WSOP Final Table Hand No. 122: You Going All the Way?

Have now made my way through five-and-a-half hours or so of ESPN’s pay-per-view broadcast of the WSOP Main Event final table. The commentary by Phil Gordon and Ali Nejad has been hit-or-miss, though I’d say they’re doing about as well as could be expected. The interview with Erik Friberg (out in 8th place) was more than a little cringe-worthy, peppered as it was with lots of awkward questions about Swedes. They also spoke with Douglas Kim (out in 7th); he seemed like a smart young man who had a decent idea of what he’d just been through. Two-time WSOP bracelet-winner David Grey came in and made some intelligent observations about the pressure the players were experiencing. And Phil Hellmuth stopped by to remind everyone how great he is.

(I’m not even going to comment on the Rochambeau nonsense Gordon and Nejad keep perpetrating on their unwitting guests.)

As far as the play goes, Jamie Gold had spent several orbits mostly keeping out of the way while others attempted to outlast the short stacks (Michael Binger and Rhett Butler). Then came Hand No. 104. Gold put in a preflop raise, got two callers (Paul Wasicka and Richard Lee), and with a board of QQJJ put in a smallish bet that made his opponents fold. Gold then showed his hand -- . Gordon and Hellmuth both suggested showing the bluff to have been a poor decision on Gold’s part. A few hands later, Allen Cunningham made a spectacular call of another Gold bluff, calling a bet of 2 million on the river with ace-high. Thanks in part to that hand, Cunningham had built himself back up to 14.5 million or so (third place), while Gold still sat comfortably in the lead with 37.5 million.

Then comes Hand No. 122, involving Gold and the man in second place, Richard Lee. Lee had bled some chips during the previous orbit -- in reckless fashion (or so it appeared). During the last six hands Lee had lost around 3.8 million in chips, knocking him back down to 16.5 million. Hand no. 119 saw Lee raise to 800,000 from middle position and get called by Gold from the big blind. As he had done back in Hand No. 5, Gold checked in the dark. When the flop came , Lee bet 1.1 million, Gold check-raised to 3 million, and Lee got out.

So there are a couple of trends worth considering as this pivotal hand begins. Gold’s early momentum had appeared to wane, particularly following Cunningham’s successful call. However, he had just won the last three pots (all without showdowns) and looked ready to reassume the role of table captain. Meanwhile, Lee’s chair might have become slightly less comfortable after the last round of play. I wouldn’t say he was steaming, but it’s clear he’d become anxious to make something happen.

The cards are dealt and the table folds around to Gold in the cutoff. He looks down, takes a quick glance across the table at Wasicka (in the big blind), then calls (for 240,000). Rhett Butler folds on the button. Lee, in the small blind, looks at his cards and announces he’s going to raise. He deliberates, then bets 1.2 million. Wasicka folds and the action is back on Gold.

Gold looks at his cards again, peers over at Lee for ten seconds or so, then says “I raise.” As we’ve seen before, Gold announces his intentions with a kind of dismissive air, as though he’s utterly unconvinced whomever he’s up against is too weak (lacking the cards and/or the courage) to face up to him. He raises to 4 million. Gordon claims Gold’s hands are shaking a bit as he stacks his chips and pushes them into the pot, but I’m not seeing it. Gold has to stand up, actually, to reach the chips at the front of his stack, and he remains standing, hands in pockets, looking down on Lee considering what to do next.

Lee spends a few moments moving his chips around and Gold abruptly asks “You going all the way?” Lee quickly replies “All in.” Gold eagerly shows . Lee turns over . Gold is ecstatic. We hear him telling his friends “I can only make the right play . . . I can’t do anything about what comes out.” Lee appears amiable, sipping his coffee and smiling as he asks the dealer for a jack. It’s obvious, though, that he’s less than thrilled.

The flop comes . Lee is shown with his eyes closed, as if in momentary meditation. The turn is the . Gold points at the dealer and says “no paint . . . nice and low.” The river is the . Lee is done, and Gold now has over 51 of the 88 million chips in play.

