Friday saw Viktor start off at the 2-7TD tables, with 109 hands split over two tables costing him $19,512. The big winner at these tables was fellow Full Tilt Professional, Gus Hansen. His profit at these tables was $47,988.

Viktor then headed over to a $300/£600 NLHE table to play Alex “IReadYrSoul” Millar for 119 hands. A $108,610 loss to Millar was forthcoming, and took Viktor’s losses for the day to $128,122.

“SallyWoo” was the next up to the FLO8 plate, and was struck out by Viktor over 77 hands of $2k/$4k, and coughed up $101,980 to the Swede.

While the battle was going on with Sally, Tom “durrrr” Dwan was on deck, waiting for his opportunity to face Viktor. Viktor’s fellow Full Tilt Professional met him at four $100/$200 PLO tables, and the two played out 182 hands, with Dwan taking a $258,381 profit from the matchup.

Apologies for the brief coverage, we lost our hand histories in a computer crash. Worry not, the computer left the building via the window, That’ll teach the bugger.

We did however catch some of the hands from Viktor’s next action, when he say and played FLO8 at the 6-max tables. The next 595 hands saw Viktor playing against other including Gus Hansen, Kyle “KPR16″ Ray, and Phil “OMGClayAiken” Glafond. Viktor earned a profit of $23,978 against this quality opposition. Below you’ll find the first Video of the day, which has some of the hands from these tables.

Viktor left Friday with a $260,536 loss, and we continue to Saturday’s coverage.

Saturday saw Viktor in three straight up battles against “SallyWoo,” Kyle “KPR16″ Ray, Kyle “cottonseed1″ Hendon and Ben “Bttech86″ Tollerene.

Viktor started against the enigmatic “SallyWoo,” against who Viktor played 340 hard fought FLO8 hands. Viktor won against his long time opponent, but was only able to walk away with $20,916, which was only just over five Big Bets at $2k/$4k

Next up was Kyle “KPR16″ Ray, who was also beaten by Blom. Amazingly, over 283 hands, it was nearly the same gain as he had made over “SallyWoo.” Viktor won $20,933, again just over five Big Bets, so it can’t be considered a big win.

The last FLO8 action of the day was against “cottonseed1.” A mere 24 hands saw Viktor lose more than he had gained against Sally and KPR as Viktor dropped $49,055.

We have some of the hands from these matchups in the video below:

Next up was a return match against Ben Tollerene at the $500/$1000 $40k Cap tables. They played each other over 511 hands. Most of the action was played at two tables, with three more in circulation.

Viktor ended up with a $162,441 loss to Tollerene. We have some of hands below in the highlights reel.

This ended Saturday for Viktor, with a $169,597 loss, which combined with his losses on Friday took his yearly profit line down to $4,254,867.

Viktor is suffering bounce back after his big day earlier in the week, and hasn’t been able to get much going. With 2-7TD and NLHE only get a small part of his attention, their less than wonderful results can pretty much be accounted by variance. 2-7 saw about $20k lost over 109 hands, while NLHE saw a massive $108,610 lost over 119 hands, but the samples are pretty small to be drawing any conclusions from, apart from Viktor lost money in these games.

The PLO results are even more ugly reading. Viktor lost $420,822 over 693 hands, with the lion’s share of it going to durrrr.

FLO8 was the only saving grace for Viktor over these two days, as he was able to show a $118,811 profit over 1319 hands, by far his biggest volume, and his only profitable game.

The only time it can really be argued Viktor spiralled out of control was against Dwan. Here Viktor could have arguably stopped playing earlier, but considering the whole battle was only over 182 hands, it can’t really be noted as a mistake, especially as Viktor probably has an edge over the Macau regular.

We’ll be keeping out regular close eye on Viktor over the next few days, and we’ll be paying close attention to how he handles his matchups.

Taking place on Sunday, May 26th at 11:00 ET and with only a $2.20 buy-in, the Big Little Tournament is your chance to turn a small buy-in into a huge payday.

The Big Little Tournament has a Multi-Entry format, so you will have up to 4 chances to hit it big in this one. As you may know, Multi-Entry Tournaments are exclusive to Full Tilt Poker and they allow you to multi-table a single tournament.

