Hand Analysis - Isaac Haxton Defeats Viktor ‘Isildur1’ Blom in Superstar Showdown

Shortly before “Isildur1” was revealed to be Swedish phenom Viktor Blom at the 2011 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, he set out to promote his unveiling by challenging anyone willing to risk $150,000 in a single 2,500-hand match in the PokerStars Superstar Showdown.

The first player to accept the challenge was high-stakes regular Isaac “philivey2694” Haxton, who sat down at four heads-up tables to compete in late December. After multiple lead changes, Haxton was able to pull ahead late in the match and logged off with a $41,701 win.

Here, Haxton takes a look back at five key hands during the contest.

Haxton’s Preflop Min-Raising [Minimum-Raising] Strategy

“While I do raise three times the big blind on occasion, min-raising is something I do more often during heads-up play. It’s not something that I think Isildur1 has a lot of experience against. A year ago, he would just sit out and refuse to play against min-raisers, but because he was required to play this match, I felt that it would begin to frustrate him, especially if he found himself down early. The entire duration of the match, I never once gave up my button, and min-raised them all. Toward the end of the match, when he was down, he began to really press with his raises and reraises, hoping to build big pots, and obviously, my min-raises made that more difficult for him.”

Hand No. 1: Haxton’s Flopped Straight Gets Flushed

Haxton raised to $200 from the button and Blom called. The flop fell 4♦ 3♠ 2♦, and Blom checked. Haxton bet $200 and Blom raised to $800. Haxton reraised to $2,400 and Blom made it $4,350. Haxton called, and the turn was the 5♦. Blom bet $6,250, and Haxton called. The river was the A♦, and Blom moved all in for his last $6,350. Haxton called, but his 6♣ 5♥ was beat by Blom’s 7♦ 6♦.

Analysis

“This is actually a hand I’ve talked about with some friends after it happened. I think there’s a good chance that I made a mistake in this hand at some point, but it’s hard to pinpoint exactly where. We had a few alternate ideas of how I could have played this hand, but I decided to flat-call the $4,350 because I thought he was unlikely to reraise there with a set. It’s so easy for me to have a straight, and he made it very cheap for me to see the turn if I have a draw. This led me to believe that he had a bluff, which I didn’t want to blow him off of, or a straight of his own, which he would likely bet for himself. I was leaning toward a bluff, which meant that I wanted to give him a reason to keep firing. On the turn, he bets half of his stack, and since I can beat only a bluff at this point, I just called. On the river, he moved all in, and I had to make the call. It was interesting how the hand went down, but I’m having trouble seeing how I could have fared better.”

Hand No. 2: Haxton’s Flopped Set Gets Flushed

Haxton raised to $200 and Blom called. The flop came 6♦ 4♦ 2♠, and Blom checked. Haxton bet $200 and Blom raised to $800. Haxton called, and the turn was the 8♦. Blom bet $1,600 and Haxton called. The river was the Q♥, and Blom moved all in for his last $7,500. Haxton called, but his set of sixes was beat by Blom’s K♦ J♦, a turned flush.

Analysis

“This was another hand that I’ve thought more about since it went down. I think it’s pretty close. I don’t think I’m going to be beating value-bets very often, unless maybe he’s betting the two smaller sets. But I had to give him credit for being able to bluff in most spots, so I felt that I had to reluctantly call him down.”

Hand No. 3: Haxton Wins With Ace High

Blom raised to $300 from the button and Haxton called. The flop came down K♣ 3♥ 2♠, and Haxton check-called a bet of $500. The turn was the 6♣, and Haxton checked again. Blom checked behind, and the river was the 9♥. Haxton checked and Blom fired in $3,850. Haxton made the call with the A♠ 7♣, and his ace high with a better kicker took the pot against Blom’s A♥ 4♥.

Analysis

“His line just didn’t make sense to me. I had trouble figuring out what he was trying to represent; as a poker player, you want to make sure that your bets tell a believable story. His didn’t, and I looked him up. My original plan was to call down a couple of streets and see how he responded, and when he checked back on the turn, it let me know that my ace was probably best. His overbet on the river just gave me more confidence in that read.”

Hand No. 4: Haxton’s Rivered Flush Beats Blom’s Rivered Straight

Blom raised to $300 and Haxton called. The flop rolled out 9♦ 7♣ 5♣, and Haxton checked. Blom bet $500 and Haxton raised to $1,750. Blom called, and the A♥ hit the turn. Haxton bet $2,400 and Blom called once again. The river was the 6♣, and Haxton moved all in. Blom called off his last $8,800 with the 9♥ 8♦, a rivered straight. Haxton showed the J♣ 8♣ for a flush, and took the pot.

Analysis

“I’m not ahead of anything on the turn. That being said, I’m not far behind anything, either. The reason why I bet so small on the turn was because I think I’ll get called more with that bet than jammed on. If he had decided to shove, I obviously would have had to call, but I wouldn’t have liked it. I think that’s a mistake that a lot of players make. They see a ton of outs and immediately decide that they have to find a way to get all in. I prefer not to have to come from behind. In this hand, we both ended up hitting good cards and he paid me off, but had a blank come, I could have fired again and perhaps gotten him to lay down a better hand.”

Hand No. 5: Haxton Wins Monster Pot Near End of Session

Haxton raised to $200 from the button and Blom reraised to $1,000. Haxton called, and the flop fell 9♦ 5♥ 3♦. Blom bet $1,500 and Haxton called. The turn was the 2♣, and Blom bet $3,800. Haxton called, and the river was the 2♥. Blom moved all in for his last $15,932 and Haxton called. Blom showed the J♥ 9♣ for top pair, but Haxton’s K♥ 9♥ had him outkicked for the pot.

Analysis

“It was really obvious that he was pressing at this point in the match. There weren’t very many hands left, and he went from three-betting to $800 to making it $900, and then finally making it $1,000. Originally, he was betting 75 percent of the pot, but then he just started betting the full pot or overbetting. I didn’t think he was necessarily going to bluff off his stack, but I did know that he would be willing to value-bet extra thin at that point. On the river when he shoves, I still think I beat enough value-bets to make the call even if he’s not bluffing.” ♠