – the entrance of Isildur into our world of online poker. A number of other commentators have offered their insight on this event, and there’s no doubt that the commotion over him has rocked the world of high stakes online poker. I felt that given the huge amount of speculation, misinformation, and downright stupidity that has flooded twoplustwo and other forums, it wouldn’t hurt to give the less informed half of the poker world a more accurate glimpse of the high stakes poker world.
A Word of Warning
It’s important to understand that what Isildur has done (and how hot he has run) is truly amazing. It is also important to understand that almost every high stakes poker player who has insight into him or the dynamics that are occurring around him are all public figures. What I mean by that is that they either have some sort of a sponsorship or an otherwise monetary or emotional connection to their own reputation. This gives everyone two layers of incentives – the first incentive is to openly talk about him, since everybody else wants to know about Isildur and only a small group of people can actually say anything meaningful about him. The second incentive is to stay quiet – since Isildur is very much a player in the online poker world, nobody wants to say anything about him that could jeopardize or negatively affect their relationship with him as an opponent in a poker game. What I mean to say is that anybody who right now would speak about Isildur is going to speak discreetly. Nobody will be direct, and yet everyone acknowledges his enormity. He’s going to be the elephant in the room. You won’t hear any outright admissions of how good he is, who thinks who is better than who, or even who people think Isildur is. And that’s just the nature of the game. The social dynamics of online poker have changed in the last few years, and the reaction to Isildur has shown us some of that.
What I want you the reader to understand is that I will not say everything that I think about Isildur. Nobody will. online poker is at its heart a secretive industry, but as obvious as that is, I want to say this outright because I hope it will give some of you the awareness to look more closely at the discourse of online poker. Not everything is as it seems, and the asymmetry of information is as real here as it is anywhere else.
The Story of Isildur
That being said, it’s very obvious that Isildur is an extremely good NLHU and HUPLO player. His grasp of handreading, leveling and betsizing is second to none. Nobody who has watched Isildur play from the rail has any idea what kind of a player he is except that he seems to be aggressive and overbets a lot, and of course that he wins – his betting patterns, his style of reasoning, and his depth of thought are aspects that can only be appreciated within an actual match and by a player of adequate skill – that’s the nature of online poker. Isildur is a very good player and with the results he’s had, it’s impossible to deny it. He has rocked the boat in a big way, which is best exemplified by Tom “Durrrr” Dwan and the match they played, which is at this point a legendary one in the history of online poker.
For those of you who don’t know, Isildur won more than 3 million USD from Durrrr, which adds up to well over 30 buyins won. I’m not sure exactly how many hands were played, but as far as I know it was over 30,000 hands. It was an epic match, and I mean that in the strongest sense of the word. Allow me to contextualize it a bit.
(Disclaimer: some of this may be inaccurate, I’m piecing this together from what I know with little to no extraneous research. But for the most part it’s true enough.)
Isildur first showed up on Full Tilt around 25/50 NLHE. I don’t know who the first person he played was, but I remember hearing about him from some 25/50 grinders who had played him or had seen him around. The word was that Isildur was the new semireg on the block. Supposedly, he was hyperaggro, barreled like a monkey, and was really easy to get to stick his stacks in. Of course there are some 25/50 regs for whom this description was not enough to play a non-clueless opponent, but a number of regs were thrilled to have a new reg willing to play a bunch of tables and donk off stacks. Among the first few to play him in extended matches were Jungleman and I Win Flips (Tcorbin16). From what I heard from both of them, they both thought that they had significant edges on Isildur, although Corbin actually lost a decent clip to him (in typical Corbin fashion).
Our Battle
About a week later I was sitting at tables without any action when Isildur showed up at one of my 25/50 NL tables. I was bored and willing to play anything, so when he offered to play 6 tables (although usually I max out at 4), I decided to take him up on his offer and play a serious NLHE HU match for the first time in a long while. As the match progressed, all of what I’d heard about him being hyperaggro and barrelly checked out, but as I watched the lines he took to bluff, valuebet, and the way he reacted to my betting patterns, he seemed uncannily perceptive. Nevertheless, within the first hour or so I had won about 30k and was feeling pretty confident. He sat out on all of the tables and I assumed that the match was over and was about to check out. But about a minute later he said “brb,” and so I decided to wait for him and continue the match.
From that point, I started losing. Bad. There weren’t really any particular pots where I got badly outplayed, but before I knew it, due to beats coolers and him outmaneuvering me in a few spots, he was up 50k. 6-tabling 25/50 that’s not an unheard of swing to one opponent, so I asked him if he wanted to take it up to 50/100NL. He agreed, and we played a very short session there where I just repeatedly ran into the nuts – I thought I played well, but somehow he always had the best hand, despite his aggressiveness and how many big pots he was getting into. After losing 5 buyins at 50/100 I decided I’d had enough, and wasn’t feeling that great about my NL game and didn’t feel any point in going forward when he had all of the momentum and seemed to know my game pretty well. I told him GG and quit all of the tables.
