Champion of Poker

In Part 1 we looked at the key differences between Fixed Limit Hold ‘em and No Limit Texas Hold’em. We discussed the various benefits of learning this often forgotten about game which is more about finesse than the all-out aggression seen in No Limit and PLO. Now that we have learned a little about the game, let us now learn a little about some of the best exponents of Limit Holdem and their success. These three players are famous within Limit Holdem circles, but because limit does not get the mainstream exposure enjoyed by No Limit Texas holdem, you may not know that much about these great players.

Vanessa Selbst

Vanessa is a 25 year old professional poker player hailing from Brooklyn in New York and she is currently attending Yale University where she is studying law and hoping to specialise in civil rights law when she graduates. Vanessa first came to the public’s attention when she won the 2008 WSOP $1,500 PLO event which was her first bracelet after six previous cashes. Her speciality, however, is Limit Holdem. Vanessa is a regular on the high stakes cash game tables and does very well from them, particular in heads-up competition. She is an executive producer at deucescracked.com which is a large poker video website and her videos are extremely popular especially when discussing both PLO and Limit Hold’em.

She recently won the main event of the Main Event of the NAPT in Mohegan Sun. This $5,000 buy-in event netted her a prize of $750,000 for first place.

Dustin “Neverwin” Wolff

Neverwin was a Pokerstars prodigy who started beating the high stakes limit holdem tables in 2004 beating all before him. He was so difficult to beat that many players suspected him of being a poker bot before he revealed his true identity on his controversial website Neverwin Poker. He went on to become a famous limit player thanks in part due to his website, in part due to his amazing fall from grace suffering heavy losses to “texaslimitking” where he refused to accept he could not beat him, and in part due to his amazing partying stories from Las Vegas.

After a recent fall-out Dustin continues to run his website minus the controversial forums and now offers a range of Texas Holdem poker tips for players wishing to emulate him in his poker successes, which include cashing for $504,000 profit in the 2005 WSOP and being in profit every year since.

Todd “Dandruff” Witteles

Another former member of NWP and now a prominent online poker radio host Todd came to the public’s attention when he entered his first WSOP Limit Holdem event in 2005 and won it! He then entered another and came in third place. Todd was a former computer engineer who discovered a talent for limit holdem. He has crushed both the online and live limit holdem games for many years and has built up a reputation as a trustworthy character in poker. He was instrumental in uncovering the Absolute Poker and UB poker scandals in 2007 and earned himself the nickname “Detective Druff” from two plus two poker forums. Unfortunately due to a dispute with Mason Malmuth Druff and everyone associated with the NWP and Donkdown.com websites are banned from two plus two.

Witteles continues to host a weekly poker radio show and travel every year to the WSOP although he has not managed to have any notable runs of late.

Will you be the next Limit Holdem superstar? Have a game on bwin.com, this could be the game you have been looking for!

By Malcolm Clarke