tilted behaviour

When Brandon Steven’s A♣ K♠ was unable to improve against Matthew Jarvis’ Q♣ Q♠, to send nine players on a hiatus a guaranteed $811,823 richer.

My World Series of Poker (WSOP) was all about long nights that turned into daylight finishes, mixed with -EV gambling and plenty of colourful stories, but let’s end the Mecca of all poker tournaments with my continued tournament recap with the The Eight Points of Enlightenment: WSOP.

1 – Tournament Layout: For 2010, gone were the small Brasilia and Miranda rooms as the Pavilion Room (right) trumped them all with over 250 tables allocated for day ones, cash games and satellites. The Amazon Room housed all the restarts and 5pm starts, and consequently was a lot less cluttered than in previous years. Throw in the two additional staged tables for final table overflow or additional feature tables, and it really made viewing a pleasure. The WSOP really got things right this year with the way they structured both rooms and ran the tournaments, and hopefully they don’t find a need to change it again next year (like they have every year previously).

2 – Schedule: Although many praise the schedule of the WSOP, I would personally like it to become well-rounded and offer a greater range of non-holdem poker variants. At this year’s World Series, 33 of the 54 open events were holdem ones, while on the other end of the spectrum there were only five HORSE variants. Since the WSOP is a true test of tournament poker skill, I believe the schedule should be designed along these lines too.
If you spread buy-ins of $1,500, $2,500, $5,000 and $10,000 (championship) in each game of HORSE, 8-Game, Stud, Stud-8, Razz, Pot Limit Omaha, Pot Limit Omaha-8, 2-7 Draw, along with Pot Limit Holdem, Limit Holdem and No Limit Holdem then it would truly be a test of poker skill. Since holdem is what everyone wants to play at the moment, you could also add in four six-handed events of the same buy-in, along with triple-chance and shootout events of the three smaller buy-ins. Now with some space in the schedule you could also throw in a $10,000 Mixed Stud and Chinese Championship to make it a truly well-rounded World Series!

3 – Structures Too Good?: When poker tournaments are run, the major complaint is normally always revolving around the structure of a specific event. With reasonable buy-ins and a triple-stack starting stack, there isn’t really a chance to complain too much about the WSOP structures. Well apart from the fact that they may be too good!
The typical event at the WSOP is supposed to reach a final table by the completion of day two (after twenty levels), but I don’t think a single three-day event ever reached the final table before the start of the last day. With players getting better, and more and more players entering these three-day events, in a few years you will have to see a fourth day implemented so that the final table can be set aside solely for the last day . . . maybe with this a 4x starting stack will also come into play?

4 – Bracelet Display: Last year the WSOP conducted a daily bracelet ceremony in the Amazon Room that included a few words by Jeffrey Pollock before the presentation was concluded with the playing of the respected player’s national anthem. This year they moved the ceremony into the Pavilion Room so that a guaranteed large audience (due to the day one starts being located there) was there to greet the recent bracelet winner with a round of applause.
The one aspect that was added this year was that the bracelets were on show in a big display in the Pavilion Room for the public to view. Once a bracelet was presented to their recipient, the case where the bracelet was housed was replaced with a winners photo so as to see who had won each respected bracelet. Definitely a must for 2011!

5 – Poker Kitchen / Food: In one word . . . AWFUL! The salad bar was dishing out food poisoning everyday, the chinese food was always stale-tasting, and the pre-made salads and wraps were disgusting. Apart form the occasionally good burrito or quesadilla, the options from the poker kitchen of real food (minus snacks and drinks of course) were just terrible. After the first two weeks of putting up with it, the PokerNews team – and I suspect many others – would do anything to be offered a dinner option outside of the Rio regardless of cost! The WSOP really need to provide better options for their players and staff, preferably healthier ones too, but just better on all levels.

6 – No Service: About mid-way through the WSOP, us PokerNews peeps were refused service from the waiters stating that only players were allowed to order cocktails. Of all the media outlets, we are ones that don’t get a $10 food voucher (due to the size of our team), and consequently getting refused cocktail service just sent us into a spiral of tilt!
Like in all seriousness, we tip when we get a water or whatever, so it shouldn’t be that much of a big deal . . . but fortunately for us, we were allowed into the dealer break room which housed an unlimited supply of soft drinks, water, coffee, chips and the occasional dinner, so that the lack of cocktail service became an obsolete issue.

