Travel Report: LAPT7 Panama, Day 1b -- November Niners

Another long day yesterday for Day 1b of the LAPT7 Panama Main Event. A huge turnout actually ended up bringing the total number of entries to 550 for the event, just a little under the 570 from last fall and I think above expectations.

Had a couple of highlights along the way, one being a quick chat with Badih “Bob” Bounahra of Belize who traversed Central America to play. We talked just a little about his November Nine run from 2011, his WSOP this year (which included a third place in a $1K event), and his continued love of deuce-seven.

Sort of an interesting turn of events today as Bounahra got seated at the feature table with Scott Montgomery, who also of course made a November Nine back in 2008 (the first one). Most agreed it was certainly the first time two November Niners had been seated at the same table at an LAPT event, and possibly the first instance of two playing in the same tourney.

Looks like 179 made it through to Friday’s Day 2, which apparently will be a shorter day -- just eight one-hour levels without a dinner break. Then there will be a party at the pool afterwards, which should be a good chance to relax a little and possible get some good eats as well.

I’m most excited, though, about having booked a trip to see the Panama Canal on Saturday morning. Gonna have to get up early to make it there and back before the noon start of the tourney, but it’ll be worth it, I’m told. More on that when it happens.

No Worries

Watched a little football yesterday. Toward the early evening, once the Titans-Jaguars game had wrapped up, CBS moved over to show the last couple of plays of that crazy Pittsburgh-San Diego game which I’m sure Mean Gene had been watching closely all afternoon.

The game ended with the unlikely score of 11-10, the Steelers on top. Pittsburgh had scored a safety early on, then kicked three field goals to arrive at 11. With the Chargers down to their last play, the stats guys reported no NFL game had ever ended with that score (in over 12,000 games). San Diego then tried a trick play involving multiple laterals, ended up botching one and Pittsburgh safety Troy Polamalu scooped it up and ran it in the end zone as the clock ran out, making the score a much less unusual 17-10.

But the refs conferred for several minutes, decided there had been an illegal forward pass earlier in the play which meant they were ruling the play dead. Game over. 11-10. However, the refs botched this one, too. As ref Scott Green admitted after the game was over, the play shouldn’t have been ruled dead at all since the illegal pass had never touched the ground. “It was incorrect to have killed it at that point,” said Green. “The ruling should have let the play go on.”

Now none of this really matters as far as the outcome of the game goes. However, as I was watching, I was thinking of the screams of agony that had to be filling the air in the Vegas sportsbooks. Pittsburgh was a five-point favorite yesterday, see, meaning that final, nutty play had a lot of significance to anyone who had bet on the game, regardless which team one had picked. For the guy who had bet on the Steelers to cover the spread, he became subject to an incredibly unlikely slowroll, thinking he’d won, then learning he’d lost, then learning he’d lost only because the refs screwed up!

Speaking of unlikely outcomes, I had found myself a little earlier in the afternoon flipping the channels once the Titans had appeared to have taken control of their game with the Jaguars, and at one point landed on ESPN where they were replaying the World Series of Poker Main Event final table. Now I had seen the entire show last week and really there wasn’t much compelling me to watch it again. However, I realized there was one moment I knew I wanted to see one more time -- that hand in which Peter Eastgate rivered Scott Montgomery with the case six to knock Montgomery out in fifth place. Talk about unlikely. There was only one card left in that deck that could’ve ended Montgomery’s day, and out it came.

The reason why I wanted to see that hand again was not because I enjoyed seeing Montgomery bust out in such wicked fashion, nor that I particularly liked seeing Eastgate win the hand. No, the reason I wanted to see it again was to see Montgomery’s reaction -- that wonderful mix of self-effacing humor, quiet acknowledgment, and good sportsmanship. We’ve all suffered bad beats, but this one was about as brutal as it gets. And Montgomery’s response was a model of grace.

It was also a pretty cool “sports” moment to watch again, too. To remind you, Eastgate had made it 1.25 million from middle position. ESPN then shows Dennis Phillips checking his hole cards -- which indeed included the -- before folding. Montgomery then reraises all in with his last 7 million-plus from the small blind, and Eastgate calls, showing to Montgomery’s .

