Finishing First

Everyone was ganging up on 2016 as the year concluded, what with all of the bad news punctuating seemingly every week of the calendar year.

For your humble scribbler, the year seemed to involve an inordinate number of second-place finishes. My Carolina Panthers came up short in the Super Bowl in February, then my UNC Tar Heels also took runner-up in the NCAA finals in April. Then in May I finished second in a poker tournament in Monte Carlo, and came here to whimper a little at having come so close to winning only to have it snatched away.

The presidential election in November was hardly considered a victory here on the farm either, I’ll confess. It was right after that I remember messaging a friend and after listing all of the second-place finishes making a stubborn proclamation: “I am winning the gotdamn Pigskin Pick’em and that’s all there is to it.”

I was referring to the Pauly’s Pub football pool, of course, which I wrote about a bit during the course of the NFL season here although not as much as I have in past years. This was the eighth year running I’ve participated. I won it once before (in 2011), and this year managed to get off to a fast start to tie for the lead in Week 2, then take the lead all by myself in Week 3. By November I had built up a long streak as the frontrunner, and would remain in the top spot into the final weeks.

My largest lead over the chase pack was five games -- six, in fact, for a brief period halfway through one Sunday’s games -- but it had been reduced to just one game heading into Week 16. I was a bit of a basket case, I’ll admit, worrying that I was sadly, slowly careening toward yet another second-place showing.

Week 16 saw games happening all over the place as the NFL scheduled things around (and on) Christmas (which was a Sunday). I believe games took place on four different days that week. I enjoyed some great fortune in three games that mattered a lot, as in each I’d gone one way and my trailing opponent(s) went the other.

The first was the Atlanta-Carolina game where I took the Falcons, others took the Panthers, and Atlanta won easily. Then came the Cincinnati-Houston game the night of Christmas Eve. I had the Texans, my nearest foe had the Bengals, and while Houston led 12-10 in the final minute Cincy was driving for what seemed a certain winning field goal. With seconds left, Bengals kicker Randy Bullock tried a 43-yard field goal that somehow went wide right, and Houston won.

Then on Christmas Day I’d taken Pittsburgh over Baltimore (whom my closest challenger took), and after a crazy back-and-forth game the Steelers got a go-ahead TD with just over a minute left to win 31-27. I was up four games heading into the final week, a relatively comfortable place to be.

For Week 17 all 16 games were played on Sunday, and after making my picks I realized I could very well have it all locked up by mid-afternoon. But it didn’t go so easily.

Up four versus three opponents tied for second, two of them gained two games on me in the early afternoon games, cutting my lead to two. In the late afternoon games one of those two and I made identical picks for all six of them, which meant I’d automatically clinched beating that player as there was only the single night game left.

With the other opponent we’d picked five games the same, only differing in one -- the New York Giants (whom he picked) at Washington (whom I’d picked). The Redskins were playing to earn a playoff spot while the Giants had nothing to play for at all, having already clinched a seed that wouldn’t change with a win. But NY played their starters throughout, Washington struggled mightily, and the Giants won the game.

Now with only the Green Bay at Detroit night game left to go -- the 256th of 256 regular season games -- I had a one-game lead. And I had a strong suspicion my opponent was going to go with the underdog Lions in an effort to close the gap.

I was facing an interesting “game theory”-type situation, I realized. And I had about an hour before the kickoff to ponder it.

I had already chosen Green Bay, but could change my pick if I wished. That said, I had imposed on myself a strict “no-change” policy according to which I never changed a pick once I had entered it. I estimated the likelihood my opponent was taking the Lions to be at least 75%, perhaps even higher. If he did and I switched to Detroit, I’d clinch the title as soon as the game kicked off. But if I stuck with Green Bay and he took Detroit, I’d have to sweat one last game.

I decided not to change my pick, and when the game began I saw indeed he’d taken Detroit. Then the Lions led for the first half, and I was filled with misgivings for having let a superstition of sorts overrule my rational analysis of the situation. Green Bay stormed back in the second half, though, with Aaron Rodgers leading the Packers to three TDs in four drives to build a two-touchdown lead. I don’t think I finally exhaled, though, until after Green Bay covered up the onside kick at the very end after Detroit had made it 31-24.

I couldn’t help but laugh, thinking how I’d spent 10-plus hours during the first day of 2017 fretting about the pool, thinking all along how if things had gone just slightly differently I might’ve clinched things during the early afternoon and avoided all the stress.

Today the trophy arrived, which turned out to be a shiny bit of fun amid a dreary day in which a newly-inaugurated president is going on about “America First,” seemingly unable to understand the difference between national pride and jingoism. (Not to mention unaware -- or perhaps not -- of the term’s history and less than appealing connotations.)

In any case, I’ll say it was fun to be first nearly all year, and even more so to end up on top -- a nice finish to start a new year.

In Memoriam

News of a few deaths sadly coming over the wires here in recent days. Doesn’t matter how much a person has done or how long that person has lived, always feels like things are unfinished when the end arrives -- for the individual and for those of us left behind.

Leonard Cohen’s passing on the eve of the election last Monday cast a pall over the past week for many (and added further to the pall caused by the election results for a decent percentage of that group).

Have to confess that I never quite connected with Cohen’s music although always appreciated his important place in the singer-songwriter story. I knew “Suzanne” and a few other tracks, and over this last week have been listening to more and realizing how huge the gaps are in my knowledge.

Unfairly I’d had Cohen lodged in a little-visited part of my memory occupied as well by Rod McKuen, another poet-slash-songwriter who achieved a similarly huge following although without the consistent critical acclaim of Cohen. Rolling Stone offers a decent overview of Cohen’s oeuvre and significance.

Leon Russell passed away yesterday, and like Cohen he had been mostly performing on the edges of my awareness previously. I suppose I knew him mostly through Joe Cocker (who covered both Russell and Cohen on his Joe Cocker! breakthrough), though that was obviously just the very tip of a vast catalogue.

“Tight Rope” is the Russell song permanently part of the classic rock rotation, although as a songwriter he’s a bigger part of our collective consciousness than most of us realize, penning an early version of the Stones’ “Shine a Light,” “Superstar” (made famous by the Carpenters), “This Masquerade” (a hit for George Benson), and dozens of other familiar titles. Check The New York Times obit for the full story.

Finally I was sorry to hear of the passing the poker writer and historian Johnny Hughes last week. I never interacted directly with Hughes, although certainly read with interest his many contributions to poker forums where he could be found sharing various poker-related tales and sometimes arguing with other posters over their veracity.

Hughes wrote both fiction and nonfiction. When working on my own “Poker & Pop Culture” series I’ve frequently encountered Hughes’s explorations of similar ground, in particular when dealing with the Old West and its colorful cast of characters, some of whom he covered in Famous Gamblers: Poker History, and Texas Stories.

My buddy Dr. Pauly knew Hughes much better, and he penned a thoughtful tribute for Club Poker over the weekend that’s worth a look.

Each of these three deserve better remembrances than I can provide, so follow those links for more.

(The photo up top is one of several so-so shots I took inside St. John’s Co-Cathedral in Malta a few weeks ago, which as an elaborate memorial to those who have passed seemed suitable to use here.)

Another Reason to Not to Hate the Eagles

There’s a point somewhere during the first half of The Big Lebowski when the title character stops for a moment to lay down on his coveted rug -- the one that “really pulls the room together” -- and while getting high listen to some tunes on his headphones.

The song playing on his stereo is by Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band. As a devotee of all things Beefheart, I perked up the first time I saw the film in a theater nearly 20 years ago. I think by that point in the film we’d already been introduced to Lebowski’s love of CCR (whom he refers to simply as “Creedence”), but hearing the Beefheart helped shape his character in a slightly different way for me.

Later in the movie comes the much remembered scene in the taxi when after getting kicked out of the Malibu the driver is playing the Eagles’ “Peaceful Easy Feeling.” There’s a pause in the dialogue and you can see Jeff Bridges starting to exhale loudly, acting a little petulant.

I knew what was coming.

“Jesus, man. Could you change the channel?” he whines, and the driver refuses to do so with surprising ferocity. But Lebowski can’t sit still. “I had a rough night and I hate the fuck!ng Eagles, man,” he says. The driver immediately pulls over and hilariously jettisons his complaining customer to the curb.

The Beefheart tune earlier had been a cue for me, helping me anticipate that even though with most things the dude abides, he wasn’t going to abide the Eagles’ warmed over, soft country rock. I knew this because I also like Beefheart, and I also don’t very much like the Eagles.

That said, even though I don’t own a single Eagles LP, I’m still kind of fascinated by the band’s story. I listened to FM radio a lot as a child of the ‘70s, pored over Rolling Stone and other rock mags, and still today find popular culture from that era endlessly fascinating.

I thoroughly enjoyed the sprawling 2013 documentary The History of the Eagles, which I found compelling all of the way through its three-plus hours. I even appreciate the talent and craft demonstrated by their six studio records from the ’70s, and kinda-sorta have to give props to the weird, spooky narrative and dueling guitars of “Hotel California,” an undeniably inspired slice of rock art.

But for whatever reason, there’s always been something about the Eagles flavor that has never been satisfying for me. Like Lebowski, whenever they come on I’m instinctively reaching to change the channel.

Like I say, though, I find the band’s story interesting, and since I’m also a sucker for any stories about poker turning up in contexts other than the usual ones, I comfortably stuck with Dr. Pauly’s new article “Life in the Fast Lane: Poker and the Eagles” all of the way to the end. The piece is over on the PokerStars blog, and is fun stuff for fans of ’70s music, interesting tales of home games, odd poker variants, analyses of poker-themed lyrics, and movie trivia.

And yeah, well, if you like the Eagles, it’s pretty cool, too. Not that I do... but now there’s one more reason why I can’t quite hate ’em with Lebowski-like intensity.

