I just got back from one of the most amazing trips of my life. My brother and I went diving with great white sharks and fishing for tuna about 200 miles off the coast of Mexico. We had to skip the WPT at Foxwoods, but wow was it worth it.
We met our fellow travelers on Wednesday morning in San Diego, boarded a bus for the port of Ensenada Mexico, and departed on a long distance fishing boat called the Searcher. There was a crew of 6 or 7 and 16 passengers. We left port around 2pm and headed out into the Pacific for our 18 hour journey to the remote Guadalupe Island. Shortly after leaving port, we were graced by dozens of dolphins and some whales.
For dinner we had an amazing gourmet meal prepared by the on-board chef Charles. Did not expect to be eating that good on a boat!
We arrive to the island the next morning and promptly get to our business. A suitable spot is found, the water is chummed, and the cages are put in the water. The cages are about 8 feet long, 4 feet wide, and 10 feet tall and hold up to 4 people at a time. The water is sufficiently cold to warrant full body wet suits; oxygen is supplied from the boat through a tube and regulator. My brother and I were part of the first group to go in… some 30 minutes or so passed before the first shark showed up… a 15 foot great white. Quite a beast! At this point you become more aware of the large open window in the cage… just about big enough for the shark to pop in and grab a little human snack. However, after a little while it becomes clear that no such thing will happen… these guys are cautious creatures… and anyways they don’t really like the taste of human flesh. They do however swim within arms reach of the cage regularly, prompted both by curiosity as well as the bait… there are large tuna carcasses attached to a rope on the surface near the cages. Watching them go for these is quite a sight.
Words don’t really do this justice… so check out the pics below and more on my facebook page, where you’ll also find some video.
Our second full day we pulled in the cages and did some fishing instead. First we were after yellowfin tuna, a staple for many sushi dishes. They were biting in a big way… I had my line out for all of 30 seconds when I hooked one. They are quite the fighters… it took 15-20 minutes or so to land him… a 50 pounder. I ended up catching another pretty quickly. Then I hooked a monster… this guy was fighting much harder than the others. I fought with him for almost 30 minutes before a great white was spotted circling the boat and I was warned that they often pick off tuna from the lines. I see the shark head down into the depths where my fish was, and next thing I know my fish goes bananas. I couldn’t see him but I felt it. Then all of a sudden the pressure on my line subsides… but I still have something on there… putting up a little bit of a fight. I reel in as quickly as I can and finally catch a glimpse of about 2/3’s of a huge tuna fish shimmering in the depths! Then wouldn’t you know it, Mr. Shark comes back and intercepts the remainder of his meal, putting the poor tuna out of his misery and giving me quite a fish story. I got sharked! The crew actually has a term for it… they call it paying your taxes! This is one tough tax man! Later on I hooked another tuna (and in the process my line snapped the line on a fish my brother had been fighting for a long time… sorry Nick!) and eventually got shark chomped again… however this time he left me the head to bring aboard. Check out the pic! After everyone had caught their fill of yellowfin tuna, we changed locations in pursuit of yellowtail snapper (Hamachi to sushi aficionados). I managed to catch one of about 15-20 pounds. By evening time we were getting hungry… and as luck would have one of the crew members is an experienced sushi chef. We had the most amazing fresh sushi ever.
It was a great day… and Nick and I took home about 60 pounds of fillets of sushi grade tuna and yellowtail which are currently vacuum sealed and in our freezer. I pan seared some last night… yum!
Day 3 we were back in the water in the cages diving with the sharks. Another amazing day, with perfect weather and 2 great whites showing up and hanging out with us most of the day. There were times when both were very close to the cage simultaneously.
Towards evening it was time to say goodbye to Guadalupe Island and start chugging on our 18 hour journey back to civilization. There were some serious swells and several on board got sick. The next morning we were entering Ensenada bay when a pod of 6-8 Orca whales (Killer whales) was spotted at the mouth of the bay. We diverted to check them out. While ooohing and aaahing we notice a huge group of dolphins… well over a hundred. They were booking it from the interior of the bay along the rocky abutment heading towards open water. The crew tells us that yes, orcas do eat dolphins, and that the orcas had essentially trapped the dolphins in the bay. The dolphins were trying to escape. At this point the orcas take off from frolicking near our boat and plot an intercept course. They split the dolphins into two groups; one heads out to sea and relative safety while the other heads back into the bay where they must bide their time. And at least one poor dolphin got picked off from the rest of the group… we watched in fascination and horror as the orcas chased it down, caught it, threw it in the air and then proceeded to eat it. A flock of seagulls descended to fight over the leftovers. The crew said they had never seen anything like that before. We were very fortunate to have witnessed such a raw and uncensored act of nature.