7 – Where To Sit?: Although we had issues with cocktail service, the media was still treated fairly awesome when it came to location in the Amazon Room. There were two dedicated two-level L-shape platforms in two corners of the Amazon Room that hugged each of the overflow final tables. Around twenty people could be spread in the media towers, and if there wasn’t enough room there, a media room located adjacent to the Amazon Room that housed flat-screen TVs, plenty of desk space and an unlimited supply of cold water and beef jerky could keep you happy. There were additional desks based in both the Amazon and Pavilion Room for the PokerNews crew to continue their exclusive live coverage, but the media towers was where all the degenerate prop betting went down . . . along with the occasional amount of work!

8 – Player of the Year: I personally view consistency as the ledger to mark poker success, and consistency is extremely important in tournament poker if you are to be regarded as one of the greats. Over the past few years there has always been a lot of talk regarding the WSOP Player of the Year and how it is exactly calculated, and with some mixed results this year, it has sparked even more interest.
Frank Kassela will be 2010 WSOP POTY but can tie with Michael Mizrachi if he is to win the Main Event. With only those two being in the race, there are many others like Allen Kessler (eight cashes, one final table, four final two table finishes), Shawn Buchanan (eight cashes, one final table) and Dan Heimiller (seven cashes, two final tables) who really stood no chance at capturing the POTY award despite such a great summer.
For this to be regarded more highly, the powers to be at the WSOP really need to take a better look at the points scoring system so that it is weighted more appropriately in relation to buy-in, field size and game type.

With the World Series all wrapped up . . . well until November anyway . . . I have a little time off before heading to Brazil to cover the LAPT Florianopolis leg before finally returning home after being on the road for over four months!

Unfortunately there will be nearly zero downtime as the Victorian Poker Championships will be in full swing on my arrival back in Australia as I hope to be again behind the computer for the series where it all began for me!

My final day of work for the Summer would also be the penultimate day, with Day 7 of the 2010 World Series of Poker Main Event kicking in with me at the Feature/TV table again.

Unlike yesterday – since the size of the field had been reduced to 78 – I wouldn’t have to cover the secondary feature table as Heath was located there, while all I had to worry about was my starting eight players.

Seat 1: Duy Le – 4,100,000 (in chips)
Seat 2: Damien Luis – 1,850,000
Seat 3: John Racener – 720,0000
Seat 4: Jeff Banghart – 645,000
Seat 5: Tony Dunst – 1,550,000
Seat 6: Sergey Rybachenko – 1,010,000
Seat 7: Jean-Robert Bellande – 700,000
Seat 8: Matt Harris – 965,000
Seat 9: empty

Jean-Robert Bellande made an oops of a three-bet shove with Q♦ 10♦ and was four-bet by Duy Le with A♥ Q♣. Once the original raiser – Jeff Banghart – folded his Jacks, Bellande was unable to improve and hit the rail in 78th place for a $94,942 payday much to the disappointment of the media and his many fans.

Arguably the best dressed man in poker; Tony ‘Bond18′ Dunst was unable to gather any momentum on his appearance at the final table. At one point he found himself all in holding Queens against Hasan Habib’s Ace-King. A King spiked on the flop, but a Queen on the river saw Dunst double through in a hand that will surely make the ESPN broadcast.

Unfortunately from then onwards, Dunst was unable to pick up any chips, and eventually committed his last 1,075,000 with a Jerry Yang-esque inspired “one mirrion” raise over William Thorson’s usually light open. Thorson made the call holding a dominating A♠ K♥ against Dunst’s A♣ Q♥. A chop draw fell on the turn, but a King on the river would see Dunst eliminated in 50th collecting $168,556 for his efforts.

