The Final Table, Part One
Tuesday, November 10, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
I thought I’d watch ESPN Main Event coverage and blog along as we all watch the action together. I know, live-blogging a televised poker tournament is SO 2005, but this is perhaps the 2nd-biggest night in poker (TV ratings carry a lotta weight) so this is worth some insightful commentary.
Man, that’s some harsh lighting they use for the intro and the player introductions. Dramatic, yes, but I wonder how those faces look in HD (yes, I don’t have a high-def set, like I said I’m living in 2005). Nice job Phil Hellmuth getting on camera not once but TWICE beofre play began. Wait, did I say twice? I mean thrice.
OK, Darvin Moon’s got some moves there, limp re-raising with A-3 to scare Kevin Schaffel’s pocket nines out of the pot. Or maybe Moon just can’t help playing any Ace like they’re Aces. We shall see as the night goes on. Well, we already have seen, but…you know what I mean. A brief aside–in 2007 you may remember that certain final tables were sequestered in a walled-off area as Bluff live-streamed the final table w/hole cards and commentary. I had to cover a few of those final tables while sitting (quietly) in the Bluff control room, and the tricky part was that I couldn’t actually post the hands as the happened. I had to write up what happened and then wait an hour for the tape-delayed broadcast to air. So I would be writing up hands in the present tense and posting them an hour later while trying to follow the current action. Keeping it all straight was a colossal pain in the backside. Headaches, I had ‘em.
There’s Phil Hellmuth again! Will he get more facetime than James Akenhead?
Nice to hear the table-talk, which you can’t pick up most of the time even if you’re sitting in the front row. Personally I’d be so nervous, my mouth so dry, that I wouldn’t be able to do more than croak. I mean, not only are you playing for the World Championship and millions of dollars but you’re in front of thousands of people and dozens of TV cameras. That’s all.
A three-outer on the river to save James Akenhead. Live poker is SO fixed. But of course that’s the last bad beat we’ll see tonight. Right?
They just showed the large gentlemen carrying the suitcases of cash through the back hallways of the Rio. I’ve walked through those halls dozens of times during my WSOP sojourns and I wonder what sort of security sweep they did, as there are all sorts of nooks and crannies and sneaky places to hide. Hate to be walking to lunch through those corridors, turn the corner, and find a shotgun in your face.
I remember that Moneymaker-Chan hand like it was yesterday, and the fact that it was six years ago makes me feel OLD.
The dealer right now, her name’s Sara, she’s worked in Aruba the last few years and dealt the final table there in 2008. I wrote a funny post about her when I was covering the Main Event in 2008 for PokerNews, I needed a quick picture of her so I ran under the ropes, got her to smile, snapped the pic, and ran back before anyone could ask if I belonged there. A lesson to be learned there–it’s better to ask for forgiveness than permission. OK, it’s not necessarily a GOOD lesson, but still.
When I read the hand between Moon and Akenhead I had trouble wrapping my mind around Moon’s play. And now, having seen Moon bend over backwards to double Akenhead up I’m still scratching my head. It’s possible that Moon hasn’t really played against many short-stacked players before and doesn’t quite understand what being pot-committed means. I think we may see more evidence of this…
But you gotta love that Moon went away to Wyoming with his buddies, hung out in the cabin after hunting and played cards for fun all night. The way that millions of people enjoy the game every day. Not in cabins in Wyoming, I mean, but for fun with friends. Not THAT many cabins in Wyoming.
I made myself a nice little dinner tonight (round steak simmered with onions and red wine, tasty) but I really should’ve run out and bought some jerky. Both because jerky reminds me of my weeks covering the WSOP and enjoying the free Jack Link’s and because, hey, I loves me some jerky.
James Akenhead runs Kings into Kevin Schaffel’s Aces and looks appropriately sick. Akenhead more than doubled-up by hitting a three-outer then gets coolered. Makes you wanna look to the heavens and ask the Poker Gods why they wish to trifle with you. Schaffel then puts Akenhead to the sword and the Brit walks away with nothing extra in his pocket. That’s rough, going through four months of waiting and wondering and worrying and leaving the Rio without increasing the bankroll. Kelly Kim came in last year as the shortstack but improved to eighth, James Akenhead could not improve from ninth in chips this year.
Of course, those the Poker Gods most favor they often crap upon later. Kevin Schaffel gets Aces again, finds himself up against Kings AGAIN, but this time Eric Buchman (until this broadcast I’d never heard Buchman’s voice) flops a King and then TURNS a King that doesn’t even allow for a sweat on the river. All-in preflop with Aces and you’re drawing dead on the turn. Schaffel said he had a good time but “didn’t want to go out that way”. Yeah, I can understand that.
Oh my God…they’re showing The Hand. The Moon-Begleiter hand where Moon re-raised Begleiter 15 million and then FOLDED when the former Bear Sterns exec moved in for just 6 million more. I think UB’s Joe Sebok, doing the commentary for Bluff, said that the pot odds were such that Moon had to call even if all he had was a “tarot card and a Snickers wrapper”. And yet Moon folded! And now that we’ve seen the hole cards…yipe. It actually was a good fold, as Begleiter had him in about as bad a shape as possible without Moon drawing dead.
Speaking of holy crap, that deep, resonant roar when the crowd cheers a big hand is something else. For POKER, boys and girls, they’re cheering a POKER TOURNAMENT. Whatta world.
OK, we’re an hour in. I’ll publish this and begin afresh.
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