Continued from Part Four…

Channing’s Top Tips

In Part Two of our series on Premier League IV, Ian Frazer noted that Black Belt Poker’s Neil Channing was somewhat of a connoisseur of televised events. With Frazer winning the Team Party qualifier, we decided it might be worth picking the brains of the 2008 Irish Open to see what advice he would offer this year’s participants. On that note, I present to you, Channing’s Top Tips.

     (1) Play a solid game

It’s sounds like very basic advice, but a good, solid game really does work in these events. Just look at someone like Juha Helppi. Most players overcomplicate the format and suffer from fancy play syndrome, so I worry that big names like Daniel Negreanu and Phil Hellmuth will play too flamboyantly and struggle because of this. You just don’t get enough hands to mess around, and if you’re not careful, you end up getting in awkward spots wondering how on earth you got there in the first place. Roland [De Wolfe] suffered from this in earlier events, but he’s changed his game since and is now more selective in what hands he plays. I think this makes him a much bigger threat than earlier years because he has used his prior experience to develop his game and modify his approach.

     (2) Don’t worry about laddering too much early on

I think some players focus way too heavily on laddering the early heats and securing a third of fourth spot. In general, I think you should ignore doing this in the opening heats as the winner gets double that of third, so going all out for the win is a worthwhile strategy. Also, stacks in the final are uneven, which puts more weight against laddering. With this crowd, I don’t think it’ll be too much of a problem, except perhaps for the online qualifier as he’s pretty much freerolling and the prizes for each spot are worth, I expect, a lot to him. Obviously, in the latter heats when people require a certain amount of points, laddering strategies are more pertinent.

     (3) Prepare in between heats

There’s no real reason not to use your days off to prepare for your next heat, especially as the live coverage is publishing the hole cards. If you’re not in the commentary box – which is, incidentally, a highly useful position to be in – you should at least be heading to the green room to watch the others players, there’s really no excuse. Phil Laak’s really good at this, observing the game and picking up betting patterns, but he tends not to tell people. It’s also a big deal for him, so he’s keen to do what he can to succeed. Daniel’s just as analytical in his approach, but he disguises it less than Phil. I’m not sure I can imagine Luke [Schwartz] doing his homework, but Roland’s an interesting one. It all depends on what side of the bed he gets out of.

     (4) Adjust to the increased stack sizes

They’re playing triple stacks this year, so that’s 300,000 starting chips each. This does make a crucial difference as with 100,000, you have to be careful not to dribble away any chips in the opening levels as it means you won’t have any fold equity when it comes to three-bet shoving at the 3,000/6,000 level. When I played the World Open that Phil Laak won, I nitted up in opening levels - folding hands like A-T, 5-5, etc -just so I had the appropriate stack size when it came to this level and wasn’t left short. Before then, you have too much too push, and at the same time, three-bet folding becomes an error because you’re too pot committed. Now it’s different and you can play slightly less tight earlier on and see some flops. I definitely think we’ll see more set-mining, defending of the blind, and so on this year, so players need to be aware that opponents’ ranges will be wider than before. It’s weird, in EPTs, the increased stacks actually led to less flops as people start three-betting more and creating bigger pots preflop, but that’s not the case in TV tournaments.

Today, we serve up two videos from Messieurs Nik Persaud and Neil Channing as they dissect some of the players participating in the Premier League. Up for discussion are the likes of Ian Frazer, Phil Laak, and Black Belt Poker blogger Luke Schwartz, as well as a debate about female representation in the event and the chances of PokerStars’ Pro Vanessa Rousso.

As I write, the sixth and final heat is getting down to the nitty gritty with Daniel Negreanu leading the way. Meanwhile, five heats have indeed been concluded, with Phil Laak winning his third heat to complete a quite remarkable hat trick, and a guaranteed big stack for the final table.

The results in those heats were as follows:

Heat 4…

1st  Phil Laak -- $32,000 (16 points)
2nd  David Benyamine -- $22,000 (11 points)
3rd  Luke Schwartz -- $16,000 (8 points)
4th  Giovanni Safina -- $12,000 (6 points)
5th  Vanessa Rousso -- $8,000 (4 points)
6th  Tony G -- $6,000 (3 points)
7th  Ian Frazer -- $4,000 (2 points)
8th  JC Tran

Phil Laak: “How the hell did I do that!? These flops just keep coming. I don’t even know what the odds of winning three heats in a row are, I just wanted a top three finish today and as each player was going out I was more and more pleased with how I was doing. My strategy from the get go is to just survive, like any good poker player. It’s not about winning it’s about not dying, and if you manage not to die you’ve won – that’s my mantra!”

David Benyamine: “I tried as hard as I could today but Phil played well and made some good decisions. I had a lot of chips going heads-up but he’s running pretty good at the moment.”

Heat 5…

1st  Ian Frazer -- $32,000 (16 points)
2nd  Luke Schwartz -- $22,000 (11 points)
3rd  Giovanni Safina -- $16,000 (8 points)
4th  Daniel Negreanu -- $12,000 (6 points)
5th  Tony G -- $8,000 (4 points)
6th  JC Tran -- $6,000 (3 points)
7th  Phil Hellmuth -- $4,000 (2 points)
8th  Yevgeniy Timoshenko

Ian Frazer: “This is the interview I’ve been waiting to do – a winner’s interview! said The game plan in these things is patience – I knew I had to get in the top three to get into the heads-up but now I’ve won this heat, I could end up in the final anyway. I like to keep my foot on the accelerator and that’s exactly what I did – I’m delighted with how it went.

Luke Schwartz: “I don’t make bad decisions when I’m tilty – I don’t really make bad decisions full stop. The hand where I lost with A-6 to Frazer’s -K6 was pretty sick, but it didn’t affect me and I never let things like that interfere.”

Current League Standings:

1st  Phil Laak – 48 points ($96,000), played 3
2nd  David Benyamine – 35 points ($60,000), played 3
3rd  Giovanni Safina – 29 points ($58,000), played 4
4th  Ian Frazer -- 26 points ($52,000), played 4
5th  Luke Schwartz – 23 points ($46,000), played 3
6th  JC Tran – 20 points ($40,000), played 4
7th  Yevgeniy Timoshenko 16 points ($32,000), played 4
8th  Roland De Wolfe – 14 points ($28,000), played 3
9h  Vanessa Rousso – 12 points ($24,000), played 3
10th  Daniel Negreanu – 10 points ($20,000), played 3
11th Tony G – 9 points ($18,000), played 3
12th  Phil Hellmuth –8 points ($16,000), played 3

This means:

- Phil Laak and David Benyamine are guaranteed a place in the final
- Giovanni Safina, Ian Frazer, Luke Schwartz and JC Tran can’t be relegated
- Tony G and Phil Hellmuth can only make the playoffs

images courtesy of Mickey May and Matchroom Poker

Also check out thread on Two Plus Two.

Read Part Six...

Premier League Review – Part One: Breaking the Mold
Premier League Review – Part Two: Party Politics
Premier League Review – Part Three: Telly Addicts
Premier League Review – Part Four: Philling His Boots