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A $500,000 Challenge Match Against Mimi Tran - Two challenge matches are in the books

by Daniel Negreanu |  Published: Jun 28, 2005

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As many people may know by now, I recently decided to make an open challenge available to anybody in the world. The rules are simple: You pick the game (from a list of nine) and the amount for which you want to play, from a minimum of $100,000 to a maximum of $500,000.
You can choose from the following games:
Hold'em
Omaha eight-or-better
Stud eight-or-better
Stud
Ace-to-Five triple draw
Deuce-to-seven triple draw
Pot-limit Omaha
Pot-limit hold'em
No-limit hold'em

I have only a few stipulations:
1. If I lose a match in stud to Phil Ivey, for example, I'm not obligated to accept additional challenges from Phil in stud. He can choose to play another game, though.
2. I'm not obligated to play for more than 12 hours during any session. If the match isn't over in that time frame, we simply continue it at a later date that works for both of us.
3. All of the matches will take place at Wynn Las Vegas.

After making the challenge public in the forum on my website, www.fullcontactpoker.com, I received several challenges and lots more potential interest down the road. So far, I've played two matches. The first was against David Oppenheim in limit hold'em for $200,000. David is one of the best limit hold'em players in the world, and when I made my challenge public, I was fully aware that I would have to face specialists.

Going into the match, my limit hold'em game was a little rusty, not having played it much recently, which didn't bode well for me, going up against one of the best. A combination of rust, bad luck, and getting outplayed resulted in my losing the match with David in about five hours.

My next match would be for $500,000, playing $4,000-$8,000, and once again it would be against a limit hold'em specialist, Mimi Tran. Mimi is an excellent limit hold'em player and does quite well in Los Angeles, playing in arguably the toughest limit hold'em games in the world.

Mimi and I were scheduled to play at Wynn Las Vegas at 7 p.m., and she was right on time. I jumped out to an early lead and for the first eight and a half hours of our match, I was never down a chip. Then, Mimi hit a nice rush and took the lead, getting me down about $90,000. Then in about a 30-minute span, I went on the rush of a lifetime, winning about $350,000 straight. There was one key hand from that rush that I'd like to share with you:

Mimi raised from the button, which she had been doing about 70 percent of the time, and I called with 6-4 offsuit. The flop came 10 9 4, giving me bottom pair, but a pair, nonetheless. I checked to Mimi because in this situation, she would bet the flop more than 99 percent of the time. In fact, during the entire session, I can remember only one hand in which she raised before the flop and then checked on the flop.

So, Mimi bet and I decided to take control of the hand by check-raising. Now, here is where things started to get interesting. Mimi reraised, which, based on her play of previous hands during the match, led me to believe that she had a draw. Oftentimes when she flopped a strong hand, she would just call, looking to raise me on the turn.

I just called the raise and the turn card was the 10. My read was that she was still drawing, but I was slightly worried about getting outplayed if I bet the turn, so I decided to check. She bet again, and it was decision time for me. If I called this bet, I'd probably have to call another bet on the river, unless something like the J rolled off. My gut told me that she was trying to push through the hand, though, and that my small pair might be good. Rather than just call here on the turn, I decided to get aggressive and represent the three tens.

If she called the raise, I'd have to give up on the river, hoping that the fours were good. She called the check-raise, and I was thinking, "No club and no paint!" Well, the river brought a new dilemma for me, as it paired the 9, giving me … 6 high!

Yikes. It was now time for a new plan. Since I felt like Mimi might have a hand like Q-J or K-J, I thought it was worth one last bet to steal this pot that now had $72,000 in real money in it. I fired out one last desperate bet, and she contemplated for a moment but finally folded. Phew! What a relief.

What I find interesting about the hand is that it was out of the norm for me. I don't normally play hands that way, but it just "felt" right at the time. When I made the check-raise on the turn, I really didn't put that much thought into it; I just reacted. That reaction was based on what my subconscious had already seen throughout the match.

When you're playing heads-up limit hold'em, it's extremely important to mix up your game, and that's where "feel" comes in. It's often talked about, but I'm not so sure that anyone has ever really explained exactly what feel is.

The great limit hold'em players have great timing and know what they can get away with. For example, if you use a play too often, it becomes less effective, since your opponent will be looking for it. Walking that fine line of being aggressive and thinking outside the box while at the same time not going overboard with it is the epitome of feel. It's just knowing when a play might work based on what you've sold your opponent previously.

I didn't show Mimi a bluff the entire match. I also never check-raised the turn and bluffed on the river at any other time during the entire match. I did it exactly once, which netted me a $72,000 pot.

This was just one hand, of course. Throughout the match I was extremely lucky, and ended up beating Mimi in about 10 and a half hours. If I hadn't "warmed up" against David, I'm not so sure that I would have been able to beat Mimi. In my opinion, there is no game that requires more feel and practice than limit hold'em. If you're not playing enough of it and are facing someone who is, you are generally going to be a big underdog. You know what they say, practice makes perfect.

You can read Daniel's daily blog at his website, www.fullcontactpoker.com.
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