Ten minutes later, he sat with me at 100/200 PLO, telling me he was bored and just wanted some action. I consulted my friend who told me that he had played Isildur and had crushed him – Isildur is clueless, he said. So I shrugged my shoulders and went with it – I have a lot of confidence in my PLO game, and I know that there are only a few people in the world who can come out on top against me there. If he’s as degenerate as he seems, it’s possible that I have a huge edge and that he just dumps it back. So I played.
PLO is quite different from NL because it’s much more transparent, not just to observers but also to the players themselves. When hands get in or big pots are played, it’s often a lot easier to dissect ranges, understand decisions, and evaluate EV than it is in NL. What that means that, for both observers and for the players themselves, it’s a lot easier to see who’s running bad and who’s getting outplayed in PLO compared to NL. Well, I ended up losing about 400k to him at PLO, and according to HEM I ran 300k below EV. We played probably 1000 hands or less of PLO. It was a bloodbath, but not quite a slaughter, since the poker gods were doing a lot more of the work than he was, which will happen in PLO. At the time I was pretty devastated, but after having reviewed the match carefully, I am sure that I ran bad. I’m not sure that I had an edge, but I am sure that my expectation was nowhere near what I lost, or even a quarter of that. But to all of you, I was only the beginning of the story of Isildur.
The Rise of Isildur
After I lost to him I took a break from playing, but there was a lot of chatter on NVG and among other high stakes players about this Isildur fellow. Since I’m a fish, most weren’t phased by seeing me lose so much to him, and wanted to try their hand. The next up to bat was Ugotabanana, an 18 year old PLO extraordinaire. He’s well known for being an enormous lucksack (I love you Harry), but even he could not overcome the Promethean run-good of Isildur. He lost 250k over 5000 hands of 100/200 PLO. Again, not a lot for the stakes played and variance, but at this point Isildur’s run was starting to border on the horizon of statistical significance.
Over the next few days I wasn’t watching as closely, but apparently he undertook matches with Cole South, Brian Hastings, and Brian Townsend in both PLO and NL. The matches were very back and forth and were grabbing the attention of a lot of railbirds and high stakes players alike. Generally when top class players like Cole and Townsend are swooping in to play a bunch of tables with a new player, the new player ends up going bust pretty quick, but despite tripping up every now and then, Isildur seemed to be holding his ground. They were playing as high as 200/400 and 300/600; stacks were being thrown around and leads were sometimes taken, but never held onto. Nobody doubted that Isildur was losing, it was only a matter of when. He seemed to be solid and certainly not easy to beat, but against the titans of online poker, nobody gave him a chance.
It was after a couple of days of battling against these players, Isildur being up a decent but by no means decisive amount on his opponents, that Durrrr entered into the fray. Right off the bat they agreed to 6-table HU at 300/600NL, and it was at that point that all eyes turned to what was inevitably going to be one of the most memorable matches in the history of online poker. Despite being overshadowed by the televised WSOP main event, tens of thousands of online poker players and poker aficionados logged onto Full Tilt to observe these games. The 300/600 didn’t last long, after a short while of playing and being down a few buyins Durrrr asked Isildur to take it to 500/1000 and Isildur happily agreed. What followed then was one of the most aggressive, volatile, intense heads up matches ever played. I will do my best to resist characterizing the dynamics or what specifically occurred in the match, but I think it was best described by a phrase I used at the time – “an unstoppable force meets an immovable object,” the former being Isildur and the latter being Durrrr. It was one of those rare heads up matches that exemplifies at once both art and spectacle. Railbirds couldn’t get enough.
After the first day with a ton of back and forth and a lot of action, Isildur ended up around +1.5M. Despite having played for a very long session with few breaks, few observers thought that this win was conclusive, despite being over 15 buyins in winnings for Isildur. Before Durrrr finally quit the session he and Isildur made an agreement to play again the next day, and so when night fell again (in the USA), the match continued.
That session was the most significant. Despite Durrrr’s shenanigans and suckouts, it seemed as though he was finally starting to reveal his strength. His style had changed and the tables were turning, the unstoppable momentum of Isildur seemed to have been shattered. At one point Durrrr was within 350k of even, and in that moment many of us who had been disheartened from Durrrr’s loss felt a feeling of relief. This was a moment of comfort in the world of high stakes poker. When I read that Durrrr was almost even, I thought to myself “well, I suppose that’s that. This guy’s run is finally over.” But when I was resigning to my bed, the rest of the online poker world was glued to its monitors. For Isildur, the night was far from over.
