Travel Report: APPT Macau, ACOP Warm-Up, Day 3

Not too much scribblin’ time today, but did want to check in with a quick update.

The Asia Championship of Poker Warm-Up event went late last night, not ending until around 3 a.m., and I was up another couple of hours after that tying up loose ends. Meanwhile, today starts the Main Event with that big buy-in of 100,000 Hong Kong dollars (about $13,000 USD). So between preparing for that -- and being mildly distracted by the election coverage that’s yammering away on the teevee in my hotel room -- I’m not so able to produce a full post today.

Yesterday’s Day 3 of the ACOP Warm-Up played from 18 down to a winner, with Jeff Rossiter of Australia coming out the victor.

Both Johnny Chan and Joseph Cheong made the final table. Chan ended up finishing seventh, having been unable to get things going once the final table started and Rossiter began building on his chip lead. Cheong made it all of the way to third place and could well have won, I think, although by the time they got to three-handed Rossiter’s lead was formidable enough to make a comeback less likely.

They’re optimistic about getting a decent-sized field for today’s Main Event -- probably at least 150, with hopes of maybe even getting to close to 200. There will be a lot of Team PokerStars Pros and other familiar faces in the field today, with a lot more of them familiar to me now that I’ve been here for four days following the Warm-Up.

There’s a welcome party tonight which will provide another chance to get outside the hotel and see a little more of Macau. And the schedule has been thoughtfully constructed to end early today (Day 1) and start late tomorrow (Day 2), which means I’ll probably try to do a little sight-seeing during the day on Thursday, too.

Has been fun thus far, and really I can’t praise the APPT/ACOP staff and PokerStars folks enough for how hospitable and helpful they’ve been. Sure, traveling 8,000 miles from home to go to work represents a helluva commute. And the days have been long and exhausting at times. But once again I find myself in an incredibly supportive work environment, something I’ve been fortunate to experience frequently in the poker world.

Check over at the PokerStars blog to follow the ACOP Main Event today through Sunday. The PokerNews peeps are here now, too, and so there’ll be even more updates and chip counts, plus videos and more.

What the Hellmuth?! 2012 WSOP Europe Main Event Nears Finish

At the moment just four players remain at the €10,450 buy-in 2012 World Series of Poker Main Event in Cannes, France. The players are currently on an extended break but will be returning at 21:45 CET (15:45 ET) to finish things up today.

Just 420 entered the 2012 WSOPE Main Event, down big time from the 593 who played last year and thus continuing that trend of lower turnouts in Cannes this time around.

Phil Hellmuth, seeking his 13th career WSOP bracelet after winning his 12th this past summer in Vegas in the $2,500 razz event, came into today’s final day of play with the chip lead. He continues to sit on top with four left with a stack of nearly 5.5 million.

The Ukrainian Sergii Baranov is currently in second (with about 3.75 million). Baranov has just a few prior scores from the European Poker Tour and the Russian Poker Tour, his highest-earning performance to date coming from having won a preliminary event at EPT Vienna in 2010.

In third right now is Joseph Cheong (with 2.1 million), who we all remember from his deep run at the 2010 WSOP Main Event where he finished third. A mostly dominating performance at that final table led most to assume we’d hear more from Cheong, and indeed he’s put up a number of impressive cashes since including another near-miss at the WSOP this summer in the $5,000 “mixed-max” event where he finished second. Cheong also went fairly deep in the WSOP Main Event this summer, finishing 116th.

Finally in fourth is the Frenchman Stephane Albertini who sits with 1.26 million. This was the first year for any French players to win bracelets at the WSOPE, with both Roger Hairabedian and Giovanni Rosadoni grabbing gold. Albertini has collected some nice cashes over the last couple of years, mostly in Europe. He also made a relatively deep run at the 2011 WSOP Main Event where he finished 46th to earn $160,036.

Will probably have to check in on the PokerNews updates once they restart things about 90 minutes from now. Might have to see as well about the live stream situation, although as I’ve mentioned here before I’m shut out from the ESPN3 applesauce and so probably am going to remain in the dark as far as that’s concerned.

Amazing, if not too surprising, to see Hellmuth at the summit once again. As I wrote about over on the Betfair Poker blog this summer, his tournament poker record is pretty much without parallel.

Sure, like many I kind of instinctively root for Hellmuth to fail, the resulting schadenfreude being just too damn sweet to resist. That said, it is remarkable (and impressive) to see him in the mix for yet another big poker prize. And his presence certainly makes the playing out of a WSOPE Main Event final table that much more interesting to follow.

