The first part of the new season of PokerStars The Big Game on Tour is headed toward its inevitable finish. Heading into the last episode, there were only about 50 hands remaining for Andy Taylor, The Loose Cannon, to make things happen, and after the last session, he’ll have only 25 more to try and get lucky.
Despite the previous setback, which saw Andy dust off all of his profits to Shan Deeb in a cooler spot, Taylor came into the last session ready to get back in the battle. It seems that the beat did not shake his confidence too much, and that’s good to see.
The Loose Cannon continued his methodical approach to the game, trying to see some cheap flops and not getting too frisky against the seasoned pros, but also utilizing his image to win an occasional pot that didn’t belong to him. All said and done, he’ll be starting the final session with a healthy profit of almost ten grand.
Andy Off to a Good Start
When you lose an unlucky hand, the best thing that can happen is to pick up a nice pot right after. This may not be important for hardened professionals who have seen and experienced it all, but for someone like Taylor, it could be crucial.
After he lost that pot to Deeb right as the last session wrapped up, he managed to flop a set of treys on the very first hand of the new one and got paid nicely when Poseidon just couldn’t let go of his top pair no kicker.
Right off the bat, Andy was back in black, once again winning around $9,000. We already know that he’s looking for a bigger win, and he won’t be going into the lockdown mode, but to see his stack trending in the right direction provided a much-needed confidence boost.
And if anyone had any doubts about Taylor’s intentions, he’s started to straddle, which means that he’ll be looking for opportunities to play at least one more big pot before his time on The Big Game runs out. It’s exciting to see someone approach the game with this attitude and, when that big pot does come around, it’ll be hard to root against Taylor, regardless of what cards and percentages tell us.
Shaun Deeb Dances With Poseidon
Poseidon Ho took ‘3Coin’s’ seat in the game, and while he spent his first session playing somewhat conservatively, his attitude changed this time around. He was very generous with preflop 3-bets, and Shaun Deeb was often the only one to take him up on the offer.
This strategy wasn’t particularly for Poseidon, who kept bleeding chips while jokingly saying that he went to the bathroom to learn how to 3-bet. After he lost yet another 3-bet pot, Deeb, who wasn’t involved in that particular hand, did not miss an opportunity to get the needle in and tell him he should maybe take another trip to the bathroom.
This didn’t seem to bother Ho too much, though, and neither did the fact that he ended the session stuck about $20k. His biggest concern was if they were allowed to reload at any point, and, when he found out the answer was yes, he reached out to the bank of Jason Koon to add another $50k to his stack.
There is plenty of money on the table heading into the final session, The Loose Cannon has a healthy stack, and there are some interesting dynamics developing. All this means we are headed for an exciting finale of this segment of the PokerStars Big Game on Tour!