What happened next no one at all expected, not even those who were rooting for Isildur. With Durrr having steamrolled back, Isildur, who people were before calling the masked marauder of high stakes poker, seemed to be back to his previous title of a luckbox shot-taking degen. And yet, slowly but surely, Isildur started winning his money back. He won a couple of big pots as soon as Durrrr hit his peak, and from that point Durrrr seemed to not have a chance to protest or get even a word in. The tides had turned, the poker gods had spoken, and Isildur once again seemed to not be able to lose an all-in, winning and winning, and when the score came back to +1.5M for Isildur – he kept going, winning more and more, as if not to leave any doubt in Durrrr’s or anybody else’s mind that his win was no fluke. After that night he was up over 2M, and by the time of my writing this and a couple more sessions later, Isildur is up well over 3M on Durrrr. Since then, he has battled again with Cole and Townsend and stood his ground, and has massacred both Patrik Antonius and David Benyamine. He is now up well over 5M on Full Tilt poker, and is currently fourth on the all time leaderboard on HSDB behind Phil Ivey, Phil Galfond, and Patrik Antonius. He has cemented his name in the annals of online poker as one of the strongest players of all time.
It has been only two weeks since Isildur started playing high stakes on Full Tilt Poker. We truly have witnessed something incredible. But what we – the online poker community – and have not done, is interpreted this event. Made sense of it. Decided what it means. Not just for Durrrr, for Isildur, for high stakes players, or even for railbirds. What does this event mean for online poker? I haven’t the insight to speak for others, but I think that for me, Isildur’s upheaval of the online poker world has caused me to realize and question some things.
The European Hierarchy
It’s important to realize that the online poker world is split into a number of different worlds. Our world is what I will call the Western poker world (the word is poorly chosen but it works well enough). It includes 2p2, Cardplayer, Tableratings, and extends to the major American poker sites – Stars, Full Tilt, and Ultimatebet. The other major world is the Euro poker world, which includes sites like Ipoker, Prima, Party, Betfair, Svenka Spel, and some other sites that are only open to various European players (I don’t know enough about this poker world to mention any other specific sites, forums, etc.). These poker worlds are generally pretty strongly segregated – most of the top players in the Western poker world only play on Western sites, either because they’re American or because the nosebleed action on FTP/Stars runs more regularly. And in the same way, most of the top players in the Euro poker world only play on Eurosites and make most of their money there. But in each poker world there has been established a pecking order – a hierarchy.
From years of poker pros playing each other in different combinations and matchups, people have figured out who is better than who. Over the long run there is not much fluctuation in these hierarchies, as the better players continue to get better and don’t let players lower in the food chain catch up. It is also generally acknowledged that the Western hierarchy is stronger than the Euro hierarchy – the games are tougher and more selective, there are fewer fish, and so the Western hierarchy has bred the best poker players in the world. The Western poker world is tougher, and for that, it is stronger. But Isildur has challenged that. Isildur is from the Euro poker world, and his blitzkrieg against the entire Western poker hierarchy is a direct challenge to this precept. Many Swedish and other European players cheer on the march of Isildur for precisely this reason – to them, Isildur represents their hierarchy taking back control of the poker world. And so Isildur has become, to some, a symbol of the European hierarchy.
The Mythology of online poker
When I saw on that first day that Durrrr was playing Isildur and was down a lot, my feelings were mixed. I think that a lot of people in my situation would think “well, if Durrrr lost to him, then I guess that validates my loss,” and there was probably a dash of that emotion somewhere, but it certainly wasn’t decisive. As with everybody else on the sidelines, I had to decide who to root for. You can’t really stand outside a cage match and just hope it’s a good fight - no matter how objective you claim to be, somebody in the ring is representing you. If that’s not true, then you’re not watching with enough intensity. And if there ever were a poker game that could be considered a cage match, it would be this one.
A lot of people who aren’t initiated into the world of high stakes poker are quick to compare high stakes players to each other, but the world of high stakes poker is more rigidly divided than it might seem. Durrrr exists in an echelon of online poker that I haven’t reached, and probably never will. He plays for amounts of money that, even if I had the bankroll, probably wouldn’t be playing. Not only that, but his courage – and degeneracy – are miles above what I could handle. He is truly in another league, and so in a way he is just as distant to me as he is to any of you. Not only that, but I don’t really know Tom, although I know some people who do and I’m sure he’s a good person. But I have no personal reason to root for him.
And while this is all true, there was something in me that I couldn’t quite explain that was rooting for Durrrr. Well, more than that. I think there was something inside me that deeply needed Durrrr to win. At first I didn’t really bother to think about it, and maybe I accepted the easy explanation that I just wanted to see Isildur lose. But as the scale of the match grew larger and larger, and the impact of Isildur grew greater and greater, I began to realize that Durrrr represented something else to me in this match. He represented more than just a vicarious avenger. In fact, he was more than just Tom Dwan, more than just a single poker player, who one can choose to like or dislike. Durrrr represents something else, something much larger.