The invented game of “Eagle Poker” described in the article struck me as a little symbolic of the band itself -- a three-card game in which you bet on whether the third card’s value landed in between the other two. I say that because of the way the band always had multiple songwriters and candidates for “leader,” with Glenn Frey and Don Henley permanently occupying two of the top spots and various third men (Randy Meisner, Don Felder, Joe Walsh) kind of standing in between them as fellow front men-slash-rivals.

(The game also made me think of my still-in-development Beatles-themed poker variant, Sgt. Pepper.)

When you get a few minutes, go read the article, which you can check out any time you like.

(Trivia question: A five-suited, 65-card deck was produced during the first half of the 20th century. What was the fifth suit called? Click here to find out.)

Image: Eagles (1972), Eagles, Amazon.

Five Years Later, Just Another Friday

Five years ago today I was in Lima, Peru helping cover the Latin American Poker Tour event there for the PokerStars blog. There we are to the left behind our laptops (the day before, I believe). It was my second trip to Lima, and the first and only time I’d partner up with my friend Dr. Pauly for such an adventure.

That fact alone might have helped make the trip stand out from the many others tourney journeys I’ve taken over the years. But something else happened that caused me to remember those days many times over the years since.

Was just another Friday. We all rolled into the Atlantic City casino late that morning, and had set up shop and were already reporting on Day 2 when the news reached us around 1 p.m. Lima time (if I remember correctly).

I don’t quite remember, actually, when the phrase “Black Friday” began to be used, although looking back through my travel reports here on the blog I can see the phrase already starting to appear in posts by Sunday. That means by the time Pauly, F-Train, Reinaldo, Carlos, and the rest of us left Peru it had already become the shorthand signifier for the end of online poker in U.S. as we knew it. And (so we thought then) the probable end of a lot of other things, too, including such trips to South America.

It turned out not to be quite as catastrophic as it seemed then, thankfully. Those reports from Lima share a kind of rapidly-told story arc reflecting the before, during, and after of the news hitting us and our efforts to absorb and understand it:

Travel Report: 2011 LAPT Lima, Arrival

Travel Report: 2011 LAPT Lima, Pregame

Travel Report: 2011 LAPT Lima, Day 1

Thunderstruck: The Day It All Changed for Online Poker

Travel Report: 2011 LAPT Lima, Day 2

Travel Report: 2011 LAPT Lima, Day 3

Travel Report: 2011 LAPT Lima, Day 4

Travel Report: 2011 LAPT Lima, Departure

Another one written about three weeks after getting home is actually my favorite “Black Friday” post, the one describing the game of Big Deuce our group played our final night in Lima, a.k.a. the Last Game:

2011 LAPT Lima Postscript: Plotting in Peru

And for more looking back, earlier this week I wrote up a more clinical, less personal rundown of what poker life was like before April 15, 2011, the events of that day, and the long, frustrating aftermath in an article for PokerNews. If you haven’t seen it you might take a look as it likely will trigger some “oh-yeah-I-forgot-about-that”-type memories:

Black Friday: Reliving Poker’s Darkest Day Five Years Later

Now it all seems oddly unremarkable, as though (in hindsight) there was something inevitable or even predictable about what happened on April 15, 2011 and everything that followed. Of course the DOJ was going to unseal the indictments and civil complaint that day -- it was just a matter of time before they did. And certainly the targeted sites would then depart the U.S. in short order. And surely we could’ve (should’ve?) seen the funds-related troubles following, too. Right?

Even the long, dreary, battle-with-inertia marking individal states’ efforts to reintroduce online poker -- successful so far in only three, and with desperately modest results -- seems from today’s perspective to have been an inexorable consequence of it all. As do the still dim prospects for online poker in this country going forward (if we’re going to be realistic).

You’d think all of that might make it less easy to remember the shock of the day itself, with the dot-coms going offline, Twitter exploding and “#pokerpanic” becoming a favorite hashtag, Two Plus Two crippling and flatlining under the weight of traffic, and so on. But the surprise was so pure and fresh -- even if it shouldn’t have been -- the impression remains lasting, even today.

Five years plus a couple of leap days makes April 15th a Friday once again. The symmetry has an effect, and the time removed now enough to suggest some kind of finality. It’s a period of time once considered adequate to accommodate Soviet planning, or to help illustrate a David Bowie-imagined apocalypse. Like we’re now even more fully sealed off from what it was all like before.

As though finally, we’re all of the way back, and it’s just another Friday.

Photo: courtesy Carlos MontiPokerStars blog.

Poorly Played On All Streets

I have at least one more “poker’s precursors” post I want to do -- perhaps a couple, actually -- but am taking a break again here today for a quick reflection on the amazing end of that Northern Iowa-Texas A&M game Sunday night.

Once upon a time -- especially around these parts -- the classic “never give up” example from college basketball was the 1974 Duke-UNC game in which the Heels came back from eight points down with 17 seconds to go, needing a long buzzer beater from Walter Davis (banked in!) to tie before going on to win in overtime.

“Eight points in 17 seconds” became kind of a mantra we’d always hear time and again at the end of ACC games thereafter, a shorthand reminder to viewers not to shut off the television early. There have been more remarkable comebacks over the last four decades, but that one continued to hold on as a commonly-evoked referent (with the lack of a three-point shot then making it even more noteworthy).

But what happened Sunday night was just mind-boggling. I didn’t shut the TV off, but I did walk away from it when NIU had a double-digit lead with about five minutes left. Spent the next half-hour or so up at the barn occupied with feeding some horses and other things, then walked back in the house to discover the game had reached double OT.

That’s when I picked up on the chatter about the Aggies’ big comeback. Was I hearing it correctly? Were they really saying they’d been 12 points down with less than a minute left and somehow had tied the game? How in the what in the who?

I immediately scrolled back on my teevee to watch that last minute play out again (here’s a condensed clip of what I saw). A follow-up basket with 34 seconds left cut the lead to 10, at which point Northern Iowa took their last timeout -- a seemingly innocuous decision that proved meaningful a little later once things began unraveling.

NIU would swiftly turn the ball over on the next three possessions, with Texas A&M converting each time right away, including knocking down a three. That suddenly cut it to 69-66 with 20 seconds left.

Then Northern Iowa scored on a breakaway dunk to make it 71-66 with 17 seconds left, and A&M responded immediately with a layup, with NIU getting called for a foul (perhaps questionably) on the shot. The free throw was converted, and the lead was just two with 12 seconds to go. Then NIU turned the ball over a fourth time, leading to the tying basket.

It happened so quickly, it wasn’t until later I realized the comeback had been achieved without A&M having to foul intentionally a single time. That the Aggies went on to win in double OT was predictable (and anticlimactic) -- I’m just surprised NIU managed to hold it together to compete during that first overtime period.

When I chatted with my buddy Dr. Pauly about the game afterwards, he provided what I thought was a good poker analogy for what had happened.

“Poorly played on all streets,” he said.

I suppose it was a bit like picking up a pair of aces, having been up by a dozen with less than a minute to go. Passive play then let the Aggies get to the flop cheaply, and missteps thereafter worrisomely bloated the pot while allowing Texas A&M to fill a wildly unlikely backdoor draw, paid off for the near maximum by NIU. I say “near maximum” because NIU didn’t bust, but essentially allowed Texas A&M a full double-up to survive before they rose up and finished off the Panthers.

“Twelve points in 44 seconds” will be the new rallying cry for those seeking the basketball equivalent of one-outers going forward, I guess.

(I’m just realizing -- the title of this post essentially describes my busted bracket, too. I played the preflop okay, I suppose, doing fair on Thursday, but mangled the hand terribly thereafter.)

Photo: “Aggie Hoop” (adapted), Stuart Seeger. CC BY 2.0.

Staying Put for the Super Bowl

I remember some twenty-plus years ago living in Chapel Hill and going to graduate school. After getting an undergraduate degree there I continued on for the M.A., then would make a change for the doctorate afterwards (going to Indiana). Several years later I would return to my home state of North Carolina to live and teach.

In other words I’d been a lifelong Tarheel fan by the time the ’93-’94 season came around. The team’s run to a championship that year remains vivid in my memory, something I wrote a little about over on Ocelot Sports a couple of years ago and also chatted with Dr. Pauly about on a podcast we did for the 20th anniversary of the final game between UNC and Michigan.

One part of that memory that stands out was the way my friends not only found it necessary to watch all of the tournament games at the same place (one friend’s apartment), but for all of us to sit in the same seats as well as the Heels kept winning each game.

I recall more and more people joining us as they proceeded through the tournament, with about 20 crammed in the small living room for the final. But the core group all kept our same seats so as not to disturb the spell of Carolina’s streak. As my buddy the host explained, “You can’t prove it doesn’t have an effect.”

At the time I vaguely thought about the logic class I’d taken as an undergrad and phrases like “proving a negative” and “proof of impossibility” and “correlation does not imply causation.” I played cards occasionally then, but this was before I’d get heavily into poker and the study of the game, and so I don’t think I knew about the “gambler’s fallacy” then, or I’d have probably thought of that, too.

My buddy Bob (a.k.a. the “Poker Grump”) who regularly writes strategy articles for PokerNews has written smartly about the latter. In “What is the ‘Gambler’s Fallacy’ and How Does It Apply to Poker?” he explains how it works, starting with the example of a roulette player allowing the phenomenon of a ball landing on red nine straight times influence him to think that has something to do with what will happen on spin number ten.

Superstitions among sports fans aren’t quite the same thing, although they share a common lack of rationality. A poll conducted by Associated Press-Ipsos several years ago found that a little more than 20% of sports fans “say they do things in an attempt to bring good luck to their favorite team or avoid jinxing them.”

