This is going to be a semi-long post, but stay with me! It is worth it! It was sort of buried back in the day but I'd love to bring it back to life! It shows why it is very important to disclose backing relationships between players in small field high buyin tourneys as the Epic Poker League does.
So Hasan Habib
Hendon Mob here, is quite an accomplished player as seen. He knows what he's doing!
Hell, he even made FT of the epic poker league which another person of questionable ethics, Chino Rheem. He recently tweeted about Tuan Le. Seen Here.
ChinoRheem David Rheem
Haha fashoooo! My win is his win!RT @brokemogul: I would just like to say "Congrats to Tuan Le"
Just reminded me of this old gem, that people that aren't old school poker players know about. I wonder if Tuan was backing Chino or something.
Anyways, on to the good stuff. The FT of the 25k WPT championship was HUGE! back in the day! Season 3 I believe!
3rd place-896k
2nd place- 1.7mill
1st-2.8 mill
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFivxu9rFzw#t=5m38s
Tuan Le shoves 5 big blinds (2million at 200-400k on the button as the shortstack w/ QJo 3handed) Hassan Habib folds KJs. Takes some serious balls to blatantly collude/softplay with cameras recording the hole cards, I give him credit, he's as diehard a scumbag as they come.
Everyone with a brain knows that this is an easy call. (Stacks were 11.3 M, 9.3M, and 2M for Tuan Le) And the only reason why Hasan Habib would fold would be if he was actively colluding against Paul Maxfield!
Some basic old school analysis from OG Paul Phillips.
http://extempore.livejournal.com/91711.html
But wait, no, we have Daniel Negreanu vouching in his
blog!
He Said
"Other notes: Tuan Le and Hasan Habib did not cheat at all. No chance, none at all. They informed everyone involved of their situation, and when the TV show airs you'll see Hasan (the chipleader) calling Tuan's raise with 5-3, and then check raising him on a flop of 8-8-9. We need to put that one to bed because if I know Hasan like I think I do, he would have given up ALL the money for the title. I truly, and genuinely believe that."
This is laughable and the situation was much different there. Hasan Habib would not have given up ALL the money for the title. In fact, he might have actually cost himself a title but blatantly softplaying his piece in a stage of the tourney where 2million dollars are on the line.
Note: Just because they told the table doesn't give them the right to collude. The table should know because they aren't going to be actively ATTACKING eachother by 3betting/4betting huge and **** because of subconcious thinking. However, folding to a 5bb shove with KJs is just blatant and utter collusion. Daniel Negreanu making that statement is absurd, but would expect nothing less from him. He was friends with Hasan and also rumored to have financial ties to the stable before/after.
Anyways, if you look at the videos. The hand before that hassan habib limped the button with 6s. Another odd play, but makes sense if he's trying to bleed the 3rd player of which he has no financial incentive of.
Then if you go to next part of video. They play hand very strangely.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1hvE...eature=related
Tuan le limps, then bet/3bets a 36T flop....given stacks at that point....it was as if Tuan was thinking that Hasan would for sure want to dump to him and that would make sense with ICM....as Hasan had 12million...Tuan 6million..and Maxfield 4million as the graphic showed right before the hand. Tuan was obviously thinking that if Hasan was colluding perfectly....he'd make it 9million, 9million-4million thus maximizing his EV...which is why he 3bet the C/r. To Tuan's disapointment though.....Hasan had 2pair...and couldn't fold, or it would be obvious he was cheating for cameras. (Rough beat, lol make sure you read negreanus blog again and again in your head as you watch the hand play out)
The backed player can take such advantage of the staker in a situation like this if the staker doesn't play in his own best interest, which Hasan clearly wanted to just make the most money, but not obviously collude in front of cameras.
Even then! Hasan just called the turn instead of shoving (with a ridiculous 2million only behind after over 8million in middle. Probably hoping to be counterfeited or scare card so he could dump Tuan the pot.
Hand after that....he moves allin....while Tuan has two tens.....ok? Maybe more hands were played between that though, but could easily be him trying to double Tuan up as he needs it, as he knew Tuan was strong somehow. Who knows though, with such little blinds in turbo hard to prove anything, but KJs is obvious. I think after that Hasan might have realized he was helpless to collude and just lost his mind after losing AJo/maxfields KTo the next hand...
Hand after that Hasan tries to bust maxfield but maxfield doubles up and stacks are Hasan 9.5mill Maxfield-8mill-Tuan 5mill
Hand after that Hasan and Tuan are unlucky to be in another cooler situation, and get it allin A8s vs 77. You can argue that this hand is proof that they weren't cheating, but folding 77 would be so absurd/they didn't wanna make it so obvious...plus stacks were different....I think its just sloppy/not optimal collusion from people that didn't know better. I mean look at how they are talking...its obv soft play.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1hvE...lated#t=13m20s I had no choice man I had no choice
Anyways, after that, Hasan was short....and obv it appears Tuan Le doesn't care about dumping to Habib as he is the backee in the backer, backee relationship...but Habib makes a crazy psyho limp shove over a 2.5x for 14bbs or w/e....and Tuan Le busts him.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1pQK...eature=related
Funny, he knew to call KJo for that much more there, but Habib didn't know to call KJs for half the amount of chips
Anyways, the pair ran bad. If there cards didn't lineup as they did, they could have easily managed to work 1-2 better. Its ridiculous to think everything was on the up and up as Negreanu lied about!
Anyways, it was years ago and nobody really cares now, but just shows you to be careful and its good that the EPL has rules to prevent this sort of thing from happening as its likely to happen as such a small field has many of the backed players and backers.
GOSSIP!
What is Tuan Le and Chino's connection?
Do you think that Tuan and Hassan should have been punished even though they told the table Hasan was backing Tuan?
What was Daniel Negreanu's motive to make him lie to try to help cover up the obvious softplay?
"No Chance, None At All" Haha reminded me of the Girah thread.
We should learn from mistakes of the past and not let anything like this happen again! All tourneys should have rules like EPL and it should become standard.