Running World Series of Poker Thread

Jamie Gold is done. What a surprise.

 

I watched the final table from last year for the second time last night and it was frightening how Gold kept catching cards and running over people. There's no way he could do that again. None.

 

Phil had pocket 10s and his opponent caught runner-runner clubs to get a flush to oust him.

 

I was close..... ;D

I'm sure the rest of it played out like I said.

 

I thought the dumbest moment of that final table was when Paul Wasicka laid down his open-ended straight flush draw with a chance to triple his stack, eliminate a player and take a nice chunk out of Jamie Gold's stack to make a head's up competition interesting.

I cannot for the life of me figure this one out. His explanation was that he assumed one of the others had the nut flush draw and wanted to ensure he finished second.

That's a crock.

If you call a big pre-flop raise with a hand like 7-S, 8-S I'm not sure what more you are looking for than a flop of 5-S, 6-S, X.

Further, there is no possible hand you are drawing dead to and with two cards to come you are likely a favorite over just about every reasonable hand you could put your opponents on. And, since he had the other guy covered, if Gold won the hand, Wasicka would have finished second.

It made absolutely no sense, he basically just said he isn't interested in winning the tournament. I understand tournament play and trying to finish in better position, but you aren't going to get a better spot than that to get your money into the pot.

His final hand -- when he donked off the rest of his chips holding pocket 10's -- was just a total tilt play, which is understandable given that he made such a horrible laydown.

 

Hilarious Phil Hellmuth story.

He apparantly was going to make a grand entrance for the main event in a race car he was involved in some sort of cross promotion with......

The rest is, as they say, history....

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/poker/columns/story?columnist=wise_gary&id=2930628

Complete with pictures......

http://www.rawvegas.tv/watch.php?vID=555ae79aad35a05fa9f17ab0d0ca91

 

Excellent analysis, Zag. I was wondering the same thing, yelling "What are you doing?" to my TV the first time I saw that.

And it allows me to tell my favorite personal poker story. Last winter, I was in Biloxi for work. Staying at the Beau Rivage, I sat down at a 1-2 NL table. I was basically treading water for the first 90 minutes when I got dealt Js-Qs in the BB.

Guy next to me (SB) makes moderate raise ($10, I believe). I call, rest of table (four) fold.

Flop: 9s-10s-2d. BB raises, I call.

Turn: 2s. BB asks "How much you got?" I say $220. He puts me all-in.

River: Ks.

Guy turns over pocket 9's, giving him a 9's over 2's full house. Barely able to conceal my glee at the greatest hand I've ever been dealt in any poker game, I say "Straight flush"

Guy looks like he got hit between the eyes with a 2-by-4, before saying, "Great hand." He was actually really, really cool about it.

Was there luck there? Absolutely. But I'll take my chances with a Q-high flush and an open-ended straight flush draw.

 

I'm convinced the plan was to wreck that car all along.

And Hellmuth showed up to play in his firesuit and with his helmet.

 

Birdscribe, great result, but what did you think the other guy had when you called the bet? Looks to be that you were dominated (higher flush or boat) unless you hit the two-outer.

 

It's not easy to put him on a boat or a flush there ... When you look back on the hand, you can be pretty damn sure he didn't have a 2 in his hand or he wouldn't have raised. He would've completed the big blind and hoped to hit a flop.

So now you have to ask yourself if he has pocket 9s or 10s. His preflop raise was small, only $10 with four (potentially five) people in the pot. You would think someone raising from the small blind would be trying to isolate with a middle pair and would have bet more to get it one-on-one.

To me, a small bet like that sounds like one where he wants action, so I'm thinking it's something he's pretty sure he's going to win with. Sounds like aces or kings to me, with a possibility of A-K or A-Q.

So of those hands, the only one you'd have to worry about is As-Ks (if he had A-Q, he'd either be drawing or bluffing) and you've just hit a queen-high flush with an open-ended straight flush draw. If you put your opponent on As-Ks, you obviously can't call, but with the way that hand went down, the only two hands I'd be concerned about are As-Ks or possibly pocket 10s, though as I said, I'm not sure I would have put my opponent on that hand with such a small raise from the small blind.

Of course, after typing all that, I realize I forgot to ask the stakes. Sounds like it might have been a $1-2 game, in which case the $10 pre-flop raise is big enough you'd have to consider pocket 9s or 10s more carefully.

I'll stop now.

 

And I think it is also important to know how old this opponent was.

If he looked like he was 25 or younger, I'd have eliminated the A-K of spades when he didn't go all in on the flop. These youngsters love to over play draws and go all-in on draws knowing full well that most flops don't hit other players hard enough to justify a call.

 

Truth be told, I put him on A-Q or A-K off-suit. The rather small pre-flop raise gave me that indication, as did the all-in when the 2 came up -- an attempt at that point to chase me out in case I was chasing a straight. If he has the nut flush already, he's most likely not going to put me all in on the turn.

Zag, this guy wasn't some under-25 wild man; he was in his early 30s. The night before, I got bluffed off a hand by just such a character; something I realized a few hands too late as I watched him play. I got a chunk and then some of my money back off this guy 30 minutes later, when he pushed all-in against me with a K-6-2 board and me holding pocket Ks.

The higher flush was the only thing I worried about. Webster. The pocket 9s/boat possibilities escaped me (yes, a free admittance that I lucked out big-time). But at that point, I had cast my lot with a Q-high flush. If he's got a boat, well, I'm barnicle bait.

Instead, I've got a story to tell for the rest of my life.

BigPern, your analysis is well-founded. It was a $1-2 game.