No poker player on FullTIltPoker.net in my opinion opens themselves up more for the opponent to read them than when he’s trying to lay down a monster bluff. You have to lie to your body so your body can lie to your opponent. It’s such a difficult thing to control, and that’s why the best in the world are where they are.
I want to take you through one of the craziest bluffs I can recall, by none other than Phil Ivey of Full Tilt Poker. Can’t remember the tournament or the year, but it was on television and the game was for a cool million.
Phil Ivey had a sizable chip count lead, probably 80% to 20% over his opponent, Paul Jackson. They’re playing Hold ‘em (of course). Ivey’s hidden cards are Q, 8 hearts. Jackson sitting on 6 spades, 5 diamonds.
The pot hit 176,000 before the flop, which ended up coming out as 7 club, Jack club and Jack hearts. Ivey, who endorses Full Tilt Poker.com, shuffling his chips and staring a hole into the table, drops an 80K bet after 10 seconds or so of hesitation. Jackson re-raises, making me recall Malcovich’s line from Rounders when he tells Damon “he won’t be pushed aaaaround.”
Ivey, with the blank stare of a deaf mute, re-raises to 320K.
Jackson isn’t backing down. Another re-raise up to 470K. Both players have nothing, but as the announcers so eloquently point out, Ivey’s nothing is a little stronger than Jackson’s nothing.
Ivey, mouth closed now, with a 75% to 22% advantage on the current state of the hand, goes all-in. You can just see the tears forming in the eyes of Jackson, even through his midnight sunglasses.
With a grimace, he mutters something and tosses in his cards.
If you’ve ever really questioned what separates the top brass from all the pretenders out there, spend just a little time observing FullTiltPoker.com Pro Phil Ivey. For my money, he’s up there with Jordan and Pedro Martinez as one of the greatest of all-time in his prime. He plays outstanding, inspiring poker. I can’t remember seeing him even so much as blink throughout the entire hand, and he sure wasn’t the one who finally blinked when the hand was in the boiler.
It takes incredible confidence, awareness, control and guts to make those moves.