Love This Game
Thursday, May 28, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
Michael Binger is also playing in today’s $40,000 Hold-Em event, though according to PokerNews’s live updates he’s near the bottom of the chip counts with just 28,000. I happened to witness a hand where Michael lost a portion of his stack to Greg Raymer, and it was one of those hands that’d make you wonder why you didn’t take up jai alai.
I arrived on the scene with the board reading 9d-8h-7c-10s. Four to a straight, no flush possibilites. Binger bet 8,500 and Raymer raised to 25,000. Michael considered the situation for a minute or so before pulling his bet back and tossing a green 25,000 chip forward. The river…the river was the Jd. A straight on the board and what the heck do you do now? Out of position Michael thought for a bit before quietly checking. And Raymer took about two seconds to throw out an 80,000 bet.
Barf. Did Raymer have a Queen? King-Queen? Or was he simply playing position and putting the squeeze on Binger. Michael didn’t make a snap decision, he took a good three or four minutes chewing over a decision for the last of his chips. He stacked his big-denomination chips into a neat stack and riffled his black 100 chips, staring at the pot while Raymer stared at him behind those iconic lizard shades.
In the end Binger surrendered his hand and Raymer tossed his cards in the muck without revealing what he held. But if there’s a player in the field capable of grinding his stack back into contention it might be Michael, who possesses one of the keenest computational mind in the game and a ridiculously consistent track record. There’s still time, still room to manuever.
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Tags: greg raymer, Michael Binger, michael binger 2009 world series of poker, michael binger 2009 wsop, michael binger wsop