To me, Durrrr represents my generation. He represents my hierarchy. He represents the entire empire of the Western poker world. He is the king, and upon his head rests the crown of Western poker. That crown is more than just a piece of jewelry – it is a justification. He wears the crown upon his head because he is the proof that the Western poker world is great. It is proof that we are wise, that we are powerful, and that we are right to think that we are the best in the world. Durrrr holds all of this upon his head. We have imbued it in him. If nobody else in the world can beat Isildur, and if Isildur fights his way to the throne of our poker world, we know that Durrrr will be waiting for him. Durrrr is our last word. He is our proof that ourpoker works, that our poker is powerful, and that we were right to think that our poker is the epitome of all poker.
But, to me, Durrrr represents even more than that. Because you have to realize that this significance that I just mentioned is not granted to Durrrr because he is Durrrr – it is granted to him because of how much he’s won, because of who he’s beaten, and because of the respect and fear that he has garnered. But somebody else could just as easily have been in his place, someone else who might have had the same winnings and accomplishments. There’s something significant because of who Durrrr is and what he’s about that makes him an especially important symbol.
Durrrr can be dumb. Sometimes he makes mistakes, he tilts, he makes clearly –EV calls and he sticks huge stacks in with rags against the nuts over and over again. Durrrr is often reckless, sometimes emotional, and even at times irrational. Durrrr is fallible. He is imperfect. And yet, somehow he wins. He outplays, he outmaneuvers, and outthinks. He reached the top. He beat everyone. He became the king. He symbolizes the human in all of us, and he bears testament that one does not need to be perfect, unphaseable, untiltable in order to become great. The juggernauts of online poker can sometimes seem to possess an otherworldly stoicism and mental composure. Durrrr is certainly a titan, but his edges are jagged, just as the rest of us. That’s what Durrrr symbolizes to me. I too am sometimes dumb, sometimes I make tilty calls and chase losses. Durrrr is my validation.
To me then, Isildur represents something totally alien. He represents the nameless feeling that we all know when we play somebody who we feel that we just cannot beat. The pre-rational feeling that no matter what we do we cannot win; this force (it does not congeal into a person) will push us down and there is no way to fight back, to go up for air – our only option is to surrender. No matter what cards we are dealt or what flop we see, somehow we end up losing or getting outplayed. To a poker player, there is no feeling as terrifying as losing and not knowing why. When Isildur appeared, nobody knew who he was. Nobody knew why he played the way he did, how he was so good, or why he won so much. He surprised everyone, and in a whirlwind he destroyed almost everybody he played. He was a faceless force who suddenly disrupted all of the sensible hierarchy of the Western poker world. Whether or not we acknowledge it, everybody became afraid. Afraid that maybe he would tear everything down. That all of our hierarchies would be rendered irrelevant. Maybe he was the greatest poker player in the world. But to claim that title, he must answer to the king. To me, that is the symbolism behind the battle between Durrrr and Isildur.
But my perspective is not the only one, and I will not pretend that my interpretation is any more valid than anyone else’s. For some railbirds who have a more disinterested relationship to the poker hierarchy, many probably are enthralled by the march of Isildur because of all of the action and excitement that he stirs up, and I certainly cannot deny that if making things interesting is the only criterion, Isildur takes the cake. Yet others choose to root against Durrrr because to them Durrrr represents the old order, and Isildur, a newcomer overthrowing an empire, empowers some them in relation to the poker hierarchy. Maybe others dislike Durrrr because they think he represents an older and more fortunate generation of poker players, or maybe others see him as everything wrong with the culture of internet poker players. And a great many others root against Durrrr because they support Europe over America. The battle between Durrrr and Isildur means many different things to many observers, which is part of the reason why the match has been followed and commented on so passionately.
The Aftermath
Ultimately, as I’m sure you all know, Durrrr lost. Their battle was grand, awesome, and decisive. Isildur triumphed. Now, as the chroniclers of our age of online poker, it is up to us to interpret what that means. There is a lot that I could say about the nature of variance, the significance of leaderboards and results, and the poverty of information – these are issues that we are all grappling with as both students of this world, and as members of it. What did it really mean that Durrrr was up so much money in online poker? That he had beaten so many people, and seemed to be as good as it was? Was it really ever that significant? Were we all fooled by the randomness? We have all seen the simulations where one or two arbitrary lines bound absurdly high above the lot – was Durrrr just an anomaly, his greatness a blip of chance? Or maybe his loss to Isildur was a fluke, the product of bad play, of overconfidence – maybe we have yet to see what Durrrr is really capable of.
