WSOPE Fast Fade

I realized today that the World Series of Poker Europe played down to its conclusion over the weekend, and it never even crossed my mind to write a thing about it here yesterday. This is due to a couple of factors.

The relative lack of fanfare regarding the series from the WSOP, most poker news sites, and over Twitter meant it was hard ever to get into the sucker from afar. The time difference mattered somewhat, but in truth that never lessens my interest in the European Poker Tour events. Heck I was already tuning in today for a short while to watch coverage from Malta on EPT Live.

Another factor was that neither the WSOPE Main Event final table nor the WSOPE High Roller final table were streamed at all, the Twitching from Berlin having stopped last Thursday. In other words, just when most of us might have gotten interested, the shows stopped. (I believe that choice was made in order to facilitate shooting those final tables to be aired in edited versions later on.)

I was aware that Kevin MacPhee managed to win the Main Event, topping a field of 313 (down from the 375 who played the WSOPE ME in 2013). And Jonathan Duhamel’s victory in the High Roller -- his third career bracelet -- got more of my attention thanks to Twitter where the congratulations were coming frequently thereafter. Duhamel joins Phil Hellmuth as the only players to win both the WSOP Main Event and the WSOPE Main Event.

Like I say, though, Malta is already front-and-center for now, while the November Nine is now less than two weeks away. Meanwhile the WSOPE fade out happened fast, or at least it seemed that way from here.

The Return of the Champ

Joe Cada’s victory last night in Event No. 32, the $10,000 Six-Handed No-Limit Hold’em Championship, marked the first time one of the last 12 WSOP Main Event winners -- dating back to 2002 champ Robert Varkonyi -- has been able to follow his ME title with another WSOP bracelet win.

Carlos Mortensen was the most recent champion to follow his ME title with a win in another bracelet event, having won his second (and so far only other) WSOP bracelet in 2003 in a $5K limit hold’em event.

That was a big year for former Main Event champs, actually, with no less than six different ME winners collecting bracelets in 2003. In addition to Mortensen, Chris Ferguson, Phil Hellmuth, and Johnny Chan each won two events apiece, while Doyle Brunson and Huck Seed won events as well. (Ferguson finished runner-up in another event that year, too.)

There hasn’t been as good a year for former ME winners at the WSOP since, not by a long shot. Chan and Brunson would each win bracelets in 2005 -- the last for both. Scotty Nguyen would win the $50K H.O.R.S.E. in 2008. And Phil Hellmuth won WSOP events in 2006, 2007, and 2012, while also winning the 2012 WSOP Europe Main Event.

The period since 2003 has seen fields expand dramatically, although the number of bracelet events has essentially doubled, too, since 2003. And while there have been a lot of ME winners playing a lot of events, getting all of the way back to the winner’s circle has proven difficult for nearly all of them.

Cada was a likely candidate to break through to get that second bracelet, having come close several times recently with two fourth-place finishes last year and a runner-up in 2012.

Greg Merson has cashed three times already this WSOP and seems capable of being the next WSOP ME winner to win a bracelet. I’d say Jonathan Duhamel probably would be a good choice, too, to win one, even though he’s off to a rough start at this summer’s Series.

Then again, Hellmuth is 11th of 38 in another event to start today (Event No. 36, $1,500 NL 2-7 Draw), and so perhaps he’ll be the next ME winner to grab more gold. Again.

Travel Report: EPT10 Barcelona, Main Event: Day 5 -- Winding Down

One more day to go here in Barcelona, then a long travel day coming up tomorrow. Was another long one yesterday -- riding home my colleague Rick Dacey calculated we were wrapping up a 15-plus hour day of work -- and coming at the end of a week's worth of reporting everyone is starting to think about the soon-to-arrive conclusion of the festival and the trip back home.

For the third straight night, Tom Middleton of the U.K. ended with the chip lead in the EPT10 Barcelona Main Event yesterday after passing by the Dane Kresten Nielsen during the last hour of play. A few years back Nielsen picked up a nickname -- “Kresten the Killer” -- at an EPT, which was setting up a good end-of-night headline as play was winding down. But Middleton grabbed some pots near the end to claim the spotlight once again.

With a number of live scores and a whole lot of online success as “hitthehole,” Middleton is probably the most recognizable name at the final table among a certain small subset of poker players and fans. There are a couple of self-professed “recreational” players among the final eight with the others all serious players (i.e., “pros,” more or less). But none other than Middleton has achieved any serious fame as yet, and for all eight this final table will represent a career highlight by far.

