Victor Ramdin
Knows What It Means To Be Down And Out
“Positivity helps your whole game.”
Before he’d actually busted from the EPT Sanremo Main Event, Team PokerStars Pro Victor Ramdin took a few minutes to talk with PokerNews rookie Jennifer Robles about how his day was going and, more importantly, how he plays for and supports a number of charities.
Additionally, over on Pokerlistings Ramdin remembers his start in poker. A late bloomer, Ramdin got serious about the game in his mid-thirties (although, in the article they refer it to his age as “extraordinarily late stage”). Ramdin recalls a time when he was down and out in the game and how it was currently embattled popular poker pro Phil Ivey who came to his aid.
“I had met Phil Ivey but I didn’t really know him. He was already at the top of the world in 2005. When I was most devastated, he walked up to me and said, ‘I saw you play, Victor, and I want to back you’.”
“I was amazed, as I wasn’t really doing well. I asked Phil what I had to do differently and he said ‘nothing’. A couple of months later I won WPT Foxwoods for 1.3 million dollar. You can say that Phil Ivey saved my career.”
While he’ll always have Ivey’s back, it’s another Phil that Ramdin really looks up to.
“My idol is Phil Hellmuth. Hellmuth can get inside your head like nobody else. He can make bad players play worse. He convinces you to do stupid things. And whatever the size of a field is, be it 50 players or a thousand, Hellmuth finds a way to come out on top. I like the styles of other players like Negreanu, too, but the sheer number of bracelets tells you that he is a genius.”
Through it all, the World Poker Tour Champion doesn’t lose sight of what is important to him. Family and charity, both of which he finds himself extremely dedicated to. For more on Victor and his story, check out the entire article over at PokerListings.
Watch: One of the Best Laydowns at PSPC, and Possibly of All Time
Thi Xoa Nguyen makes an incredible fold with a full house at the $25K buy-in PSPC event.
It was during day 2 of the history-in-making $25,000 buy-in PokerStars Players No Limit Hold’em Championship when a Vietnamese lady by the name of Thi Xua Nguyen stunned everybody by making this incredible laydown versus Athanasios Polychronopoulos, a Greek-American professional poker player with two WSOP bracelets.
220 players remained on the field when Nguyen raised from the button with Ad Qc only to get 3-bet to 37,000 by Polychronopoulos from the big blind who held a pair of Aces.
Nguyen made the call and the flop landed Ks 9s Qd. Both the players checked. The Qh on Turn improved Nguyen’s hand to trips. She bets 17,000 after Polychronopoulos checked for a second time. He made the call and the Ace of Spade gave both the players a full house.
Polychronopoulos once again checked on the river with his Aces full. Nguyen bets 50,000 leaving her 153,000 chips behind but finds herself in a check-raise-all-in situation.
This is where things go crazy!!!
After tanking for a while, Nguyen lays down Ad Qc face up—a freaking Full house!!!. Out of respect for her incredible fold, Polychronopoulos flips out Aces and was himself stunned.
Did she misread her hand? No!!! She knew what she was doing. Nguyen put him on Aces or Kings and she was bang on right!!!
The hand was caught during the live stream and obviously, the viewers glued to the stream went berserk including the commentators James Hartigan, Joe Stapleton, and Lex Veldhuis.
Nguyen eventually finished 153rd for $25,450 and Polychronopoulos also made cash but busted against Platinum Pass winner, Jussi Nevanlinna.
What is more crazier is that on day 1 Nguyen won an EPT Monte Carlo package during a random draw table giveaway.
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Do You Think This is Collusion?
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