One year ago, Steven “PiKappRaider” Burkholder was just a regular college kid struggling to get by on tight funds.
The University of Florida student has come a long way since then, helped greatly by two enormous scores on the virtual poker felt in September of 2008. He earned $135,903 for a victory in the $750,000 Guarantee on Full Tilt Sept. 8, and followed it up with a win in PokerStars’ WCOOP Event #29 ($530 plus rebuys six-handed No Limit) for $211,133 less than two weeks later.
Since then, Burkholder has vaulted up to #30 in the Pocketfives.com worldwide rankings (as of October 20, 2008.)
Burkholder took some time with Poker News Daily to go over a hand he played with Adam “Roothlus” Levy during his WCOOP victory. Levy is a well-respected online player (also ranked on PocketFives) who recently made a deep run in the 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event. With 12 players remaining in the tournament, their table also featured online stars Greg “DuckU” Hobson and Thayer “Thay3r” Rasmussen.
Hand Setup:
Seat 1: 669,298 chips
Seat 2: 1,339,427 chips
Seat 3: 1,197,302 chips
Seat 4: 1,884,521 chips
Seat 5 (PiKappRaider): 2,268,902 chips
Seat 6 (Roothlus): 854,414 chips
Blinds are 8,000/16,000 with a 1,600 ante
PokerNewsDaily: First, can you go into your history playing with Adam “Roothlus” Levy? What are your thoughts on his game?
Steven Burkholder: Roothlus and I honestly haven’t played a whole lot together. However, I did know he was a solid player, and spoke with about 4-5 friends during the tournament who also agreed he was a solid thinking player. Mostly I just remember reading some hand histories that Roothlus had asked about online at pocketfives.com.
PND: What is your image at this stage of the tournament?
SB: It’s pretty funny because I think my overall image was weak-tight, which I consider the worst style of play (laughs.) However, it’s six-handed and we were really deep the entire tournament, so I know I was opening a lot and playing pretty aggressive.
PND: How does your game vary between a nine-handed and six-handed table?
SB: One of the biggest differences six-handed vs. nine-handed is playing from position and with aggression. Play has to adjust when under-the-gun-plus-one is also mid-position. Nine-handed requires a lot more patience and timed aggression. I like playing six-handed more because I feel like I can play a more aggressive style while still getting players to make a lot of mistakes.
As far as this point of the tournament though, I remember I was definitely trying to play very aggressive and put others to the test this late with this much on the line, especially being the table chip leader. I’m almost positive a few of the players at the table considered me nuts. A while before this I had gone from 850K to 350K on the biggest tilt session of my life… then from 350K to over 1.5 million pretty quick.
Cards are dealt:
Player 1 folds
Player 2 folds
Player 3 folds
Player 4 folds
PiKappRaider raises to 48,000 with Kd Kh
Roothlus calls
PND: Action folds around to you in the small blind and you put in a standard raise with pocket kings. With stacks so deep, how often do you expect Roothlus to defend his big blind and with what range of cards?
SB: This actually isn’t a standard raise at all. My aggression was really turned up and I was pumping a lot of pots preflop. It may have even been a tell because most of the times I was throwing in off number bets, and a few times — mostly blind vs. blind encounters — I would throw in the 3-to-4x (raise).
I expect Roothlus to be defending quite often here, which actually induced my 3x bet — I swear 3x is huge for me. Blind levels being so long, us being deep, and him being in position against me with my loose image… he’s coming in here a lot.
FLOP: Qs 5c 9d
PiKappRaider bets 68,000
Roothlus calls
PND: Queen-high rainbow flop and you lead out for 2/3 the pot. This is a pretty dry board but he makes the call. What is your though process at this point and how do you plan to proceed on the turn?
SB: I have kings! I’m ecstatic right now! I think I’m way ahead of his range, but intend on firing strong on almost any turn. Hands in his range here include a few straight draws, but I’m mostly thinking it’s a strong Q or 9.
Turn: 3d
PiKappRaider bets 160,000
Roothlus calls
PND: You throw out another sizeable bet when a seemingly harmless 3d falls. Roothlus again makes the call. How confident are you that your hand is still best?
SB: I should have thought about this question a little more in depth before I made the bet. During the hand I 100% thought I was really good here, but his call is confusing. I make this sizeable bet and want the call or even a raise, but I needed to gather an accurate range first.
PND: What can he be holding?
SB: Set is definitely possible, but no one ever thinks set. I really didn’t think he would be putting in this much of his stack on a weak draw either, so my only really conclusion was a strong Q.
RIVER: Td
PND: Does this river card freeze you at all?
SB: At this point I’m putting him in regardless. Ace of diamonds on the river and I may just punk out (laughs)… but the way I bet I think I have to put him all in here. Like I said, I didn’t think he would put this many chips at risk on a draw, and me barreling this at every street makes assigning him a backdoor flush draw… a little difficult.
My bet on the turn I think is a really difficult spot. I think after I make that bet I’m committed to the hand. If I was hoping for him to shove on me, I should have bet less to try to induce this. Or does it just give him better odds on the turn? But maybe then I can check/fold or check/call a different amount? I also could have bet a lot more, say 220K to make him drawing at his hand even worse. But maybe then I lose value from weak hands like 4d 5d that will be calling me.
RIVER: Td
PiKappRaider: bets 624,000
Roothlus calls and is all-in
Hands Revealed:
BOARD: Qs 5c 9d 3d Td
PiKappRaider shows Kd Kh (a pair of Kings)
Roothlus shows 5d 4d (Ten-high flush)
PND: You weren’t pleased when he showed his backdoor flush and he takes more than 1/3 of your stack. How are you able to keep your composure after a significant beat like this, especially in such a critical point of a major tournament?
SB: To be honest, I didn’t keep my composure. I berated him for a while as I vented. I didn’t analyze the hand right away and thought it was a lot more awful than it was. I still think he put way too many chips at risk without the expectation of doubling, but it worked out for him. For what it’s worth, I later apologized after realizing I sounded like a 2-year-old, and he was really cool about it. Actually met him at Aruba and he’s a real nice guy. I also saw him get berated by (Phil) Hellmuth (on ESPN) and felt like an even bigger tool after seeing that jackass do it.
It got me fired up, but I didn’t tilt off after this one. That example earlier where I went from 850K to 350K still stuck on my mind, and my friends were there to try and cool me down. I also won a few big pots after this, and I think a couple more off Roothlus. This hand might have contributed to the QQ vs. JJ hand I knocked him out on, but it was probably a cooler.
PND: By the end of the night you had picked up your first WCOOP bracelet and
your biggest cash to date. How was that feeling and has it completely sunk in yet?
SB: It’s pretty unbelievable. I had won the 750K on Full Tilt the last time I played, which was like two weeks before this event. I was a broke college kid a year ago and now I’ve had a lot of success. I still don’t think it has really sunk in yet though. I satellited into so many majors before, just dreaming of that big score. I really hope that this is just the beginning though. Steven Burkholder in WSOP ’09?
