Hellmuth and the Hoi Polloi

Haven’t really been watching the WSOP broadcasts on ESPN that closely this summer. The Main Event coverage has been on for the last couple of weeks. I know this is becoming kind of an annual refrain from me, but with every passing year I’ve moved further and further from wanting to spend a couple of hours on a weeknight watching the WSOP ME.

There are a few reasons for my edging away from being a regular viewer, one of which I was writing about last Friday -- namely, playing less poker (I believe) makes one less enthused to watch others play. With the WSOP ME, of course, I have a particular, personal reason to be a little less inspired to watch after having been there all summer reporting on the sucker. Sort of thing cuts into the suspense more than a little, although it’s still kind of fun occasionally to tune in and search backgrounds for familiar faces.

I did happen to catch part of the first hour the other night, however, which found ESPN showing more from Day 3. Much of that hour was devoted to featuring Phil Hellmuth nursing a short stack, then finally getting eliminated.

At one point we see Hellmuth play a hand versus Dennis Reyes. Both are sitting with below average stacks, and when they get to the turn on a nine-high board Reyes shoves with pocket jacks. Hellmuth -- with king-high and a flush draw -- takes a big bite of his sandwich, offers a short speech, then folds. Then he continues to talk to Reyes through a mouthful of food, delivering the usual low estimate of his opponent’s ability while chompingly championing his own.

That’s when the show cuts to a one-minute long segment labeled “Side Action” in which Hellmuth and last year’s Main Event runner-up Jesse Sylvia are shown playing in a low stakes no-limit hold’em game over in the poker room on the other side of the Rio.

Watching this segment caused me to remember having witnessed some discussion of this little idea last month. It was Day 6, I think, well after both Hellmuth and Sylvia had been eliminated from the ME. I recall overhearing folks in the Amazon Room talking about getting Hellmuth down into the poker room, including making sure it would be cool to shoot video there.

I didn’t realize then that Sylvia was going to be recruited to appear in the segment as well. Anyhow, I know I’m not surprising anyone to report it having been somewhat plotted out ahead of time. In other words, I doubt anyone watching the segment would actually think Hellmuth and Sylvia had randomly decided to play in the game and the cameras just happened to be there to catch it.

As shown in the segment, Hellmuth and Sylvia take a couple of seats at a $1/$3 NLHE table and appear to have fun playing with those who are gathered there. While we can’t really follow any hands, the pair are apparently losing. Eventually Hellmuth orders some Dom Pérignon for the table, then after saying “you guys are a little bit too tough for us” wishes everyone luck and they depart.

It looked like those involved enjoyed the visit, which I’m going to guess probably didn’t last more than an orbit or two. I suppose it might seem a little patronizing -- the high rollers stooping to join the hoi polloi -- though I can imagine worse. Hard not to roll the eyes a little, though, when watching Hellmuth play-acting as the life-of-the-party, lovable loser in the $1/$3 game since that character contrasts so markedly with the sniping, unfriendly self he typically appears as when playing “real” poker.

(Yeah, I know... “the hoi polloi” is redundant. But it makes a weird phrase sound even weirder to omit the article.)

2012 WSOP Main Event Final Table (Day 2 of 2)

Managed to stay up until about 1:30 a.m. last night watching the “almost live” coverage of the 2012 World Series of Poker Main Event final table on ESPN2. That was the first five-and-a-half hours’ worth or so, meaning I saw the first three eliminations (Steve Gee in ninth, Robert Salaburu in eighth, and Michael Esposito in seventh) before hitting the hay. I mentioned yesterday how I was going on about two hours’ sleep, and so finally succumbing to fatigue I decided at that point to record the rest to watch this morning.

Gee’s early exit didn’t surprise me too much. I was noting yesterday how I’d seen Gee make some fishy plays back in July. I was thinking of his “accidental call” on Day 6 (to knock out Nick DiVella) and a couple of hands on Day 7 when he’d done some overcalling and chasing at the secondary feature table.

Both Salaburu and Esposito were relatively tight during the eight or so orbits they lasted. Didn’t necessarily expect that of Salaburu, whom I’d seen appear aggressive on Day 7 (although as I pointed out on Monday, it turned out he’d been dealt a lot of big starting hands). Esposito I’d seen less of back in July, but it became obvious early on when he limp-reraised with pocket kings -- then limped a couple more times with his short stack -- that he was probably outmatched.

Esposito’s exit came in Hand #70. I watched about 15 more hands after that before popping in the tape and hitting the sack. (That’s right, we’re using the old school VCR here at chez Shamus.) As it turned out, then, none of the first three players eliminated last night necessarily distinguished himself as someone deserving better as far as his finish went.

