A tale of two buddies

A tale of two buddies
by Rolf Slotboom

How often have you heard a poker player say, immediately after winning a big tournament: "I got outplayed. I simply got lucky, because at the final stages of the event I was not the best player." I bet you have not heard this very often, and I had never heard it before. But they were the words of the winner of the 2005 Deauville European Poker Tournament, a young man from Seattle called Brandon Shaefer. And next to him was the person who was supposed to have outplayed him, his very own buddy Carl Olson. Why are they buddies? Well, they just are. They live two blocks away in their home town Seattle, and they had basically talked each other into playing this event - after all, for young Americans who don't play for very high stakes yet, traveling over to Europe to play in a 2,000 Euros buy-in event is not automatically considered a great investment. But in the end, in a tournament that had 245 entrants with certainly no more than 10 or maybe 15% Americans, the final four players were all young guns from the U.S. - all of whom had qualified online! (The eventual winner, Brandon, had used his frequent player points to qualify, and he only knew a week in advance that he would be participating.)

A great read

When I talked to both players a few hours after the event, Brandon explained to me why he thought that he had been outplayed. He said: "Rolf, you know, you were there when he called my big bet on the end with nothing more than a king high / bad kicker. He could only do this because he knew me so well and because he had a great read on me. So, I was nothing more than lucky to eventually win the event."

Despite this great call by Carl, it was in the end Brandon who got rewarded for his combination of aggression, good hand reading skills and a calmness that you don't see very often in young players. The funny thing is that it was his buddy Carl who had asked Brandon to participate, so one could claim that this friendliness of his had now cost him over 60 grand! (First place was 144,000 Euros while second was about 80,000, and they assured that no deal of any kind had been made.) But both players just stood there laughing and smiling, as if this biggest win they had ever experienced had not affected them in any way. When I complimented Brandon on his excellent table behavior, and the way he handled himself whenever he lost a pot, he again did not want to take full credit. He said: "Hmmm, you may be right on the hand you mention when on day three I lost a big pot against Carl in a coin-flip type of situation. We both had good hands, pocket tens against ace-king, so I think we both played it correctly. But once I think that I may have made a mistake and lose a pot because of this mistake, then I can actually be quite grumpy sometimes. What's more, on the hand you mention I lost a pot against my buddy, and even though we play hard against each other it always hurts less when you lose against someone you like."

Eager students

Both Carl and Brandon are always interested in trying to improve their games. They call each other everyday, and especially Brandon is a fairly active participator at a large online discussion group. As is often the case with young players, they play online more often than in brick and mortar cardrooms, and both players' experience in tournaments at 'real' casinos is very limited. While this win will of course have at least some consequences, especially to Brandon, they are probably not going to change much to what they are doing right now. They will not start jumping into big games suddenly, or start traveling the circuit, even though Brandon - who will move to San Diego soon where he can combine his study with a little poker - will go to the World Series this year. Also, the fact that they have made such an excellent showing in not just a regular, but in both a prestigious and televised event (broadcast on Eurosport: March 25th) may mean that they will get a whole lot of recognition, and have their face known all around Europe.

A Night To Remember

Because Brandon's trophy was so heavy that he couldn't easily carry it, he asked if my girlfriend and I could take our car and drop him off at the hotel. (We were all staying in the same hotel, and we had seen them every morning at breakfast - and yes, they were always talking poker.) Sitting in our car, we watched him walk into the lobby: a friendly young man who was carrying a massive trophy, and who just had won a massive amount of money. Both he and Carl had left all the experienced European tournament pros shaking their heads, wondering how these two young lads had done it. Congratulations to two young and friendly Americans who had been able to beat a full field of professionals, two poker buddies who may well have a bright future ahead of them.