That said, while there are no Spaniards among the group I’m hearing there might be a bit of the famed British rail developing in support of Middleton, so there may well be some excitement to witness today (apart from the poker, that is).

The High Roller reached its final table also yesterday, and that one will have a bit more star power as it plays out today and tonight, with Team PokerStars Pros Jonathan Duhamel and Daniel Negreanu (the latter coming back from that Day 1 “At Your Seat” rumpus), Ole Schemion, and Richard Yong among the group that’s left from the 180 total entries. November Niner David “Raptor” Benefield will be there, too, returning to a short stack and ninth of nine, just like his current situation in the WSOP Main Event.

Speaking of remaining in your seat, that was mostly the case for us yesterday as both tourneys moved toward their respective endgames, especially during the latter hours of play. Today likewise will find us mostly sticking behind the laptops as we follow and report on the action in both events.

Meanwhile, I have been following some of the buzz about the strange goings-on happening over at the Hotel Arts Barcelona, the tall, modern tower situated next to the Casino Barcelona where apparently a couple of pros have run into some security issues involving their laptops. In that pic to the left, the Hotel Arts is on the left, behind the huge Frank Gehry steel-lattice fish that sits atop the casino (also visible up top from another angle).

Before coming to Barcelona the two most frequent comments I’d heard from others who had been before was that (1) it was a beautiful city (and a favorite EPT stop) and (2) to be on the alert for pickpockets. Must have heard the latter warning a dozen times before my arrival.

As I was able to see earlier in the week on that boat excursion, Barcelona is most definitely a picturesque place, with striking architecture, accessible beaches, and a great deal to do as well (as Vera got to take advantage of when she was here). Have seen a few sketchy spots, too, including right around the casino. Indeed, last night as we left late even getting a cab required weaving through a dubious scene. It’s like any big city in certain respects, I suppose, with much to offer but reason to be wary, too.

I think I’ll sign off here and try perhaps to take in a few more of those sights before play begins today. The High Roller starts at noon CET and the Main Event an hour after that, with the EPTLive webcast cranking up on a one-hour delay at 2 p.m. Check in there as well as at the PokerStars blog to see how things play out.

A Break-In, a Brouhaha, and a Beginning

Hugely busy these days, trying to get everything together before all the gift-giving, family-visiting, and food-stuffing gets going in earnest this weekend. As a result I haven’t had a lot of time to devote to poker -- either playing it or giving a lot of attention to the various news items surfacing in the poker world.

I did get a chance to skim through a few stories standing out from the most recent cycle, though.

Truly hated to hear about 2010 World Series of Poker Main Event champion Jonathan Duhamel being the victim of what sounds like a harrowing home invasion this week. Two men broke into his Montreal home, tied him up and physically assaulted him, threatened to kill him, then left with money and other items including his 2010 WSOP Main Event bracelet.

Of course, that bracelet is a pretty damned conspicuous item -- hard to imagine the thieves being able to pawn such a thing with ease. It sounds like they also made off with a lot of 500 Euro notes that are also rare enough to raise eyebrows, should they try to use them. Here is a report about the incident from a Canadian news outlet.

I also found myself a little distracted the last couple of days by this multi-way spat that has arisen involving I. Nelson Rose, the Poker Players Alliance, Mason Malmuth, and Rep. Joe Barton.

Barton, as we know, has proposed a federal bill designed to provide a means to license and regulate online poker in the U.S. He’s also appeared a couple of times before the House committee that’s been discussing the topic of online gambling, speaking in particular about poker and his desire to see his bill or something similar move forward.

Earlier this month, the gambling lawyer I. Nelson Rose attacked Barton in a piece for Poker Player Newspaper, primarily aiming at Barton’s previous record regarding votes to prohibit online gambling (including his votes on the UIGEA).

The Poker Players Alliance took issue with Rose’s article, sending out a rebuttal of sorts on Tuesday. And Mason Malmuth stirred the pot some more by starting a thread on Two Plus Two in which he shared the PPA’s statement, then jumped in to criticize Rose himself. Then following Rose’s appearance on QuadJacks Radio yesterday, Malmuth appeared on QJ Radio as well to further discuss Rose, Barton, and everything else.