Although play stalled around dinner time, we still managed to reach the final twenty-seven in reasonable time as Joseph Cheong would take the chip lead into the final day with an amassed 24,490,000 of the 219,570,000 in play as Matt Affleck, John Racener, Scott Clements, David Baker, Michael Mizrachi, Adam Levy, William Thorson, Johnny Lodden and Hasan Habib all remained with a glimmer of hope of making the 2010 November Nine!

With the blogging team reduced to just five of the best and Day 6 of the 2010 World Series of Poker Main Event starting with just 205 players, I was the fortunate one to be based at the Feature/TV table!

David Baker, Eric Baldwin, Adam Levy, Matt Affleck and Christian Harder were spread between both the main and secondary feature tables as I gathered hands from both over the duration of the day.

At one point the tables were switched out as both Michael and Robert Mizrachi, along with Theo Tran, John Racener and Alexander Kostritsyn being spread over the two tables before chip leader Theo Jorgensen arrived a little later.

Apart from some unusual six- and seven-way pots that didn’t result in too many fireworks, the only interesting hand I reported was this colour piece.

“What Is This Exactly?”
“So what is this exactly?” asked a railbird.

I guess it’s not too late for people to come check out the World Series of Poker Main Event!

The end of the day saw just 78 players make it through with Theo Jorgensen on top by nearly 2 million over Michael Mizrachi and John Racener as the highly-skilled players of Phil Galfond, Robert Mizrachi, Tristan Wade, JP Kelly, Theo Tran, Jesper Hougaard and Christian Harder all the bite the dust along with fan and fairy-tale favourite Johnny Chan when his Kings and Jacks were unable to improve against opponents’ Aces.

The Day 6 Feature Table (blogging desk located just out of picture in background on right)

Not able to hit the money yesterday, Day 4 of the 2010 World Series of Poker Main Event was going to become the money day for the first time in WSOP history!

Stripped of both blogging and reporting duties, I was sentenced(?) to iPad duty which entailed me continuously updating chip counts of my area roughly on average every ten minutes.

Based in the blue section of the Amazon Room, we were blessed with the majority of the chip leaders along with some of the better known players which made my job a little difficult at the start until Mickey came over once the remainder of the Pavilion Room broke.

As we neared the bubble, all those memories of playing like a donk in 2007 came flushing back as I wish I had a chance to revoke my button shove and just fold for two more hands so that I could have been US$20,320 richer!

The only positive thing about my bubble bust (apart from what I personally learnt), is the fact that many players either go out in worse situations, or play their hand horrible.

For the 2010 Bubble Boy Tim McDonald after being faced with a raise to 10,000, he made it 30,000 (of his 67,500-chip stack) to go as his opponent made the call to see a A♣ A♠ 2♦. Check, all in for 37,500, snap call! McDonald tabled his Q♣ Q♠ and his opponent tabled A♥ 2♥ for a flopped full house. Two Queens needed, but only one fell, as McDonald bite the dust just shy of the $19,263 payday but with an added bonus of a seat into the 2011 Main Event!

Only 575 players made it through to a day five berth, with adopted Aussie Tony ‘Bond18′ Dunst leading the field with over 1.5 million in chips.

Bruno, Rich, Heath and I all had a day off tomorrow so we decided to play a home game at the PokerNews Mansion where they were all staying.

We were expecting to get a few others, but due to some (soft) reasons, it ended up being just the four of us as we played $0.25-0.25 NLH on the pool table.

I was chipped down early and was forced to top up so I was in for $100 before my first major hand was when I stacked Bruno. He was playing like a banana, and after a three-bet Heath’s 75c open with A♦ Q♠ to $3.25 and Bruno made it $8.50 or so, I shipped it in. Bruno made the call for his last $30 or so with Kings, but when a Queen fell on the flop and the river, he was tilted and forced to rebuy.

I stack Rich when I overbet shoved my 5♠ 3♠ on a 9♠ 8♠ 2♥ 5♦ after he checked. He snapped off his last $60 (into a pot of around $15) with K♠ J♠, and was unable to improve after running it twice.