The Super Bowl is Sunday, and Vera and I have already been invited to a couple of viewing parties. As readers of the blog surely have picked up on by now, I have a rooting interest in the game, one that matches where I was with the Heels back in the spring of 1994. In this case my fandom has also been building for decades and through a long, exciting season’s worth of games, most of which have gone my team’s way.

I’ve watched all of those games this year from the couch here -- from the same side, actually, where I’m sitting and typing this post.

I’m thinking it might be nice just to stay at home on the farm on Sunday.

Remko’s Run

Last summer I remember listening to an episode of the Dope Stories Podcast, the one featuring Shane “Shaniac” Schleger and Dr. Pauly. It was their “last” episode, actually, titled “This Is The End,” although they’d get together for another reunion ep. after that one.

On the show Pauly tells a funny story about working at the World Series of Poker several years back, with one of the story’s highlights (for me) having to do with our Dutch friend Remko Rinkema. I must’ve first met Remko at the 2008 WSOP when he was there reporting for PokerNews’ “NL” site, and we’ve had the chance to work together many times since then including most recently at the EPT Grand Final in Monaco.

I won’t rehearse all of Pauly’s story, but I will say it has to do with him having noticed something special about Remko. As the good doctor explains, his powers of perception had been heightened pharmaceutically, thereby enabling him to see more clearly than the rest of us Remko’s unrelentingly bright and positive aura. I’m remembering Remko back then often dressed in the orange jersey of his native country’s football squad, which I suppose only heightened the sunshiny effect Pauly was witnessing.

You can take Pauly’s story however you like, but anyone who knows Remko would readily agree that it is almost impossible not to pick up on the positive vibrations he consistently gives off. There are many others with whom I’ve had the good fortune to work at poker tournaments over the years who have also made my life brighter and funnier, and I’ll bet a lot of them -- like me -- would include Remko in that category of colleagues, too.

Thus was it especially fun to see Remko not only go deep in yesterday’s PokerStars’ Spring Championship of Online Poker Event #35-M, the $215 8-game mix, but actually come close to winning the sucker. He finished second out of 548, and in fact took away the largest share of the prize pool ($18,195.21) thanks to making a deal heads-up when he had the chip lead.

Even wilder, he outlasted both fourth-place finisher Dzmitry "Colisea" Urbanovich (who finished fourth) and Team PokerStars Pro Jason Mercier (who finished third), even knocking both of them out. Urbanovich is just coming off a series of European Poker Tour victories and earning EPT Player of the Year for Season 11, while Mercier has won three SCOOP titles over the last week-and-a-half. Seriously, what a barnburner!

When he and the eventual winner, a player named “Toby Work” from Denmark, were heads-up and getting the deal done, Remko’s opponent asked “u r journalist?” Remko didn’t hesitate before answering.

“I’m a top poker pro, I just write about poker so that the others have a chance to win,” he typed.

Remko’s many friends who were railing -- including both players and other poker media -- all laughed wherever they were around the world, each imagining hearing Remko delivering that line. (“Imagine how much funnier I am in Dutch,” Remko once told me. I believe it.)

I was glad a lot of us Remko fans got a chance last night to enjoy seeing him shine.

(EDIT [added 5/23/15]: To hear Remko tell the story of his run, check out the newest PokerNews podcast.)

Perusing Peru Posts

A quick one this morning to report I’m back in an airport again, about to make another trip down to Lima for the LAPT Peru Main Event that gets underway tomorrow.

This makes my fourth time going down to Lima, I believe, where I’ve seen and reported on some interesting tournaments over the last few years. Always a fun place to go, with the cuisine a great highlight.

Yesterday I was looking back through some of my Peru posts here and found myself dwelling in particular on one particular visit, the one in April 2011 when Dr. Pauly and I were there during Black Friday. Crazy time, that. Seemed like everything was suddenly coming to an end then, poker-wise, in so many ways.

About a week after getting back I wrote one of my favorite Hard-Boiled Poker posts here about a game of Big Deuce involving myself, the good doctor, F-Train, and Reinaldo -- “2011 LAPT Lima Postscript: Plotting in Peru.”

Probably wouldn’t have predicted then that three-and-a-half years later I’d be going back to Peru yet again. I’m glad I am, though, and expect to see a decent-sized field there along with my many LAPT buds. More to come.

Assigning Bradshaw and McGuire

Among the readings I assign in my “Poker in American Film and Culture” class is a chapter from Paul McGuire’s Lost Vegas: The Redneck Riviera, Existentialist Conversations with Strippers, and the World Series of Poker.

The chapter comes from the latter part of the book when Dr. Pauly is at his most cynical regarding the commercial spectacle of the WSOP, the chapter ending with a funny punchline about Phil Hellmuth’s increasingly elaborate entrances to the Main Event up to that point (2008).

Pauly suggests Hellmuth try riding in one year on a donkey. “I can only imagine the snarky headlines,” he writes. “‘Ass Rides Ass to WSOP.’”

I assign the reading alongside another favorite of mine, Jon Bradshaw, writing in Fast Company about a much smaller World Series of Poker happening some 35 years before. I’ve reviewed Bradshaw’s book here before, an excellent example of long form journalism that includes several great essays, including the one about Johnny Moss I have my students read.

Unlike McGuire, Bradshaw is much more admiring of his subjects whom he treats almost as though they are larger than life. Both authors are insightful about the WSOP and poker’s broader relationship to American culture, and the contrast of their perspectives gives the students a lot to consider which makes the discussions especially enjoyable for me.

Some occasionally find Pauly a little snarky. But most are entertained and enjoy the inventiveness of his style. And they respond, too, to his overall point about the commercialization of the game, something which indeed reflects larger trends happening in America not just in poker but in other cultural forums, too.

Anyhow, the discussion this week reminded me of how much I enjoyed Pauly’s book. If you’re interested in the WSOP’s history -- and in particular that 2005-2008 period he covers most closely -- and haven’t read Lost Vegas before, I recommend it.

A lot has changed over the last five years at the WSOP, I think, and, of course, in poker, generally speaking and its place in the U.S. over the same period. And of course it has all changed even more dramatically since the 1970s when Bradshaw wrote about poker and gambling and the WSOP. But many of the observations made in both books still apply, too, which along with the strong writing is why I recommend both.

Horse Play and Other Best Bets

Full-blown farm life around here these days now that our two horses, Sammy and Maggie, have arrived. Vera has had Sammy forever -- pretty much since we’ve been together -- and Maggie for a good while, too, making it especially nice to have both of them with us... right in the back yard!

I tweeted that pic to the left a few days ago, and Dr. Pauly -- a.k.a. “Ocelot Sports” -- immediately inquired if they were race horses. No, I explained, but “you can bet on who finishes feeding first.” At that he eyed the competitors and quickly calculated money lines.

“Sammy -130, Maggie +125,” he estimated.

“Sounds about right,” said Vera after I explained to her that Pauly had made Sammy the favorite. Sammy is part-thoroughbred and has quite the appetite, even if their diets technically are such that Maggie gets fed a little more each day and night.

Between the farm duties, starting a new semester of “Poker in American Film and Culture,” and Learn.PokerNews-related activities, I’ll admit I’ve been distracted more than a little from much else here lately.

Speaking of the latter, let me say I’m excited about the start of a new series of articles on “Casino Poker for Beginners” by Bob Woolley, a.k.a. the Poker Grump. Bob is the perfect person in my opinion to deliver this kind of advice to new players, and I’m psyched about being able to add him to the line-up of writers at Learn. See his first piece on “Getting Into the Game.” And here he gives a short intro to the series on the Poker Grump blog.

Meanwhile starting the class again is always fun, and I’m beginning to think I might try to share some of the content of the course over on Learn as well as we move through our narrative of poker’s prominent place in American history and culture. Need to ponder a little more on the best strategy for doing that, but I think it could be fun to share some of readings and clips in that way. I’ve had people ask me frequently if they could audit the class, and this could be a way to share some of what we’re doing with a wider audience.

Finally, while we’re on the subject of Learn stuff, I had the chance to read and review Tricia Cardner’s new book Positive Poker (with contributions from Jonathan Little) which I quite liked. She’s got a couple of doctorates including one in psychology, is a license psychotherapist, and a good poker player, too, which positions her well to deliver the mental game advice she does in the book. Read the review here, and if you’re further interested you can read an interview with Cardner as well here.

Like me, Cardner has taught a college course focusing on poker, in her case one on the psychology of poker. It was that class as well as her dissertation that provided the impetus for her book, as you can read about in both the review and interview.

That’s all for now as I have to go take care of my nightly duties to clean the stalls, feed and water, and take care of the barn cats, too. I keep joking with people about my stall-cleaning duties, and it’s funny how many seem to respond by saying how great it all sounds.

They’re right. It’s pretty awesome. And you don’t even have to place bets on Sammy and Maggie to enjoy watching them.

Leaving for Lima

Still feels like the WSOP has only just concluded, but today I’m heading back out for another long distance trip to go watch people play cards. This time out I’m making a return visit to Lima, Peru for the Latin American Poker Tour Main Event that starts tomorrow.

This makes a third trip to Lima for your humble scribbler. The first was back in June 2010 during Season 3 of the LAPT when Jose “Nacho” Barbero won his second straight title on the tour, for which Brad “Otis” Willis was my blogging partner on the PokerStars blog. Then the following spring I went back for the Season 4 stop, that time with Dr. Pauly.

That second trip coincided with Black Friday, which meant when we left we Americans were all still regular online poker players, but by the time we returned everything had changed. Still seems like such a short time ago, and yet so much has changed since then with regard both to online poker in particular and live tournament poker, too.

Like other tours around the world, the LAPT has been thriving and by now has built up its own tradition with this Lima stop coming midway through Season 6. I’ll be performing solo on the Stars blog this time around, although I look forward to working with my buddies and Reinaldo and Sergio who handle the Spanish and Portuguese blogs for PokerStars, respectively, as well as many others who run the LAPT and whom I’ve gotten to know while reporting from various stops over the years.