Satellites to the tournament are available for as little as $0.22 or 3 Full Tilt Points.

Check out Full Tilt Poker’s exclusive no deposit bonus!

This gives you the following:

2 X $2 Ring Game Tickets
2 X $1 SNG Tickets
2 X $.50 SNG Tickets
1 X $2.20 MTT Ticket
1 X $1.10 MTT Ticket

With a $2.20 MTT ticket already in your pocket you can basically take a shot at the huge prize pool for free, so don’t miss out on this great opportunity!

Viktor’s working Thursday started at the FLO8 tables, and along with some 6-Max action, Viktor also played some heads up matches. The first of these was against Kyle “KPR16″ Ray, and was fought over three sessions, and 303 hands.

The first was a $100k loss for Viktor across 388 hands, and the pattern was continued in the second session. here Ray took $52,018 from Viktor’s bankroll over 105 hands. Viktor managed to get his revenge in the third session, and over 187 hands he was able to lever $171,955 out of “KPR16′s” online wallet. This took his overall profit against the American to $19,937. We caught some of the hands, and have them for you in a nice little video package.

The next stop was a heads up battle against the enigmatic “SallyWoo.” The single 111 hand session saw Viktor take a loss of $73,738 to the unknown player, and, along with some 6-Max action, took his daily totals to a $177,355 profit. We have some of the action against “SallyWoo” and the 6-Max action against players including “KPR16″ and Patrik “FinddaGrind” Antonius.

The other action of the day was at the PLO tables, specifically the $500/$1000 $40k Cap tables. Viktor saw action against Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond and some other players, including Ben “Bttech86″ Tollerene, turned up for a little while towards the end of Viktor’s Session.

The action was split over 3 tables, and Viktor played out 2288 hands here, with most of it being heads up against Galfond. Tollerene joined in for 130 hands at one table towards the end of the session to take the action three handed.

Viktor won $814,369 with most of that coming from Galfond, with the table that ended up involving Tollerene and some other players only posting a small $32,412 profit over 754 hands.

If we didn’t have any hands from this massive battle, you’s have to close you eyes, and imagine Phil and Viktor in the final confrontation of “Rounders.” Instead of NLHE they are playing Cap PLO, and the stakes are much bigger, and instead of playing in an underground New York poker club, they are playing online. In fact, it’s nothing like that scene from “Rounders.” Sorry! Good thing we have a video for you:

After all this action, Viktor was able to post a daily profit of $991,724, which gives his yearly totals a shot in the arm, and takes him up to a $4,515,400 profit for the year.

Viktor crushed Thursday, totally. Yes he started poorly, losing to both “KPR16″ and “SallyWoo,” but he came back, and ended up beating “KPR16″ over a decently large sample, even if it wasn’t for that much.

Beating Galfond on any day is always a pretty good indication of playing well. Galfond is rightly regarded as one of, if not the, best PLO player online, and Viktor has taken nearly $900k out of his pockets in a few hours.

It wouldn’t surprise me to see Viktor slip back into losing tomorrow, trying to grab hold of the elusive winning streak, but the big thing to note will be if he spirals out of control, or if he knows when to stop.

Doyle Brunson

The Living Legend that is Doyle Brunson is not going to be seen at the WSOP Tournament tables this yeah. No, he’s not dead, as far as I’m aware the 79 year old Texas Dolly is still very much alive and kicking. On Tuesday Night he tweeted a short comment that has ended an era, and has brought poker players out of the wood work to celebrate the history of one of the true greats of the game. The tweet is below:

Afraid I am finally gonna give in to Father Time and pass on tournament play at WSOP. #toomanyhours

— Doyle Brunson (@TexDolly) May 15, 2013

It seems that Father Time isn’t a fan of tournament poker, and Doyle isn’t going to be gracing the tables of the WSOP again.

Doyle is one of the biggest winners of WSOP bracelets, with 10 of the golden bracelets in his possession, with dates ranging from 1976 to 2005. His haul of jewellery also includes back to back Main Event wins, which alone would be enough to rate him as a legend of the game.

