Poker Pros Having Success

[Fonzi]

These past couple of weeks, poker pros have been in the spotlight with some major tournaments. Possibly the best known of them, Eric ‘basebaldy’ Baldwin had an impressive win, leading them all. Pokerstars’ North American Poker Tour (NAPT) has most recently stopped in Los Angeles, at the infamous Bicycle Casino. Baldwin played the NAPT Bounty Shootout, and took it down. He did it in impressive style, beating one of the toughest final tables imaginable. Other notable finishes at the final table include: November Niner Michael ‘The Grinder’ Mizrachi (8th), Tom ‘KingsOfCards’ Marchese (5th), David Williams (3rd), and 2nd place finisher Justin Young. Baldwin took down almost $160,000 in winning the event. The rest of the final table was paid $20,000 plus however much each earned in bounties.

A couple more notable pros made some splashes at the NAPT in Los Angeles. During the NAPT Main Event, pros Michael Binger and Jason Mercier put together some deep runs, both making their way to the main event final table. Sadly, neither of them could put together enough steam for a win, and left the tournament back-to-back, with Mercier exiting in 8th and Binger in 7th. Neither left empty handed: Mercier walked with almost $85,000 and Binger topped 6 figures, leaving LA with $114,000.

Another November Niner was in the spotlight this past week. Self-proclaimed amateur Soi Nguyen, a newly signed Full Tilt Red Pro, hosted a tournament in this edition of Full Tilt’s tournament series, FTOPS XVIII. Not only did Nguyen host Event 18: $207 Rush No Limit Hold-em Super Turbo, but he also won the thing for almost $80,000 (not to mention that shiny FTOPS Gold Jersey). Nguyen joins a short list of pros to win a FTOPS event that they have hosted: Greg ‘FBT’ Mueller and Erick ‘E-Dogg’ Lindgren and is one of only 7 Full Tilt pros to have even won a FTOPS event. The question now is: how much of an amateur is Nguyen, or was that just one great bluff?

[dhawkins701]

well it was an ultra turbo. Speakin from some one who loves playing ultra turbos there's A LOT of luck involved. Rather it be gettin in with the best and it just holding for like 20 all-ins or gettin it in from behind and suck out. Obviouslly that's the case in a lot of tourneys but exspecially for ultra turbos. There's a lot less skill,though you do need to know how to play "good" short stacked poker in order to really do well in those type of tourneys. I have no idea if that guy is really THAT good or if he's just a huge 6 month+ heater. It's not for me to say,as i've never played him nore did i really pay much attention to his play during the WSOP. But either way,congrats to him for winning a tourney he hosted. Pretty awesome!

As for pro's being in the spotlights in huge poker tourneys. I think it's good for poker. Yeah don't get me wrong i think everyone loves "the underdog story". Where the no-name player comes out and wins a big tourney.(I.E. moneymaker.) But i also think that it's good for poker to see familiar faces at final tables. Exspecially when you see the pro's there over and over. It shows that poker is not only a game of some luck...but it's also a game of A LOT of skill.