Then there was this hand that upset Heath after I opened K♣ Q♣ to 75c and the table called around to see a Q♦ 4♥ 4♠ flop fall. Rich and Heath checked as I fired out a bet of $2.50 with Bruno folding before Rich made the call as Heath bumped it to around the $8 mark. I three-bet to $24 and Rich passed as Heath smooth-called. We both checked the repeat Queen on the turn before the river landed the 5♥ and he check-called a bet of $10.25 with 10♣ 4♣ before launching into a tilt tirade once Rich told him that he folded a Queen too.

Heath eventually finished off Rich before we both played heads until the darkness of night had been transformed into early morning sunlight as I profited $194 from the friendly home game before finding comfort on the couch for some sleep!

Departing the PokerStars party last night completely sober meant that for once I could make fun of my fellow hungover blogging partner!

And of all people, it was the normally sensible, recently married and over 30 Heath ‘TassieDevil’ Chick!

Not at all in the best shape courtesy of countless beers, he arrived with water and gatorade in hand hoping that he could make it through Day 3 of the 2010 World Series of Poker Main Event.

Both of us were located in the Pavilion Room and expected that we would lose all our tables by the end of the day. We did have a few of the big names and big stories such as virtual POTY Frank Kassela and fellow contender Dan Heimiller, along with Allen Cunningham and the always aggressive Alexander Kostritsyn.

However it was one chair that was empty that bemused us . . . the empty chair of Jack Ury.

Ury has been playing the Main Event for the last few years, but what is amazing is that he is 97 years old! Hailing from Terre Haute, Indiana, Ury has been playing poker since 1923, and the 2010 Main Event marks his first at reaching day three.

For this fact alone, and of course that he is a little older than the average player, it made us at PokerNews a little worried that Ury wasn’t in attendance. Eventually he and his 8,200-chip stack was blinded off but we were later informed that Ury was fine.

2,557 began the day, but only 1,203 would survive with James Carroll leading the charge, and for those wanting to see a fairytale Main Event, then it was the player ninth in chips that everyone was rooting for . . . Johnny F**king Chan!

Returning to the blogging desk, I found myself in the unusual position of having the luxury of covering the same tournament from start to end with Event 49: $1,500 No Limit Holdem.

The one thing that was special about this event wasn’t that it was the last donkament of the series, but the fact that it was used to celebrate the life of Amir Vahedi.

Vahedi passed away early this year in a shock to the poker community. He was one of those lovable characters that always had a smile on his face, and of course, one of his famous cigars hanging out the side of his mouth. The reason the WSOP had waited so long to celebrate Vahedi’s life was that in this very same event back in 2003 Vahedi collected his first bracelet and $270,000 in first prize money before final tabling the Main Event just a few weeks later. The Iranian professional poker player amassed over $3,000,000 in lifetime earnings and has nine WSOP cashes to his name, and after a moment of silence, Jack Effel announced to the players, “Amir. We will miss you.”

2,543 players took to the felt, but it would be PokerNews’ own Rich Ryan who was carrying the weight of the time on his shoulders as no one who had played a WSOP event since 2008 had placed in the money.

“I run like baby Jesus.”

That was one of Rich’s tweets during day one as he carried our hopes and dreams of a deep sweat to a bracelet as he finished the day around average, before in a flurry of hands early on day two, he would sneak into the money and add something to is poker CV that many of us have been trying to do for some time now.

Unfortunately his ship with A♦ 6♥ would find a call from a dominated Ace and Rich would be out the door in 111th place for a $3,845 payday.

Twenty-three players returned for the final day with Barry Greenstein’s nephew Michael Linn holding onto the chip lead in a field that feature young twenty-year olds looking at scoring their first bracelet and some much needed pocket money!

We reached the final table in relatively quick time (before four hours with three tables returning is always good) as we broke for dinner. Upon resumption of play, Linn was still in contention, but placed deep in the middle of the pack as the dubbed silent-assassin Taylor Larkin had stepped and amassed the chip lead over the final nine.

At four-handed play, Larkin had amassed over half the chips in play, but the luck soon swung in the opposite direction as it would be Linn who would capture the lead heading into their heads up battle. Linn upped his already aggressive approach to the final table and completely steam-rolled Larkin to the felt, eventually finishing him off with the mighty A♦ 2♣ to see him add another bracelet to the (extended) Greenstein family along with the $609,493 first prize!

