The Online Railbird Report: A Close Look at the WSOP Heads-Up Finalists

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Jun 09, 2016 7 min read Last updated Sep 01, 2016

The $10,000 Heads Up events at the World Series of Poker is one of the most fun tournaments to keep an eye on. It's usually the elite poker pros and rich amateurs signing up for this tournament, which makes for spectacular games and interesting match ups. There are only 4 players left as we speak, who'll battle it out tomorrow for the coveted gold bracelet.

In todays WSOP recap you've already been able to read all about the tournament, but in todays The Online Railbird Report we take a closer look at the 4 remaining players. Here's how they're matched up tomorrow:

Olivier Busquet

Olivier Busquet is the most well known player of the final four, with an extensive resume in the poker world. The 34-year old Busquet, living in New York City, beat Darren Elias, Ivan Luca, Chance Kornuth, Jared Jaffee and Orlando Romero to make it to the top 4.

According to his HendonMob profile, Busquet had $6,876,931 in live tournament earnings prior to signing up for this tournament. He's 79th on the Global Poker Index. His PocketFives profile mentions $581,884 in online tournament earnings, though it doesn't show how much he spend in buy-ins of course.

Busquet made a name for himself in the poker world because of his years long hegemony in the world of (heads-up) Sit & Go's. Playing under the monicker of Adonis112 and livb112, Busquet ruled. According to his SharkScope he won $2,155,497 under his nickname Adonis112.

^{Besides with his poker prowess, Olivier Busquet made headlines fighting (and beating) JC Alvarado in an MMA match last April.}

Alex Luneau

The 28-year old French pro Alex Luneau, currently living in London, is well known to online railbirds following the highest stakes. For a long time he was playing the highest stakes available under his own name on Full Tilt Poker when the site sponsored him. HighStakesDB.com shows him being up $1,209,250 under his own name. His other Full Tilt Poker account (Alexonmoon) and PokerStars account (BiatchPeople) are opted out.

Hij beat Kevin Rabichow, David Farber, Bobby Oboodi, Adrian Mateos, and Matthew Diehl to make it to the final 4. Prior to this tournament, he had $179,253 in live tournament earnings, according to his HendonMob-profile. Enough for the Global Poker Index to rank him 3,177^th. The biggest score of his live tournament resume comes from a 5^th place in a $1,500 Limit Omaha Hi/Lo event at the World Series of Poker two years ago, good for $58,769.

^{Alex Luneau was of the two main pro's followed in Victor Saumont's award winning documentary 'NOSEBLEED', next to Sébastien "Seb86" Sabic.}

Alan Percal

The 23 year old Alan Percal from Miami beat Brian Rast, Jeff Gross, Alan Wehbi, Konstantin Ramazanov and Benjamin Geisman to make it to the semi finals. According to his HendonMob page he has won $225,634 playing live tournaments, without a single cash at the WSOP. His biggest score came from March 2013 when he won a WPT Regional Series event at the Seminole Hard Rock Spring Tampa Bay Open for $55,400.

His PocketFives profile shows him winning $151,667 in online tournaments, his sharkscope shows him making a profit of $15,467. With a GPI ranking of 20,595 he's just beating out John Smith.

John Smith

The 69 year old John Smith might not ring a bell for recent followers of the World Series of Poker, but he's by no means new to the game. The highway contractor from Artesia, California has been playing poker for years with his first ever cash coming from the WSOP back in 1991. It took 11 years for him to make another appearance on the tracking site though.

The Vietnam veteran busted Lorenz Buehler, Michael Kane, Igor Yarosheskyy, Antonio Esfandiari and Nick Yunis on his way to Day 3.

His HendonMob profile shows him winning $849,750 in his career. The biggest cash in his career came from winning a $1,060 L.A. Poker Classic tournament back in 2005 for $127,410. He's currently ranked 21,036th in the GPI.

Two years ago, Smith cashed in this very $10,000 Heads Up event at the World Series of Poker as well. He beat out Eric Froehlich, Pablo Fernandez and Phil Ivey to cash, eventually busting out to Ankush Mandavia in 11th place for $26,584.

