This may have been the first time all week I haven’t seen Team PokerStars Pro Victor Ramdin getting a massage. On Victor’s day one, it seems he required a constant pummelling to ease himself back into contention, and before that in the $1,500 HORSE the situation was the same. It must have worked though – Victor made the final of that event, finishing sixth.

But perhaps Victor is not as tense right now, and who can blame him? Sat as he is with 250,000 he owns the table. Besides, the massage therapy wouldn’t have been able to penetrate his leather jacket.
The board reads 8-A-5-5.

Team PokerStars Pro Victor Ramdin

The baby-faced seat two player had been getting busy with some pre-flop raises for the few hands I’d been watching. The two of them danced their way to the river on an ace-high board...

“I got an ace.”

This made Victor pause a second; he did too but didn’t want to show his hand first. Ace-nine against ace-nine - a split pot.

Curiously when Victor is in control it’s as the hands taking place are irrelevant to the actual process of gaining chips. It’s around day two or three that you start to get a better understanding of how things are shaping up, a clearer vantage point from which to judge who’s doing well, who’s trying to do well and who is hanging on as best they can.

It’s no surprise that the leaders on day one, like Kellen Hunter, soon start pulling away, increasing their stacks even more. If you wait for cards you’re doomed, your advantage comes from knowing more than the other guy.

This is where Victor comes in. A quarter of a million in chips, not really playing hands, more just working the table, picking up what he can when he can. Coffee arrives.

Another hand, Victor in the cut off, it’s folded to him and he raises. The blinds fold and Victor picks up a grand or two. He gets his headphones out.

A flop of 8sTdAd, checked by two players, one of them Victor. The fourth street jack sees Victor raise 5,600 which prompts his opponent to take off his shades and re-raise. This time Victor mucks. He does the same after a pre-flop raise on the next hand, forced out by a re-raise.

Betting all the way to the turn on the next hand, an Ad4d7s2d board. The seat seven player made it 7,500 – he’d tangled with Victor before. Victor called and checked the king on the river, then another bet of 12K.

Now Victor pulled his headphones off, like you would if you suspected the table were talking about you, and with a slight shake of his head he reluctantly counted out the call. Holding the chips high and at arm’s length, grimacing all the way, he dropped in the call.

At that moment his opponent mucked. Victor didn’t even have to show his hand. With a sigh to suggest he’d been put through a trauma for no reason he started stacking his chips. Not to worry, Victor up to over 260K.

Meanwhile the PokerStars video blog team caught up with PokerStars qualifier Adam York...

Watch WSOP 08: Adam York on PokerStars.tv