Online Pro out Of Order IMO |
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Posted Sat May 10, 2008 12:59 pm GMT by Sentinel
Dunno if this has been discussed before but NBC HU Championship - Hellmuth vs Dwan.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=zY3b27vZwYk
At the risk of being flamed for daring to question a top online player. I have just watched the clash and cannot believe how Dwan can legislate his play.
Despite the millions he has made online, he has no major triumphs in live play and yet seeks to tell Phil Hellmuth he is a bad player. Sure, Hellmuth was condescending with his use of "son" but he's a proven player over 20 years and to be told by some upstart to "learn how to play" is out of order, IMO.
My thoughts on the hand itself:
1) Raising all in with pocket 10s, in the 3rd hand is just ludicrous. Either he's pushing Phil out of the pot and not maximising the value of his hand or he's getting called. If he gets called he is a massive dog or a 50/50 at best. His best scenario is an unnecessary coin flip?!
So to me, I can't see how Dwan sees that as a good play. Maybe if one was uber short stacked but not 3 hands in. That's the kind of play I expect in the donkaments I frequent.
2) I am not adovcating he folds his 10s to Phil's raise but cannot see the logic in shoving with them just 3 hands in when both are presumably deep stacked.
3) He didn't seem to read PH at all, which is inexcusable for a multi millionaire pro because there are hours and hours of Phil that he must have seen.
4) And that appears to be a major flaw that seperates online poker from live poker. The top online players are heavily maths based - as Dwan tried to infer with his "would you call 3100?" line - but live poker is maths and more.
However........
Of more interest to me is Dwan's reaction and body language throughout. I may not be a good poker player but my living is made up of reading body language to an acute level, including muscle tone andcolourisation, and at this I am excellent. From what I observe, Dwan is completely at odds with what he is actually saying.
Like any tell, there may be reasons as to why people react a certain way but 95% of the time, the traditional reads of body language hold true. And so I will have to align to them based on just one video of Dwan and no insight into him as a person.
Dwan gets prickly when Hellmuth calls his play and goes into defence mode. He admitted he sucked out yet still goes uber defensive to justify his play. Quite a contradiction. He then refuses to make eye contact with Phil and this is indicative of someone who is in the wrong and/or is being deceitful. Which is exactly what's going on if he has been caught with his pants down on TV, running tens into aces.
His muscle tone contracts and his shoulders compact, which is also in contrast to the physiology when someone believes they are in the right. Physically he's 'locking down'.
If he truly believed he made a standard play then he wouldn't feel so compelled to insta challenge Phil to a HU match. He's on the defensive again and, coupled with his body language and actions is not providing congruence with his words.
And as he admitted he sucked out, there would still be no reason to challenge to a HU. It's all indicative of an individual who wants to atone for an error. All in all, he becomes overtly defensive, which is telling enough. The fact that he does so after admitting he sucked out is even more so.
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