We are going to miss watching Doyle at the tournament tables, he has been a fixture in the coverage of the WSOP for as long as I have been watching poker. I met him briefly once while I was railing a few friends at EPT London, and it still counts as one of my favourite poker memories. I feel sorry for those who won’t get the chance to meet this legend as he leaves the table on a tournament break.

Doyles WSOP Wins

1976 – $5,000 2-7 Draw – $80,250

1976 – $10,000 No Limit Hold’em Main Event – $230,000

1977 – $1,000 Seven Card Stud Split – $62,500

1977 – $10,000 No Limit Hold’em Main Event – $340,000

1978 – $5,000 Seven Card Stud – $68,000

1979 – $600 Mixed Doubles $4,500

1991 – $2,500 No Limit Hold’em – $208,000

1998 – $1,500 Seven Card Razz – $93,000

2003 – £2,000 H.O.R.S.E. – $84,080

2005 – $5,000 Shorthanded No Limit Hold’em – $367,800

Doyle can still surprise the young whizz kids of the game. We caught this video of him playing in the 2013 NBC Heads Up Event, where he’s playing against Tom Dwan. He certainly hasn’t lost any of the aggression he’s famous for.

SCOOP 2013

Yesterday saw a Finnish truck driver, playing on a mobile phone, see off stiff competition at the final table of SCOOP 08 High to make the most money from deal done by the final five players.

The $1050 buy in event ran over two days, and had a $1,000,000 guaranteed prize pool that was smashed, with the actual prize pool being over $1.5 Million.

The five way deal earned “micide” $144,128.82 for his 5th place. The UK’s Sam “samSquid” Grafton took $153,251 for 4th while “korjae” from Canada took 3rd and $149,929.27. Finnish lorry driving “donki4″ took $180,036.54 for his second place, and “Sobizzle21″ took $144,409.77 and the SCOOP watch to go with his title.

Grafton tweeted after he busted, the relief in being able to go to bed showing in every word:

Eventually bust 4th. Soooo, soooo tired, but very happy! Thank you SCOOP!

— Sam Grafton (@SquidPoker) May 16, 2013

The Mid event ($109) was won by “potbet11″ for $79,681.25 after a deal heads up with “aniceboy” who took home $73,681.24. The Low tournament ($11) was won by “1hmm11″ for $20,057.76.

WSOP bracelet winner Thor “osten” Hansen added the Stud  SCOOP 11 High title to his virtual trophy case to go with his WCOOP win. This gives him the chance of joining the elite player group who have won the “Triple COOP.” He gained $42,900 for winning this $2,100 event, an beat a tough final table that included Shawn “buck21″ Buchanan, Bryn “BrynKenney” Kenney and Brian “$tinger 88″ Hastings.

The Low ($11) title went to “_1453_1905″ who takes $7,932.13, and the Mid event was won by “UwouldntKnow” who added $12,551 to his bankroll.

Team PokerStars Pro seemed to have a quiet day, and only Marcel Luske managed to make a final table, which he did in the SCOOP 09 Mid Pot Limit 5-Card Omaha Hi/Lo 6-Max tournament, where he finished in 5th for $3,696.61

Today’s action includes SCOOP 12 2-7 Single Draw, SCOOP 13 Heads Up PLO, and SCOOP 14, The Big Ante NLHE Rebuy. Buy ins stretch from $11 to $2,100, and you can always find a satellite to suit your budget.

Yesterday was a day of heads up battles for our friend Viktor Blom. He started of against Watch regular, Kyle “cottonseed1″ Hendon at the FLO8 tables. The matchup was played out in 3 spurts over the day, and saw Viktor get off to a great start. The first set of 205 hands earned him a profit of $288,946, but the later two session saw Viktor’s profit against Hendon pegged back to $121,540. We caught some of the action, and have a nice highlight video for you below:

The next up on Viktor’s dance card was another high stakes player who keeps their personal lives away from the table, “Trueteller.” This was over at the $500/$1000 $30k Cap NLHE heads up tables. Over 805 hands and three and a half hours, Viktor ended up losing just over to capped pots worth of bankroll to “Trueteller”. The exact number was $64,735, and we have some of the big post between these two in the video below.

