ShareBill Perkins has spoken about how he thinks Landon Tice’s withdrawal from their match was smart. The hedge fund manager pulled off a massive upset when he performed above expectations, forcing Tice and his team to quickly reassess whether or not to continue.
Better than Expected
There’s no doubt that Bill Perkins has the tools to compete at the highest levels, it’s just down to how much commitment he’s prepared to dedicate to the endeavour. When Landon Tice bravely agreed to offer him 9bb/100 odds for a match the opportunity was too good to turn down. It was also an opportunity that Perkins wasn’t going to waste: he was going to commit fully to this challenge.After 4,907 hands out of a scheduled 20,000, Perkins was down $63,270 but this was nowhere near enough for Tice to win the challenge if everything continued at that rate.
Tice tweeted: “As a team we decided to surrender. We see no other way to proceed. He’s a much stronger player than expected and I took on more than I could handle.”
Perkins said how there were many spots found upon review to be unbalanced from the young challenger. He added that against an opponent learning and applying GTO principles it was always going to be a tough task to beat 9bb/100.
The Best Preparation
We have to give massive credit to Perkins’ negotiating skills here. He actually tried to get Doug Polk to take on the same deal without success, and then unbeknownst to Landon Tice he walked straight into Perkins’ same trap.Perkins employed Matt Boyd and MJ Gonzales as his team, the same players who assisted Daniel Negreanu in the High Stakes Feud, and gave them the credit for his performance. The pair relentlessly drilled Perkins in spots where they assessed he was weak, and removed as many weaknesses from his game as possible in the build up preparation.
There was also some sympathy towards young Tice who now faced the full wrath of the poker community on social media. Many criticised him for his blasé handling of the negotiations, biting off a lot more than he could chew, and, of course, playing mostly with other people’s money.
We look forward to seeing Perkins up against Doug Polk with a 3bb/100 leg up if he finally agrees to those terms. Polk has made it clear that that’s the best he’s going to offer as he doesn’t really want to play.