The flop comes , and Phillips is heard saying he had folded a black six. Montgomery quickly estimates that the on the turn would leave Eastgate drawing dead. (So would a few other diamonds, I suppose.) He also smilingly says something in there about how “that will make it that much worse when the six comes on the river.” (I’d check on PokerTube, but it is currently down for maintenance.)

The turn is the , which gives Montgomery trips but actually is a meaningless card. I know ESPN dubbed in the commentary later, but they did a nifty job here with Lon McEachern’s call: “And now the riverrRROHHHHHH!!!!!” -- his cry matching the crowd’s uproar at the appearance of the . Phillips immediately backs away from the table in horror. “A one-outer,” you can hear him say.

Montgomery just sits there for a moment smiling, as if he knew it was coming. I’d see his funny spot on the earlier ESPN telecast, as well as heard him interviewed on Pocket Fives (the 10/30 episode), and so was already inclined toward liking the guy. But this reaction -- see the above screen shot -- was just simply terrific. With a big grin he stands up and shakes hands, makes a joke with Ylon Schwartz (it appears), and ambles off. Such is life. Would that we all were able to understand and accept it so well.

I’m guessing those poor saps who bet on the Steelers to cover yesterday probably reacted a little differently.

2008 WSOP Main Event Final Table Resumes Tomorrow

In just a little over 24 hours they will be gathering over at the Penn & Teller Theater at the Rio to resume the 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event final table. Almost forgot all about it, didn’t you?

As one who regularly follows podcasts, reads forums and blogs, and keeps up with other varieties of poker media, I suppose I’ve become somewhat familiar with the nine players’ personalities over the last 100-plus days. Can’t really claim to have that much knowledge of playing styles beyond the few hands we saw on the ESPN shows. While I was there covering the action up through Day 5 this summer -- and I watched the feature table for a few hours on both Day 6 and Day 7 -- I can’t really claim to have picked up all that much extra information that yr average ESPN viewer wouldn’t already have.

My limited knowledge ain’t gonna stop me, though, from offering a few thoughts about the remaining players here on the eve of the final table.

1. Dennis Phillips (26,295,000) -- The 53-year-old account manager for Broadway Truck Centers in St. Louis will most definitely be easy to root for tomorrow. His humble nature and dedication to charity work has won him a lot of fans during the long lead-up to tomorrow’s final table. He definitely caught some cards during those last two days of play in July -- we all saw him flop a couple of flushes there in the ESPN telecasts. But we also saw him get paid on those hands, and show a willingness to bluff (and catch others’ bluffs), too. I definitely like Phillips’ chances, though a lot depends on the table draw (not to mention how the cards go). In any event, he’s certainly one of about five players who will be seriously gunning for the bracelet and not merely to finish in the top five or six. (Check out my interview with Phillips here.)

2. Ivan Demidov (24,400,000) -- His big chip stack and third-place finish in the World Series of Poker Europe Main Event most certainly affords Demidov some extra credibility as a contender tomorrow. Some have mentioned how good it would be for poker should the 27-year-old from Moscow -- or one of the other three non-Americans still alve -- manage to take the bracelet. The fact that he played 242 hands at that WSOPE final table might mean his opponents tomorrow have gained a bit of extra knowledge about how he approaches the endgame, although without knowing hole cards it is hard to estimate the significance of such information. I’d expect Demidov to maintain his healthy chip stack early on, although he has expressed in at least one interview a willingness to flip with a shorter-stack, especially if it is with a more formidable opponent like Rheem.

3. Scott Montgomery (19,690,000) -- We all saw Montgomery luck out a couple of times on ESPN to survive, but so did most of the other nine at some point in their respective journeys. The 26-year-old Canadian finished fifth in the WPT L.A. Poker Classic early in the year. He has a mathematics degree and has done some teaching (in Japan, actually), so has a bit of smarts about him. Also has a winning, self-effacing personality, too, as evidenced on ESPN and on the 10/30/08 episode of the Pocket Fives podcast. Seems willing to take some chances and gamble it up, and so might be a target for the short stacks early on.

