Hand 2 Hand Combat -- Andrew Feldman

This month’s cover star Andrew Feldman has been the subject of much debate ever since his rise to poker’s heady heights. A lot of the gossip can be boiled back to Feldman’s rocky relationship with fellow professional Luke Schwartz, and Schwartz’ opinions on the Full Tilt sponsored pro. Hence when something happens at the poker table to anger his opponents, he often finds that they refer back to Schwartz’ statements, confirming them as true, and painting the 22-year-old in a very bad light. On two occasions during his time on Full Tilt’s Late Night Poker, Feldman felt he was unfairly judged and treated, and without saying too much at the time, Feldman now speaks to Card Player about these two specific hands and his thinking behind them.

Hand No. 1:

Andrew Feldman: In my first heat with Marc Goodwin, I had about 5,000 chips, the blinds were 150-300, I look down at two kings and I raise 750 on the button. Before I could even put my chips in Marc Goodwin had reraised me all in from the small blind. Literally, it was as fast as you could imagine. So quite naturally, I’m going to double check my hand because a couple of times in big tournaments I’ve misread my hand. I declare, “I think” — meaning I’m pretty sure I’m calling I just need to check my hand. I look down at my hand, I see the two kings, and I say, “Yeah, I call,” and it was pretty much instantaneously, there was literally no time gap. And the fact that I turned around and said, “I think… Yes I call” — Marc Goodwin wanted to see that as a slow roll. It turned out he had K-Q off-suit, I mean he obviously had a genuine hand to reraise the button with, but when the other guy turns over two kings you’re not feeling too great about yourself. So he then wanted to say just for TV purposes that this is a slow roll. He said, “J-10-9 and then we can say ‘on your bike’” and “You wonder why there’s a little bit of bad blood going around the room.” And I just felt it was extremely harsh for me to be again targeted totally unnecessarily when I don’t need to slow roll as the record I’ve got with big hands in tournaments is so bad as it is that I don’t even feel that confident with kings because I’m always expecting to get out-drawn.

So quite justifiably I’ve double checked my hand. And now I get criticism from a fellow pro that it was a slow roll. Also he had the cheek to make out that I’m the one creating this bad blood between me and Luke [Schwartz], when simply that has never been the case, I’ve never stirred up any trouble, I’ve never spread any rumours, and I’ve just tried to get on to do what I’ve done and always try and be friendly and get on with as many players as possible. It’s very sad and I just feel that with all that he’s just another one of these players who is quite jealous and envious that I’ve been a lot more successful at a younger age than he has and he wants to portray me as a bad person.

Hand No. 2:

AF: The blinds were 200-400 and Sam Trickett raised, he made it 900 on the hijack, and I’m one before the button with Ad Kd. I’ve got a 10,000 stack and I reraise to 3,000. I’ve been very inactive at the table and I’m quite happy to take this pot now. I don’t think Sam would ever call, he would either reship or fold, but it’s not a made hand, I’m losing to a pair of twos and I’d be quite happy just to take down the chips. Anyway, the blinds fold and it comes back to Sam and after about 15 seconds he announces he’s all in — putting my whole tournament life on the line. Quite justifiably so, A-K is never a straightforward call here because I’ve been very inactive at the table, it’s the first time I’ve reraised preflop, and I’ve got to give credit to Sam for a big hand here. I’ve got to think that he either has the same hand or a pocket pair and which pocket pair could he have? He could well have aces or kings, it’s more likely he’ll have something like queens, jacks, or tens, and obviously a lot of the time he will have A-K, maybe A-Q here.

So I thought for a while and I didn’t really like the spot of calling off all my chips just with A-K, and also the fact that I didn’t feel like it was a particularly strong table — there was only Soren [Kongsgaard] and Sam who I actually thought were decent players at the table. So why would I want to put my chips in on a coin flip when I can wait for a better spot and outplay the other four players at the table. I dwelled up a bit but then I thought given the structure I’m going to eventually have to come in with what I thought was probably a coin flip — I was thinking he had two queens. So I eventually make the call and very surprisingly Sam turns over K-Q off-suit. He was making an outright bluff at the pot, just trying to put me under a lot of pressure, which worked as he almost got me to fold the hand.

But unfortunately two of the players, namely Benjamin Kang and Paul Zimbler, wanted to make out that that call was an actual slow roll, and I should have called a lot faster with A-K. Now why they had to voice their views when they’re not even involved in the hand is totally disrespectful on my part, and as if A-K is ever a slow roll, it just purely shows they’re ignorance of that situation and just makes them look like total idiots. Of course even after two diamonds come on the flop, an off-suit queen came on the river which knocked me out. And just to add insult to injury as soon as I got knocked out — you can actually see this if you have a look at the semi-final heat online — you’ll see Benjamin Kang put out his fist to try and high-five Sam just as the queen comes, with a smile on his face, and of course Sam embarrassingly rejects it as he has a lot more class than that and would not cheer in front of me when he got very lucky. It just shows how some fellow pros want to give me some very harsh treatment just for such a ridiculous thing. Why they’re even involved in the first place is beyond me. It was very, very frustrating.

It’s not a made hand. I’m not slow rolling with aces or kings. In this spot with A-K I just didn’t feel too confident. And another thing is my record with big hands in TV tournaments is completely horrific. I went out of the Poker Million the year before getting it in with A-K vs. K-J and Soren Kongsgaard rivered a straight, and I’ve had it all in with queens against A-5 and Richard Wheatley made a runner-runner straight. When you’re so off form it makes you think a lot more about decisions. That’s why I dwelled up a bit and Sam, who was the only other player involved in the hand, knows it was never a slow roll, and in my mind that’s all that matters, but it’s not nice when you get fellow players trying to make out to other people watching, “Oh Andrew Feldman is slow rolling. It’s horrible etiquette” and all that, when it’s simply an innocent dwell up, which quite justifiably I was allowed to do.