There are many who think that Isildur is now the best HU NLHE player in the world. Part of what made Durrrr so powerful and feared was his image – not just his image within the context of an actual match, but merely the awareness that Durrrr did not to lose to anyone. It might seem like a secondary aspect of his game, but if you believe your opponent is someone awesome, someone who no one else can stand up to, it invests your opponent with a great deal of power. It was with this invincible image that Durrrr ruled high stakes NL, but Isildur has shattered that illusion. At this point, having bested almost everybody who stood up to him, Isildur has assumed an even more powerful image, which will make it even more difficult for someone to overthrow him. There are some who’d say that Isildur has proven himself as the new king of online poker.
Or perhaps it is Isildur who is the anomaly, and as fantastically as he entered this world, he will supernova when he leaves it. Since the time I began writing this article, Isildur has lost 2.5M to Patrik Antonius in PLO, cutting his winnings on FTP in half. The significance of this event is certainly smaller than Isildur’s prolonged battle with Durrrr, but nevertheless the tides are rolling in, and the poker gods are plotting their next spectacle. Is this heralding the fall of Isildur, or is this merely the beginning of another battle? The world of online poker is shifting rapidly and much has yet to be seen. I cannot answer any of the questions I have posed, but I hope that you will all consider them as you continue to observe the path that the world of online poker takes from here.
Durrrr and Isildur.
Goddamn, were they meant for each other.
Until next time,
Haseeb, aka Dogishead
Isildurs betydning for online poker
yeah har også lige læst den. Helt sikkert noget af det bedste skrevet om online poker jeg har læst og en af de få ting jeg kunne finde på at linke til ikke-pokerspillende venner.
Ovenstående blog er klasser over det stof eksempelvis Acemag og andre pokernyhedsmedier leverer. Høj klasse!
Rigtig god læsning indeed! Synes dog hans opdeling af pokerverdenerne er lidt firkantede. Nu sidder der jo allerede mange euros og spiller på FullTilt - også i highstakes-spillene.
tl:dr, men gjorde det alligevel, og var faktisk sick godt imo
Det kan være at jeg er den eneste, der har det sådan, men selvom denne blog er meget velskrevet, så mener jeg ikke pointerne er specielt valide. Jeg får sådan lidt den samme fornemmelse når jeg læser det, som jeg får når jeg hører Kurt Thyboe kommentere en helt ligegyldig rigged stald palle kamp fra 90'erne, hvor modstanderen dårlig har kræfter til at komme op i ringen. Det er meget underholdende, men når al tyrelorten er sorteret fra, er der kun en begrænset mængde substans tilbage.
Den her sondring imellem US og EU - hvor kommer den fra? Er Patrick Antonius pludselig fuldblods "western" mand? Hvad med Gus eller for den sags skyld David Benyamine? Eller Ziigmund, larzluzak og hvad de andre EU'ere der har haft deres gang på FTP nu hedder?
Den her sondring er efter min mening bullshit og alene et forsøg på "at kridte en bane op" som egentlig ikke er der (uden den er bloggen jo pretty much noget vrøvl). Selvom amerikanere virkelig anser FTP og PS for deres sites, så er der konsistent EU spillere, som blander sig, så at antyde, at Isildur pludselig gør op med to verdener, der har været adskilt fra hinanden er søgt og ærlig talt også lidt tåbeligt (når vi snakker online spil hvor enhver jo principielt kan påstå at han er fra Grønland uden de helt store konsekvenser).
Samtidig er det jo åbenlyst, at elementer som skat spiller ind for en del af de specielt Skandinaviske spillere, hvilket afholder mange fra at tage meget action på US siderne.
Derefter er der hele denne match imod durrrr. Fint nok, en relativt ny spiller er kommet til FTP, han er møg skrap og har samtidig været running absurd godt de første par uger. Hvad beviser dette? Nu dumpede han så lige tæt på halvdelen af hans overskud til PA i PLO - skal der så skrives en ny blog snart, hvor de helt store fraser om verdens undergang skal nedtones lidt?
/Mikael
Er 110% enig med DTM.
Ja, det er velskrevet, men det er mundlort pakket nydeligt ind.
Det er da udmærket skrevet hvis det var ment som et PR-stunt af en slags, men intet af det manden siger giver særlig meget mening.
Ser ud til han enten har ladet sig rive lidt med af stemningen, eller også er dette starten på en poker-roman bygget over Ringenes Herre...
mayn jeg elsker internettet!
Random tard: "OMGOMGOMGOMG det her er det sygeste evah1!!2"
random tard2: "FUCK YEAH OMG HVOR ER DET BARE TRUEEE!!!"