Really an amazing trip… made me realize why I played poker again… so that I can have the flexibility to have these experiences.
Last night I played a bit of poker online… including the VIP freeroll on UB which I hosted. I ended up winning it for $1200! Nice to run good.
This weekend the WSOP main event final table went down here in Vegas and obviously the weekend revolved around that. Saturday I wasn’t terribly interested in going early as I knew that it’d be going late, and by the end of the night I ended up not going. I was called in to do commentary at like 2:30am but I was already away from the phone. I tried to get myself in earlier but I just couldn’t crack through the Maven and Hollywood Dave.
Sunday I made a deep run in the Sunday mill, busting somewhere around 90th unfortunately. I’ve been making a lot of deep runs lately, including 13th in the 1k 6max FTOPS last night, good for a bit over $50k this week. I had a wristband for stage seats for the heads up match but lasted long enough in the ftops for them to finish their little heads up duel. My backer also has Joe. I texted him mid match and something like, “Thats right, in the money, y’all can rely on ol Devo to keep y’all afloat.” LOL. They had a good week.
So I got down there in time for the festivities. Obviously, Devo doesn’t show up until the beer is free. I hung out for a while watching picture after interview, and it was an amazing atmosphere. The group of Cada crazies, all young, all having a helluva time. After everything was over we were lead into one of the Palazzo suites, and man was it amazing. Ty Rio! Food, open bar, the bathroom had a bidet, beday, bedae, however you spell it, but I didn’t have the courage to poop and use it. I spent most of my time hanging with Tony Gugiano and Cliff. Somebody announced to be at the ESPNZone at NYNY at 5:15pm for the viewing party.
Woke up the next day late, and I tried to install a new fan onto my laptop. I printed the instructions for how to change it out, didn’t read em, turned off the laptop, got out a screwdriver, and was ready to go to work.
Steps 1-3 talk about turning it off. Step 4: Remove the battery. This is easy.
Step 5: Remove the following components:
a. Hard drive. What?
b. Optical drive. Seriously?
c. Switch cover. What’s that?
d. Keyboard. That’s where I stopped. It goes to: l. System board. I called Fry’s and asked how much to install it, $150, I think I’m just going to buy a desktop.
So I headed down to the ESPNZone and there was a table with a pile of Doyle’s new book and a line. Hmm lot of people here. Turns out that it’s the official viewing party, and I wasn’t on the list. Somebody screwed up in telling everybody to go there. Jonathan Little was there, he wasn’t on the list either, and it took us about 30 minutes to get in. We’re so 2008. If they knew how much face time he was going to get they would have let him in immediately. So that party was fun, after that we headed to Pure for the official club party, had a good time and a blur of an evening.
Tomorrow Jon Little, Hoyt Corkins and myself are going jeeping. Stoked!
I am really excited about some awesome changes in the blind structures at UB. I designed the structures that we have been using for years and I have always been pretty damn proud of them. But even a good thing can become better and last week I ripped back through those bad boys and made some big changes with the help of Roothlus :) The changes are huge. Amazing. Crazy! Okay. I know I am exaggerating but I am really excited about them.
We have added tons of level including the 250/500 level for all tournaments. That is a big change because it means you don’t get that big 50% jump anymore from the 200/400 level to the 300/600 level. That is a big jump that I am so psyched we have reduced to two 25% jumps instead. IN our deepstack tournaments, we had this crazy 5/10 level in there which, when you start with 5K in chips was pretty useless. So we got rid of that but added in a 25/50 level instead. I love that change. Start a little higher so the hands in the first round might actually matter but smooth out the structure later so you aren’t just losing a level.
The change to the deepstack events is part of a new policy that some tournaments will now have different structures than others, depending on buy-in and starting stack. Tournaments which start with more than 3K in chips now have a different structure than those that start lower and any tournament with a $500 buy-in or more has a new structure. In total:
1) For events 3K chips and higher the 5/10 level has been removed but a 25/50 level has been added. In total 7 new levels have been added to the structure
2) In events starting with less than 3K chips, a total of 7 levels have been added
3) In event with a buy-in of $500 or more, the 5/10 level is removed replaced by the 25/50 level. In total 11 levels have been added to those structures
4) The UBOC final has a total of 21 levels added to it
5) All tournaments now have antes introduced at the 100/200 level rather than the 150/300 level
6) The structures for limit tourneys have also been revamped and the antes in stud tourneys have been changed to be in line with other sites.
