Thunder Keller

[phixxx]

Has anyone read his articles on cardplayer and thought, wow, I really doubt he had that kind of read on that hand? It seems in every one of his articles his 'reads' are exactly what the opponent has? Every time? He'll say something like "I had him read for AQ since he raised in MP". Sure enough, at the end of the hand the opponent has AQ.

Do you think any of these articles are debatable?

I haven't seen him play more than twice, so maybe I'm out of line saying something like this. Is he very very good? :O

[Killer Mike]

I've definitely questioned the reads he claims to have in his articles. Like this on time, he was writing about a hand when he was in the SB with AQ and the giant mole on his forehead was in the BB with AK and he ended up mucking the hand. How could he have known? [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

Seriously though, from the information he mentions in the articles, I doubt that he could get reads like that. I guess he could have a lot more visual cues at his disposal that he doesn't mention in his writing, but who knows.

[wjmooner]

Most of the hands that the pros talk about are those that are interesting to them precisely because their read is either wildly off, or more likely dead on.

Pros try to put people on a range of hands and go from there. When dealing with reraises they frequently narrow it down to one or two hands and go from there. For instance, Dan Negreanu talks about a hand during the tourney at the Plaza where he put Annie Duke on A8 or A9, which is a pretty specific read, and more difficult than a read of AK.

Regarding Keller, he plays great and writes very well also. I trust his writing to be an accurate description of his thought process.

WJ

[ToledoTommy]

I've just assumed and taken it with a grain of salt that most pros exaggerate their tells and reads to make themselves look better than they are and to give themselves an edge.

[Beavis68]

I am sure there is a bit of selective memory.

[banditbdl]

I haven't seriously questioned his honesty regarding his reads, but some of his writing does make me shake my head. Specifically, an issue or two ago he was talking about some tournament (Aruba maybe?) where he was able to "win a bunch of small pots, and use my skill advantage against a bunch of players who have never been in a big tournament like this before" to accumulate a bunch of chips early on. Then he goes over the tournament, and he ends up getting all his chips with AK against QQ all-in preflop, and what I believe were AA all-in preflop once or twice as well.

[UMTerp]

I just reread that article today - the AK vs. QQ hand was only for half his chips, and was when he had a large stack in relation to the field, which is quite a bit different than "getting all his chips with AK against QQ all-in preflop". And I believe he had the QQ, not that it matters a whole lot. And he did bust with QQ vs. AA, but there were less than 100 players left, he was fairly short at the time, and he was up against the largest stack at his table, who would be more apt to take chances. Neither the worst play in the world as far as I'm concerned.

[woodguy]

On my first table in the 2004 WSOP (table 71 I think), I was in the 1 seat, Keller was in the 2 seat and John Murphy was in the 4 seat. (didn't know who John Murhy was at the time, great guy though)
The Keith Richards looking guy with big headband who was in the ESPN telecast in 2003 and some WPT promos was in seat 6 and seat 7 was a gentleman who made the final two tables in 2002, but I forget his name.
Nice table eh?

Keller tried running over the table, there was alot talent playing behind him so he didn't do too well. He did manage to take Murphy for about 1/2 of his chips and Murphy was on the ropes for a while, but obviouisly Murphy dug his way out with a few tough calls for all his chips vs. other players (including breaking the 2002 last two table guy)

The only times I saw Keller show down hands, they were pretty poor (in terms of starting selection) and by the time our talbe broke he had less than 1/2 his starting chips, I do not know if he survied the 1st day. Mind you this is when stacks where quite deep, so playing trash wasn't that uncommon.

If Keller did survive day 1 then I know that at least 7 guys (including myself) from that table made it to day 2. (table started with 11 players, it was not roomy)

Keller did bust the Keith Richards guy after "Keith" didn't see Keller raise and announced "raise" while only matching Keller's bet. The floor decided that "Keith" had to raise Keller's bet, so "Keith" became potstuck and had to bet the rest of his stack on the turn and busted to a small set that Keller had.

All in all, he didn't do anything that made me oohh and aaww, but that bloody table was tough and nobody had too many of anyone else's chips when it broke.

Regards,
Woodguy

[zaxx19]

HE is good. He is damn good. IVE watched him play online and he only plays ultra high limit and the 25-50 nlh game on UB which is crazy hard...ever heard of spiritrock??

[daryn]

yeah i've heard of spirit rock. what does that have to do w/ keller?