A few days after the conclusion of PokerStars’ first Superstar Showdown, both Isaac Haxton and Isildur1 offered up their thoughts on the match, and much like their style of poker their responses were basically night and day.

The match took place this past Sunday as the two Team PokerStars Pros battled across four $50/$100 No limit Holdem tables, with thousands of railbirds turning up to watch the mach.

Haxton, who won $41,000 during the 2,500 challenge match, had nothing but kind words for his adversary, telling the PokerStars blog:

“No one has ever more consistently made me miserable when playing against them,” Haxton said.

“I guess I’d put (Phil) Ivey in second for that, but it’s honestly not that close. Isildur’s brand of over the top–but carefully balanced–aggression is unlike anything I’ve played against and really takes me out of my comfort zone in a lot of situations… As someone who’s probably played half a million hands of high stakes HUNL, that’s saying something.”

“I’m not saying he’s definitely the best I’ve ever played, and I’m not saying he definitely isn’t, but, damn, is he a pain to play against,”

Meanwhile Isildur1 had very few positive things to say about Haxton’s game, basically calling him a passive nit, who luck-boxed his way to a win. The PokerStars blog quotes Isildur1 as saying:

“I want to play this guy again, because I didn’t feel he was so good… I dont think he deserved to win.”

“(Haxton) is too passive and a weak player. He did get lucky… He never had the guts to play me higher limits before either.”

Very strong words from a man who got beat to the tune of over four buy-ins over the course of the 2,500 hand session!

Haxton went into the match with a strategy in mind –which included min-raising his button-and executed it to perfection; meanwhile Isildur1 was seemingly on tilt by the end of the match and playing maniacally to get back to even.

As talented and innovative as Isildur1 appears to be, he still seems to be plagued by the same issues that caused him to lose so much at Full Tilt Poker last year; a propensity to tilt, feeling his opponents must “get lucky” to beat him, and relying on his talent instead of putting in the hard work and studying his opponents –which can be seen in the fact that he was unaware of Haxton’s style.

Related Posts

Isildur1 Drops $45k in PokerStars Superstar Showdown – December 21, 2010
It’s Official – Isildur1 is the Newest Member of Team PokerStars – December 7, 2010
The BestPokerSites.org Weekly Roundup – 12/17/10 – December 17, 2010

Written by Steve Ruddock on December 23rd, 2010