7) The antes in stud cash games have been revamped as well.
I am really excited about all of these changes. The stud changes in particular really fix a problem that UB had in general that the antes and bring ins were often much too high a percentage of the small bet. Those have now been brought in line with industry standards which is nice because it increases the skill level of the game to know how to adjust to antes.
All in all, the new structures give you, the player, much more bang for your buck. No crazy all-in fests on UB. Every tournament on the site now offers more play for your buy-in. I am pretty proud of the changes
A few of us from the creative team spent the week in LA, CA for the shooting and production of our upcoming TV spots. I of course can’t fill you in on too much detail until they come out but it was a great experience with the team and production company we worked with. The process was great leading up to the shooting days, an awesome change from experiences we’ve had in the past.
The funniest part about the week was seeing us warm-weathered folks freezing our you-know-whats off in LA in the evening. The night we arrived and the following night during shooting it was 40 degrees and crazy-windy. Yikes! Good thing we had space heaters and blankets.
It’s amazing how much work and coordination goes into three :30 TV spots. I mean, after all is said and done, I imagine the total number of man hours spent on these were over the 1,000 hour mark. CRAZY! With the creative team, marketing and brand team, agency, production company and all the editing I was amazed to see these spots come together so well. These will for sure be the best TV ads we’ve ever had, and I can’t wait to share.
While we’re on the topic of great TV ads, I’d like to share a few of my recent favorites:
On Tuesday Oct 27th I started play for the Caesar’s Classic $5k main event. I continued to play until there were twenty left. Then I went all in on the button with A7 and 18 big blinds. I was called by Glenn Chorny who had the best hand in online poker, the king and the queen, although he only had one flush draw. The flop came Ac3c3d. Js. Th. I got paid just as much as the first person out did, but not as much as 18th place. Sigh.
Exhausted the next morning the plumbers came over to check on a leak in the kitchen. My sadistic girlfriend scheduled them for 7am. I would have been tilted if I had to play a final table a few hours later listening to them use a Sawzall on the drywall. Hell, it tilted me anyways. Turns out the upstairs drain pipe, which sends the laundry room and upstairs bathroom drainage to wherever it goes was leaking. Hooray for a little bit of my upstairs flushed poops ending up in the kitchen wall. So they cut apart the wall, pulled up carpet, pulled linoleum, and left a mess. Good news tho is that KB Homes is paying for it. Just when everything was about settled it turns out that the water heater was leaking too. That KB isn’t paying for. F it all imo. I packed the truck, packed Shelley, and we headed off to the Phish fest, at the same place Coachella is. Here’s some pics.
This was home for 4 nights. For the festival they allowed cars to park on the fields and then people camped out of their cars. Was awesome, way better than having to pack and park like Coachella and every other one I’ve been to.
These were our neighbors from Oklahoma. We made friends with them. They were making tomato, avocato, green onion, and peanut butter sandwiches on wheat using a Grateful Dead glow in the dark frisbee as a cutting board.
Halloween. That’s a man in a loin cloth with a man in a diaper behind him. Just after snapping this pic a woman on a horse walked by behind.
Sunday morning acoustic set.
Drove back Monday, was a great weekend. Super stoked that I got to go to this thing, I was always bummed that I never made it to one before they broke up, was an awesome experience.
This week it’s been all about grinding online. I made a deep run in the FTOPS #1, $215 6 max, taking 5th without ever really having a chance. I just mucked my way to a $37k score basically. Hooray!
This year has truly flown by, and now we find ourselves sending some more players to Vegas baby! The WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic promo that we have running is giving away tons of packages; and believe it or not, each one is worth $17,500!
Yeah I did not add extra zeros; it really is worth $17,500. Plus, to top it off, we credit this in cash to your UB account! So basically you can spend from the 14th to the 19th of December in Sin City getting ready to go home with your pockets full of cash to celebrate Christmas! I think that would be an awesome gift for the holidays, don’t you?
Every Sunday at 8:30 we have a Super Satellite that guarantees at least one package to this live event. We also have the Steps series that can get you there for close to nothing if you start on Step one or you can skip directly to Step 10 and pocket one of these packages.
With thanksgiving just around the corner you might be one of the players thankful for playing and winning with us!
Seven players left and we’re an hour into the coverage. Expect fireworks!
Peter Eastgate sitting with Doyle Brunson, after Eastgate blew off a photo session during the WSOP that had Doyle steaming. Hopefully the young buck made amends to the Big Poppa.