Six-Bet Shove Surprise, Redux

Was watching that live stream yesterday of the final heads-up match that concluded 2012 World Series of Poker Event No. 6, the $5,000 no-limit hold’em “mixed max” event in which Aubin Cazals of Malta won. Cazals survived that crazy marathon match on Sunday with Warwick Mirzikinian, the one that went nine-and-a-half hours or so to become the longest heads-up match in WSOP history. Then Cazals beat Joseph “subiime” Cheong in their match yesterday to take the bracelet.

The “mixed max” event featured the unique format wherein it began as a nine-handed tourney (Day 1), then went to six-handed (Day 2), then became a heads-up tournament thereafter. The idea was to stop at 32 players at the end of the second day, create a bracket with seeding based on chip counts, then begin the heads-up portion on Day 3. However, two players were eliminated right at the end of the second day to leave just 31 going forward, meaning the chip leader at the time -- Mirzikinian -- got a first-round bye to start the third day.

Because players carried their stacks forward from match to match, that’s what led to the crazy-long semifinal match between Cazals and Mirzikinian. Both began with around 1.5 million chips in that one, with the blinds starting at just 2,500/5,000. Actually Cheong and his semifinal opponent, Hugo Lemaire, had similarly large stacks to begin their match, too, although Cheong would fairly quickly push out to a big lead, then finish off Lemaire within just three hours or so after flopping a flush.

Meanwhile, Cazals and Mirzikinian would take the whole day Sunday to complete their match, which led to an extra fifth day being added to the event on Monday. Cazals and Cheong each brought stacks of more than 3 million to the finals, with the blinds starting there at just 4,000/8,000 (with one-hour levels). With both players more than 375 BBs deep, some were predicting that record set in Sunday’s match might be broken yesterday.

The scenario kind of reminded me of covering the finish of that $10K heads-up event at the WSOP back in 2010, the one that went on and on and on until dawn and still hadn’t finished, an experience partly chronicled here in a post called “The Match Without End.”

For the first four-plus hours it appeared Cheong and Cazals weren’t in any hurry to put their deep stacks at risk, and in fact the match was almost dead even with the blinds still just 10,000/20,000. That’s about when a crazy hand erupted in which the pair began raising back and forth, with Cazals making what was the very first five-bet of the match.

Cheong responded with an all-in reraise for 2.936 million, and Cazals -- who had him barely covered -- only took a few seconds before calling. Cazals had a hand one would expect in such a situation, . Meanwhile Cheong showed .

Was hard not to think back to the 2010 WSOP Main Event and the hand that proved Cheong’s undoing there. You remember, the three-handed, six-bet shove for around 75 BBs with that was called by Jonathan Duhamel who held ? Wrote about that here, too, in a post titled “Cheong Strong? Or Just Wrong?”

Just as Cheong didn’t get lucky and hit an ace in that hand versus Duhamel, he wasn’t saved by the community cards yesterday, either, as the flop brought a king, Cazals filled up on the turn, and the match was abruptly concluded.

Unsurprisingly, it took mere minutes for a thread to appear on Two Plus Two, titled “subiime donks off another bracelet !!” -- the “another” of course alluding to the 2010 ME hand versus Duhamel.

In fact, David Tuchman and Bart Hanson who were providing commentary had mentioned that hand earlier in the broadcast, noting the super deep stacks and how the formula for the same sort of attempted “leveling” was present once more. And if I recall correctly, Hanson said he didn’t believe Cheong would try anything similar yesterday.

I wouldn’t pretend to try to analyze Cheong’s thinking in this particular hand, certainly affected by a host of factors most of us wouldn’t be privy to merely watching from afar. Cheong is obviously a highly-skilled player whom I’ve always found fascinating to follow, and I wouldn’t be surprised at all to see him break through at some point to grab that first bracelet, perhaps even this summer.

Is fascinating as well, however, to think how the last hand of Event No. 6 echoed that one near the end of Cheong’s 2010 ME run.

(EDIT [added 3 p.m.]: Cheong weighed in with his own post in the 2+2 thread mentioned above, noting with humility -- and perhaps a little tongue in cheek -- how he’d believed he’d picked up a “kgb oreo tell” on Cazals in the final hand.)

Choose Your Own Adventure

Caught up with PokerRoad Radio this week, a podcast I’ll admit I hadn’t really paid too much attention to over the last few months. Just too many out there at the moment -- including some relatively new ones -- that have been competing for (and winning) my attention of late.