Gotta full day of travel ahead and need to ensure I’ve remembered to pack my passport, so I’ll sign off here. I expect to be back, though, to file a few travel reports this week, and to point you to the PokerStars blog for more. See you all on the other side.

Watching Poker, Watching Sports

Made it home yesterday in one piece. Am still looking to catch up on sleep, but am reasonably rested and glad to be staying put for the next month or so until I rejoin the WSOP Circuit in for a couple of events April.

I’ve been contributing to the Ocelot Sports blog lately, writing alongside Dr. Pauly and a few others. Last week we did a couple of “round table” posts in which we took a shot picking the over/unders for win totals for all 30 Major League Baseball teams this year. Here are those posts, if you’re curious, one each for the American League and the National League.

I’ve been posting a couple of times a week over there since December. Recent contributions included a post about my ambivalence regarding NASCAR (despite living right in the heart of race country) and another about how all the conference realignments and rapid turnover of rosters these days is affecting my college hoops watching.

Writing about sports over the last few months has gotten me thinking more specifically about sports writing, and in fact as I was helping cover that WSOP Circuit event at Caesars Atlantic City I was again considering how much a poker tournament resembles a sporting event, especially when it comes to reporting on it.

We’ve gone over the whole “poker as a sport” debate many times over by now, and so I’m not going to restart it today. I’m thinking way back to a post I wrote here way back in 2007 responding to an especially obtuse ESPN column by Mark Kreidler about poker. I’m also thinking about one of my now-scrubbed-from-the-internet Epic Poker columns titled “Poker As a Sport,” which I’ll look back at again and if it seems worthy I might repost here on Friday. (EDIT [added 3/15/13]: As that piece seemed kind of redundant, I decided against posting it, instead posting one about the use of poker in the film Havana.)

I’ve always maintained that poker is best thought of as a game and not a sport, although as I say the dynamics of a tournament most certainly resemble certain sports, particularly individual ones like golf or tennis. Thus does reporting on a poker tournament often have a lot in common with other kinds of sports writing.

For one thing, like with sports writing, writing about poker is especially “results oriented,” with a primary focus on outcomes and reporting winners and losers. We frequently fall into talking about things like momentum and “comebacks” and players “dominating” opponents or the field as a whole, too. And we focus a lot on “play-by-play”-type relating of hands, narrowly concentrating on specific actions, especially when the contest is still ongoing.

However, I can also think of some significant differences between reporting on a poker tournament and, say, writing an article about a game of basketball or football or baseball or soccer or some other sport.

One obvious difference has to do with the fact that just as poker is a “partial information game” for the players, the same goes for reporters. We can’t see everything, obviously, and so cannot report comprehensively on even a single hand. Even with hands that go to showdown, we never know what other players folded. Unlike a basketball game where all of the actions by all ten players are plain for everyone to see, such is never the case in poker.

We also lack a lot of contextual information, too, when reporting certain “plays” or hands in a poker tournament. Unless we’re at a final table where we’ve witnessed every hand played, we generally don’t know everything about what has happened in earlier hands involving players whom we now see involved in a hand against each other. (Here is an old post titled “Anatomy of a Hand Report” in which I explored this point at length.) Meanwhile, when a play happens on the football field, we know all of the plays that went before and how they might potentially relate to the present one.

We could take this discussion of context even further, actually, to talk about the great variety of individuals who participate in a poker tournament, some of whom are well known to us and many of whom are not. There aren’t really any major sporting events where an “unknown” turns up and performs in a way that makes a difference in the outcome, whereas in a poker tournament that is a routine occurrence. (They even win, sometimes.)

There are more differences between reporting on poker tourneys and reporting on sporting events. In fact, for people who don’t play poker or who aren’t interested in the game, the contrast between watching a card game and a real sport couldn’t be greater.

But for those of us who understand and enjoy the game, watching a tourney play out really can resemble watching a sport. So it makes sense sometimes to report on it in ways that are similar.

Closing Thoughts (NBC & the Olympics)

Played a little poker last night while watching the heavily-edited, frequently-interrupted, and frustratingly-abridged version of the 2012 Summer Olympics closing ceremony on NBC.

Poker-wise much fun was had as Events No. 5 and 6 in the first season of the Hard-Boiled Poker league played out over at PokerStars (in my “Hard-Boiled Poker Home Game”).

There will be 20 events altogether during this inaugural HBP HG season, with two every Sunday night through the end of September. I was determined this week to grab a few points to try and move up a little in the league standings, having played four events without scoring any at all. The way the PokerStars points system works, you have to finish in the top third of a tourney to get any points.

I just missed making the points in Event No. 5, the PLO8 tourney, finishing fifth (of 12) despite playing several hands badly. I did get there in Event No. 6, though, the NLH turbo one in which I turned into a card rack near the end to finish runner-up (of 15).

Last night’s winners were LuckKey4Me (No. 5) and thejim2020 (No. 6). Psx120 managed to grab some points last night to sneak into first place in the Season 1 standings, just ahead of thejim2020 and Gambit 727. Still plenty of opportunities to catch the leaders and win the copy of Poker: Bets, Bluffs and Bad Beats by Al Alvarez (as I talked about Friday). Look to the right for info about joining my Home Game.

Meanwhile, I occasionally enjoyed some of the closing ceremony performances, with Eric Idle’s reprise of Monty Python’s “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life” a clear highlight. Overall the spectacle seemed more like a super-long, highly uneven Super Bowl halftime show than a logical conclusion to the Olympics narrative, but the bits shown between commercials -- 20 minutes’ worth per hour (no shinola) -- were mostly entertaining to listen to and watch.

Was definitely dismayed, though, by some of NBC’s cuts to the show, including the decision to drop Ray Davies doing “Waterloo Sunset.” Leaving out Muse’s performance of “Survival,” the official song of the London games, seemed another unfortunate omission. We didn’t get to see Kate Bush, either, doing “Running Up That Hill,” the opener from one of the best pop LPs ever, Hounds of Love.

Of course, even when Kate Bush was at her most popular here in the U.S. it was mostly just with a small category of folks, so I get NBC deciding to show other, more familiar acts (although some of those featured in truth aren’t all that big on this side of the pond).

I kept it on, though, as I knew from afternoon tweets that The Who would be coming on at the end to rock Wembley. But NBC weirdly decided to stop the show at 11 p.m. just prior to The Who’s appearance.

“That concludes the closing ceremony,” said host Bob Costas just as the U.K. band Take That finished their tune, “Rule the World,” adding “We’ll be back to wrap things up after this.”

What we were watching didn’t really conclude the closing ceremony, I thought. And that “we’ll be back” teaser made it sound like there was more to come. So with the poker tourneys having long ended, I continued to watch.

Immediately after Costas spoke, NBC began to show the premiere of a new situation comedy it has been incessantly hyping with commercials throughout the last two-and-a-half weeks, Animal Practice. I thought at first I was watching another commercial, but after two minutes realized it was an actual episode.

During that span I saw a woman calling to her cat, Giggles, from the balcony of her high-rise apartment. The cat then leaps from the ledge -- kind of an upsetting thing to see, actually. The show then cuts to the waiting room of an ER for animals, where a doctor soon explains to the cat’s owner that Giggles will survive the fall. The doctor absurdly adds the cat had attempted suicide because it was in heat and frustrated. He then seems to hit on the woman.

It was an especially unfunny and unpleasant couple of minutes. And as soon as I understood it wasn’t stopping after that lame opening, I shut the sucker off and went to bed. I see this morning that NBC apparently did air The Who’s performance an hour later, after the local news.

With Costas’ lead-in and the withholding of the finale, NBC had literally tried to trick some part of its large audience to watch the pilot of this surely-doomed sitcom. As @Franzgleekout tweeted last night “NBC pulling this Animal Practice stunt is like someone who's just stolen your wallet kicking you in the balls for good measure.” Indeed, NBC’s decision-making with regards to scheduling and audience manipulation headlined this morning’s coverage of the show.

I enjoyed following the Olympic Games as much as anyone, but found that other relentless game of hide-and-seek NBC played with its delayed, edited coverage incredibly wearisome. Such a mess, really, and probably symbolic in some way of our highly cynical, commercialized culture.

As a sports fan, I’m glad to be done with all that applesauce and move back to enjoying live sporting events in real time. I’m ready for some football.

What I’m saying is, I’ve got a fever. And the only prescription is...

2012 WSOP, Day 43: Flying Along

There to the left is a picture I took from the media box near the end of the dinner break on Day 1b. PokerNews photographer Neil Stoddart had an idea to snap some photos of the dealers waiting out the break at the tables, and at one point he got them to stand and hold their arms out.

“Like you are airplanes,” he told them.

The dealers laughed and played along, grateful for something to help them pass the time waiting out the break while confined to their tables. I wrote a short post in the live blog once play resumed, where you can see Neil’s better photo.

Meanwhile, the 2012 WSOP keeps flying along. There were 2,114 players who bought $10,000 tickets for the Day 1b flight yesterday, making that the starting point for their Main Event tourney journeys. For 727 of them, Day 1b also marked the end, too.

As usually happens with these Day 1 flights, a little over a third of the field fails to make it through the first day of play. On Saturday (Day 1a), there were 1,066 entered and 657 survived (61.6%). Then yesterday 1,387 made it through out of 2,114 (65.6%).

So far 3,180 have played, and for today’s third and final Day 1 flight the WSOP knows for sure there will be at least that many playing, and likely a good bit more. In other words, the total number is going to rival the 6,865 who played last year.