The result is a fairly noisy, overlapping discussion touching on a number of different issues, including the prospects of Barton’s bill, Rose’s political leanings, the PPA’s effectiveness as a representative of poker players’ interests, the possible editorial stance of Poker Player Newspaper, Malmuth’s status as a firebrand, among others.

Finally -- and not unrelatedly -- today we’re learning of Nevada moving forward as expected to adopt intrastate internet gaming regulations. A vote today confirmed that Nevada has agreed to rules for allowing entities to apply for licenses to operate online poker sites.

It sounds like this vote means that should any sort of federal legislation come to pass, Nevada will be a place to go for those seeking licenses to operate sites. It also sounds like Nevada may be ready to go forward with in-state-only sites, too, but work will have to be done to ensure they'll be able to pull that off (i.e., successfully limiting play within the state's borders).

I still need to read up more on this latter item in order to grasp the particulars. Here’s a Wall Street Journal piece from yesterday describing what was voted on today, which as mentioned did pass. (EDIT [added 12/23/11]: Here is a report from PokerFuse about the Nevada vote and its possible implications.)

Definitely appears as though movement on the state level is going to be happening a lot more swiftly than on the federal level, as far as the licensing and regulating of online poker in the U.S. is concerned. And while it is hard to say just yet what the significance of today’s move in Nevada will ultimately be, it does appear to be the beginning of something.

Speaking of beginning something, these gifts aren’t gonna wrap themselves. Better go get started.

2010 WSOP Main Event Final Table: Limping to the Finish

Last night, Jonathan Duhamel became the first Canadian to win the World Series of Poker Main Event, finishing off the short-stacked John Racener of Florida in just 43 hands to claim the bracelet and the $8,944,310 that went with it.

Was a little anticlimactic last night. Seemed destined to be that way, given that Duhamel started with 86% of the chips, and thus Racener needed a quick double-up or two for the pair to be able to engage in a “fair” fight.

Was searching around some more after my post yesterday about heads-up play at the WSOP ME. Statistics get fuzzy prior to 2000, but it looked as though the last time a player was down this much heads-up and came back to win was 1991. Don Holt apparently had a huge lead on Brad Daugherty -- I have seen it referred to as a “10-to-1” advantage as well as 1.9 million to 250,000 -- before Daugherty came back to win.

On Saturday, Racener had frequently demonstrated passive play throughout the day and night, a strategy which ultimately -- thanks in part to the way the cards fell and the approaches chosen by some of the other players -- served him well enough to allow him to sneak into the final two.

It wasn’t that surprising, then, to see Racener continue in that same, non-aggressive vein last night, given his short-stacked status. That said, it was a little unexpected to see Racener “turtle up” to the extent that he did. At times it almost seemed like he was nursing a short stack on the cash bubble or something, only he couldn’t fold his way into any more cash here.

He had little room to maneuver, of course.

For the first 10 hands last night the blinds were 600,000/1,200,000, though with a 200,000-chip ante on top that we might just think of it as 800K/1.4 million. Racener hovered around his starting stack of 30 million for that entire stretch, so in essence he was a shade above the 20 big blind range for most of those initial hands.

On the 11th hand of heads-up play the blinds moved to 800,000/1,600,000, again with a 200,000 ante. Soon Racener dipped below the 20 BB range, reducing his options even further. His stack continued to dwindle, and by the very end he was down to less than 15 million (to Duhamel’s 200 million-plus).

Looking over the 43 hands, it wasn’t until Hand #30 -- the 15th time Racener had the button -- that the Floridian opened with a raise. The first 14 times he either limped (12 times) or open-folded (twice). Meanwhile, Duhamel was mostly opening with standard raises with his big stack, doing so 13 of those first 15 times he had the button.

Interestingly, that first time Racener did finally open with a raise, Duhamel responded with an all-in reraise, and Racener let it go. Following that one, both players either limped or folded their buttons for the next eight hands.

Then came a short sequence of uncalled, all-in shoves from both players. Finally, Racener called Duhamel’s all-in raise on Hand #43 and his failed to catch up to the Canadian’s .

In the end, then, Racener had the button 21 times last night, and only opened with a raise twice -- once on that Hand #30, then again when he pushed all in and didn’t get a call on the penultimate Hand #42.