The Rabbit Hunt (over on CardRunners) and a few episodes of the PokerNews podcast are a couple I’ve found myself dialing up over the last few weeks. And, of course, the “Cold Call Show” on DonkDown Radio has claimed extra hours on the listening schedule, too, thanks to all of the Travis Makar-UB drama.

Feeling the void left by the recent end of The Poker Beat, I did manage to find time to check in on a couple of the new PRR shows from the L.A. Poker Classic, specifically the 2/27 and 2/28 episodes, co-hosted by Joe Stapleton and Barry Greenstein.

Both episodes were quite entertaining and informative, I thought, with Stapleton and Greenstein both quite funny and interesting throughout. There were a long catalogue of items covered, including some observations from Greenstein about the Makar revelations (on the 2/27 show), plus a number of interviews along the way, too.

I’m not going to summarize it all, but will point you to the PKRGSSP! blog where you can find daily rundowns of a number of podcasts, blogs, news sites, and other pokery productions. Also, over on Pokerati our buddy Merchdawg is offering weekly “podcast round-ups” as well, usually on Fridays, I believe, so check those two sources if you’re looking for poker podcast suggestions.

I did, however, want to highlight something from the 2/27 show I found particularly thought-provoking. Among those interviewed on that show was Joseph Cheong, third-place finisher at last year’s WSOP Main Event, an articulate, humble, and intelligent guest whom it’s hard not to like.

There was, as you might imagine, discussion with Cheong of the hand from the WSOP when at three-handed Cheong six-bet shoved with A-7-offsuit (a hand which I, too, discussed here). While the merits of the play weren’t necessarily being debated, Greenstein did ultimately express some appreciation for the fortitude Cheong showed in the hand and in the way he’s answered questions about it ever since.

“In some sense, Joseph sleeps well at night knowing that he didn’t dog it,” says the Bear, acknowledging that while things didn’t turn out so well in that hand or subsequently for him in the Main Event, Cheong at least had committed to a play that his decision-making process had suggested he make at the time, and thus wasn’t left wondering what might have happened if he hadn’t done so.

That discussion also included some more talk about how winning a tournament completely changes the way one looks back on it afterwards -- how, in other words, results really do tend to affect our thinking about our play. “When you win,” says Greenstein, “you don’t have to think about the stupid hand you could’ve played [differently], because it’s like all sins are forgiven.”

“Because it’s all on the path to victory, is what you’re saying?” asks Stapleton, and Greenstein agrees, saying further how not winning automatically causes one to think “well, if I’d have done this different, [or] if I’d have done that different, I might have won.”

Amid all of that Stapleton tosses in a quick analogy by referring to those old “Choose Your Own Adventure” books some of us read as kids. Remember those? In which you would read a page or two and then get to choose what the characters did next, each choice sending you to a different page in the book? At some point, say when “you ended up in the pit” (as Stapleton says in his example), you might end up having to backtrack to find the choice that led you astray.

I liked thinking about that analogy afterwards and how well it applies to the labyrinth-like experience each player has when playing a poker tournament. Every decision sends each of us in a different direction, with many other possibilities constantly occurring to us as we wind our way through our chosen adventure.

I still had those “Choose Your Own Adventure” books in mind later in the 2/27 show when Greenstein related the story of an interesting hand he’d played in the L.A. Poker Classic Main Event involving Josh Arieh, Allen Cunningham, and two other players. (The story begins around the 50-minute mark and lasts about five minutes.)

It’s a complicated hand, but to sum it up quickly, Greenstein found himself in an awkward spot, not knowing what exactly to do preflop with AQ-suited in middle position. He ended up just calling an early-position raise along with four others, then getting out after a ten-high flop encouraged significant action from Arieh and Cunningham.

In the end, Arieh’s pocket kings were crushed by Cunningham’s flopped set of fours, but that didn’t prevent Greenstein from indulging in a lot of second-guessing regarding his own play. All through the narration of both the pre-flop and post-flop action, Greenstein humorously points out time and again how he was wondering if he could’ve either forced everyone out or set up a reasonable heads-up situation with the all-in shove he never did make.

Even after Arieh and Cunningham end up all in on the flop, Greenstein jokes he had to sweat the turn and river, even though he was already out of the hand. “This is a self-centered story,” laughs Greenstein. “How did this affect Barry?”