...
random tard8: "OHMYGODHVORERDETNICE!!!!"
tilfældig dude: "så godt er det altså heller ikke"
random tard9: "Amenlol slap nu af det er jo bare bogstaver sat sammen til ord sat sammen til en tekst"
random tard 10: "lololol det er jo slet ikke så sejt som de andre siger"
...
random tard 19: "JEG SYNES DET SAMME SOM tilfældig dude OG random tard 9-18!!!!"
♥♥
EU/USA sondringen føles meget ægte når man spiller msnl. Der er 2p2, FTP, PS virkelig en anden del af verden imo.
Enig i det her måske ikke betyder så meget i det store hele dog.
Meget spændene post må man sige.
Er pænt træt men kunne måske godt have brugt 2 timer på at kommentere bloggen. DTM siger det utrolig godt og får fat i noget af det jeg tænkte.
Ellers tænkte jeg:
- Han lyder ligesom alle de top-politikere jeg så i DR-transmissionen i aftes. Jeg synes det var fantastisk igen og igen at se at de alle kunne fremstå som vindere. Man må give dem at de er utrolig gode til at spinne og tale deres sag for sit eget parti.
- Hvad i alverden ævler han om?
- Er han ansat af fulltiltpoker og har glemt at gøre sit arbejde for 2009. Han lyder sgu som en dårlig amerikansk reklamefilm. Så viser det sig at det sgu er w.fulltiltpoker.com/haseeb-qureshi . En mand jeg selv har spillet 100 gange og mest holder sgi til hu spillene på 25-50, men også spillet den del 1020. Aldrig nogensinde set ham på over 25-50 på pokerstars ihvertfald.
Han er cardrunners pro inde på fulltilt. FINT LOBBYARBEJDE FOR TILT VS STARS . Og fin reklame for cardrunners iøvrigt.
- overdrivelse fremmer en forståelsen. Den får ihvertfald mig til at stå af
- han minder mig om Mel Gibson i Braveheart eller i 20 andre film hvor der står en leder og pepper deres hær om til det ultimative slag. Bortset fra deres liv står på spil der og det her bare er et par skide hu kampe med fire kort på hånden. SÅ ER DET SGU HELLER IKKE VILDERE!!
- Pæn tudehistorie i starten han egentlig laver. Giver mig en indtryk af han ikke en er så pro som jeg troede. Godt at se svaghedstegn hos ham.
-A word of warning afsnit er bare mundlort.
- Ok vi har en mand der er running hot og hvad så¨? Durr, PA og andre en bare almindelige mennesker. Har selv spillet mod dem et par gange. Hver gang jeg har spillet DURR (1-200) starter han altid kampe ud med at kalde 20.000 usd med hænder som 25jq enkeltsuit efter at have lagt 200 ud i bb og 2 andre folk er gået ind mod ham. Self er han supersuperskrap og ville aldrig spille ham hu, men han kan da ligesom andre let smide en skilling.
-Tror folk glemmer at han altså "kun" vinde de her 30-40-50 buyins. Jovist det er flot. Og meget af det er hu. Første gang jeg spillede plo OVERHOVEDET for 5 år siden var på 10-20 og jeg vandt 30k på 2 timer uden at kunne holde på mere end max to kort. De var også væk 2 dage efter. De fleste folk der railer er nl spillere og er ikke HELT klar over de swings der er i plo sammenlignet med
nl.
- Haseeb kommer nok med superlativer 40-50 gange som om det var en hollywood film, ala ID-day, Day after tomorrow eller 2012. Meget flotte film, men man griner nu istedet for at græde når meningen er at det skal være sørgeligt.
--- Slå lige HELTTTTT koldt vand i blodet. Isildurs betydning ? Giv det lige en 3-4 måneder så kigger vi på det. Pt betyder det at der er lidt mere at raile måske for Joe, og at medierne har en ny at skrive om. Ellers ikke en pind.
- EU vs USA . Dantheman siger det. OVEROVERsøgt og typisk amerikansk selvglad. Har nu selv været i vegas 6 gange og spillet omkring 1000 timers livepoker inkl snak med hovedsageligt amerikanere. Jovist en der lang afstand over atlanten, men indtryk fra plo har da alle dage været at der er EU langt foran hvis der endelig skulle være en opdeling. Online vil man ALTANDETLIGE også altid spile en fra USA end EU. Mange af de bedste regs er fra sverige og ja, en forholdsvis stor procentdel af top fulltilt folk er forklædte EU folk, der har været i Vegas lang tid.
Jeg gad godt høre ham snakke om noget vaskemiddel i en reklame. Det ville sikkert sælge godt i starten indtil folk fandt ud af, at tøjet ikke blev rent.
NB: slap lige af
En tråd hvor jeg er enig med BÅDE Bajawa og DTM...
these are indeed strange days..