Racener was obviously in a tight spot, and it’s hard to be too critical given the way his short stack limited his options. With 15-20 big blinds, he couldn’t really mess around with standard preflop raises that much, as doing so wouldn’t leave him with enough to continuation bet unless it were to push all in.

The issue is mostly academic, anyway. Racener’s chip disadvantage was so large, it was probably the case that any strategy he chose was more likely than not to fail. Still, would’ve been nice to see a bit more fight in last night’s battle.

Will be watching ESPN’s rapidly-packaged highlight show tonight, for sure. Last year a total of 32 out of the 364 final table hands were shown, with the program lasting about two-and-a-half hours. Here’s a rundown of all 32 hands shown, by the way.

I imagine they’ll be allotted a similar amount of time for the show tonight, so we’re probably going to see around 30 of the hands played. Will be most interested, of course, in those hands without showdowns, in which we didn’t learn of players’ holdings when following the action. (Then again, now that I think about it, those are precisely the hands that are less likely to be featured tonight!)

I still can’t bring myself to get fully behind the whole final table delay ideer, I’m afraid. Has been a lot of fun, once again, to relive the July portion of the WSOP ME story over the last few months, and Saturday’s action did provide a lot of entertainment. But even though the “narrative” has been well-constructed once again, I think it is now set up in such a way that the ending is always likely to prove at least somewhat anticlimactic.

In other words, you might say Racener wasn’t the only one limping last night. Everybody was.

2010 WSOP Main Event Final Table: Can Racener Defy Odds, History?

Tonight Jonathan Duhamel will try to turn his better than 6-to-1 chip lead over John Racener into a World Series of Poker Main Event bracelet.

The Poker Hall of Fame induction ceremony for Dan Harrington and Erik Seidel is set to take place there in the Penn and Teller Theater at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino at 7:30 p.m. Vegas time. Then at 8 p.m. Duhamel and Racener will be introduced, with cards scheduled to go in the air shortly thereafter.

Duhamel’s huge lead got me wondering whether Racener’s deficit might be the largest ever at the start of heads-up play. The hoodie-wearing Canadian will have 188,950,000 chips when the first hand is dealt tonight, while the gum-chewing Floridian will have but 30,750,000.

That 158 million-plus chip advantage is most certainly the largest ever to start heads-up play at the WSOP Main Event, quantity-wise. But how about in relative terms? With almost exactly 86% of the chips to start heads-up play, is Duhamel beginning tonight with the biggest-ever head start over his opponent in terms of the the percentage of total chips?

The answer is no.

Just looking back at the previous decade, there are a couple of examples in which a player had an even greater advantage to start heads-up play. Take a look:

2009 -- Joe Cada 135,950,000 (69.8%), Darvin Moon 58,850,000 (30.2%)
2008 -- Peter Eastgate 80,300,000 (58.7%), Ivan Demidov 56,600,000 (41.3%)
2007 -- Jerry Yang 104,450,000 (81.9%), Tuan Lam 23,025,000 (18.1%)
2006 -- Jamie Gold 78,975,000 (87.6%), Paul Wasicka 11,225,000 (12.4%)
2005 -- Joe Hachem 38,740,000 (68.9%), Steve Dannenmann 17,450,000 (31.1%)
2004 -- Greg Raymer 17,125,000 (67.5%), David Williams 8,240,000 (32.5%)
2003 -- Chris Moneymaker 5,490,000 (65.4%), Sam Farha 2,900,000 (34.6%)
2002 -- Robert Varkonyi 5,105,000 (80.9%), Julian Gardner 1,205,000 (19.1%)
2001 -- Carlos Mortensen ~4 million (66.7%), Dewey Tomko ~2 million (33.33%)
2000 -- Chris Ferguson ~4.6 million (90.2%), T.J. Cloutier ~500,000 (9.8%)

Looks like Jamie Gold had a slightly bigger advantage over Paul Wasicka in 2006 than Duhamel has over Racener. And while the numbers are approximate, it appears Ferguson had about a 10-to-1 chip lead over Cloutier in 2000.

By the way, looking over that list, do you notice a trend? That’s right. In each of the last 10 years at the WSOP Main Event, the player with the most chips to start heads-up play eventually won the bracelet.

Some of the matches were brief. Hachem and Dannenmann played just six hands in 2005. Gold and Wasicka didn't play much longer, lasting just 20 minutes. Other matches went on much longer and saw changes in the chip lead. Remember how Darvin Moon held the lead briefly last year during his 88-hand battle with Joe Cada?