By then it was pretty clear that Greg Merson was the most likely candidate to make tonight’s final three, with Jesse Sylvia (still leading) also appearing favored to join him. If I had to guess at that point who the third would be, I probably would’ve picked Russell Thomas who impressed with the big call with pocket queens against Gee’s 8-8 early on, although appeared to turtle up following that hand.

When I awoke this morning I avoided email, Twitter, and any other idle web surfing and watched the rest of last night’s action.

Andras Koroknai’s six-bet shove of 40 million-plus versus Merson with K-Q-offsuit (Hand #108), resulting in his elimination in sixth place, was surprising to say the least. The analysis by Antonio Esfandiari during the hand (and by Olivier Busquet during the break) pointed to an earlier hand (Hand #85) in which Koroknai had been five-bet out of a hand by Sylvia, a hand which had happened long enough before for the Hungarian to have learned that Sylvia had held but Q-J-offsuit.

In other words -- if indeed Koroknai was influenced by that earlier hand -- having the 15-minute delay with hole cards had a significant effect on one player’s decision-making, and thus (perhaps) the outcome of the table as a whole. In any case, the night would conclude with Gee and Koroknai being remembered for having made the biggest missteps.

Jeremy Ausmus played his short stack well early on to chip up and out of the danger zone before getting tripped up in fifth in a tricky hand versus Sylvia.

Jake Balsiger folded some winners early on, but as the night went on made several well-considered bets and raises to keep his stack reasonably healthy, too. Then came the last hand of the night (Hand #135) and that blind-vs.-blind confrontation when he benefited from some impatience from Thomas to knock the latter out in fourth.

I enjoyed the show, and look forward to more tonight. Recall that last summer ESPN started trying this “almost live”-type coverage at the WSOP, showing every hand and then revealing the hole cards for the last two players afterwards (for non-showdown hands). I believe it was earlier in 2011, at the pre-Black Friday PokerStars Caribbean Adventure -- where ESPN first tried the experiment. The WPT also began doing something similar with its streaming of final tables online.

Even so, watching unedited poker on the tube can be a grind. With the commercial breaks and overall slow pace, they were playing at a glacial clip of about 15 hands per hour. Tough stuff even for the most dedicated poker fan, I think. In fact, there was one stretch during the latter part of play (Hands #88-#103) where an entire hour went by without a single flop. I’m still a little amazed that ESPN devotes so much air time on one of its primary networks to the sucker.

As I watched last night and this morning, I thought about my “Keeping Score” post from last week. Unlike back in 1997, when Tom Sims (all on his own) kept track of and then reported every final table hand as he saw it, now we all can watch every hand -- repeatedly if we like -- and not only know all of the immediately observable action but hole cards as well.

It’s also possible to pull together an even more comprehensive “scorecard” of the ME final table, too, by looking both at PokerNews’ reporting and the ESPN video. Of course, even there a few small items fall through the cracks, such as the occasional bet amount and hole card. In fact, ESPN missed showing one quick raise-and-take hand altogether (Hand #86) while showing a little montage of knockouts.

Thus we can go back and say (for instance) that Merson picked up A-K exactly eight times in the 135 hands dealt last night (Hands #31, #35, #36, #70, #78, #99, #109, #118), including the two big knockout hands versus Esposito and Koroknai. He also was dealt A-Q three times (Hands #92, 95, 96). And he won all 11 of those hands.

Incidentally, K-K was dealt three times last night -- to Esposito (Hand #5), Salaburu (Hand #22), and Balsiger twice (Hands #53 and #119). Pocket aces were dealt but once, to Sylvia (Hand #88).

We were able to see Balsiger dealt pocket pairs nine times last night. In addition to getting kings twice, he was dealt 9-9 twice (#16, #29), 10-10 three times (#20, #67, #72), 5-5 once (#130), and 2-2 once (#131). Salaburu almost equaled that clip by getting pocket pairs four times in the 65 hands he played. We saw no other player with pocket pairs more than three times last night (although some could well have folded them without their hands being shown). Balsiger picked up A-K five times, too (Hands #8, #37, #57, #78, and #135).

Gotta believe Merson (1st, 88.35 million) is the betting favorite tonight, although really both Sylvia (62.75 million) and Balsiger (3rd, 46.875 million) appear savvy enough to break through, especially if the cards cooperate. In other words, it seems doubtful there will be any slip-ups as dramatic as those of Gee and Koroknai on Monday, but who knows?

Who do you think will be the 2012 WSOP Main Event champ?

Poker’s Possible Worlds; or, “Easy Fold for Jesse”

Was watching ESPN’s coverage earlier this week of the last moments of Day 7 of the 2012 World Series of Poker Main Event. A memorable finish to the night, of course, with both of the remaining women -- Elisabeth Hille and Gaelle Baumann -- going out in the last two spots shy of the nine-handed final table.

