By Kory Travers | April 23, 2010

Of all the players at the Party Poker Big Game IV, the two that the other competitors likely didn’t expect to come out on top turned out to be the two biggest winners of the marathon 48-hour cash game.  David “Viffer” Peat and Jennifer Tilly surprised everybody last week, winning £147,275 and £32,975, respectively.

Viffer, in addition to making the most money, was probably the most interesting player of the competition.  He was ultra-aggressive, rarely seeing a hand he didn’t think was worth a raise.  And not only were his raises frequent, they were often absurdly large.  The action he provided, in addition to the trash talk that he put forward, helped him become one of two players (the other was Neil Channing) who remained at the table the entire two days.

Let us explain that last point.  Every two hours, the players at the table had the opportunity to vote off one of their competitors and bring in a new player from the sidelines.  Because he was viewed as a maniac and someone the other players likely thought they could eventually stack, Viffer was never voted off.  In the meantime, he used his image to his advantage and kept the pressure on his opponents.

One player who did get kicked from the PartyPoker.com Big Game IV table was young cash game guru, Isaac Haxton.  Whereas the other players thought they could eventually take down Viffer, they didn’t feel so confident about their chances against Haxton.  Similar to how contestants often vote off the strongest player on “Survivor,” so did the players gang up on Haxton.  While disappointed, Haxton understood.  In an interview with PokerNews.com, Haxton said, “I can’t help but take it as a bit of a compliment to get voted off the game for playing well, even though it is a little bit frustrating because the conditions were perfect for me. I was really fresh and everyone else had been there for a really long time.”

To put into perspective Viffer’s dominance, let’s repeat how much money actress/poker player Jennifer Tilly, who was the second biggest winner, won.  £32,975.   That’s a very nice haul, but it’s more than £100,000 less than Viffer.  Her boyfriend, Phil “The Unabomber” Laak, spun the numbers a different way, telling PokerNewsDaily.com, “Jennifer played for nine hours and won £32,975. That’s £3,664 per hour and, for the mathematically inclined, that puts Jennifer £618 per hour higher than Viffer. She schooled Viffer in win-rate.”

Commenting further on Viffer, Laak added, “Viffer raised every hand for 48 hours, which was fun because I acted after him. I called about 80% of his raises and Neil (Channing) called about 80% of the time. It was beautiful because the pot always had £1,200 in it and Viffer was first to act.”

Laak reminded readers that he, himself, had the fifth highest win rate, raking in £562 per hour.

One thing that made Viffer’s profit so impressive is that just two hours before the PartyPoker.com Big Game ended, he was almost down to break even.  In what was arguably the hand of the second night, Laak raised pre-flop to £225 with 7♥ 8♥, only to have Viffer re-raise (surprise, surprise) to £1,200 with A♠ A♣.  Laak called and the flop of 10♦ 2♣ 8♣ resulted in a relatively tame bet of £1,000 from Viffer, followed by a call from Laak.  The turn was huge.  When the 8♠ fell, it gave Laak a stranglehold on the hand, yet was probably not a scary card for Viffer. Viffer bet £5,000 and Laak once again called.  The river 7♦, while giving Laak a full house, likely didn’t worry Viffer too much, so he led out with a £9,000 bet.  When he did get worried, though, was when Laak pushed almost £40,000 into the center of the table.

At this point, Viffer knew he was in big trouble, but he didn’t want to admit it and fold.  He hemmed and hawed, saying, “God this is gonna hurt. It’s gonna hurt no matter what. It’s a no win situation. F**k my life. This is f***ing insane. Why did I bet this?”

He finally did lay down his Aces, preserving the rest of his £37,000 profit.  Fortunately for Viffer, he was able to get on a roll and win over £100,000 in the next two hours to complete the crazy 48-hours.

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