slowrollin

The most talked about hand in a while now.
I’ve listened to two podcasts where they talk about this hand.

2p2’s podast: They pretty much thought Phil was a douchebag for his actions. They basically thought that as a pro, Phil knew what Ernest had. He knew Ernest had a good hand and that he was just acting for the cameras. They thought there was a 0% chance that Ernest would fold after he raised to $36,000. They felt he should have just paused quickly, and raised enough to put Ernest all in. Furthermore, they thought what Phil was saying was out of line.

Pokerstatic’s podcast: They pretty much disagreed completely with the 2p2 podcast. They are Daniel Negreanu haters, and thought that Daniel and Phil Laak were out of line in attacking Phil. They felt that it was not a “slowroll”. They felt that Phil was just thinking out loud and acted the way he did in order to get the rest of Ernest’s money. They also thought it was rude for Phil Laak and Daniel to cheer after Phil lost 3 out of 4.

First what is a slowroll? Here is an extreme example of a slowroll: when Player A bets after the river, and and Player B calls. Player A shows his hand, a straight. Player B, rolls his eyes (indicating he has a worst hand), then shows his cards, a flush. It’s probably one of the biggest douchebag moves in poker.

Here is my opinion, I don’t think Phil slowrolled Ernest. However, I think his actions were unnecessary and a borderline dick-move. This hand was probably on the 3rd episode of this show. Ernest is a very poor player, just a very passive calling station. Therefore, if he shows any aggression, he always had it. (I like his amateur-ish head movement before he raised to $36,000)
So when he raises to 36k, he is NEVER folding, and I think the whole table knew it. But I think the most important thing is this: only average to good players notice slight slow-rolls. Recreational players do not recognize light-slowrolls. Ernest, was completely oblivious to the situation. If I was Ernest, I would be pretty upset, Phil’s speech wasn’t necessary. Phil said “he may have tens full.” That’s complete bullshit, that shouldn’t even be relevant. If Ernest has pocket tens, then it’s a cooler, a cold deck. And as a pro, Phil should just shrug it off. But anyway, it was pretty crazy for Ernest to win 3 out of 4.