In yesterday’s post I was writing about “hand-for-hand” coverage at the WSOP. Once Hille was eliminated and the remaining 10 players assembled around a single table, those of us doing the PokerNews live blog decided to take turns reporting every hand from that point forward. As it happened, it would be over in just 15 hands when Baumann was finally eliminated by Andras Koroknai.

As I wrote about here last July, it was kind of a manic scene. I had been on the secondary feature table, and so once Hille was knocked out I raced over and hastily set up in one of the media towers by the main table. The action went quickly, and it would take just over half an hour for those last 15 hands to be played.

On just the fifth hand of ten-handed play, Russell Thomas made a big preflop all-in shove following a lot of action and everyone folded. He showed his hand afterwards -- pocket aces. It had been my turn to write that one, and as so as I watched it again the other night, I remembered the hand. I looked back after and saw I’d given the post a pretty generic title: “Thomas Pushes With Aces.”

In truth, the hand didn’t seem all that notable at the time. Sure, we were surprised to see significant action so quickly after ten-handed play had begun. But the way the hand ended made it seem not so remarkable, and soon we’d forgotten about it as we became preoccupied with subsequent hands and the plight of Baumann and her short stack.

Watching the same hand on ESPN this week, though, revealed just how dramatic and unusual it was. And how a decision made by one player -- chip leader Jesse Sylvia -- might well have affected the ultimate outcome that evening regarding who among the ten players would not be coming back next week for the official final table.

That picture to the left is a screen shot from ESPN’s coverage showing the chip counts at the start of ten-handed play. The first four hands had been blind steals, and so the stacks hadn’t changed a lot by the start of Hand #5.

The blinds were 150,000/300,000 with a 40,000 ante, so there was 850,000 in the middle to start. First to act, Russell Thomas opened with a 2.5x raise for 750,000 from under the gun. Jacob Balsiger, sitting to Thomas's left, called the raise. It then folded over to Greg Merson who reraised to 1.85 million from middle position.

Baumann quickly folded, then Sylvia made a four-bet to 4.6 million from the cutoff seat, pushing the total pot up to 8.8 million.

Everyone else quickly got out, and that’s when Merson responded by pushing his stack of about 17.6 million all in. The remaining players didn’t waste a lot of time folding, Thomas showed his aces, and Timmy the dealer was soon shuffling and dealing the next hand.

Check this out, though. In ESPN’s coverage, we got to see all ten players’ hands in this one (not just Thomas’s). Look at what they had:

Seat 1: Russell Thomas (UTG) -- (raises, shoves)
Seat 2: Jacob Balsiger -- (calls raise, folds)
Seat 3: Jeremy Ausmus -- (folds)
Seat 4: Steven Gee -- (folds)
Seat 5: Greg Merson -- (reraises, folds)
Seat 6: Gaelle Baumann -- (folds)
Seat 7: Jesse Sylvia (CO) -- (re-reraises, folds)
Seat 8: Robert Salaburu (B) -- (folds)
Seat 9: Andras Koroknai (SB) -- (folds)
Seat 10: Michael Esposito (BB) -- (folds)

Wild, huh? Three “premium” hands -- A-A, Q-Q, and A-K -- plus another big pocket pair (T-T). And the chip leader with 10-5-offsuit getting cheeky with a big four-bet.

On the show we can hear the players revealing their hands to each other afterwards. “Oh my God, I’m so happy,” says Balsiger, glad he avoided danger and was able to fold his A-K. Both Merson and Esposito tell the table about their respective pocket pairs. “What’d you have?” asks Thomas of Sylvia. “Like 5-3-off?”

“Something like that,” answers Sylvia with a grin.

Incidentally, if we had been closer to the table, I probably would have reported that chatter afterwards, which would’ve certainly helped suggest more about the hand and its significance -- although not everything.

Talk about “what if”! If Sylvia doesn’t make his play, how do you think the preflop action might have played out? Does someone get his stack in against Thomas’s aces? Do they get to a flop (at which point any number of possibilities could play out)?

At the time, Baumann had just a little more than 2 million, not even seven big blinds. If Sylvia doesn’t make his four-bet, might she have made the final table?

“Easy fold for Jesse,” says Norman Chad, initially describing Sylvia’s decision. “Easy fold for Jesse,” repeats Lon McEachern somewhat comically when it becomes apparent Sylvia isn’t folding right away.

And then he doesn’t. Proving again that poker is a game of many possible worlds. There’s what happens. Then there’s what might have happened. And then there’s what we all think happened.

Proved something else, too. Nothing is easy.

2012 WSOP, Postlude: Like a Dream

Home. Vera. Sweetie. Sleep.

Just waking up here. “You don’t have to write anything today,” Vera told me when she left this morning. I nodded and smiled. Then I slept another six hours.

