My critical showdown with Brad Berman

Ahhhh, what to do now?  The Fall Poker Classic concluded Friday as Brad Berman won yet another Main Event title and $74K, pretty awesome!

I like to tell the story that I had something to do with Brad winning as he and I got involved in a crucial confrontation with roughly 45 players remaining.

The blinds were 1,500-$3,000, Berman was in the 5 seat, I was in the 8 seat.  Berman had $27,000 remaining, I had $35,000 and was in the BB.

I had played with Brad for about an hour, his strategy was clearly to pick up blinds and pick off obvious steals of his blinds.  Other than that, he definitely did not get involved often without a big hand.

I knew before the hand that if it folded to him he would push with anything as this was his style.  And if he did, my call range was wide.  Before looking at my cards, my call range in my head was pretty much any A, KJ, any pair, etc.  This would be a critical hand for both of us as if one could double up, he would have plenty of chips to work with and the loser would be out or crippled.

The action folded to him, as anticipated he pushed all in with Q-10 offsuit.  Certainly the right play, he was 9X the BB and needed to make a move, with blinds and antes there was $6,200 in the pot already.

In the BB I looked down at A-10 suited which was well within my range here and called.  Unfortunately on this day Berman hit a 4-card flush to his Qh and I was crippled, he was back in action.  That’s poker, we both played how we should have in that situation.

He used those chips wisely and fought his way to the final table before eventually hitting a nice rush for a massive stack.  It was clear he was comfortable and experienced at crunch time.  He played well, it was obvious the other players knew of his presence and accomplishments and that earned him much respect.

He played a tight-aggressive style, he didn’t play a lot of hands but when he picked up one he liked, he would put pressure on you by slinging his whole stack.

Congrats to Berman for an amazing feat, 2 Fall Poker Classic Main Event titles!  That’s unbelievable!