'Heads-up for rollz!' has always been the default cry when a poker player feels slighted.
Back in 2006, the player doing the slighting was Erik Sagstrom. Also known as ‘Erik123’, ‘The Salmon’ and ‘The King of Ding’, Sagstrom was a high-stakes beast, perhaps one of the most feared players at the table. He had also been part-owner of the PokerChamps online poker room, along with Tony G and Gus Hansen. PokerChamps was sold to Betfair for a reported $15 million at the tail end of 2005.
So Sagstrom had the rollz. And the skills. His target was Liz Lieu, a cash game player who turned to tournaments in 2005, finishing fifth in her first recorded cash, a $1,500 NLH event at the WSOP.
Fisk – the word that started the war
He stumbled across Lieu on a $200/$400 table online when she was running particularly badly. She lost pretty much every hand she played, getting rivered on some, being outplayed on others. Sagstrom took her for the best part of $34,000 and then made his mistake: he called her a fish (fisk).
Sagstrom doubled down at the Bellagio Five Diamond Classic. He told Lieu’s sponsor that he could beat her live anywhere she wanted to play, any day. Lieu snapped his hand off, and the challenge was set. Dubbed Beauty vs. the Beast, it was set to play out over three $200,000 freezeout games at the Venetian Casino, Las Vegas.
But Sagstrom wasn’t finished with the mind games. The Venetian had agreed to host the game in return for a burst of publicity for its new card room. And without a manager at the time, Lieu decided to get everything sorted herself.
She set up a photo shoot, but Sagstrom failed to show. It was rearranged, and he bailed again. By now, the Venetian was getting twitchy, concerned that the game wasn’t going to happen. In the end, Lieu personally guaranteed it and said that if Sagstrom ducked out, she’d challenge anyone else who cared to take up her offer. It was enough to ensure that the elusive Swede, come the day, was ready and waiting.
Let battle commence
The game was $2,000/$4,000 limit Hold’em and they started playing late, with both players agreeing to a finish at midnight, the winner being the player with most chips. Lieu had Sagstrom close to the felt three or four times, but he refused to die, picking up hands at crucial times. When the clock struck midnight, Lieu was down $45,000, and Sagstom took a 1-0 lead.
The next day, Lieu stormed back to take Sagstrom’s $200k in about two hours. But after returning to his hotel, Sagstrom asked Lieu to play out the remaining chips from the day before, keen to get his hands on the rest of her cash. Lieu wasn’t up on the idea, as she explained in an interview with PokerPlayer magazine. "We’d agreed to play one game a day and I was tired, so I said, 'let’s do it another day', but he demanded we play, so we played again. I knew I was at a disadvantage because he had the chip lead and he took my remaining $155,000 in about the same time I’d cleaned him earlier to level it at one-all."
Lieu picks up the story going into the third and deciding leg.
"The third day lasted eight hours. He had me down to $20,000 at one point and at the levels we were playing at, that meant one more hand and he’d have won the whole thing. I ended up winning the pot and went on a hot streak, betting and raising everything. I ended up winning it."
The final hand saw Sagstrom raise pre-flop with 
before Lieu three-bet with 
to see the 
flop. Sagstrom bet, Lieu continued with the aggression and raised. Sagstom called to see the 
turn, where Lieu bet, he raised and Lieu called. The on the river was enough to see Lieu get the last of his chips with a runner-runner straight.
This was more than just another victory over a fellow player. This was her high-risk shot at proving she could compete at the top of the game with the very best. "And we got a lot of interest", Lieu said afterwards. "I've never seen as many women show up to watch a game."
Damning with faint praise
The reaction afterwards, however, shows it wasn't that easy for a woman to get respect in the poker world.
"Nine out of ten people were saying Erik was going to win," said Lieu. "When they heard I’d won, they started saying it was a promotion stunt – that he’d just let me win. There’s a lot of pride in poker, there’s no way he’d do that."
Sagstrom did an interview with a now defunct Swedish poker media site where he said, “I lost about 50 big blinds, which is nothing. In this kind of game, the cards have a great impact, so it's impossible to say who is best. Honestly, it was a bit of a pathetic game, but Liz was playing reasonably well.”
He may have a point, but you can’t change the history books, which will always show a victory for Lieu.
Sagstrom still plays the odd bit of poker. He came seventh in a H.O.R.S.E event at the 2023 PGT Mixed Games festival. Lieu hasn’t recorded a cash since 2013.
