A Sigh and A Shrug: Busquet's Thin Value Bet Fails vs. Viffer

Olivier Busquet has exactly the right look for TV poker, as I’ve overheard him being told. He looks different to a lot of poker players. For a start, he looks like he runs well without picking up cards. When I met him a few years ago, he’d arrived at the poker table having run 10k that morning. His physique, his smile, his floppy hair…well, he can annoy some less hirsute poker players before he’s even sat down.

OPPOSITES ATTRACT… ACTION!

It would be fair to say that David ‘Viffer’ Peat isn’t one of them. Viffer is the opposite to Busquet in many ways. He’s in shape, but it’s a rounder shape. He has a winning smile, but it’s an ironic one. What he does have that Busquet doesn’t, however, is that ability to entertain us as the happy underdog.

Watch the full episode featuring this hand on PokerGO right now.

DRAWING THE VALUE

Viffer is an expert at knowing when to stay on board in hands, even as far as running it twice as we saw in last week’s showdown with Eli Elezra, but Busquet makes a lot of the right plays here too. Both men talk so well about the hand in the exclusive Poker After Dark Director’s Cut content that you can see what makes both of them great. Busquet’s river bet isn’t awful, but Viffer’s call when he knows he’s instigated the right value and to raise might only draw a call from a better hand, is brilliant.

WHAT’S IN A NAME?

Busquet, frustratingly known as ‘Liv B’ when clearly that nickname could be appropriated by another well-known player, Romania’s Olivian Balint, lost this hand but clearly won at life. Viffer? Well, he just seems to win whether he has the best hand or not, doesn’t he?

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