They can certainly handle 4,000 playing today. They proved they could three weeks ago when 4,128 came to play the first (and only) Day 1 for Event No. 29, the $1,000 Seniors No-Limit Hold’em Championship, which I believe was the largest single-day start of a tourney in WSOP history.

The WSOP has been saying there are a total of 478 tables available for use in the Amazon, Brasilia, and Pavilion rooms, which means at ten-handed they can easily accommodate a crowd as big as that which showed up for the Seniors event, and even more.

I remember well the fiasco that was Day 1d at the 2009 WSOP Main Event, when something like 400-500 players apparently were turned away as they could only handle 2,809. In a post at the time I talked about how the PR problem resulting from not being able to seat players wanting to play in the ME would be “as massive” as the field was.

Definitely a situation the WSOP never ever wanted to encounter again, and I think they’ve planned well enough in the years since to prevent just such an occurrence.

By the way, looking back at my 2009 post sent me on an excursion through Dr. Pauly’s live blog from 2009, reading what he wrote then about the big snafu in his live blog as well as in a second, feature-style piece titled “No Soup for You.”

I am not the only one here who is missing the good doctor this time around. In fact, it was impossible not to think about him yesterday when during the final break of the evening a WSOP staff member filled the time playing the Grateful Dead over the PA, which put smiles on everyone’s faces for the entire 20 minutes. Was from the Charlotte show in 1973, he explained afterwards, promising he might play some Phish today. Pauly, as some know, is “gone Phishing” this summer, following the band on tour rather than covering the WSOP as he’d done for the seven previous years.

Speaking of missing folks, Doyle Brunson tweeted at the start of the day yesterday that he was thinking of skipping this year’s Main Event, although today he’s tweeting he might still get over there during late registration. Brunson’s played a very limited schedule this year -- the only time I’ve seen him, actually, was during the $50K Poker Players Championship. Here’s hoping he does take a seat this afternoon. Heck, he’s been taking a seat at the WSOP ever since the sucker started in 1970 (only missing a couple of Main Events along the way). Wouldn’t be the same without him.

As far as working went, yesterday was a fun day, providing a lot to write about in the PokerNews live blog while the poker was moving at a slow enough pace to afford space to scribble. Or perhaps it just seemed slower after following the nutso final day of Event No. 59 on Saturday when they swiftly played from 51 down to a winner.

Had a few conversations with folks yesterday talking about how the ME didn’t seem particularly different from any of the prelims that have been playing out the last six weeks, atmosphere-wise. Indeed, that whole carnivalesque quality of the ME -- with crazily-costumed players, antics galore, and other sidebar stuff -- seems largely gone. Although I imagine that might change some today, with the larger turnout upping the likelihood for such.

ESPN didn’t fully cover Days 1 or 2 last year, and while I don’t know their plan this time I’m guessing they are following a similar strategy. There certainly weren’t many cameras around, and those that were I believe were primarily just grabbing some b-roll stuff and not really trying to capture hands or chronicle it all in earnest.

The removal of that sort of coverage probably lessens the incentive for some to do what they can to “get on teevee.” By Day 3 they’ll be starting with around 2,000 players and playing down to less than 1,000, which will be in shouting distance of the money (the bubble will burst on Day 4). The excitement will necessarily build from that point forward.

And after that, when the field narrows further and they begin to break down and remove tables from the Amazon, we’ll know for sure that the Main Event isn’t like the prelims. Or any other poker tournament.

Positively Pauly

When I read Dr. Pauly’s post on Monday announcing he was stepping away from Tao of Poker -- not necessarily for good, mind you, but likely for a good while -- I knew I’d want to say something here about it. Thought at first I’d take a day or two to think on it. Then I looked at the calendar and figured I’d wait until Friday. Don’t ask me why, but 4/20 just seemed like the right day for such a post.

The good doctor had been quiet over at Tao for the last three-and-a-half months or so, taking a much deserved break from the poker blogging grind. His last post of 2011 began with an admission he was “burned out beyond belief,” something we regular readers kept in mind as his early 2012 hiatus stretched all of the way into the spring.

In Monday’s post, Pauly writes “A Letter to Ndugu” in which he explains his recent silence while also ending with a suggestion that “this will probably be my last letter.” Textual evidence suggests Ndugu to be the overseer of a foster program in Tanzania which Pauly had supported with monetary donations in the past. However, knowing Pauly’s literary leanings, we know better than to take such statements literally.

“Ndugu” means “brother” or “comrade” or “friend.” Pauly goes on to say it has been 111 days since his last letter -- i.e., the span since his last new post on Tao. Doesn’t take a shamus to figure out who Pauly is really addressing. Us.

The themes emerging from what follows include self-loathing (“deep down we all know what we’re doing is complete bullshit anyway”), a lack of inspiration (“my schtick is nothing more than a derivative of something I already said much better years before”), and uncertainty about the worth of “promoting the genius of degenerate gambling” or “preaching salvation via online poker” or having “distracted the masses from the maelstrom of evil that has engulfed the world by churning out misogynist rhetoric about the glamorous rockstar lifestyle of a professional poker player.”

Pauly also discusses sin, and humans’ predilection toward such. In particular, greed. “Poker is a game of skill,” he writes, “but greed is a deadly drug.” From there, the hard-to-resist influences of capitalist thinking are explored, including the relentless nature of the quest to accumulate more, its lack of conclusion leading to thoughts of that other, inevitable conclusion -- death.

“What difference did I really make in this world? What have I contributed to this society?” Pauly asks Ndugu. He asks us. “Nothing,” he answers, not waiting for a reply. “I failed.”

Before signing off, though, Pauly admits to having enjoyed “the long strange trip,” noting that while it is hard -- maybe impossible -- to find meaning in what we do, that shouldn’t prevent us from enjoying ourselves while failing. He offers himself up as an object lesson to others not to be a “selfish tosser” like him but to “live a life of integrity” and “try to make a positive impact in this world.”

“Be good,” advises Pauly. “Do good. But most importantly... be yourself, Ndugu.”

If it is a goodbye, it is undoubtedly one in which Pauly has done precisely what he’s advising his reader. Been himself. Like most everything we’ve read on Tao of Poker since way back in early 2003, it’s unique. It’s inimitable. It’s Pauly.

I feel almost self-conscious using a word like “inimitable” here. After all, reading Tao of Poker essentially inspired me to start my own poker blog. As I’m sure it did others. To see if writing about poker might be as fun and interesting and maybe even enlightening as playing it. Or more so.

I think most of us reading “A Letter to Ndugu” also know better than to diminish Pauly’s poker writings as “bullshit” or “schtick” or a mere distraction from more important things. Good, solid, intelligent, reflective writing and storytelling about any aspect of human experience -- even the silly card games we play with each other -- is of value. And Dr. Pauly has generously supported us all with a plentiful supply.

I share many of the doubts Pauly expresses in his letter. Some of the cynicism, too. But I know there’s something worthwhile happening here. Something that matters.

I mentioned earlier this week how I’d found myself going back through Vladimir Nabokov’s books. I got distracted and wrote about something else, but the passage I was really searching for came from the opening to his 1966 memoir Speak, Memory, the first sentence of which goes “The cradle rocks above an abyss, and common sense tells us that our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness.”

From there Nabokov lyrically describes how we all fear death, but we often fail to consider with equal terror the time before our birth when the world existed without us. “Nature expects a full-grown man to accept two black voids, fore and aft, as stolidly as he accepts the extraordinary visions in between” he writes. “Imagination, the supreme delight of the immortal and the immature, should be limited. In order to enjoy life, we should not enjoy it too much.”

That is to say, it’s easy to think this business in between the beginning and the end -- this “brief crack of light” -- is not to be taken too seriously. But we do. We must. As does Nabokov. “I rebel against this state of affairs,” he says.

Sure, we’re all trapped in this “prison of time” (as Nabokov calls it). But we do what we can to endure. We enjoy ourselves and each other. We can’t help but marvel at all of these “extraordinary visions in between” the two voids, and some of us are inspired from time to time to share what we’ve seen.

This Pauly has done. With integrity, and in a way that has made a positive impact. He’s done good.

Please Be Patient

Just a couple of weeks left in 2011. Every other year I’ve kept this blog, this would be the time of year I’d be devoting at least part of my mental energy -- as well as a post or three -- to thoughts of how my online poker ledger was going to add up for the year.

Can’t really say that’s the case this time around.

Since the spring I’ve continued to play for small amounts with money won in freerolls on a couple of sites, but there hasn’t been any serious attention paid to sessions or results -- nor the occasional withdrawals -- that have punctuated previous years.

I suppose I could say -- without even looking up the figures -- that 2011 is going to result in a net positive year for me as far as playing online poker goes. I say that because I remember exactly what I was able to withdraw from PokerStars back in early May, and I know that amount was greater than what I still have sitting over in my Full Tilt Poker account. Or at least what the number is that represents what I should have there.

I wonder how other players will be calculating their FTP money here at year’s end?

The news this week has been that the site’s deal with Groupe Bernard Tapie has moved a step closer to completion, which those of us with money still stuck on Tilt all hope represents another step toward the eventual return of our funds.

According to Subject:Poker, Full Tilt Poker’s ownership voted and agreed to the further transfer of assets to the Tapie group. But several more steps have to be taken before the deal will be completed and the U.S. Department of Justice takes over the business of getting the $150 million or so back to the U.S. players. (The Tapie group will assume responsibility for everyone else.) For more on where things stand at present, see S:P.

Pretty clear that 2011 is going to end without anyone getting back into their Full Tilt Poker accounts. Think back to the afternoon of Friday, April 15. Could you have imagined?

It took me a long time, but I finally removed the FTP icon from my “dock” on my Mac laptop short while back. Every now and then I’d accidentally click the sucker, then watch it enthusiastically bounce back and forth while the program failed to load.