Syntes det er godt skrevet og yderst velformuleret, men er enig i aspektet om hvorledes EU vs US er noget vås. Min generelle opfattelse af amerikanere er dog, at dette langt fra er en atypisk måde at se på verdenen.
Super underholdene læsning. Tænkte lidt af de samme ting som DTM kommer ind på - men ville gerne læse mere af den slags aligevel, man kan bare læse det med lidt kritisk sans.
Hans analyse af Western vs. Euro scene er noget overfladisk og nok mest et billede af Amerikansk "dem" mod "os" tankegang.
Og så overfortolker han måske også et godt run af isildur ... eller ved mere end os andre :)
Al den patronisme og selvforherligelse pakket ind i ubrugelige floskler. Som DTM og Bajawa.
Super spændende blog, der dog mest af alt bidrager som værende en god historie, der illustrerer en stor battle,.
Jeg er egentlig ligeglad med, om han bruger for store floskler eller om han kridter en bane op, som egentlig ikke er der. Jeg tror ikke bloggens hensigt er at skulle formidle nogen ultimativ sandhed, men simpelthen blot som fortællende en god historie på en interessant og spændende måde. Med tanker og perspektiver som kan sætte tanker i gang.
Jeg forstår slet ikke at folk er skeptiske overfor hans EU vs USA analyse. Jeg oplever jævnligt altså at stort set alle amerikanske pokerspillere har samme holdning som ham. "Vi er bedre end de Eurodonks". Muligt de kan vinde på egne sites, men så snart de kommer ind på vores sites eller til vores "vores" World Series, så har de altså ingen chance.
Et er at være skeptisk, Kipster, noget andet er at give ham ret.
Og mon ikke det er sådan du i virkeligheden mener..?
Noget være amerikansk bullshit. Den dag han har slået durr over 500k hænder, så kunne han skrive det her.
Der er ingen tvivl om at INTERNETPOKERS er en ekstremt begavet ung mand. Han skriver virkelig godt! men ang indholdet...hør nu lige.
At Isildur vinder 30 buyins i en 6 bords ultraLAG-match siger imo ik en skid om nogensomhelst form for markant edge. Det er ren varians, krydret med lidt spewy spil fra Durrs side som han så ik er sluppet afsted med.
Det er klart at de monsterhøje stakes de spiller gør at man skal ha tonsvis af respekt for at Isildur kører ham over i den match. Jeg railede nogle timer hist og her og der var altså mange total standard hænder hvor Isildur havde variansen med sig. Men hva sker der så?
Den goe Patrick Antonius er nu ved at flå Isildur midt over i PLOen, hvor det nu er hans tur til at være varm og vinde de fleste flips og setups, hvilket jo er det PLO handler om når spillernes niveau er højt nok.
Isildurs overall FT winnings skulle nu være halveret...ehhh...
Alt det her er altså sket over en uges tid.
So plz...bloggen er episk, uden tvivl. Men at Isildur skulle være den ultimative konge af onlinepoker er noget vås. Han er en ny ekstremt dygtig reg med et hav af skillinger ligesom Antonius, OMGCLAY, DURR, ZIGGY og hvad de nu ellers hedder.
Lad os se ham rense de andre tyre af over 1 million hænder, så bukker jeg mig for alvor i støvet for den unge svensker.
Har set en del af mandens hu-videoer som jeg synes er ganske glimrende, men det der blog-indlæg er da godt nok et overflødighedshorn af ligegyldigheder. 30 BI swings på 30 K hænder i hu er ingenting og sker da jævnligt for mig og formentlig alle andre hu-spillere på midstakes i aggressive spil. Klart at det i endnu højere grad vil ske blandt de bedste. Hvis ham der isildur er Blom, er det i øvrigt endnu mere forståeligt. Spillede en del mod ham på nl 600 for et års tid siden og han spiller altså ikke med en fold-knap. Har dog mine tvivl om at han ville kunne klare sig i de spil der, men han kan selvfølgelig være blevet bedre.
Mht. USA-EU konflikten, har jeg også oplevet at amerikanerne af uforklarlige årsager føler de er bedre end os, men hvis alle sites tillod amerikanere og skattereglerne var ens for os på alle sites, ville der jo næppe overhovedet være en opdeling på den måde. Det er jo ikke for at undgå hinanden at vi spiller på forskellige sites. Personligt så jeg da meget gerne amerikanerne på eu-sites og ville også gladeligt selv spille på FTP og stars hvis reglerne tillod det...
Om indholdet holder vand kan diskuteres, men han er nok den mest velskrevne pokerspiller jeg har læst noget fra.