The last matchup of the day for our Swedish protagonist was against yet another Isildur1 Watch regular “SallyWoo.” They sat at the nosebleed FLO8 tables for the second day in a row. The first of their two sessions of the day was not a pleasant time for Viktor. He lost $247,705 over 125 hands before the session ended. The second session was much longer, and went better for Viktor, and he was able to make a $59,898 session profit from the elusive player. We have s few of the more interesting hands for you in a delightfully packed video of the dance.

Wednesday saw Viktor lose $131,002 over the day, which was the second day in a row he’s lost since his (supposed) return to the UK. This has moved his yearly profit line down to $3,523,676.

Yesterday wasn’t a great day for Viktor, but nor was it a horrible one. He started off well, and was still in profit until after he’d played his first session against “SallyWoo” and his second session against “cottonseed1.” After his last sessions against Sally and “Trueteller” Viktor was actually showing a small profit, and only his last session against “cottonseed1″ turned his day into a losing one.

This places me in a little bit of a quandary, you see I don’t really have anything I can analyse. I’m not able to claim I’m a high stakes player, and able to dissect hands in a poker autopsy. I have enough issues doing that for my own hand histories. What I do know is people, some psychology, and when someone loses control. I can’t see that in Viktor’s numbers from yesterday, he appears to be in control of his losses, and pulled the plug after a decently long session. I’m guessing he may have stopped because he was losing, and may have felt off his game. Whatever the reason, I can’t argue with his game selection yesterday, or his decision to play or quit.

Maybe he’s learning?

The Problems Players Face

I’ve worked with a lot of people who have wanted to learn how to play better poker, and almost every single one of them faced the same set of difficulties when it came to figuring out where to start. Studying poker is tricky to begin with because there is no obvious structure to how you should learn. It’s also easy to get discouraged since it’s very difficult to measure your progress because of the variance in the game. People from our generation have been trained to want immediate results, and since learning poker cannot give us any, this means that we’re working against ourselves from the beginning. These are only some of the problems that plague new players who set out to try to get better, and my objective here is to lead you in the direction of some solutions.

My Solution to These Issues

My solution to the majority of the problems listed above is a big change in how you study poker. There is a pattern that I’ve seen that has separated microstakes players from players who move up through the stakes at a steady rate, and I would like to share that pattern with you here: Players who focus on individual topics for longer periods of time almost always perform better than players who jump from topic to topic without any in-depth study.

Here’s a basic idea of how this works. By studying a single poker situation (eg: continuation betting, 3-betting, facing river bets) deeply, you get to learn about the factors that drive that situation. These factors are ultimately the basic elements of the game of poker like pot odds, sizing bets, putting players on ranges and things of that nature. Once you move on to studying a different type of situation, your understanding of the “elements” will have naturally improved. The result is that your study of the next type of situation will come easier, and your growth will accelerate.

Studying Situations Instead of Individual Elements

Some people recommend studying the individual elements of poker first. For example, someone might want to do an in-depth study of putting players on ranges followed by studying bet sizing. While this method can be effective, I think that starting with a basic type of situation will yield a higher success rate. For example, I think that it will be much easier for a player to learn about bet sizing in the context of continuation betting than to try to look at bet sizing in a general sense. I think it’s easier for most players because the situation creates a context for the individual elements of poker. With this approach, players feel like they are actually accomplishing something instead of studying abstract concepts that they do not know how to apply.

Studying a topic like bet sizing in general can become boring and tedious very quickly, and I think this is why Theory of Poker suffers such harsh reviews from people who try to pick it up for the first time. While it’s a very important book that covers critical topics, it’s also an extremely dry read that will likely put you to sleep if you aren’t already familiar with its contents. Overall, it’s difficult for a player to study the elements individually for practical reasons, and that’s why I suggest studying poker situations instead.

Creating a Structure for Learning Poker

So our idea is that we want to study individual types of situations that come up, and we want to study them in a lot of detail. I’m going to give an example of a way that you could study based on the ideas that I have presented above. This is based on an approach that I described to an FTR member a couple of months ago when he asked me how he should work on understanding continuation betting. I’ll stick with the example of c-betting, but the same process can be applied to any other basic type of situation like 3-betting, double barreling, facing a c-bet, etc.

