Remembering WSOP’s from years gone by!
Saturday, July 4, 2009 - Phil Hellmuth
<!–[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 false false false EN-CA X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 <![endif]–><!–[if gte mso 9]> <![endif]–>
As we approach another WSOP in Vegas – I look back and recall WSOPs from years gone by. Here is some commentary from years ago. Hope y’all enjoy.
I would like to say that I am proud of the WSOP itself. Does that sound kind of stupid to you? Then let me explain–if only you could have seen the final six in the Big One in 2000. Discovery channel had a wall of technical equipment and at least four cameras surrounding the action. There were two separate live internet audio broadcasts going on at the same time.
Let’s not forget that we had over 510 players put up ten thousand dollars each to play in the final event! As Johnny Chan said, “I don’t know about the rest of the country, but there sure were a lot of people wandering around the Horseshoe with ten thousand dollars in their pockets!”
The worldwide press was out in full force for the WSOP. It was amazing to watch the cameras going off when the WSOP’s 2000 winner, Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, was posing after the event ended. To the point about the worldwide press, I personally was interviewed during the WSOP by Geraldo Rivera (NBC), E! Entertainment, the Discovery Channel, and many magazine writers as well. Also, I am proud of Chris “Jesus” Ferguson and T.J. Cloutier for the way that they played poker and handled themselves throughout the final two days. In my opinion, they both deserved to win the World Championship’s this year. These are just some of the reasons that I am proud of the 2000 World Series of Poker.
There were some great surprises at the 2000 WSOP, including Jim McManus and Jeff Schulman. Jim McManus is a novelist/poet/writer who was sent out to the WSOP to cover it for Harpers magazine (and eventually wrote a 16 page article on it, which turned into his book, “Positively Fifth Street”). Jim decided to play some satellites for the Big One and whoosh–he finished fourth in the main event. Jeff Schulman played a fantastic game of poker throughout this year’s WSOP. Maybe because Jeff hasn’t been there before, he was moving $200,000 to $1,000,000 stacks around like they were water. What Jeff lacked in experience, he more than made up for with fearlessness and great ‘reads’ on the rest of the field.
Here is a hand that came up between Jeff Schulman and Chris Ferguson with seven players left on poker’s biggest stage (WSOP 2000). Remember, when the WSOP gets down to six players, they end for the day and come back the next day to battle in front of the world for fame and fortune ($1,500,000 for first place). Jeff had been moving his chips around beautifully, he was raising and re-raising (presumably when his opponents had nothing) almost every hand. The blinds were $15,000-$30,000 and the antes were $3,000 per player, when Jeff opened for $200,000 on the button with 7-7. Chris Ferguson decided to move all-in from the big blind with 6-6 for about $860,000. At this point, Jeff was the chip leader with over $1,500,000 and Chris was second in chips with his $860,000. After less then 20 seconds, Jeff decided to call Chris for all of his $860,000.
Wow, Jeff would start day four with over $2,300,000 in chips, and T.J. Cloutier in second place with only $600,000. Chris would finish in seventh place, but wait a minute, they didn’t flop the cards yet. Jeff wasn’t home yet—he was, however a 4 ½-to-1 favorite to win this hand. The flop was 3h-6h-10h, giving Chris the best hand, but giving Jeff a flush draw. The next card was the 5c to also give Jeff a straight draw. Now Jeff needed a heart (excepting the 5h), a seven or a four to win the pot. Chris called for (out loud), and received, a ten on the river, to make the final board 3h-6h-10h-5c-10s and give Chris the winning hand (a full house 6-6-6-10-10). Too bad for Jeff, but he kept his composure (much like I would have [Yeah, right!]) and still was in second chip position with roughly $700,000.
The rest of the story is even more brutal for Jeff–as if losing this pot wasn’t tough enough. About one round later, Jeff picked up pocket kings in the small blind and moved all-in after TJ opened for $300,000 with pocket jacks. Chris picked up pocket aces in the big blind, and Jeff ended up finishing in seventh place. So he went from 2.3 million and the chip lead going into the last day to being the next player out. Seemed like Jeff deserved better than that, but that’s poker.
Anyway, back to the 7-7 vs. 6-6 hand. (The aces versus kings is pretty natural.) I love the way that Jeff played this hand. He had been raising a lot of pots, so he opened for a huge over raise of $200,000 to send a message to Chris that he had something. Then when Chris moved in, Jeff correctly deduced that his pocket sevens were the best hand. As John Bonetti would say, “He had Chris by the throat.” It is hard to be 4 ½-to-1 favorite for all of the money, but Jeff put himself into this great position for the most important (and biggest pot) of his life.
How about the way that Chris played the hand? I don’t like his play very much, but it’s certainly not too bad. On the one hand, I like the aggressiveness of the all-in move with the pocket sixes. Chris was trying to stop Jeff from running over the table with this move. On the other hand, Jeff did send a message with the size of his raise, and Chris was in second chip position, so I could very easily see him fold his hand here and wait for a better spot to risk all of his chips. I probably would have folded the 6-6 in this situation just because it was for all of his chips and he still would have been in great chip position. I mean, why risk all of your chips in second chip position with seven players left at the WSOP?
Related posts:
- Was the CardPlayer cruise really 6 years ago? On the Card Player Cruise through the Caribbean on the...
- Reflecting on Poker’s World Championships Well it’s that time of year again – the good...
- Teaching Jeff Pulver and his Four Eights A few years ago I was teaching my friend Jeff...
- Quick Photo Dump As you might expect there’s a big crowd watching the...
- HD Conquers Caesar’s WSOP Circuit Event! Thaaaaaat’s right! A few days ago yours truly took down...
Tags: Chris Ferguson, Geraldo Rivera, Jeff Schulman, Jim McManus, johnny chan, Phil Hellmuth, t.j. cloutier, WSOP
July 5th, 2009 at 11:48 pm
I am sick of the Phil Hellmuth bandwagon. I think he is not as good as everyone says he is. He complains after every hand he looses, and tries to say the other players played the hand completely wrong. But the fact is that i could beat Phil Hellmuth in heads of hold’em and I am only seventeem years of age.