I’d stare at the familiar message that I was “just a few seconds away from playing the most exciting poker games anywhere online,” smirk a little at that added directive to “please be patient,” then cancel the operation.

I enjoyed Pauly’s recent post on Tao of Poker, “Zombie Poker Apocalypse,” in which he meditates on the current status of poker and poker-themed entertainment, specifically televised poker. The scene Pauly describes reminds me of that stupid, bouncing icon... there’s movement, but no life.

I realized yesterday that I’m on a streak of ending posts with “we’ll see”-type statements. Such is the general state of things at the moment, poker-wise, I suppose.

We’re in a holding pattern. Necessarily waiting. For our money. For our game.

In Which I Nearly Get Run Over on Memory Lane

In his weekly updates regarding our football pool, our friend Dr. Pauly has started referring to me as “the absent-minded professor.” He doesn’t know it, but by alluding to the 1961 Disney film in which Double Indemnity star Fred MacMurray took a turn as the flubber-inventing title character, Pauly is in fact highlighting what is essentially my biggest fear in the pool -- to forget to submit my picks.

I’m actually quite organized, hardly the absent-minded type, although this week hasn’t been the greatest for me. I could blame it on the end of the semester -- always a very distracting time for teachers -- but now that I’m teaching just a single class that really isn’t much of an excuse.

There have been a couple of uncharacteristic slip-ups this week, I’m sorry to report. Small memory lapses serving to remind that perfection eludes us all. The most comical of these by far happened last night. Indeed, it was almost as slapsticky as some of the scenes in The Absent-Minded Professor.

Vera Valmore and I own a big Ford diesel truck which she sometimes uses to pull horse trailers. Not long ago I we were shuttling vehicles back and forth from the barn to our house and the truck wound up at home rather than the barn where it normally sits parked. So last night while Vera was at the barn riding I drove the truck out with the plan to leave it there, and she would drive us both back.

I had to transfer some stuff from another car to the truck while also remembering to take Vera her extra truck key and a few other items from the house. To summarize, there were a handful of things I needed to keep in mind in preparing for the trip, and somehow I managed to remember them all.

Except one, that is.

In transferring items to and from vehicles I occasionally set a few on the hood of the truck rather than on the seat. In retrospect, that was not a recommended choice.

I initially drove out, got halfway down the road heading toward the interstate, then realized I’d left the key for Vera on the counter. Drove back, secured the key, then left again, traveling about a mile or so to the interstate.

I had just gotten onto the ramp downward to the highway when I noticed an item flying off the hood of the truck. My wallet! Don’t ask me why I had thought it needful to set my wallet there during all of my fiddling, because I have no idea myself. Incredibly it had remained put during that initial extra trip around the block as well as the mile that led up to my picking up speed to merge onto the interstate.

Luckily there was some shoulder available on the side of the ramp, and I pulled over quickly and got out. It was just about dusk, but there was still enough light for me to see my wallet sitting in the middle of the road a few dozen yards back. Cars were driving over it, and I had to wait for them to pass before dashing out into the road to retrieve the sucker.

I picked it up to see all of the cards had fallen out -- credit and debit cards, library cards, my health insurance card, my voting registration card, all of it. Even my Total Rewards card, haha. I looked around to see a few scattered on the pavement, and a few more among the fallen leaves that lined each side of the road.

The next ten minutes were spent dashing up and down and back and forth, grabbing cards and dodging cars, trying desperately to keep my head clear and not succumb entirely to the absurdity of the situation. It was getting darker, and fast. I had recovered what seemed like all of my cards except one. Unfortunately it was a debit card, one of the few among the bunch I really didn’t want to leave lying somewhere on the road.

Finally I saw what looked like my debit card sitting among some leaves. But it was only an empty cigarette pack. Then I thought I saw it back in the road, but that was just my similarly-colored savings card from the grocery store.

At last I spotted the debit card back up the road where the wallet had first taken flight. I waited for a couple more cars to pass, ran out and grabbed it, jogged back down to the truck, and hopped back into the driver’s seat.

As I drove I thought briefly of that “data leak” of information regarding UltimateBet customers from last week (discussed here). If I hadn’t managed to recover all of my cards, I could’ve replaced them, sure. But I’d have still worried vaguely about some of my personal information getting literally spilled about.

Anyhow, everything seems to be back where it belongs today. As far as I can remember, anyway.

Meanwhile, I think I might just go ahead and make my Sunday NFL picks right now.

Almost Live Blog: 2011 WSOP Main Event Final Table (November Nine), Day 1

Today is the day. After 108 days plus an extra hour last night thanks to Daylight Savings Time ending, the nine players still with chips in the 2011 World Series of Poker Main Event -- a.k.a. the “November Nine” -- will finally begin their battle later this afternoon.

Could it be the last November Nine? Who knows? With the advent of “almost live” coverage of the event, one wonders whether the WSOP will bother to continue with its routine of delaying the final table months and months in order to allow televised coverage to catch up with the tournament.

Nor has the whole use-the-extra-time-to-grab-some-sponsorship-dollars thing panned out much at all for players, particularly post-Black Friday. Think about how much of the November Nine talk during the past three years revolved around who PokerStars, Full Tilt, and UltimateBet had patched up. Not anymore.

Today viewers will be able to watch every hand of the 2011 WSOP ME final table on a 15-minute delay with hole cards. (Cards will be shown after hands complete. See the section “Going ‘almost live’” in this post for more details.

The show will be available via a variety of outlets. In the U.S., we’ll be able to watch on ESPN2 starting at 12:30 p.m. Vegas time (3:30 p.m. ET) -- just a little while after the first hand is dealt. The show is scheduled to go straight through to 7:00 p.m., then take a 90-minute break when the remaining players go to dinner, then resume at 8:30 p.m.

Everything will also be streamed online on ESPN3.com here in the U.S. (for those who have access). Outside the U.S., some viewers will be able to watch on some ESPN’s international networks. Non-U.S. folks can also watch online over at the WSOP.com site where they will have full access.

Here is the full schedule for today, per the media guide (all times Pacific):

12:17 p.m. -- Final instructions and “Shuffle up and deal” announcement

12:19 p.m. -- Cards in the air, first hand dealt; resume Level 36 (50k/250k/500k); 34 minutes, 57 seconds left in level

12:53 p.m. -- 10-minute break

1:04 p.m. -- Play resumes with Level 37 (75k/300k/600k)

3:04 p.m. -- 15-minute break

3:20 p.m. -- Play resumes with Level 38 (100k/400k/800k)

5:20 p.m. -- 15-minute break

5:35 p.m. -- Play resumes with Level 39 (100k/500k/1m)

6:45 p.m. -- Dinner break begins in middle of level (hard stop)

8:15 p.m. -- Play resumes, continuing Level 39

9:05 p.m. -- 10-minute break; scheduled color-up 25k chips

9:15 p.m. -- Play resumes with Level 40 (200k/600k/1.2m)

11:15 p.m. -- 15-minute break

11:30 p.m. -- Play resumes with Level 41 (200k/800k/1.6m)

1:30 a.m. -- 15-minute break

1:45 a.m. -- Play resumes with Level 42 (300k/1m/2m)

The plan is to stop tonight when they get down to three players, meaning it is unlikely they’ll get all of the way to those last levels. Indeed, last year the Main Event was all over with by Level 41, and the year before it ended during Level 40. It’s also unlikely they’ll be able to keep everything to the minute as planned, although with ESPN directing things, perhaps they will.

Here are the starting stacks and seating assignments for the final table:

Seat 1: Matt Giannetti (U.S.) -- 24,750,000
Seat 2: Badih “Bob” Bounahra (Belize) -- 19,700,000
Seat 3: Eoghan O'Dea (Ireland) -- 33,925,000
Seat 4: Phil Collins (U.S.) -- 23,875,000
Seat 5: Anton Makiievskyi (Ukraine) -- 13,825,000
Seat 6: Sam Holden (U.K.) -- 12,375,000
Seat 7: Pius Heinz (Germany) -- 16,425,000
Seat 8: Ben Lamb (U.S.) -- 20,875,000
Seat 9: Martin Staszko (Czech Republic) -- 40,175,000

I’ll be watching today, and will come back here from time to time today to add thoughts to this post as the sucker plays out. Call it an “almost live” blog.

Meanwhile, Dr. Pauly handicapped the final table earlier in the week, so if you’re looking for some more poker pregame to peruse, check out his “Betting Guide to the 2011 November Nine.” I also wrote up a final table preview for Betfair poker that includes various info about the final nine.

Also, for a more comprehensive blog on this here Main Event final table, be sure to follow Jesse May’s post over on The Poker Farm where he has already managed to share a few thousand words’ worth of insight several hours before the first hand.

See you back here in a while.

10:30 a.m. (Vegas time)
A little less than two hours away from the first hand. Even though I am on the east coast, I’m gonna use PST for the time stamps.

Here is a photo just snapped and tweeted by my buddy Jonathan Boncek (@boncekImages). Jon-Bon is there at the Penn & Teller Theater today to shoot photos for PokerNews.

Was just listening to Andrew Feldman, Lon McEachern, and Bernard Lee breaking down the final nine on the most recent episode of The Poker Edge, a good way to get reintroduced to the final nine players. Check that Jesse May blog as well as he’s offering thoughts about each of the nine, too.

Also, I mentioned that non-U.S. folks will be able to watch everything on WSOP.com. For viewers looking for information about ESPN’s international networks, those in Latin America can check Espnplay.com, if you are in Australia look at Espn3.com.au, and those in New Zealand can check out Espn3.co.nz. Seems like they’ve got everything pretty well covered so that everyone who wants to will have some way to watch.

11:30 a.m.
Dr. Pauly has made the scene there at the Penn & Teller Theater at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino and has himself a live blog up and running. Check it.