Phil Ivey folds pocket Jacks to a re-raise from Antoine Saout holding pocket sevens and it’s like the world’s turned upside down. Did I just SEE that?? Apparently Ivey doesn’t speak French, even when it comes to non-verbal communication.
Jeff Shulman doubles through Joe Cada and leaves the youngster with just 1% of the chips in play. 2 million. 5 big blinds. Oh well, gg, right?
Interesting approach by Jeff Shulman, setting up a nine-handed table and having players simulate how his final-table opponents will play. I’m not sure how folding pocket nines to a raise from Phil Ivey fits in there but it’s kinda hard to simulate Phil Ivey.
Can’t be a good feeling to be all-in for your tournament life and it’s Phil Ivey holding the door open for you. But it must be an awesome feeling to see that final card fall on the river and know you’ve doubled up and have new life. Which is just what happened to Joe Cada as his pocket fours held against Ivey’s A-8.
Antoine Saout was kinda the forgotten man of the November Nine, in large part because he’s French. But there were three Frenchmen who went deep in the Main Event and for a time it seemed like half of Media Row was from la belle France. Seriously, during the WSOP I’d say that more than half of the media in attendance was from across the Pond. It’s an international game, believe it.
I like apples, they’re tasty and nutritious, but Phil Ivey might be the first person since Adam to make eating an apple look cool. Unfortunately, as with Adam, eating an apple was unlucky for the best player in the world. All-in with Ace-King and dominating Darvin Moon’s Ace-Queen, the flop had a Queen in the door. After an obligatory Mike Matusow expletive Ivey continued munching away on his apple and waited to see his fate. And then that was that and hearing the keening from the audience you’d think someone had died. And then the ovation as Ivey walked off the stage and the complexion of the final table took a sudden turn. Up to then you had the impression that everyone, including the other players at the table, were focused on Ivey. With him gone everyone realized that someone else was gonna win the title.
Gotta say this for Darvin Moon–the guy wasn’t afraid to get his chips in the middle. He didn’t turtle and try to fold his way up the money ladder, he was blasting away with both barrels. And he sure didn’t fear playing Ace-Queen, cards that are considered a diabolical trap-hand by many players. Then again if you flop a Queen to beat Ace-King, as Moon did to Ivey, or river an Ace to beat pocket Queens, as Moon did to Steve Begleiter, it gives you a bit more confidence with those two cards. Good Lord, Darvin Moon runs good.
Hey, there’s Tony, the head of security at the WSOP carrying the briefcases of cash! When the Stanley Cup came to the Amazon Room for the NHL Charity Event (shortly after my beloved Penguins won it) I thought about running over to hug it, but the thought of Tony tasering me and then tossing my body in a dumpster held me in place. Probably would’ve lost my press pass, too.
Wow, Joe Cada won with pocket threes to Jeff Shulman’s pocket Jacks. I guess we all have one big double-up like that in our poker careers…
Nice to see ESPN showing Joe rocking the UB logo before the November Nine was set. Do we hold a grudge against Joe for signing with PokerStars the enemy another online site? Not all all, we’re all bigger than that.
And then Cada quickly doubles when Moon decides to bully and finds out you can’t bully a guy holding pocket Aces, as Cada was. Moon’s K-9 is the equivalent of bringing a knife to a gunfight and Lon McEachren uses that word, “Destiny”, for the first time to describe Cada.
Jeff Shulman doubled through Cada but couldn’t win that next big hand to catapult him into contention. He lost a race with pocket sevens to Saout’s A-9 and sometimes that’s how the end comes, with a whimper not a bang. After playing so many hours in July, then dealing with the hype and the waiting, to have it end on the losing end of a race has gotta feel both crushing and anti-climatic.
I should say here that the COVERAGE tonight hasn’t been anti-climatic. It’s been great, especially when you consider they turned this around in just a few days. Standing O to the ESPN team, great work all around.
Once again Ace-Queen takes center stage, as Eric Buchman tried to shove Saout around but ran into the Frenchman’s Big Slick. I believe that was the biggest pot up to that point, Saout was the first player close to 90 million. And somewhere my French journo friend Benjo was going nuts.