But all 10 years, the player with the most chips going into heads-up play would be the only one left with chips when it concluded.

Statistics are harder to track down prior to 2000, but most accounts of the 1999 WSOP Main Event report that eventual winner Noel Furlong and runner-up Alan Goehring began their heads-up battle with virtually even stacks. Can say more definitively, though, that in 1998 -- the year Scotty Nguyen defeated Kevin McBride to win the bracelet -- the winner did not start that heads-up battle with the lead. McBride had something like 2.2 million to start there, while the Prince of Poker had about 1.3 million.

Odds are against Racener to break the streak, obviously. And looking at how both Duhamel and Racener played on Saturday, it certainly appears Duhamel has more than just a chip advantage going for him, having demonstrated a lot more versatility in his play than did Racener as they played down from nine to two.

But Racener was relatively short for much of the day, and thus his options often were relatively limited. And, of course, heads-up play always introduces a different dynamic which sometimes affects players’ approaches, causing them to play differently -- and/or better or worse -- than they did before.

What’s your prediction?

2010 WSOP Main Event Final Table: Cheong Strong? Or Just Wrong?

It was a blow-up. A meltdown. Spewing at the highest magnitude. An implosion. Millions of chips -- and dollars -- pissed away.

It was baller. Fifth-level thinking. An heroic move. Ballsy. Epic. Sick.

You decide.

After 212 hands at the final table, just three players remained from the 7,319 who had entered the 2010 World Series of Poker Main Event. More than $8.9 million awaited the winner. The runner-up was due more than $5.5 million, with $4.13 million going to the next one out.

The blinds were 600,000/1,200,000 (with 200,000 antes). John Racener was sitting in a distant third with about 36 million (30 big blinds) when he began the hand by folding from the button. Joseph Cheong, then leading with something in the neighborhood of 90 million (75 BBs), opened with a raise to 2.9 million from the small blind. Jonathan Duhamel, sitting in the big blind with about 83 million or so to start the hand (70 BBs), responded by reraising to 6.75 million.

The action back on Cheong, he made it 14.25 million to go, then Duhamel reraised once again to 22.75 million. That’s when Cheong made the big push all in, and Duhamel made the call.

No, Cheong didn’t have aces. Or kings. Or A-K. Cheong had but , and was looking for an ace to overcome Duhamel’s . The board ran out , and just like that Duhamel had 177 million or so while Cheong was suddenly down to around 5 million.

Cheong would double up once, then win two more small pots when his all-in raises before the flop went uncalled. But then, just half a dozen hands after losing the biggest pot in WSOP history (chip-wise), Cheong -- seemingly a lock to make it to heads-up just a few minutes before -- was eliminated in third.

There were a number of other high-drama hands yesterday.

Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi’s knockout of Matt Jarvis in eighth place in which the latter was all in before the flop with pocket nines against Mizrachi’s was one. The community cards came , meaning both players had the lead two times -- Jarvis preflop and on the turn, and Mizrachi on the flop and on the river. The hand also uncannily recalled a similar one from the 2003 WSOP Main Event in which Chris Moneymaker knocked out Phil Ivey in 10th place, although in that history-altering hand the betting concluded on the turn.

Jason Senti’s elimination in seventh at the hands of Cheong had a similar, punch-to-the-gut feel. All in with versus Cheong’s pocket tens, Senti flopped trip kings, but running turn and river cards gave Cheong a king-high straight and the hand.

A little later, the two players who would ultimately make it to heads up -- Racener and Duhamel -- each survived all-in situations on back-to-back hands.

First Racener doubled through Duhamel with versus Duhamel’s when a queen flopped, and Racener’s hand held. On the very next hand, Duhamel would be all in with versus Mizrachi’s pocket treys. He’d hit a nine on that flop and survive.

Duhamel would subsequently knock out Mizrachi in fifth place in a hand in which the Canadian sneakily played pocket aces to trap the Grinder. Cheong would next eliminate a short-stacked Filippo Candio in fourth. Then the two big stacks would battle back and forth for the next two dozen hands before the big one. The big, big, big one.

I had thought of Cheong -- known as “subiime” online -- as the player to watch among these final nine. Even suggested on Friday that I considered him a decent pick to win the sucker. And he certainly helped make a highly entertaining final table even more interesting, his aggression in the decisive hand versus Duhamel just one of many, many examples of such throughout the night. And for most of the night Cheong pretty clearly showed he was indeed one of the strongest players at the table.