4. Peter Eastgate (18,375,000) -- The youngest (aged 22) of the nine, and looks it. Eastgate is the only one of the group I don’t believe I’ve actually listened to being interviewed. On the few hands shown on ESPN telecasts, he appeared to have the sort of bold, aggressive style you’d expect of a young internet-trained player. Being from Denmark, expect a lot more comparisons with Gus Hansen to be thrown around tomorrow, especially if Eastgate goes deep (which I think is very likely). Has an effective, non-expressive poker face, too, which helped him in the hand in which he knocked out Tiffany Michelle. Would not be surprised at all to see Eastgate playing on Monday when they return for heads up.

5. Ylon Schwartz (12,525,000) -- The 38-year-old chess master from Brooklyn was probably the most idiosyncratic-seeming of the nine in interviews, tossing off strange, off-the-wall comments that suggested he either wasn’t affected by the whole delayed-final-table spectacle or was pretending such. When Phil Gordon asked him what his future plans were on The Poker Edge, Schwartz responded with something about jumping off the Rio roof if he didn’t win. (As I wrote about yesterday, Schwartz also has some interesting things to say about how chess compares to poker.) From what I saw on Day 7 when watching from the stands, Schwartz was playing uber-tight in an effort to make the final table -- probably only Kelly Kim was tighter there at the end. While many think he’ll continue in that vein tomorrow and be content to finish in the top five, I’m thinking he could surprise people and play more aggressively early on. Not in a wild Jerry Yang-fashion, but be active enough that he could well accumulate chips and be around to contend at the end.

6. Darus Suharto (12,520,000) -- I heard Suharto interviewed on The Poker Edge about a month back. The 39-year-old Canadian was back at his accounting job and in fact sounded as though his job had a much more prominent place in his life than did poker or even the WSOP. The impression might be misleading, however. Even though Suharto is an amateur who only plays part-time, he has gathered some experience here lately at the EPT London and the North American Poker Championship. Even so, of all the final nine, he seems to me the most likely to sit tight from the beginning tomorrow and just try to survive the first couple of eliminations.

7. David Rheem (10,230,000) -- The Los Angeles pro was easily the most prominent of the nine both on the ESPN shows and elsewhere, thanks both to his earlier poker successes (including one televised final table at this year’s WSOP) and that bit of news about his having had an outstanding arrest warrant. Until Demidov’s deep WSOPE run, the 28-year-old seemed to be a favorite pick among many to win, but with the relatively-shorter starting stack his fate depends heavily on his being fortunate whenever he decides to make that first big gamble tomorrow. I don’t see Rheem being content to sit on his below-average stack very long tomorrow. Indeed, Rheem seems to me the most likely of the remaining players to make a Philip Hilm-like early exit.

8. Craig Marquis (10,210,000) -- The 24-year-old from Arlington, Texas was most conspicuous at the ten-handed table in July, showing an obvious willingness to go busto in his effort to exploit what had been hyped as the biggest bubble in poker tourney history. Seems like a smart, funny guy. Is a prominent contributor over on Two Plus Two where he started a Q&A thread about a month ago titled “Ask a member of the November Nine.” He didn’t answer all of the questions posed there, but did respond to many (perhaps too many, actually). A complete wild card, really, who could flame out early or gather chips and go deep.

9. Kelly Kim (2,620,000) -- The 31-year-old Californian endured a lot of ups and downs during the seven days of play, nearly busting right at the money bubble (and on a few other occasions), then limping to the finish at the very end. Sounds like a savvy tourney player who may well endure into the top six or seven spots, should he manage to double up during the first orbit or two (and then hang on after that).

I’ve established already that I’m pulling for Phillips to take it down, although as I say above I think the table draw has a lot to do with how things will go for him. Thought a little about making predictions, but taking a page from Phillips’ book of humility, I’m gonna refrain other than to say I think the non-Americans are all gonna do well tomorrow.

Unless you plan to keep yr head in the sand until the ESPN “plausibly live” show on Tuesday night, be sure to head over to PokerNews’ live reporting tomorrow to follow all of the action.