Isaac Haxton
(Pokerstars pro)
(twitter: @ikepoker)
27, has an undergraduate degree in philosophy
Plays husngs, cash and mtts
Learned play chess in 4 years old
Questions
1) Why poker?
I've always liked games. I don't particularly like having a boss or having to show up to a job every day.
2) When did you start playing and when became pro?
I started playing my senior year of high school (2003) and was playing mid stakes lhe online pretty seriously by the end of 2004.
3) What is your other activities besides poker?
I like to travel and I'm very into food. I play other games, in particular Magic.
4) Tell me more about Magic?
Magic is a strategy game played with cards that combines a lot of the best elements of both poker and chess. It was created in the early 90s and has been growing pretty steadily ever since. There's a pretty large international competitive scene that supports 100 or so professional players. The company that makes the game releases new sets of cards several times a year so the game is constantly evolving.
A lot of poker players actually got started in Magic. Some of the better known ones include fellow Stars pros David Williams, Dario Minieri, and Jose Barbero, Justin Bonomo, Brock Parker, Eric Froehlich.
5) So you are playing it for cash? :-)
The world championship tournament has a prizepool of like a quarter million dollars, first is like 50k or so, and there are a few other comparably big tournaments a year and a bunch of smaller ones. No one is getting rich playing Magic, maybe 100 people support themselves at it, including by making money, writing articles and creating strategy videos and stuff.
When I was 15 I won a couple junior tournaments that paid $1000 in college scholarship money to the winner, that's my biggest accomplishment as a magic player.
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(This is the list of languages they're currently printing cards in: English, French, Italian, Chinese Simplified, Portuguese, German, Spanish, Russian, Korean and Japanese - if you want it in your country raise your hands now!:)
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2 HANDS against Dan Colman
(Isaac Haxton said: "two big hands from the very end of my session against mrgr33n the other day. I went 6-0 in our first 6 games for only 5k, then we added 5k sidebets and played another 12 - and it went 6-6.")
No Limit Holdem Tournament • 2 Players • PokerStars
$4937+$63
Hand converted by the official HUSNG.com hand converter
SB | Hero | 1538 | |
BB | mrGR33N13 | 1462 |
Effective Stacks: 29bb
Blinds 25/50
Pre-Flop (75, 2 players)
Hero is SB
Hero raises to 100, mrGR33N13 raises to 250, Hero calls 150
Flop (500, 2 players)
mrGR33N13 checks, Hero checks
Turn (500, 2 players)
mrGR33N13 bets 275, Hero calls 275
River (1050, 2 players)
mrGR33N13 checks, Hero goes all-in 1013, mrGR33N13 goes all-in 937
Final Pot: 2924
Hero shows high card Queen
mrGR33N13 shows a pair of Nines
mrGR33N13 wins 2924 ( won +1462 )
Hero lost -1462
No Limit Holdem Tournament • 2 Players • PokerStars
$4937+$63
Hand converted by the official HUSNG.com hand converter
SB | mrGR33N13 | 1224 | |
BB | Hero | 1776 |
Effective Stacks: 41bb
Blinds 15/30
Pre-Flop (45, 2 players)
Hero is BB
mrGR33N13 raises to 60, Hero raises to 165, mrGR33N13 calls 105
Flop (330, 2 players)
Hero checks, mrGR33N13 checks
Turn (330, 2 players)
Hero bets 280, mrGR33N13 calls 280
River (890, 2 players)
Hero goes all-in 1331, mrGR33N13 goes all-in 779
Final Pot: 2448
mrGR33N13 shows a pair of Eights
Hero shows two pair, Eights and Deuces
Hero wins 3000 ( won +1224 )
mrGR33N13 lost -1224
Can someone please explain why Isaac Haxton shoves the river in the J2 hand?
"If you want to win, you must not lose!"
Probably because he knows from past history that mrgreen is going to.call w k high... ;)
He has the best hand here most of the time and is shoving for value. His perceived range does consist of many blufs and hardly any made hand (probably only 2x and 4x) and thats probably why greeny calls down with his K high, thinking it is good enough of the time.
Animals. I am amused that Greeny needs the 5k side bet to incentivise him to play his A game.