Step 1: Pick out 20 hands where you had the option to continuation bet. Analyze the spots individually on your own with a lot of depth. Here I would suggest that the player breaks down his opponents’ ranges, his own range and how the player thinks he should play his range.

Step 2: Discuss your analysis of each of these hands with other players. Take notes based on your discussions using tools like the forums, the chat room, private messages and other forms of communication.

Step 3: After the discussion of your analysis is complete, try to break down the situation in general terms based on the basic factors that go into your decision. For our example of continuation betting, you might note that you have to consider the flop texture, the bet sizes, how the opponent plays to a bet or check, and the remaining stack sizes.

Step 4: Go back and review each of the 20 hands in the context of the factors that you looked at in step three. The mistakes that you made in the hands, or the correct plays that you made, should really stand out to you based on the factors that you listed. You should be able to use these factors to create logical and easy-to-understand arguments for every single one of your decisions in those hands.

The End Result of Using This Process

When you jump around across different topics, you never learn anything deeply. The approach that I have outlined above is based on the premise that the only way to internalize the core concepts of poker is to study them on a deep level. Because studying the individual elements of poker is almost always dry and boring, I think that studying them within the context of specific types of situations (like facing 3-bets, double barreling, blind stealing) has better results for players.

EPT

The Super high Roller didn’t attract the same attention in the Monte Carlo Casino as the Main Event had done previously, and while the final table was live streamed to thousands of people across the internet the rail surrounding the table was curiously sparsely populated.

The action last night had played down to the money, so everyone who arrived at the table today had locked up some sort of payout, and short stack Mike Watson was the first to leave, with a healthy €218,300 pay out.

An interesting side note from the live stream: apparently, while before the play began on day two it was unlimited re-entries, not a single player at the final table had entered more than once. This meant that every player at the final table had locked up a profit.

The next to go was the other short stack at the table, Scott Seiver, who had prolonged his agony by doubling up before his departure. Seiver added €266,900 to his piggy bank

The only Russian at the table, Vladimir Troyanovsky, was busted in 5th place for €339,500 when he called Mizzi’s shove over his under the gun raise with KQ. Mizzi turned over AJ, and the board ran out with enough bricks to build a new hospital to send the Russian to the rail.

Timothy Adams was the next to leave the glamorous yet empty final table stage as his 99 couldn’t fade the A on the turn against Altergott’s A8 after Adams had shoved his dwindling stack from the button over Max’s early opening bet. Adams pockets were filled with  €485,100 to compensate him for losing the flip.

During a break, a deal was discussed, Mercier declined saying something about not wanting to get a headache from working out the numbers.

Sorel Mizzi, who had held the Chip lead at several points during the day, was the next to go. His KQ weren’t in one of the 43.5% of universes that would have allowed them to beat the pocket Jacks of Altergott. €679,100 was paid over to Mizzi as the remaining pair of poker players again discussed a deal. Again, nothing came of it, and the two decided to play for the title, money and honour without a deal in place.

The title was decided in one massive pot when pre flop, Altergott 4-bet to 1 Million from the button and Mercier called. A flop of 87J saw Mercier check/call the 700k bet. The turn of 4 saw Jason check again, and Altergott slide just over 1.2 Million over the line. Mercier responded by moving his whole stack over the line, which was about 3 big blinds bigger than the one in front of the German.

Mercier turned over K7 for a pair of sevens, and a King high flush draw, but Altergott had the black Queens in his hand, and the 2 river didn’t change anything.

Mercier had to fold the next had when he got 72o on the button, but was all in the next hand with T6. Max turned over J
9, and the board gave everyone a sweat. The 65K put Mercier ahead, but the turn and river of 7 8 sealed the deal for Max, and it was all over.

With no more EPT events until Barcalona in August, we’ll have to find something else to do over the summer. I’ve heard there might be something going on in a small dessert town in Nevada involving poker during this time. I guess I should look into that.

Gus Hansen

Leading member of the Full Tilt Professionals, Gus Hansen, had a fantastic day playing poker yesterday. At both the 2-7TD and the FLO8 tables, Gus was on fire.