12:15 p.m.
You know the PokerNews guys are going to blog it all today. So, too, will there be frequent posts over at BLUFF and elsewhere. In fact, the WSOP has lifted that rule about posting once per hour that normally applies during the WSOP Main Event, so there should be no lack of info about what is happening at the Rio all over the interwebs today. Looks as though the player introductions are already underway.

I’m wondering whether the combination of being able to bet on the November Nine right there at the Rio -- something new this year -- and this 15-minute delayed broadcast (with hole cards) might potentially combine to create some issues.

You’ve got people there watching the action who have bet their own money on the outcome. Those folks are no doubt going to be wired enough to know pretty much as soon as the rest of the world does what players were holding in recently played hands. (As will the players themselves, too, of course, once they consult with their respective rails, actual and virtual).

I’m not saying anything untoward is necessarily going to happen. I assume any spectators who become inappropriate with their encouragement -- i.e., who start advising players how to play a bit too specifically from their seats there in the Penn & Teller Theater -- will be dealt with as necessary. But it seems more likely that not that we’ll see some incident that throws an integrity-threatening wrinkle into the proceedings.

It’s an entirely unique situation for the WSOP Main Event. As Jesse May has noted already today in his live blog, these guys “are about to become the world’s most expensive guinea pigs.”

12:45 p.m.
Yachting has concluded on ESPN2 and the show is finally underway. Lon McEachern and Antonio Esfandiari quickly introduced the scene and the “unprecedented” plan to provide comprehensive “same day coverage on a 15-minute delay to protect the integrity of the game.” The nine players were then shown all introducing themselves in prepackaged intros.

“This is truly the world’s game... you can get whamboozled anywhere on the globe,” said Norman Chad before rattling off the various places -- from seven different nations -- from which the nine players hail. He then delivered the “shuffle up and deal” and at 12:38 p.m. we’re seeing the first hand being dealt amid a lot of hoots and hollers among the crowd.

On the first hand, Phil Collins limped in from early position and all folded back to Bob Bounahra in the big blind. A jack flopped, and Bounahra check-folded to Collins’ bet. After the hand was over, we saw Collins had and so had hit the flop, and Bounahra had and had not. In fact, “queen-jack suited” was the first holding Esfandiari suggested Collins might have had when he limped.

Time to settle in.

12:55 p.m.
As was the case back in July, not seeing the hole cards during the hand (but only afterwards) makes for a lot more interesting analysis. All of the action is very clear thus far and the graphics work well. Cannot really hear any table talk, but it doesn’t appear there has been much, anyway. Would be nice to see stack sizes during hands (as they’ve begun doing over on the Epic Poker League broadcasts), but all in all everything is very clear and easy to follow.

I also like how the actual time of play -- always exactly 15 minutes behind thus far -- is shown up in the right-hand corner. I can tell already I’m probably going to be focusing more on the ESPN2 show than the updates on PokerNews or Twitter.

Play pretty tight during the first orbit. After nearly four months of waiting, it is no surprise to see no one in any special hurry here at the start.

1:15 p.m.
They have made it to the first break on the broadcast. We just saw Hand #11 in which O’Dea took a few chips off of Heinz. The board ran out and afterwards we saw that O’Dea had flopped a monster with . Heinz had but K-Q -- he check-called the flop bet, both checked the turn, then Heinz folded to O’Dea’s river bet.

Martin Staszko still leads with about 40 million, but O’Dea is edging closer, up to 38.7 million. Meanwhile, Heinz has slipped to ninth just behind Holden with right at 12 million.

1:35 p.m.
They have begun Level 37 (75k/300k/600k). On Hand #14, you could clearly see Pius Heinz’s right hand shaking as he put out the stack of lavender chips on the river with the board showing -- a bet of 2.3 million into the 6.825 million pot. His lone opponent, O’Dea, thought for a while, looking over a couple of times, before folding.

The hands? Heinz had two red aces, and O’Dea 9-9. (Heinz had actually checked the turn there with the overpair and nut flush draw and O’Dea checked behind.) That one pulls Heinz up out of the cellar and to about 16 million.

2:05 p.m.
Phil Hellmuth has joined McEachern and Esfandiari in the booth. His first comment is to say he’d predicted play would be tight early on, and that has certainly been the case.

Hellmuth is suggesting that the 15-minute delay is actually keeping players in line even more, avoiding too many “creative” plays (e.g., a loose three-bet with a mediocre hand) since such plays will become known by their opponents in such short order. Esfandiari agrees, and it does seem like a reasonable point to help explain the relatively tight play thus far.

Other factors are keeping ’em tight, too, of course. Indeed, as they are pointing out, all nine have essentially established tight images for themselves during the first hour-and-a-half.

They are starting now to show chip counts during hands. Occasionally they’ll stream across the top of the screen in a way that resembles what the positions of cars during a NASCAR race. (In fact, they are also streaming NFL scores at the bottom of the screen and other sports news, including what is happening at today’s race, thereby furthering the impression of that similarity.) During hands they’ll sometimes show how much players have behind, such as in this one (Hand #22) between Bounahra and Staszko.

2:15 p.m.
Within moments of Hellmuth making that observation about the tight play, both Makiievskyi and Holden shoved their short stacks, getting no callers. Then both Heinz and Lamb three-bet opponents off of hands preflop with holdings that were weaker than those they were up against.

2:55 p.m.
Vanessa Rousso has replaced Hellmuth in the booth.

After checking Twitter and PokerNews during the commercial, I was curious to see what Heinz and O’Dea held during the huge Hand #39 that ended without a a showdown. Heinz opened, Lamb called, O’Dea four-bet from the small blind, and Heinz called, forcing a fold from Lamb. Pot 10.775 million.

The flop came . O’Dea leads with a bet of 4.6 million, and Rousso is saying O’Dea’s body language suggests he’s strong. After some thought, Heinz calls, making the pot almost 20 million.

The turn brings the -- a third club. The commentators all think we’re looking at two big pocket pairs. O’Dea again leads, this time for 8.2 million. The hoody-wearing Heinz riffles chips for several minutes. The longer Heinz tanks, the more the commentators are convinced that O’Dea is feeling comfortable and Heinz much less so.

At the four-minute mark, Heinz makes what Rousso calls the “muck face” -- i.e., he looks like he’s going to fold. Then, boom... he’s all in! For 16 million. O’Dea folds immediately! The hands...

Heinz:
O’Dea:

Wow. Heinz up to 44 million-plus, edging close to the leader Staszko. O’Dea way down to 11 million-ish; only Holden has less. What a hand.

3:10 p.m.
Heinz -- considered by many the most aggressive player of the final nine -- has climbed from seventh to the chip lead after just 45 hands. He is closing in on 50 million.

3:30 p.m.
They have reached the end of the level and the next 15-minute break. After exactly 50 hands, all nine players still alive. Here are the counts heading into Level 38 (100k/400k/800k):

Pius Heinz -- 49,950,000
Martin Staszko -- 43,525,000
Matt Giannetti -- 26,525,000
Ben Lamb -- 21,675,000
Phil Collins -- 15,775,000
Badih "Bob" Bounahra -- 14,025,000
Eoghan O'Dea -- 13,025,000
Sam Holden -- 11,225,000
Anton Makiievskyi -- 10,200,000

3:45 p.m.
Sam Holden is out in ninth, KO'd in the first hand back from the break. He three-bet shoved with and Lamb quickly called with . The first four community cards were clubs, and that was that.

“I think I’m happy with how I played for the most part,” said the curly-headed Holden to Kara Scott afterwards. “I had a really good time.... Things didn’t quite work out for me at the final table, but I’m very pleased with the experience.”

Chips for “Benba” (as you can hear his fans calling). He’s up over 34 million now, good for third.

4:05 p.m.
Relatively big hand just now between Matt Giannetti and Bob Bounahra. Bounahra opened from UTG and it folded around to Giannetti who after a long pause called from the big blind. Both checked the jack-high flop, then Giannetti led both the turn and river, with the cigar-chomping man from Belize calling him on both streets.

By the end the board read 3-J-6-5-5 (no flush possible), and while Bounahra thought about whether to call the river Esfandiari put him on a middle pair. “If he can beat a jack, I'm quitting poker,” Esfandiari added.

After another minute the Magician then surmised that Bounahra probably wanted to make a hero call -- and he was right. Bounahra did call, and had to muck his pocket tens after seeing Giannetti's J-8.

That one dropped Bounahra to the bottom, eighth of eight with a little over 8.5 million. Meanwhile, Giannetti climbed a touch over Lamb and back into third with about 35.5 million.

4:20 p.m.
Down to seven now. Makiievskyi open-shoved his short stack of 10.5 million with K-Q and leader Heinz quickly called from the big blind with pocket nines. The flop was good for the Ukrainian, coming , but the turn cruelly brought the .

Makiievskyi looked upwards in disbelief, then could only smile as a red seven on the river sent him out in eighth.

In his exit interview with Scott he was obviously disappointed, but in reasonably good spirits. She asked him about the crowd and whether it affected him, and he said it didn’t really although the noise during hands wasn’t necessarily ideal.

Heinz is up over 61 million now. Shortly after that one they showed that lucky hand from Day 8 in which Heinz sucked out with K-J against John Hewitt’s A-K with 11 players left.

4:45 p.m.
Hellmuth is back in the booth and making more observations about how the 15-minute delay is affecting the play. For example, that hand in which O’Dea tried to push Heinz off the queens (see 2:55 p.m.) came about 30 minutes after one in which Heinz had three-bet preflop with a so-so hand and gotten a fold. Hellmuth's point is that O’Dea knew about the earlier hand when he got aggressive against Heinz in the later one. It's possible, I suppose, although the way that one played out I can't really buy O'Dea making his move strictly based on that one sorta-bluffy preflop three-bet from before.