As he explains, if an ace had spiked on the turn or river, he’d have felt bad thinking he’d missed that opportunity to shove before the flop and set up a heads-up situation versus Arieh’s K-K which Greenstein would have won.

In fact, a queen landed on the turn, giving Greenstein more (theoretical) outs. “Thankfully, no ace or queen came” on the river, Greenstein says, which amid all of this second-guessing enables Greenstein to congratulate himself -- again, with a lot of humility and self-deprecating humor attached -- that from a gleefully unembarrassed, results-oriented perspective he had indeed made the right decision not to have shoved all in. “I got to feel good that I didn’t go broke.”

In a way, Greenstein is acknowledging here (quite humorously) that he didn’t have the fortitude he was crediting Cheong for having earlier. Admitting that he was feeling “out of sync” with his play throughout the event, he further confesses to second-guessing himself constantly in this particular hand, only feeling better about things after the result of the hand shows he managed to avoid making a decision that would’ve resulted in his elimination.

Would seem self-contradictory but for the fact that the Bear obviously knows what he’s saying here about his own uncertain play. In any event, I found his “self-centered story” quite entertaining, not to mention further proof of how in tournaments we are constantly “choosing our own adventures” -- as well as how we tell of those adventures afterwards, too.

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.’”)

Nine Lives: WSOP Main Event Resumes Tomorrow

Big day tomorrow in the poker world, as the 2010 WSOP Main Event final table finally resumes after nearly four months of anticipation.

In less than 24 hours, the nine survivors from the field of 7,319 who started this year’s ME will sit down at a table in the Penn & Teller Theater in the Rio to begin the process of determining a winner.

I’ve written a lengthy preview of the final table for Betfair poker that was posted today: “2010 WSOP Main Event: Nine Players, One Bracelet.” There I talk about all nine players, including recounting some of the details of how each made it through to tomorrow’s final table.

Thinking back to this summer when I was there at the Rio reporting on the Main Event for PokerNews, the two players among the final nine whom I ended up covering the most were Michael Mizrachi and Filippo Candio.

As a familiar face with a long history of tourney success, Mizrachi predictably got a lot of attention from the very beginning of the Main Event. Thus was his long journey from Day 1 documented fairly closely, a journey that was marked by his having to endure with a below average stack most of the way.

I was over at the feature table on Day 4 -- the day the cash bubble burst -- and Mizrachi was seated there for much of that day. He played only a few small hands, and really, when they finally did make the cash, it did not seem likely that he’d be around much longer. But he hung on, and by the middle of Day 6 had gathered enough momentum to move into the chip lead.

That was the day Mizrachi played what I thought was one of the more impressive hands of his tournament (write-up here).

Duy Le (who’d finish 13th) had opened with a raise from middle position, Getty Mattingsley (who’d go out in 101st) three-bet from the button, and Mizrachi called from the small blind. Le called as well, and the flop came . All three checked. The turn was the , and it checked to Mattingsley who bet. Both Mizrachi and Le called.

The river was the , potentially completing a couple of different draws. Mizrachi checked, and when Le made a bet of 500,000 (about two-thirds of the pot), Mattingsley folded. But after thinking for a while Mizrachi decided the bet looked fishy and made the call, turning over pocket sevens. Le had but , and Mizrachi suddenly was up close to 4 million and among the leaders.

There’d be other important hands for the Grinder, of course, but that one seemed to indicate he was playing some especially solid poker, reading others well and suddenly looking as though he really could make it to the final table.

Candio I happened to cover over at the feature table on Day 4, then again at the end of Day 6 when he won that huge all-in versus Manuel Davidian. Here’s the write-up of that one, if you’re curious. I also wrote a little more about that hand in a post here, too, discussing in particular the emotions the fiery, unpredictable Italian player had displayed.

Of course, the wildest hand Candio played would come on Day 8 -- the one versus Joseph Cheong in which he got his entire stack in very bad, then managed to score a runner-runner straight to survive. Here’s that one, as it was shown on ESPN earlier this week:



Jawdropping, ain’t it?

Candio’s frenetic, limb-flailing response makes it appear as though he’s been shot through with a bolt of electricity there.

But look at Cheong. Such calm. Remarkable.

Clearly chip leader Jonathan Duhamel, John Dolan (also with a big stack), John Racener, and perhaps even Mizrachi are favorites among the betting crowd this weekend. But that Cheong seems a pretty damn cool cat. Who -- unlike Candio -- doesn’t look like he needs nine lives. Gotta give him a decent chance, too, I’d think.

Will be fun to follow, for sure.