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Friday, August 08, 2003
NEWS FLASH: International dominance of PartyPoker Begins with Nelson marathon
The poker gods smiled down on the three long-time friends from New England, as Dave "Borges" Nelson began the trio's reign of poker terror by destroying the low limit tables at PartyPoker.com. At nearly the same time, Rob "Bourbon" Hunt was making his smashing debut on a .5/1 table, under the tutelage of his mentor, Henry "Hdouble" Wasserman. The three friends all began by taking their share of bad luck before achieving dominance.
Borges, who has the ultimate luxury of playing at work, was down to the felt after losing nearly his entire $100 buy in. Loose tournament play had demolished his bankroll, leaving him with just over $20 in a $1/2 game. However, upon the urges of Hdouble to "read the book," Borges tightened up his play using Lou Krieger's recommendations on which starting hands to play. The $20 stack grew back to $200, as Borges began to "see" the game, playing perfect poker against a table of weak opponents logged on at 8 am Swedish time. Borges kept his vision intact on returning home from work, and decided it was time to move up in stakes. 8 hours later, he had crushed the competition, building his bankroll up to over $700.
This domination is unprecented-- the expected win rate for a good low limit player being at most 5 big bets an hour, Borges clocked in at an astonishing total of over 13 big bets an hour during the run.
"I knew he would be a great player," said the man who had taught him the game, Hdouble, "I'm just worried that he refuses to recognize the concepts of "swings" and variance in win rate."
Borges attributed the domination to his ability to get "in the zone":
"I could see everything. I knew every move that was going to be made, as well as what cards everyone was holding. It was the same feeling that I got when I demolished Hdouble's tetris score... a zen-like state where you let your instinct and inner mind take over, and no conscious thought is involved."
Meanwhile, Bourbon was making his online debut at a .50/1 table, under the guidance of Hdouble on instant messenger. Bourbon's $25 buy-in went quickly down the drain after two very bad beats-- after flopping the "wheel" straight, an 8 came on the turn, giving a player with 76 a higher straight. Bourbon's two pair were then demolished by trip 4s, bringing him down to his last dollar. With a pair of 9s in the hole, Bourbon went all in, and a 9 came on the flop. His trip 9's held up over pocket aces, and the $3 side pot was no consolation for the fact that he would have raked in a huge pot had he held more chips.
But the tides had turned-- Bourbon rebought, and quickly proceeded to dominate. After his $50 rebuy turned into $75, Hdouble took off the training wheels, ceasing his advice to Bourbon and joining the game himself. Hdouble had just blown away $25 on the $25 no limit table, after his all-in bet with A9 was called by a player with AQ. After just an hour, Bourbon had reached triple figures, while Hdouble had doubled his buy in to $50. Bourbon went to sleep up 25 big bets in an hour and a half, while HDouble cashed out a few hands later up 35 big bets.
"I'm hoping this run continues," said Hdouble cautiously on Friday. "There are so many bad poker players out there that if you're just given a few decent hands, you can pick up a lot of big pots. I don't think I have the maniacal stamina of Borges, but if I can play focused for the few hours I'm there, hopefully I can continue the streak, and break out of the slump I've been in."
When asked, the trio said they had no formal plans for world poker domination, but all agreed that it was inevitable.
"We're just in training. The probability that one of us comes into a bankroll is pretty low, but we're working on it. But I bought a lotto ticket today, and the jackpot is $90 million, so I'm feeling pretty confident about our chances," said Hdouble.
hdouble 1:50 PM
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