Another Day at the Office for Isaac Haxton on Day 4 of EPT Barcelona Main Event
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Seeing the name Isaac Haxton at the top of the counts and payouts in high-roller events the world over is a sight to which poker fans have grown accustomed. The New York native has accumulated over $27.2 million in career tournament earnings, and that’s not counting millions he’s won playing high stakes online for more than a decade.
Haxton's name in the counts on Day 4 of a €5,300 Main Event that drew 1,988 entries is a bit more rare, but that is the case here at the PokerStars European Poker Tour Barcelona festival.
“If I’m at a big stop like this I’ll play the Main Event usually, but mostly I focus on the smaller field higher buy-in stuff,” Haxton told PokerNews during a break in the action.
A Different Approach
The big-field tournaments with four-figure buy-ins draw quite a different crowd of runners than the high rollers he’s accustomed to and accordingly, Haxton’s approach is a bit different.
“Obviously in a tournament like this, the competition is not as strong," he said. "There are a lot of inexperienced players so I’m a lot more focused on paying attention to physical reads and looking for really high-edge spots where I just know what somebody has and play accordingly and stay out of the thinner spots. Whereas in a high buy-in tournament with a tough field and a fast structure, I’m basically just trying to play solid, technical poker where if I think it’s worth .05 big blinds to go all in I’ll generally do it.”
The fact he’s been playing the same tournament going on four days doesn’t necessarily change things for Haxton in terms of routine, rest or mindset.
“I go to one of these stops and every day I get up and play the poker tournament at noon – whether it’s the same poker tournament four days in a row or a different one, it’s kind of the same deal.”
Another Day
Haxton bagged a modest 74,800 on Day 1b and 190,000 on Day 2. He rocketed up the counts on Day 3 to take 1,405,000 to Day 4 with 48 players remaining.
“I was just on the right side of coolers and won flips,” Haxton said of his Day 3 surge. “The biggest pot I played all day I just got all in kings against ace-king for 750K each and held. That’s kind of what it takes to go deep in a big-field tournament.”
"I’m a lot more focused on paying attention to physical reads and looking for really high-edge spots."
So far on Day 4, Haxton’s stack has fluctuated. He took a big hit just before the second break of the day in a hand where he committed more than half of his 41-big blind stack to Yunye Lu before check-folding to a river shove.
Down to 15 blinds shortly after the break, Haxton found a great spot to shove with pocket kings in the big blind following a min-raise from Lu in the hijack. Lu called with sixes and Haxton held to double back up to breathing room. At dinner break, he sits with 2,230,000 good for 37 big blinds upon his return with 22 left.
As compared to running deep in the faster-paced high rollers, which naturally happens quite a bit more often for Haxton, Day 4 of the EPT Barcelona Main Event feels a lot like just another day at the office for the man who is 13th on poker's all-time money list.
“I don’t know, I just show up and play poker,” he said with a laugh.
Keep following the EPT Barcelona Main Event action to find out if Ike Haxton can add a fifth seven-figure score to his live poker resume at Casino Barcelona.
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