Sands Turn to Gold: Roberts Takes A.C.

By Owen Laukkanen Dec 17, 2008 | 11 months ago

Brent Roberts after his thrilling victory at the 2008 Harrah's Atlantic City WSOPC Main Event.

On Tuesday night in Atlantic City, Brent Roberts won the World Series of Poker Circuit event at Harrah's Resort to claim $280,940 in prize money, as well as the glory of an exclusive PokerListings.com interview.

The kid from Staten Island entered the final table as chip leader, and little more than five hours later was beating Phillip Read in heads-up play to emerge the cream of a crop of 179 entrants, taking down his first WSOPC title in impressive fashion.

We talked to the youngster moments after his thrilling victory.

First WSOPC title; how are you feeling?

I'm feeling good. I'll probably feel much better tomorrow when I've gotten some sleep, but it was a fun tournament. Mostly everything went my way; a couple big pots didn't, but it was ... an adventure? That sounds very cliché.

I'm going to go eat some good food, take my friends out. They came to support me and got drunk on the rail, so that was pretty cool. And yeah, I'm happy with how everything went, obviously.

It was a really good tournament to play. Just the value of me playing here was very high. I'm not sure if the Bellagio $15k would have been tough or not, but this is a pretty soft tournament. No one ever really put pressure on me. It's pretty ridiculous, but that's how it goes. People here just don't know how to play that well.

Can you talk about how the final table played out?

Yeah. I started off as chip leader and kept raising a lot. I think I was raising probably 2.4x the big blind and got reraised only a couple times. People just kept folding. No one really took flops, so that went pretty well.

Ya big bully!

I lost a couple all-ins, tens versus nines and A-7 versus 3-7. That one wasn't huge, but it was demoralizing. It would have given me over half the chips in play with like three left. That hand was annoying.

You played a very aggro game, as you mentioned. Do you prefer to play as the big stack and bully people around like that?

Yeah. I mean, it's not too often that I'll come to the final table as the big stack, just because I usually play online and people are that much better, so you can't bully people around as much as you can in these live tournaments.

People just don't know how to play 20 BB stacks as well. It's easy to pick up their blinds.

When you got down to three-handed Kyle Bowker was chip leader, but he seemed to collapse pretty quickly.

I played a pretty big pot with him. I raised his blind with 9-7o and he defended his big blind. The flop came K-5-2 rainbow - a very dry board. I'm going to continuation bet most of my range. I might check behind mid pairs, just for pot control. He check-calls and I have seven-nine, so I have nothing.

The turn was a seven. He checks. I decide to check and I was going to bet the river, probably, if he checks, because he never has a king there. So he checks, I check, and the river is a nine, giving me middle two pair.

Waffle crushin' from the sidelines!

He checks. I bet about two-thirds pot and he calls, I think with sixes. I don't know if I saw his hand. The pot was pretty large at that time.

And then after that he got four-bet all-in with Phil and then after that he got all-in drawing dead, so yeah, I guess he collapsed. But he was playing smart. He was one of the better players at the final table.

And so was Phil. When we got five-handed the stronger players at the table were the ones that were left.

What happened in the final hand?

He raised to $90,000 at $15k/$30k and I think we were both about 40-50 big blinds deep. I think he had about $1.35 million. I made kind of a loose call with eight-nine off, but connected cards are good value still and I felt like he was going to play passively enough that I could win the pot. Whatever.

A few hands prior to that one I'd actually check-raised air in a limped pot. He called and I turned the flush draw and it went check-check, and then I bet the river when I hit the flush and he paid me off.

So this hand, it came K-9-8 rainbow. I check. He bet $120k into about $190k. I have the nuts, right? I'm going to get paid if he ever has a king; he's never folding.

It turned out he actually had a gut-shot (Q-Jo). I check-raised to $340k and he shoved for $1.2 million or so. I snapped and he was drawing to four outs.

Easy there, big fella!

Were you surprised to see him turn up the gut-shot?

No. I thought he was going to not play scared at this point, just because he knew I was playing ridiculously aggressive. I had a terrible image, which works for you when you flop hands. You're going to get paid.

You had Shaun Deeb and a few other guys on the rail. Who were those guys?

Just boys from home, from Staten Island. A couple others are good friends, too. I actually stake a few of them. Two of them have been here for the past six days and the other two just drove down for this tournament to rail, which was good.

Does it give you a boost having your friends on the rail?

Nah, it doesn't make a difference. It's nice to have support, but it's not going to change the way I play.

Where does this rank among your poker accomplishments?

It's the biggest tournament I've won. Biggest buy-in I've won and the biggest payout. Even though the field was kind of small - only 179 - it's definitely the biggest win. I've had a couple other big scores but this is the biggest.

Overrated? (Hellmuth, not the cake).

Finally, you said in your final-table bio that you learned poker reading Phil Hellmuth's Play Poker Like The Pros. That was a joke, right?

Yeah, just a joke. I actually play with him a decent amount online on Ultimate Bet and he's so bad. [Laughs.] It's fun to play with him and then he berates you when you bad-beat him or if he plays the hand horribly and loses. It's fun playing with him.

The games always fill. They fill right around him. It's not like Phil Ivey on Full Tilt; the games don't form around him because obviously he's a winner.

Hellmuth blew up at Bellagio today too, I believe. Anyways, thanks for this and congrats.

Thank you.

 

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Roberts' analyses may not always be the most politically correct, but dude backs up his brash side by walking a pretty smooth walk. With over $750,000 in total live tournament cashes and brass balls besides, he's got the resume and the ego to match wits with the Poker Brat both on the table and off for as long as Hellmuth can stand it.