Man, Moon like putting his chips in there. Calling about 25 million with KING-JACK?? CALLING with it. Holy crap on a stick, what hand can you be ahead of there? Buchman had just lost a big hand, sure, but he still had enough chips to put a hurt on Moon. But he made the call, flopped a straight draw, turned a King. Cada and Saout had to be praying “Oh God (Mon Dieu), let me get Aces just one more time against Darvin. Just once…”
Here’s something you should know about the final table you’re watching–it was the longest in WSOP history. They played for nearly FIFTEEN HOURS. So it’s not like they were throwing haymakers all day. But it’s amazing how quickly these massive confrontations develop. Like the one between Cada and Saout, as Cada shipped in his entire stack holding pocket deuces and then looked sick when Saout said “Call”. You’re hoping you’re in a race, instead you find you’re crushed by pocket Queens. And then you flop ANOTHER SET to wriggle off the hook. Extraordinary…there’s luck, and then there’s Luck, and then there’s LUCK. At some point it almost has to become embarassing.
But not before Cada spiked a King on the river to knock Saout out of the tournament. Look, I’m a patriotic American and all, but I kinda wanted Saout to win. The poor guy played great, suffered the slings and arrows with an esprit I admired, but in the end he could not overcome Cada’s golden run. Sometimes it just isn’t meant to be, and for a poker player that has to be very, very difficult to accept.
Funny that Moon consoled Saout by saying “it should’ve been me and you” and Cada told his friends “this is the tournament” during the Ace-King vs. pocket Eights race. Neither seemed to think much of the other’s play, or it might’ve been be nervous bravado. Who’s to say.
Heads-up play begins to a full house. My friends covering the event said the line stretched from the Penn & Teller theater all the way back through the atrium and down the long hallway past the business center. For those of you who’ve been to the Rio you know that’s a freakin’ long line. Like three football fields, maybe?
I really thought the heads-up match would be over quickly and Moon’s rush to start things off did nothing to change my mind. He won a huge pot with QQ to Cada’s pocket nines (Cada probably felt fortunate not to double Darvin up) and then after Cada flopped top pair Moon check-raised with air yet made a pair of Queens on the river to take the pot and the chip lead. That had to stagger Cada, to be dealt a pocket pair and flop top pair yet lose the both pots.
Cada righted the ship in a hand where he won the pot with a huge 35 million bet on the river that had Moon thinking. We now know Moon had fourth-pair to Cada’s top two…hey, Moon might’ve called! And then, once again, we see Ace-Queen come into play, with Moon raising with Ace-Jack and Cada re-raising with AQ. Moon then stood and shoved 25 million into the pot and what do you do? It’s Ace-Queen. You’re dominated by lots of hands, you’re racing a pair…Cada mucked. “I had a monster,” Moon said, not exactly true, and Cada said he had a huge hand too. But the confrontation was averted.
Cada no doubt thought he was the better player and the longer the match went the better his chance at victory. Yet it’s hard to be patient and play small-ball when your unpredictable opponent keeps pushing chips forward. Cada had to bring all his skill and experience to the fore, and that’s what we saw in the hand where Cada regained the chip lead. With the board reading 10c-5d-9h-10d Moon made an all-in raise and Cada, after thinking a bit, made a monster call with Jh-9d. Moon was semi-bluffing outs with 7s-8s but, God, what a call! Sure, Moon probably doesn’t have a ten…but with Moon you can’t be sure. And he could have an overpair, he could have pocket fives, he could have K-9! Some of the play tonight has been questionable but not that hand. That, ladies and gentlemen, was poker.
Cada started the heads-up match with pocket nines, and one wonders what he was thinking when he looked down at them again. And decided to move in after Moon raised. And then heard Moon say, “I call”. But Moon didn’t have Queens this time, he had Queen-Jack, and perhaps Moon felt that he needed to win a decisive hand one way or another and with Cada’s chips in the middle now was the time to strike. Regardless, Moon called and the two were racing for the most prestigious title in poker. In-credible. And when the board failed to hit Moon and the final pot of the 2009 Main Event was pushed Joe Cada’s way, we had a new World Champion, and once again the winner is the youngest-ever champion. It was a remarkable weekend of poker and tonight was a fantastic showcase for the game. It’s sad to think that we have to wait over six months for the 2010 World Series of Poker to start. Let’s hope the time flies.
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.
We at UltimateBet would like to congratulate Joe Cada on his recent WSOP Main Event bracelet win. It was a pleasure watching Cada rise up through the ranks in July to eventually qualify for the November 9. In addition to his incredible win, Cada’s superior poker prowess has ceremoniously broken the 1 year old record set by Peter Eastgate for being the youngest player ever to win the Main Event.
Cada is no stranger to high stakes play and we look forward to seeing him continue his success for years to come. Cheers to Joe Cada, winner of the 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event.
Be sure to catch all the final table excitement tonight on ESPN at 9pm ET.
For more info on Joe Cada, his main event win and his past achievements, check out Joe Cada on Poker News Daily.