The journey back yesterday was fine, with me mostly fading in and out of consciousness during each of the two flights. Was awake enough to notice on both flights the woman sitting beside me was starting Fifty Shades of Grey.

That last wild night at the WSOP ended with me getting out of the Rio around 1:30 a.m. or so. From there I joined Daniel, Paul, Chad, Sam, Mickey, Joe, Josh C., Rich, and Josh B. at the MGM for a few hours of fun low-limit H.O.R.S.E. -- plus a goofy round of 2-7 triple draw -- and thus didn’t really get to bed until dawn.

Got up yesterday after perhaps two hours of actual sleep, wrote a post, packed in about 20 minutes, and was on my way.

As I’ve done in past years, I am going to pull together one of those “Reporter’s Notebook” entries in which I compile all of my Hard-Boiled Poker posts I wrote from the WSOP. Was looking at the earlier compilation posts just now and noticing how each seem to begin with me talking about how much I’d slept the night before. I'll just go ahead and report today that I have slept a solid 14 hours since Vera and I got home from the airport at midnight. And I forced myself to get out of bed knowing I could easily sleep a few more.

Gonna save the “Notebook” post for tomorrow, though, and instead just add a last little postlude today. One last memory of the WSOP Main Event to share.

It comes from what turned out to be the last break of Day 7. The breaks were weirdly coming halfway through each level, so this one happened at the midpoint of Level 33. The previous hour or so had seen Jesse Sylvia, the 26-year-old pro, go from near elimination to the chip lead with 14 players left.

The big hand for Sylvia had come when he’d reraise-squeeze-shoved from the blinds with K-Q, gotten called by Robert Salaburu who held pocket jacks, and caught a king to win the race. That pic is by Joe Giron of PokerNews who swooped over to catch a shot of Sylvia awaiting the community cards with his supporters. He’d then grab some more pots in non-showdown hands and had nudged out in front when the break arrived.

Most of the breaks on Day 7 were just 15 minutes (not the usual 20), and so I’d spent almost all of them counting chips or catching up in other ways. I’d even worked through most of the dinner break, too, so when this last break arrived and it was the full 20 minutes, I took the opportunity to go for a short walk which included a visit to the restroom.

There was a crowd in there, and I remember while walking out noticing Sylvia with a couple of his friends leaving as well. “Is this real life?” someone asked -- I am pretty sure it was Sylvia, in fact -- and excited laughter followed. Not waiting for an answer, the questioner continued. “I mean, this better not be a f*ckin’ dream!”

Sylvia was interviewed later for the ESPN Poker Edge podcast where he talked about how he roomed with Russell Thomas at the WSOP two years ago and how cool it was for both him and a good friend to have made it all of the way to the final table as they did.

“I actually feel like I’m dreaming,” he said, “because like… in your dreams the people you know show up… and it's just really weird that [Thomas] is here.”

Later on while playing H.O.R.S.E., Rich would point out to me a post he’d written about Sylvia way back on Day 2c, kind of a funny one in which he’d been passing by Sylvia’s table and the player had stopped him to say something about wanting his parents to be able to follow his progress in the tournament. This sort of thing will happen from time to time, especially in the Main Event, where players might ask to get included in the counts.

In Sylvia’s case, he’d actually already by then built a big stack and would’ve probably been included soon, anyway. But Rich was quick to say sure and inserted the funny, brief post about him. Pretty unusual to grab from the thousands a glimpse at the one who would emerge with the most chips by summer’s end.

As it turned out, his parents and everyone else got to track his progress in great detail over the last few days. And they’ll get to see even more during the next three months once the edited shows begin to appear on ESPN.

And it’s all real life, not a dream.

After the break Sylvia would win another big one when knocking out Scott Abrams in 12th place in which he flopped a set, Abrams flopped top pair and a flush draw, and they got Abrams’ significant-sized stack in the middle with two cards to come. Sylvia faded the flush, carried the chip lead to the final ten-handed table, and kept it at night’s end.

Like most, I’ve yet to learn a lot about the final nine -- or the “Octo-Nine,” as the WSOP has decided to call them -- though have heard repeatedly the phrase “he’s a good guy” used with reference to several. We’ll be hearing more about all of them over the interim, and even if they weren’t known by many before, they’ll all evolve into “notables” soon enough.

I love thinking about experiencing something so thrilling and unusual that one is moved to ask -- even jokingly -- “Is this real life?” While every summer there’s much at the WSOP that is less than exciting, even the most mundane moments are couched in the context of something special slowly coming together.

Because some are going to go far. And someone is going to win. And for many who find themselves still around when a tourney is concluding, the experience is going to be so new and exhilarating they might wonder to themselves if it’s real or just a dream.

I think I will go back to sleep for a short while more. I’ll find out later if I really wrote this or just dreamed I did.