Player Focus: lilholdem954

He is one of the “sickest” players on the online circuit and due to his unique look he is also one of most easily recognised players at offline tournaments too. Welcome to the world of Chad Batista aka “lilholdem954”.

According to his stats the twentysomething from Coral Springs, Florida has raked in total tournament winnings of an astonishing $1.8 million so far, of which just over $1 million is profit.

Seeing as Batista has only been playing poker to a decent standard for around 18 months, after serving around three and a half years in jail (and leaving with just $50 to his name), we have to imagine the kid is an extraordinarily good player.

Added to his online winnings are a further $400,000 in offline winnings, pretty impressive when you consider he has played in less than 10 live events (due to the fact his parole conditions meant he couldn’t travel).

In the WSOP in July Batista final tabled a $1,000 Holdem event, just missing out on a bracelet, but winning just shy of $129k. And last October he also won a $5,000 buy-in WSOP circuit event in Indiana, good for another $262k, having dominated the final table from the first.

If he has made a splash in offline tournaments he got his substantial bankroll up and running by playing online, primarily on PokerStars (where he plays as “lilholdem954”), “m8kingmoves” (PartyPoker) and "jse81" (Full Tilt).

He dominates the big rebuy tournaments on PokerStars, final tabling the $100 rebuy tournament three times in July 2007 alone for $30k (when he won), $16k and $24k respectively. This is generally acknowledged to be the toughest tournament on the internet.

In July 2007 on Full Tilt Poker he also won the $1k Monday (for $82k) and its first ever $1 Million Guaranteed tournament with a $530 buy-in (for an incredible $213k).

It’s safe to say the boy is running good!

Just two years back life was very different for Batista. By his own admission in a frank interview he gave to Foxsports, he “hung out with the wrong people” and “did some dumb stuff” between the ages of 18 and 22 that led to years in and out of chokey.

Although he says he has left his old days behind he likes to look as menacing as possible and at some cost to himself installed a “diamond grill” in true gangsta and/or ‘wigga’ style. It makes him look like a miniature version of baddie Jaws in the Bond film ‘The Spy Who Loved Me’.

The look he has chosen has not escaped the attention of the Frat Boys who populate the twoplustwo poker forum, and who love to put the boot into anyone who doesn’t fit into their somewhat rigid and Preppy mould.

In a thread on the forum one poster says he looks like “a make-a-wish foundation kid” while another suggests that “anyone who wears a fucking grill needs to be hated”.

So how did the kid from the wrong side of the tracks get so good at poker even the college kids who ‘ace’ every exam they take can’t compete? He told the same interviewer that he has never read a poker book. One of Chad's friends told him about online poker and Chad spent hours and hours just watching the top players play, and developing his own hyper-aggressive style. He is not afraid to put his chips into a pot, calling with marginal hands when he is certain that he is ahead. He says that everything he does in poker is based upon instinct – not odds.

Asked in the interview what the key to his success was, lilholdem954 replied: “…People ask me how do I do it. It's all instinct, knowing where I'm at, knowing what people can call. I play all on instinct. I don't ever play the same way; it's based on my chip stack. I'll play real aggressive when I get a big, big stack, and once I take a beat I slow down. I've learned to pick good spots." Click here to read the full interview.

You could say he has honed a proper “street” style and boy is it successful.


View lilholdem954's PVi Profile here

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