Since we finished late again last night, Eric and I decided to swap events so that he could start at midday and I in the afternoon covering day two of Event 42: $1,500 No Limit Holdem with Elaine.

The major story of the event was when 2008 November Niner bubble boy Dean Hamrick was left crippled with just seven antes, or, just a little over a small blind when his A♥ J♦ was flushed by an opponent’s A♦ K♣. Everyone always loves a Jack Strauss-esque comeback and I had this sneaky feeling that Hamrick may experience one after more than tripling just a hand later.

About ten minutes later Hamrick was soon up to over 170,000 before soaring up the leaderboard to finish third in chips of the remaining twenty-five players as we ended play for the night.

Returning for the final day of play, we saw ten double ups in the first level, but only four eliminations as another six double ups occurred before we reached the final eighteen just before the first break.

It would take nearly an additional three levels before we reached the final table with Hamrick holding the slight chip lead over the final nine.

With a deep run in the 2008 Main Event along with a donkament final table last year, Hamrick used he experience and patience to slowly accumulate nearly half of the chips in play four-handed, even being able to navigate rivered bad beats and the like.

“Yeah! Fuck yeah!”

Was what Hamrick screamed after rivering Broadway to send Niccolo Caramatti to the rail as Hamrick’s railbirds – that included reigning Champion Joe Cada – celebrated wildly as Hamrick eventually soared over the 7 million chip mark only to be rivered for the majority of chips in play with Jacks against Ace-Queen . . . oh sigh to the Ace on the river!

Once Ian Wiley exited in third place, Hamrick retained the slight edge only to see it soar out to a near two-to-one advantage before switching positions when he ran into Thomas O’Neal’s set. Hamrick slid further behind only to double with a flush and then take further pots down before edging out a three-to-one advantage until his dominated Ace would take care of O’Neal after a marathon three-hour heads up battle while friend Joe Cada napped on the rail.

Hamrick’s victory was not only amazing due to the fact he was crippled to just a small blind deep into day two, but for the reason that this is his justification as a poker player after coming so close before.

Ivan Demidov, Dennis Phillips, Ylon Schwartz, Scott Montgomery and Chino Rheem have all managed to further their reputation as a poker player since the 2008 WSOP Main Event, and now Dean Hamrick can now be classed in that group as well after capturing his first – and the series’ forty-second – bracelet and the $604,222 first prize.

Well deserved and well played Dean!

After a long few days, I was still battling away moving from the straight-forward events over to day two of Event 40: $2,500 Seven Card Razz.

Fellow PokerNews team member Mickey Doft was still alive, but unfortunately he hit the rail along with plenty of others as the 136 players were whittled down to just fifteen by the end of play with Stuart Rutter, Jennifer Harman, Chris Bjorin, Vladimir Shchemelev and recent bracelet winner Frank Kassela still in contention.

Returning for the final day of play.

Once we made the final table, we lost a few players quickly before a funny situation came up where six of our remaining players had to force a break in the event to go late register for the $10,000 HORSE event that was going on across the other side of the room.

Then at around 2:38am the Amazon Room went completely pitch black!

All the power and the lights switched off, only to have the back-up generator (I assume) kick in around thirty seconds later. The players at our final table covered their chips, the players in the HORSE did the same as the dealers also protected their floats before order was restored. Apparently parts of the Strip had their power out as well, including the space-beaming light that soars high from the Luxor.

Eventually full power and lights were restored within around ten minutes as play continued in all of the remaining tournaments and cash games as we continued the battle from three down to just one from the main feature table.

Once heads up was reached it was Event 15 Champion Frank Kassela battling Event 27 Runner-Up Maxwell Troy.

The chip lead changed multiple times before Kassela began to edge ahead of his younger opponent as the railbirds slowly vacated. As the clock ticked close to 5am, Kassela would claim his second coveted gold WSOP bracelet of the series after being the shortest stack coming into day two and walk home with the $214,085 first prize and secondary piece of wrist bling!