Andy Black may have lived in a semi-monastic Buddist environment for five years, but he’s far from the quietest player in the room. But a large personality also disguises what is a sharp poker mind, and one that has led the Irishman to over four million in tournament winnings including final tables on the Aussie Millions, WSOP and EPT main events.
Player: Andy Black
Event: $10,000 No Limit Hold’em Freezeout
Date: July 15, 2005
Runners = 5,619
Position = 5th
Prize = $1,750,000
Black on…
… Playing on the Feature Table:
I ended up on the feature table on the fourth day and it was the first time I’d ever been on TV. I wasn’t on for that long, maybe just three hours before they moved us. It’s unnerving at first, but after a while, poker is so absorbing that you get used to it and just forget the cameras are even there. My advice is simply to ignore the cameras the best you can and just play your own game. It’s very easy to get distracted, so keep returning to your list of basics.
I played a big hand on the feature table where I had pocket tens on the big blind. I lost the pot to Dustin Woolf, but when the decision was on me, I did whatever I could to get information, and played the hand to the best of my ability regardless of all the distractions. It’s important that you take your time and don’t do anything rash when you have a decision to make. It’s so easy for things to be knocked out of whack by TV that you need to keep reminding yourself to take your time.
The World Series is full of distractions, such as the jumps in money. At one point, I was guaranteed $40,000, which was great, but then it was $100,000, and then a million on the final, and was I so amazed by it all. The event is designed to knock you out of your comfort zone, so be honest with yourself, sit for a second and ask yourself, ‘Do I feel like I’m playing my best game?’ You know in yourself where you’re at, but it’s important to keep returning to those basic questions. If you’re not reading well, then fine, be honest, and play ABC. Don’t try to make great reads if you don’t have a clue.
… Dry Spells:
Just don’t fucking tilt, whatever you do. My weakness is that whenever I take a bad beat, everything is usually up for grabs. I’m fucking terrible, even after 20 years. I might have followed Buddhism a few years back, but you should have seen me before I went away. If you need to step away, do so, whatever your instinct tells you to do to stop yourself from tilting, do it. It’s about what works best for you. Look for those spots where your game deteriorates and be aware of them. It’s a long tournament, so your weaknesses will be challenged. You have to do whatever you can to maintain yourself.
With 150 players left, I took a bad beat and went from a million to 500,000. I then moved tables, meaning I didn’t have a chance to get my chips back off the idiot who took them. From here on in though, I gave my best ever performance. I told jokes, commentated on hands, and basically wasted as much time as you can possibly imagine. I did this on virtually every hand for three or four hours, and not once did someone complain or call for the clock. It was maybe a bit much, but at that particular time, I was in a desperate situation and just wanted to make it through the day. I remember one hand against Tex Barch where I called a raise from the button with pocket nines. The flop came A-Q-x. I put him on something like K-T, but I didn’t want to put my tournament on the line to find out, so I talked to him as much as I possibly could to stop him from betting. In the end, he gave me free cards, checked the river and my pair held up. If you just win the odd pot, you can keep level, just remember that. You don’t need to win that many hands, just make a reraise every three orbits. I think I halved the speed of the game on that day.
… Raising More Than 3x:
The blinds were 10,000/20,000 and there wer 55 players left. I had 340,000 with Phil Ivey to my left, who had 2 or 3 million. I was absolutely card dead, but I still had some chips so couldn’t just shove all in. However, I didn’t want to get played back against, so instead of making a standard raise of, say, 60,000, I’d make it 100,000 instead. Looking back, it was probably one of the better things I did because it told people that I was committed to the hand, meaning they were less likely to try and push me off. It was a subtle change but it worked because I knew that if I lost 100,000, I’d still have 200,000 to play with.
During this stage, I won a couple of blinds then found A-K against K-Q and A-Q. My hand held up and put me up to a million. Then I doubled up with aces versus kings a few hands later and I was feeling really good.
… Overpairs:
Ovepairs are so precious in this event, whatever stage of the tournament you’re at. More people will go out with overpairs than anything else, so you need to be on top form when it comes to reading if someone has flopped a set. There’s no prescription for this, I’m just telling you to be aware of it. Bet strongly with overpairs, but at the same time, get out fast when you’ve worked out that you’re in trouble.