Then came Hand Number 213. Where it all went wrong.

Barring any strangeness Monday night -- when Duhamel will carry a more than 5-to-1 chip lead into heads-up play versus Racener -- I think it is probably safe to assume that Cheong’s six-bet shove with A-7-offsuit will undoubtedly be the most discussed decision of the 2010 WSOP Main Event final table. How will it be remembered?

You decide.

(EDIT [added 12/3/10]: For more on this amazing hand, check out Andrew "Foucault" Brokos’ analysis for the Two Plus Two Magazine, “Joseph Cheong’s WSOP Final Table ‘Blow Up.’”)

Watching the Affleck-Duhamel Hand (2010 WSOP Main Event on ESPN)

Last night we saw ESPN air its coverage of the latter half of Day 8 from the 2010 World Series of Poker Main Event. The night began with 18 players remaining, and by the end they had arrived -- at long last -- at the final nine.

The elimination of Matt Affleck in 15th place, coming at the end of the first hour last night, was the moment most of us were most curious to see. By rivering that straight, Jonathan Duhamel claimed a pot of almost 42 million chips, catapulting him into first place, which is where he’ll be when the tourney finally restarts this Saturday.

Was obviously the hand of the Main Event, thus far. F-Train did a nice job that night recounting the action for PokerNews. And Howard Swains produced a fine account for the PokerStars blog of both the hand and the scene afterwards, focusing in particular on the emotions experienced by Affleck.

ESPN did well covering the hand, too, I thought. If you haven’t seen it or don’t know the details, read the accounts linked to above. Or you can click here to see it on YouTube (I’ve linked to the start of the hand).

Vera Valmore and I were watching it together last night, and she noted how she didn’t like seeing them follow a dejected Affleck down the hall afterwards. But it was part of the story, and I thought it was all handled quite well. And the kid’s subsequent return to the table to shake everyone’s hands and wish them luck was a truly fine moment.

Three things kind of stood out for me as I watched the hand last night.

One was how once Duhamel called Affleck’s turn shove -- a decision that took the Canadian about five minutes, not less than 30 seconds (as it appeared last night) -- both players immediately asked the other what he held by guessing out loud, and neither player guessed correctly.

The board showed . “Tens and nines?” Duhamel asks Affleck, who tables his pocket aces in response. “Kings, right?” asks Affleck of Duhamel, who takes a few seconds, shakes his head, then tosses his pocket jacks onto the felt face up.

A second thing I found interesting had to do with the fact that Affleck, who normally wears prescription glasses, had misplaced them before Day 8. (I believe ESPN mentioned this at the beginning of last week’s coverage of the first part of Day 8.) I remembered Affleck being interviewed afterwards, and noting how he could see up close just fine, but had a bit of difficulty focusing when it came to the board cards.

I also wear glasses -- can function without them, but, of course, to do so is not ideal. As anyone who wears glasses and is forced to go without them knows, not being able to focus clearly on everything can lend a kind of “unreal” feeling to even the most mundane task. (Never mind the headaches.)

When the lands on the river, we see Affleck’s eyes widen. He holds still for just a moment, then puts his head down. I found myself thinking about how Affleck might have had to exert a little extra effort to see that indeed the card was a dreaded eight and not perhaps a nine or seven. Was all already plenty “unreal” for him, I am sure, but not having his glasses probably made it seem even more dream-like. (Or nightmarish.)

The third thing I noticed as the scene played out was how Duhamel in his dark hoodie and Affleck in his white Seattle Mariners jersey so easily appeared to inhabit the roles of villain and hero.

That feeling was probably reinforced a bit by Norman Chad’s commentary over the past few weeks, during which he’s repeatedly (and deservedly) complimented Affleck’s play while referring to him as “my boy.” And, of course, that involuntary, treacly smile of Duhamel’s after the river came, while obviously understandable, nevertheless encouraged such thinking even more.

I mean, really. The hood. The grim grin. Dude might as well have had a sickle under the table!

I don’t think of Duhamel as a villain, nor will I once play resumes on Saturday, although I suppose some might. Still, in that hand... was like watching Death duel with Antonius Block in The Seventh Seal!

Good stuff, ESPN. Definitely looking forward to the final chapter of this here drama.