What’s to say here? While the play perhaps does not descend to the level of Scott Lazar’s meltdown at the 2005 Main Event final table (where he blew through his entire stack in two hands calling all-in bets with K9-suited & QT-off), Lee clearly blundered when calling Gold's reraise. Lee was in much better shape than Lazar had been chipwise, and definitely should have finished higher than Lazar did last year. But he didn’t. Both landed in sixth place.

Following the hand, the five remaining players headed for the dinner break. I may well take a break, too, and save further posts about the final table for later. A person can only take so much rock-paper-scissors . . . .

Image: A U.S. World War II poster calls for all members of American society to contribute to war effort, public domain.

Final Tables: Not for the Faint of Heart

I’m sorry CardPlayer doesn’t appear to be planning a live audio play-by-play of the final table of the WSOP Main Event (as they did last year). I assume the ESPN pay-per-view telecast means there will be no such webcast this time around. I suppose Bluff Magazine is doing something along these lines on Sirius radio, but I’m not a Sirius subscriber so I don’t know much about that.

I was listening back to some of last year’s coverage again this week and remembered how entertaining -- even riveting -- it was to hear the first time around. Click here to listen to an .mp3 clip of Phil Hellmuth and Daniel Negreanu describing the second hand of the final table, that insane one in which Mike Matusow’s ran into Scott Lazar’s . (The third voice you hear chiming in is that of Greg Raymer.) The file is about 3.5 MB. This is still a blast, even a year later.

I mentioned in my previous post how those at the final table at last year’s WSOP Main Event all came from the upper half of the final 27 -- all nine who made it were among the top 13 with three tables remaining. All but one of those who survived to make this year’s final table were also among the top 13 with 27 to go. Here are the chip counts for the final table (scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. Pacific time tomorrow):

Among these only Paul Wasicka was significantly short-stacked with 27 to go. Wasicka had a terrific day on Tuesday, starting with a mere 700,000 chips (in 24th place) and ending with nearly 8 million (5th out of 9). About a half hour into the day’s play on Tuesday, Wasicka caught a pair of queens and doubled up. He then laid low for the next three hours or so and was down to about 860,000 when he again found himself all in, this time with kings. They held up, and Wasicka was up to 1.7 million. An hour later he was dealt kings again and after watching four other players limp he put his nearly 2 million in the pot and was only called by the one who had jacks. The cowboys held up again, and Wasicka was back to playing poker with a nice stack of 4 million chips.

The most dramatic fall on Tuesday was experienced by David Einhorn who started the day in 3rd place but busted out before the dinner break in 18th. Einhorn’s story ends well, however. Before play began on Tuesday, the hedge fund manager from California had announced he would be donating all of his winnings to charity -- the Michael J. Fox Foundation which is dedicated to discovering a cure for Parkinson’s disease. Einhorn, whose grandfather had Parkinson’s, won just over $659,000 for finishing 18th, a significantly-sized contribution to the foundation’s efforts. Pretty cool stuff.

I believe the blinds will still be 80,000/160,000 with a 20,000 ante when they start back up tomorrow. This means there will be a bit of room for some play when they begin, and that even the short stacks won’t necessarily have to push right away. It will be interesting to see whether Gold and/or Cunningham allow anyone stay comfortable, however. You gotta believe Gold in particular will be applying serious pressure from the get-go.

The payout structure should have some kind of an effect, as well. From 9th to 3rd, moving up a spot means another $400,000-$500,000 with each step. For most of these guys, that's a hell of a lot of scratch, particularly when you consider Cunningham is the only one at the table whose lifetime earnings exceeds a quarter million. (Cunningham has earned over $4 million; Wasicka, about $237,000; Gold and Binger about $100K each; the others, next-to-nothing or nothing.) The difference between 3rd and 2nd is almost $2 million, though, and the difference between 1st and 2nd is nearly $6 million. So it could be some players will think “top 2 or bust” and thus get wild right away, while others may well put their heads inside their shells and hope to wait out a spot or two or three before getting blinded off.

Whatever happens, it’ll surely be relived, replayed, and reviewed endlessly until next year’s WSOP. There’s a kind of permanence about final table play that may also have its effect tomorrow. The fact that the “world” (or some of it) will literally be watching this time certainly won’t lessen the pressure. As Negreanu says at the end of the clip, “if you have heart problems, the World Series of Poker is not for you.”

Image: WSOP logo.