Meanwhile, Belize Bob has been eliminated in seventh. Down to less than 4.5 million (less than six big blinds), he reraise-pushed with A-5 and was called by Staszko who held A-9. The board blanked, and Bounahra is out.

In his exit interview, Scott asked him about the hand with Giannetti (see 4:05 p.m.), and Bounahra said he “put him on an ace-king or ace-queen or an underpair” and not jack-eight. You get the feeling he isn't too disappointed with seventh, though. “I came here to have fun, and I will have fun tonight, no matter what” he said with a wide grin.

Six left. Half are American.

Pius Heinz -- 52,500,000
Matt Giannetti -- 49,075,000
Martin Staszko -- 45,750,000
Ben Lamb -- 31,600,000
Phil Collins -- 15,375,000
Eoghan O'Dea -- 11,625,000

5:00 p.m.
Kind of an epic suckout just now as Phil Collins survived with against Lamb's . (See details here.) He and Lamb essentially switch stacks there, with Collins up close to 30 million and Lamb back down to about half that.

“Sorry bud,” said a very reserved and cool Collins to Lamb afterwards. Lamb was also pretty stoic-looking following the hand. You can tell he was disappointed not to win the hand and knock out a tough opponent, but only barely. Both these guys -- really all of the November Niners -- have been nothing but professional from the get-go.

You could also make out Collins saying one other thing after the hand -- “First time all in.” He’s referring to the entire Main Event (no shinola).

5:50 p.m.
The last hand of Level 38 saw a preflop all-in confrontation between the two short stacks, Ben Lamb and Eoghan O’Dea.

O’Dea opened with a raise, Lamb shoved, and O’Dea thought for almost three full minutes before making the call. Lamb had and was the one at risk versus O’Dea who held .

Decent flop for Lamb, the board bringing him a flush draw and in fact making him a slight favorite with two cards to come. The turn was a black four, but the hit on the river to save Lamb. He bumps back up over 29 million while O’Dea goes to the break with less than 3 million.

The Irishman will have less than 3 big blinds when Level 39 begins. They’ll be playing about half of this next two-hour level, then the remaining players will go on a 90-minute dinner break.

Pius Heinz -- 65,200,000
Matt Giannetti -- 51,675,000
Martin Staszko -- 38,250,000
Ben Lamb -- 29,450,000
Phil Collins -- 18,750,000
Eoghan O'Dea -- 2,600,000

6:15 p.m.
During the break, ESPN2 showed a quick report that largely focused on Black Friday and its various effects while also mentioning a few other “year in review”-type stories.

Also during the break, Oskar Garcia tweeted this picture of the 500,000 chip, which is being put into play here in Level 39. Meanwhile, my buddy Eric Ramsey -- there at the Rio reporting for PokerNews -- also sent a tweet in which he posed a question: “Dinner break coming in 50 minutes. Anyone care to set odds on us being three-handed before then?”

After two hands of Level 39, Eric’s question appeared especially prescient. That’s because players busted on each of those two hands -- Nos. 99 and 100 of the final table.

First O’Dea was dispatched by Staszko when his Q-6 couldn’t catch up to the Czech player's pocket eights. Then Collins was knocked out by Heinz when his couldn’t outdraw the German’s pocket nines.

Boom, boom. Four remain. Might not even get to that dinner break.

7:00 p.m.
Well, they did make it to dinner, meaning a later night for us here on the east coast. During the 20 hands played since Collins was eliminated, Lamb became especially active, winning nearly half the hands.

In one of the last just before the break, Staszko limped in from UTG/the cutoff and it folded around to Lamb in the BB who checked. The flop came 8-8-K rainbow and Lamb checked. Staszko quickly bet 1.2 million (just under half the pot), and with some deliberation Lamb check-raised to 2.6 million. Staszko collected chips, then made it 5.2 million to go, something Esfandiari said looked very suspicious. Lamb unhesitatingly made it 8 million, and the Czech folded instantly.

The cards? Staszko , and Lamb !

Here are the stacks going to break:

Pius Heinz -- 85,500,000
Matt Giannetti -- 50,325,000
Ben Lamb -- 46,300,000
Martin Staszko -- 23,900,000

Back on the other side.

8:40 p.m.
The remaning four players are back in action and coverage has resumed on ESPN2.

David Tuchman has stepped into the booth now, joining Hellmuth and Esfandiari. Tuchman is saying it is Level 40, but they’ve actually still nearly another hour of Level 39 to go.

Each of the four players won a hand apiece during the first orbit, none of which saw a flop. Staszko is now down under 22 million (i.e., under 22 BBs).

9:15 p.m.
All four of these players are clearly tough -- adjusting constantly, using aggression when appropriate, picking spots well. In other words, I think it is safe to say that whoever wins, there will be marginally less talk of the winner having luckboxed his way to the bracelet than tends to have come up during the post-"boom" era. Unless Benba wins, I guess, although amid all of his run-good the 2011 WSOP Player of the Year has certainly proven himself among the most skillful.

Kind of an interesting hand just now between Heinz and Lamb. Heinz completed from the SB, Lamb made it 2.7 million from the BB, and Heinz called. Heinz then led for 3.1 million following a flop, and Lamb called. Heinz bet again after the fell -- 6.3 million this time -- and Lamb let it go without much hesitation.

Heinz had and Lamb .

Shortly after that (Hand #146), Heinz four-bet Lamb before the flop (to 14 million), forcing a fold. In that one, Heinz had Q-8-off (better than Lamb’s 10-5-off).

9:35 p.m.
Big double-up for Staszko, all in for 21.52 million with A-8 versus the 6-6 of leader Heinz.

As Heinz thought about the call, Esfandiari and Hellmuth agreed Heinz would be calling with a hand like pocket sevens or A-10 or A-9.

Two eights flopped, and the Czech's hand held. He's up over 44 million, while Heinz still leads with just under 75 million. Giannetti remains in second with about 56 million -- he's been second or third pretty much all day -- and Lamb is now the short stack with a little under 30 million.


9:50 p.m.
Okay, now they are starting Level 40 (200k/800k/1.6m).

Pius Heinz -- 73,800,000
Matt Giannetti -- 56,000,000
Martin Staszko -- 44,500,000
Ben Lamb -- 31,600,000

10:05 p.m.
Sounds like they are indeed frequently telling the crowd to keep quiet during hands. Was wondering way back this morning whether or not that would be the case, particularly considering many of those in attendance not only are following coverage online, too, but have bet on the outcome. (EDIT [added 11/8/11]: Vin Narayanan of Casino City Times kept a live blog on Sunday as well, and he comments frequently on the rowdy crowd and the efforts to shush them. See his 11/7 article, “Shhh. We’re trying to play a poker tournament.”)

In hand #158, Heinz and Giannetti built a pot of exactly 30 million by the turn, then checked both of the last two streets. Final board K-K-7-Q-9. Heinz showed Q-8 suited -- a lot of chips for him to get in before pairing up on the turn. Giannetti mucked his hand, which we got to see -- 8-8.

10:25 p.m.
Esfandiari has taken off, with Norman Chad joining Tuchman and Hellmuth. Meanwhile, Staszko has now moved into second place after winning a huge one versus Heinz.

Staszko opened from the button for 2.5 million and Heinz called from the BB. The flop came , and Heinz check-called Staszko's 2.5 million c-bet. He'd check-call a bigger bet -- 7.5 million -- after the turn.

The river was the and Heinz checked once more. This time Staszko bet 13.75 million, pushing the total pot up over 40 million. Heinz tanked for about four minutes, during which time Hellmuth put him on A-9 or A-8.

“All Heinz is thinking is ‘Does Staszko have it or not?’ and ‘Can I make this thin call on the river or not?’”

Finally Heinz decided he could not make the call and let his hand go. We see he had . Third pair, ultimately. But Staszko hadn't gotten there until the river, which as it turned out gave him the nuts -- he had .

Heinz slipped to about 79 million on that one, while Staszko moved up over 58 million. Giannetti remained just under 40 million, and Lamb a bit below 30 million.

11:05 p.m.
It’s fashionable to joke about Ben Lamb running good, being a luckbox, having a horseshoe up his ass, what have you. He certainly has experienced some good fortune today, including an opportune river card to avoid being eliminated in sixth (see 5:50 p.m.). And in the past as well. But he’s also pretty obviously a helluva player.

That said, the night has ended with Lamb scoring a couple of hands off of Matt Giannetti in which skill didn’t matter all that much.

In the first, Lamb four-bet shoved for 26.8 million with and was insta-called by Giannetti who held -- the hand that he’d doubled up with twice at that ten-handed final table back in July. But here two hearts flopped, a third came on the turn, and the river was no matter. Lamb was up over 55 million, and Giannetti was in the danger zone.

Giannetti would double through Staszko on the next hand. Then Lamb called off more than 10 million chips’ worth in a hand versus Heinz before folding the river, enabling the German to move up over 100 million.

Then, in Hand #178 of the final table, there arose another preflop all-in confrontation between Giannetti and Lamb. The former was risking his last 12 million with . But there was Lamb, running good, and tabling .

The flop brought not one but both of the other kings, and that was that.

Here’s how the payouts went today:

4th -- Matt Giannetti ($3,012,700)
5th -- Phil Collins ($2,269,599)
6th -- Eoghan O’Dea ($1,720,831)
7th -- Badih “Bob” Bounahra ($1,314,097)
8th -- Anton Makiievskyi ($1,010,015)
9th -- Sam Holden ($782,115)

And here are the counts of the remaining three:

Pius Heinz -- 107,800,000
Ben Lamb -- 55,400,000
Martin Staszko -- 42,700,000

It’s late, so I’m going to wrap it up here quickly and save further musing for tomorrow. In the end we saw more than nine hours’ worth of “almost live” poker on ESPN2 today, and the show was terrific from beginning to end.

And the sequel comes Tuesday.