With 28 players left, we were on the bubble for Binion’s, which was very significant, especially for someone like me who appreciates the history of the World Series. It was a big deal. I had 2.2 million when this really interesting hand cropped up. The blinds were 10,000/20,000 and this lunatic pushed in his short stack from early position. I picked up queens and made it 360,000 and then Mike Matusow, who had around 2 million, called, meaning there was about 540,000 in the middle with 360,000 on the side. The flop came T-9-7 rainbow, I checked, Matusow bet 400,000, and I folded my hand face-up. My thinking behind this was that I was only really beating jacks. I didn’t put him on aces or kings, but he can still have queens, jacks, tens, nine and, at a push, eights. In the end he showed tens for the flopped set. In this situation, I was able to narrow his hand down so much that the correct play was check-folding.
… Playing Raymer and Ivey:
I remember preparing myself for Ivey. Him and Raymer both had four million, and although Ivey didn’t know anything about me, Raymer had me down as a tight player. I was playing the Wheel of Fortune during one of the breaks, and I ran into Paul Maxfield who’d come second in the WPT final a couple of months earlier. I was really honest, it’s a strength of mine, and told him that I had I was panicking a bit and didn’t know how to play someone like Ivey.
When we came back, there was this hand that took his spirit away. The blinds were 20,000/40,000 and he raised it up to 140,000 from the button. I had pocket deuces in the big blind and made it 440,000. He asked how much it was, and I answered, “300,000 more.” From that I believe he thought I was reraising with nothing, so made it a total of 940,000 to play. I had just over 2 million, and my chips were stacked unevenly. It came into my head that my original read was correct, so I pushed all in. My instinct is one of my strengths, and you have to magnify your abilities and be completely fearless with them. I was only raising it another million, so he had to be on a stonecold bluff not to call, but he immediately threw in his hand and I showed my cards.
The next hand I raised pocket tens, Raymer reraised and I called. On a king high flop, I check-raised his bet of 500,000 to 2 million. “That’s very unusual for you,” he said, so he obviously thought I was a rock. He had no hand in the end, Q-J I think, so also folded. Both of these situations were very marginal, but I won both and wounded two very good players.
… Any Errors He Made:
I definitely fucked it up at the end on the final table. There was also a hand with two tables left where I made a play with K-J. I didn’t use the information I had available to me and knew my opponent wouldn’t lay his hand down, but something in me went, “Fuck it,” and I came over the top thinking I could push him off it. I lost the plot really and he called with jacks. I would have actually won the hand if I’d just called.
For a while near the end I was winning like 50 percent of the hands, but people can crack up on the home stretch. I remember my sports’ psychologist saying once that the people who win are the people who slow down the least, not run the quickest at the end. You don’t always need to keep forcing it, people can dump chips to you.
On the final table, all I had to do was play small ball and I’d get to heads-up pretty easily and probably go on to win the event, but I didn’t realise that at the time. All I had to do was not make a bet more than a million, because I was running over the game and didn’t need to inflate the pots. I basically went from 23 million 13 after a crazy bluff, then called a raise with T-9 on the big blind. The flop came 9-6-5 and so I led out. Steve Dannenmann had A-6 and moved all in, but I had a dead read on him so called. He rivered an ace for a 20 million pot, then not too long after I went out with T-T versus A-K.
… On Nearly Receiving a Penalty:
I was pretty close to getting a penalty one day when I called someone an asshole. He said angrily, “Did you call me an asshole?” and I answered, “No, I called you a stupid asshole.” “You called me a stupid asshole?” he continued. “No, I called you a stupid ignorant asshole.”
… Post-WSOP:
Well, I didn’t go crazy with the money, but I did buy my mother a house. About two months after the event, this guy came up to me in Atlantic City and whispered in my ear, “I’ve been dreaming about you.” I then found out that with 300 left – I was only all in three of four times during the whole tournament, which is low – I flipped against this guy with A-Q versus J-J and managed to win. Maybe if he’d won this coin flip, he’d be in my position, so it was weird to think how important one hand could be. Fortunately, he’d won some other event since.