Det er godt skrevet, det er helt sikkert, og jeg ville elske at læse analyser af hænder, Vegas-historier og lignende skrevet af ham. Dog er denne tekst vinklet helt forkert, og man sidder tilbage med et lille "lol" i hovedet. Nogle gange trænger amerikanere til at få en lille påmindelse om, at verden ikke er en Hollywood-film, og at USA ikke nødvendigvis er dens centrum.
God læsning!
Shit en gang pladder, aldrig har jeg set et så søgt forsøg på at gøre noget større end det i virkeligheden er. online poker goes Hollywood..
Jeg havde en idé om, det nok ville splitte PN.
@bajawa
Du kan skrive med nok så meget capslock du vil, jeg kan fint læse små bogstaver også. Derudover synes jeg noget af din kritik er mindst lige så søgte som Haseeb gør det.
Han forsøger ikke at skjule sin identitet og jeg kan ikke se hvor han advokerer for Tilten fremfor Stars to be honest. Nu er det jo altså fakta, at nosebleed games kører oftere på Tilten.
Og ja, selvfølgelig nævner han CardRunners/Tilten. Havde du forventet andet? De danske pro'er er også gode til at nævne deres egne sites, jeg forstår ikke hvorfor det gør dem mindre troværdige.
"Slå lige HELTTTTT koldt vand i blodet. Isildurs betydning ? Giv det lige en 3-4 måneder så kigger vi på det. Pt betyder det at der er lidt mere at raile måske for Joe, og at medierne har en ny at skrive om. Ellers ikke en pind."
Du kan sige hvad du vil, men det er hvad bloggen handler om. Du kan så være enig eller uenig i det.
Husk en blog ikke er en endegyldig sandhed.
@alle
Man kan fint mene at US vs. EU-tanken er noget vås. Ikke desto mindre er det sådan Querishi opfatter det, og åbenbart også andre i branchen. Så kan vi som EU'ere nok synes det er noget pladder, men nogen anskuer det sådan her, og som sådan legitimerer det fint at han delagtiggør læserne i det.
Til alle de der mener det udelukkende er mundlort. Mener I dybt seriøst manden ikke har nogen valide pointer i denne blog?
Ikke når det omhandler en anonym spiller, der har spillet så forholdsvis få hænder, nej.
@nothing
Hvad med tankerne omkring Durrrrs "momentum" og hvad med tanken omkring et hieraki? Jeg finder nemlig personligt begge utroligt interessante ...
Jeg forstår ikke så mange er uenige i der er en splittelse af EU og USA i online pokerverden. Jeg vil skyde på 95+% af amerikanske cash game regulars spiller på PS og FTP. Modsat er de under 5% på EU-siderne. Det bliver mere mudret når det handler om nose bleed, men der er stadig meget stor forskel på hvem der spiller Betfair og FTP afaik.
Uden at vide det virker det også ret sandsynligt at de amerikanske spil er hårdere bare af den grund at det er sværere for fisk at få penge sat ind.
Jeg har nogle gange rost et eller andet her på PN til helt op i Himmerige, og andre gange, når jeg har været i det røde felt, har jeg rakket et eller andet lige lukt ned i Helvede.
Og så har der ofte været nogle easygoing PN'ere, som på forskellige måder sagde:
Tag det nu lige roligt Holsst, der er masser af vigtigere ting her i verden.
Det er lidt sådan, jeg har det med den i øvrigt velskrevne blog, som på ingen måde kan bringe mit pis i kog, - hverken af begejstring eller af det modsatte.
@shp2000
Jeg fik mig heller ikke formuleret særlig godt i mit indlæg. Der var 20 ting jeg ville sige og var supertræt. Du har ret i hvad du siger. Kan iøvrigt ikke selv fordrage capslock, så det har ivhertflad været pænt over sengetid
Som en bonus-info kan jeg sige at det vist slet ikke går så godt for blogposteren som det ligner han giver udtryk for mht de takster han spiller. Jeg har spillet ham 6 timer her i dag og i går og han sidder max på 10-20 spillene selvom der er hård action på 25-50 spillene med mange nye weak folk.
Dog har jeg flere gange set ham sidde på 2k og 5k hu borde på tilten og spille lange kampe. Spiller ham aldrig selv hu, da der er langt bedre borde at finde.
'
NB: Det gælder ikke om at spille godt. Det gælder bare om at finde nogen der er dårligere end en selv!
Super god laesning, muligvis den bedste blog jeg nogensinde har laest.
Godt skrevet.
Lidt som Kippen
Tror der er mange af avekatterne fra den anden side der synes vi er nogle tards. Synes ret ofte specielt amerikanere/canadier spiller smarte i chatten fordi de er år foran europæerne og at vi aldrig kan slå durrrr og hans nørdede venner.
Ved ikke om det kun er mig der oplever det, men jeg synes faktisk det er ret sjovt og fedt de lever i troen :)