the nuts<\/a> or close to the nuts and was facing a bet from an opponent, he would announce a raise. <\/p>\n\n\n\nThen he’d\nproceed to put in the calling chips, saying he meant to call, justifying the\nconfusion with the now-famous “no speak English” phrase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Obviously, Ivan\nFreitez knew the rules very well, and he knew that his verbal action was\nbinding. Every time, he was forced to make the minimum raise. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The whole point\nof his shenanigans was to throw the opponents off and confuse them into making\na light call.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Freitez\napparently pulled this trick off a few times throughout the tournament and\nThomas Kremser, the tournament director, was getting tired of his spiel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, when he\ntried to pull his angle once again in a hand against Eugene Yanayt, Kremser\ntook a proactive approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was a\nfamiliar setup. After calling on the flop, Freitez improved to two pairs to get\nahead of Yanayt\u2019s top pair. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The turn checked\nthrough, and then the river filled up Freitez, giving him the virtual nuts.\nBelieving his top pair was good, Eugene bet for value and faced Freitez\u2019s \u201cI\nraise \u2013 I meant I call\u201d trick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kremser came to\nthe table to resolve the situation and as expected, he announced that Freitez\u2019s\nraise was binding. But he did something else as well. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kremser told\nYanayt that Freitez was known for doing this with very strong hands, and every\ntime he got called, he turned over the virtual nuts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite the\nadvice, Yanayt ended up making the call as it was just a min-raise, and he was\nsitting with a pretty good hand, especially short-handed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
At this point,\nthe tournament was down to 10 final players, so they were playing at two tables\nof five.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After Freitez\nturned over the full house, most players were disgusted at what they witnessed,\nbut Yanayt wasn’t all that upset. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In an interview\na bit later, he said he was actually pretty content with how the hand played\nout as, given his actual hand, he would have probably had to call a bigger\nraise on the river.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, in this\nparticular instance, the angle-shoot ended up costing Freitez chips, which only\ngoes to show that playing a controversial game is a double-edged sword.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Karma? What Karma?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\nIf poker was a\ncompletely fair game and proverbial poker gods were there to punish cheaters\nand angle shooters, Freitez would\u2019ve probably run into a massive cooler a few\nhands later and bust from the tournament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But that’s not\nreally how things work, and karma is a nice thing to believe in, but it doesn’t\nseem to care too much about affairs between poker players.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ivan Freitez\nwent on to win the tournament, scooping by far the biggest prize of his career.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Image: libertaddigital.com<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nHe pocketed over\n$2.2 million after defeating Torsten Brinkmann in the heads-up skirmish for the\ntitle. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s safe to say\nthat the video of his EPT shenanigans didn\u2019t win him any popularity points, but\nhis bank account was $2 million+ richer, so it\u2019s hard to imagine he was\nparticularly upset about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After all, he\nknew what he was doing all along, and it didn’t bother him one bit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite the\nmassive boost to his bankroll, Freitez didn\u2019t go crazy with buy-ins like some\npoker players tend to do after a big win. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He went back to\nplaying smaller buy-in events, with an occasional larger tournament thrown into\nthe mix.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As for his\nresults after the Monte Carlo tournament, he didn\u2019t have many worth mentioning,\nexcept for the win in the $350 Deep Stack Rock \u2018N\u2019 Roll event in 2015. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite the\nsmall entry, this was a massive field of over 3,000 players, so Freitez ended\nup pocketing $117,366.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ivan Freitez Controversy: How Bad Was It?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\nImage: Jayne Furman\/WSOP<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nThe 2010 EPT\nGrand Final gave Ivan Freitez the reputation of a proper poker villain. The\npoker world was in shock that someone would try to pull off such a move. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
After all, isn’t\npoker a gentleman’s game, and aren’t you supposed to follow the etiquette, even\nif it won’t produce the desired result?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Understandably,\npeople at home who barely ever play or only play with their friends would think\nthis, but this just isn\u2019t the reality. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sure, Ivan\nFreitez was caught pulling an angle on TV and things got messy, but these\nthings happen all the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Is it shocking\nthat he did it in such a big event? That depends on how you look at things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the one hand,\nyou\u2019d expect people to conduct themselves better in a 10K tournament with live\ncoverage. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the other, if\nplayers are willing to pull angles in small daily events where the top prize\nmight be a few thousand, why would it be surprising to see it in a tournament\nwhere millions are on the line?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To make it very\nclear, angle shooting isn’t cool and in the long run it’s probably \u2013EV if you\nwant to be a serious part of the poker community. Rubbing everyone up the wrong\nway will eventually come back to bite you. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
That said, it\nhappens all the time, and since it’s not technically against the rules, it’s up\nto the players to do their best to protect themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tournament\ndirectors can play a role in the process, and what Thomas Kremser did was a\ngreat example of this. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pretty much\neveryone agreed that he handled the situation perfectly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is no lack of controversy in the poker world, and scams and cheating scandals<\/a> happen from time to time. <\/p>\n\n\n\nIn the grand scheme of things, the Ivan Freitez controversy barely scratches the surface. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lead image: Twitter\/CodigoPoker<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Some players become famous for their results, while others reach notoriety for their crazy playing styles that get them involved …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":30935,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Ivan Freitez \u2013 World's Worst Poker Player For Angle Shooting?<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n