Three Biggest Pots Online in the Last Two Weeks

The 3 biggest pots online this past week all come from a session between fan favorite "BERRI SWEET" and 2m2mm star Dani "supernova9" Stern. The two of them played $100/$200 with antes heads-up Pot-Limit Omaha. Despite "BERRI SWEET" winning the two biggest pots, it was Stern that came out ahead as shown by the results on the bottom of this article.

1) "BERRI SWEET" wins a $74,229 pot (371 big blinds) of Dani "supernova9" Stern
^{($100/$200 antes PLO Heads-Up)}

Stern opened the button for $680 holding 2♦7♦7♥9♥. "BERRI SWEET" three-bet to $2,120 with 5♠8♥Q♥Q♣ and Stern called to create a pot worth $4,400.

The flop came 10♥7♣4♦ and "BERRI SWEET" checked. Stern made a bet of $3,237.75 and "BERRI SWEET" called.

"BERRI SWEET" check-called $10,792.50 on the K♥ turn, almost a pot bet.

The A♥ completed the board and with already $32,460.50 in the middle, "BERRI SWEET" shoved allin. Stern had $20,884.46 behind and called allin with his rivered flush. "BERRI SWEET"'s flush was the effective nuts and the pot worth $74,229.42 was slid his way.

2) "BERRI SWEET" wins a $59,035 pot (295 big blinds) of Dani "supernova9" Stern
^{($100/$200 with antes PLO Heads-Up)}

Stern opened the button for $680 with 7♠8♠10♥Q♣ and "BERRI SWEET" called from the big blind holding 4♣4♠J♦A♠.

With the pot at $1,320, the flop came 3♠7♥J♠. "BERRI SWEET" checked, and Stern answered with a bet of $1,077,75. "BERRI SWEET" check raised to $3,600 and Stern made the call.

The Q♥ on the turn saw both players check, so the pot remained $8,520 as the 6♠ hit the river. "BERRI SWEET" checked and Stern bet $6.477,75. "BERRI SWEET" check raised allin for $25,157 and Stern called.

"BERRI SWEET" showed the nuts once more, and Stern could muck again.

3) Dani "supernova9" Stern wins a $56,538 pot (283 big blinds) of "BERRI SWEET"
^{($100/$200 with antes PLO Heads-Up)}

"BERRI SWEET" opened for $680 holding 10♥Q♠K♥K♣. Stern three-bet to $2,120 with 3♥5♣10♣A♥ only for "BERRI SWEET" to make it $6,440. Stern made the call.

With the pot now at an already sizable $13,040, the flop came A♣7♣J♠. Stern checked and "BERRI SWEET" bet $12,957, leaving himself $8,792 behind. Stern shoved all in and "BERRI SWEET" called all in for $21,749.25 total.

The two ran the turn and river twice, and both times it was Stern who won. The first time it came 4♦9♥, the second time it came 6♠5♦.

The 2016 Leaderboard

Current leader of the 2016 leaderboard Ben "Sauce123" Sulsky played no hands, though we haven't seen him at the World Series of Poker so far either. Both Artinano and Stern did play online, and won some to strengthen their position in the top 3 of biggest winners.

Blom lost another small fortune to grow his loss to almost $800k for the year, while Millar won a little. Pantling lost a little, but his position in the top 3 is mostly because "flong78" opted out of being tracked on HighStakesDB and left the top 3.

Results Online High Stakes Action June 2nd till June 9th 2016

"RaúlGonzalez" was this weeks biggest winner online, according to HighStakesDB.com, while "JesusLebtNOT" (formerly known as "Kagome Kagome" and "IHATEJUICE") finished second. Recent SCOOP Main Event final tablist "s0nny_bLacCk" ended the week also in the black. Henrik "hhecklen" Hecklen ended up this weeks biggest loser. The Danish high stakes regular lost just over $50,000.

_{The above top 3 of biggest winners and losers online of 2016 and top 10 biggest winners and losers online for the last 2 weeks, only consists of PokerStars-accounts that haven't opted out with HighStakesDB.com.}

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• Tags Olivier Busquet John Smith Alan Percal Alex Luneau 2016 WSOP WSOP
• Related Tournaments World Series of Poker
• Related Players Olivier BusquetAlex LuneauJohn SmithAlan Percal