The beginning of the day didn’t look that great as he when started off at the 2-7TD $1k/$2k tables by losing $21,540 over 163 hands. Seemingly chasing his losses, Gus stepped up to the 2-7Td $1.5k/$3k tables, and his day started to turn in a happier direction.

The next 493 hands of lo-ball play saw Hansen win $203,873, with some of the action against fellow Full Tilt Professional, Viktor “Isildur1″ Blom. Blom wasn’t having as god a day as Gus, and a decent percentage of the money won by Hansen was taken from Blom.

With a daily profit standing at $182,333, Gus switched up to playing FLO8, and again, ended up playing some of his action against the High Stakes cash genius that is Viktor Blom. However, changing game didn’t help Viktor win any more money, but Gus wasn’t in that boat. He was in the other, much bigger, prettier boat that had all the winners on it, as he started to crush the FLO8 tables in the same way he had been crushing the 2-7TD tables. He was obviously still in Monte Carlo, as that’s those sort of boats tend to live.

Over the next 14 hours, Gus was playing FLO8 over a bunch of tables, and managed to play 2933 hands, with action against Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond, Kyle “KPR16″ Ray, “PostflopAction” as well Blom.

During this time, Hansen had managed to rack up $1,326,915 profit against these players at the High/Low Omaha format.

Gus stopped playing at around 11am Monte Carlo time, and I’m guessing went straight to bed while the rest of the poker players in Monte Carlo either went home via the airport, or were playing the during the final day of the EPT Grand Final festival at the local casino.

We caught some of Gus’s action, and have a little video for you below:

Hansen has been on a steady downswing since the return of Full tilt back in November, and at $1,509,248, this is his biggest winning 24 hours since then. Even after this impressive display, Gus is still down a total of $1,498,844 for the year. Maybe this is a turning point for “The Great Dane,” who was re-analysing his game when I spoke to him back in March when I spoke to him at EPT London. Maybe that process has started to bear fruit, and Gus will continue to dig himself out the hole he has found himself in. We’ll be keeping an eye on him over the coming months, and we’ll let you know where Mr Hansen’s profit line goes to.

SCOOP 2013

Yesterday saw the culmination of the 2-day SCOOP 03 (6-Max Action hour 2-Day), and the High ($530 rebuy) tournament saw UK online legend Chris Moorman reach the final table. He wasn’t able to seal the deal, and finished in 6th place for $26,212.50. Last year’s Main Event (High) champion ended, Sami “Lrslzk” Kelopuro, up taking his second title, along with $143,295 when he beat Dutch player Sander “Berndesen12″ Berndesen in the heads up battle. Berndesen took $104,850 away from the two day event.

The Mid ($55 rebuy) tournament was won by high stakes professional Adam “Roothlus” Levy, who managed to take $67,484.64 after a heads up deal was done with 2012 EPT Grand Final winner Mohsin “sms9231″ Charania, who took home $61,000.

The Low game was won by “paranoik333″, who won $32,270.77 for his two day’s work in the $5.50 rebuy event.

SCOOP 06 (Double Chance Draw) saw members of PokerStars Team Pro come close, but ultimately not be able to clinch the victory. The High game saw George “Jorj95″ Lind end up as the runner up to Estonian “jon011″ who won the 65 entrant tournament for $22,800. Lind’s second place earned him $15,200.

The Mid Event was a close call for Shane “shaniac” Schleger, who lost out heads up to “TiltPlayerrr” who took $11,077 away for winning the 519 player tournament. Schleger’s second place earned him $8,162. The Low tournment attracted 4,211 players, and had a three way deal, with “Martyr99″ of Canada winning the most when he left in 3rd with $6,312.58. The last two players were both from Russia, and “snegir76″ took the title and $5,706.82 when he beat “sergei_s1″ heads up. “sergei_s1″ took away $5,336.36 for his second place.

Today sees the Five Card PLO SCOOP 09, the SCOOP10 NLHE Super Knockout and SCOOP 11 stud tournaments, with buy ins ranging from $7.50 all the way to $2,100.

We’ll be bringing to the details on the results from these tomorrow.