The Artem Litvinov Show: Performing Now
"So we have Team East, Team West, a referee and then you can be the fan," Artem Litvinov said to Kitty Kuo after a hand during which almost every player at the table had their own role.
Litvinov motioned that Kuo could be the supporter, or perhaps cheerleader, of the teams that he had defined, but she didn't agree.
"I not like, I am tiger," Kuo said, and both Litvinov and Connor Drinan chuckled.
Kuo went on to ask players at the table if they wanted a piece of apple, as she had brought a pre-packaged bag with apple slices, but everyone declined.
"Who knows, I eat the apple and then I," Litvinov said, as he acted out fainting and falling of his chair.
Everyone at the table laughed, and here is how it all started.
Five minutes earlier...
Litvinov was seated in early position and raised to 950. Pratyush Buddiga, Tobias Peters and the player in Seat 8 made the call.
"One team, yes?" Litvinov asked both Drinan and Tsoukernik, who were seated to his immediate left.
"Team East," Litvinov pointed at Drinan and Tsoukernik, "And team West," he said while looking at his opponents in this four-way pot.
The flop brought 
and the player in the small blind checked to Litvinov, who said that everyone in the hand should check.
"We all check," Litvinov smiled at the dealer, and he got what he wished for as Buddiga and Peters laughed as they checked behind.
Before the dealer put the turn out Litvinov said, "Ace please," but the 
popped up.
"Okay, we check again," Litvinov directed himself to the dealer again.
Both the player in the blinds, Litvinov and Buddiga checked, but Peters reached for chips.
"No, no, no, no," Litvinov fired out in rapid succession as he was trying to keep Peters from betting.
"Look," the one-man show continued, "If you bet, I call and your team folds. Then it's one against one. If you check, then your team has three and I'm still just one."
After Litvinov finished his convincing argument for not betting Peters laughed and said, "Oh man, it's impossible to concentrate at this table."
"Am I allowed to bet?" Peters asked the dealer, as Litvinov had previously informed the dealer that everyone would check.
"Don't ask the dealer," Litvinov responded, "Just play."
"I would've bet four minutes ago," Peters responded with a smile, "But you tried to talk me out of it."
Eventually Peters bet 2,450 and after the player in the blinds folded the action was on Litvinov. The Russian looked at this cards, showed them to Drinan on his left, and said that he would fold.
"Fold, right?" Litvinov asked Drinan.
"Yeah, we fold," the €25k High Roller runner up said, as he played along in Litvinov's team game.
Buddiga could not stop laughing, and neither could Sergi Reixach who was sitting right in between the two teams Litvinov had created.
Because Litvinov had shown his cards to Drinan the hand had to be tabled, but Litvinov argued, jokingly, that the cards were only for his team to see. When Buddiga had folded, Peters showed his cards to his 'team member' and Litvinov wanted to see the cards right away.
Peters tabled 
, and Litvinov said in his most serious voice, "Oh, you bluff now? What you doing."
The dealer started dealing out the next hand and that's when Reixach, the man in the middle, got involved. Litvinov tried to come up with a way to include him, and he liked Reixach's own suggestion of being the referee, as he was sitting right in between Team West and Team East.
On the next hand Reixach committed chips to the pot, and Litvinov immediately called him out for it.
"You are the referee, you can't play!"
"I am the referee now, so I decide what the rules are," Reixach said.
The hand ended up going to the turn, with a board showing 
, and Reixach bet 700 in a four-way pot.
"No, no, no, no. This is not possible," Litvinov continued, as he didn't like that the referee was getting involved.
"The referee has decided, it's 700 to play now," Reixach gave as quick retort.
Once again everyone laughed, and the referee ended up taking down this pot that had no further significance besides it being very fun to listen to all the table talk.
"Oh man, High Rollers are so much more fun than Main Events," Buddiga said, and while we agree it's mostly about who gets to play with Mister Litvinov because he's putting on a world class performance right now.
Tickets to this show are €10,000+€300 and you can enter until 11:45 a.m. tomorrow, unfortunately there is no guarantee you will get a seat at this table though, so for now just stay tuned to our coverage as we will try to bring you more episodes from The Litvinov Show.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
79,000 | -1,000 |
|
62,000 | 8,000 |
|
60,000 | 10,000 |
|
59,000 | -1,000 |
|
55,000 | 5,000 |
|
52,000 | 2,000 |
|
48,000 | -2,000 |