Saturday, July 11, 2009 - Phil Hellmuth
Back in March 2003 on the Card Player Cruise through the Caribbean on the Holland Cruise ship Zandam, I played in a $1,000 buy-in no limit Hold’em event with 42 of my shipmates. Coming off of an all-night session of Chinese poker (deuce to seven in the middle) versus Andy Bloch, I decided that I had more equity in the 10:00 AM tournament, than I did playing Andy, even though I’d been up all-night. I was frustrated with losing over 70 points for the night (over $7,000!) and ready, honestly, for bed. Did I really come onboard to play Bloch in Chinese poker? He is the one player in the world that I know to be better than me at the game!
So the tournament began, and with no apparent excuse to be “Phil Hellmuth late,” I invented a good one. I went downstairs to shower, clean up, put on my walkman and hat, and change into fresh clothes. My expectations were low, but I was going to try my hardest to win this thing.
I found myself in a very quiet, tight mode—none of my usual chatting. I folded and folded and folded, and then finally picked up 8-8. R.A. Head opened for $250, and I decided to just call, and not raise it up, in late position. I had $1,850 total at this point. David Plastik moved all-in from the small blind with J-J, and R.A. moved all-in quickly as well, with K-K. I flipped my 8-8 face up and folded. After a board of 8-5-5-3-2, I wondered if I had done the right thing! I would have tripled up if I weren’t so conservative, but I was happy with the way I played the hand nonetheless.
As the players fell, I continued to hang in there. With three tables left, I called under the gun $150 with Q-Q, and now Kenny “Skyhawk” Flaton made it $650. The raise smelled of power to me, so I decided to just call. The flop was J-5-4, and now I checked. Flaton bet out $700, and now I decided that I couldn’t get away from my hand no matter what. I moved all-in and Skyhawk beat me in there and flipped up A-A. Oh well, I didn’t mind going broke here. First, I like Flaton a lot. Second, it was too tough of a lay down too make, especially in a $1,000 buy-in NLH tournament. The turn was a 5, and the river was the miracle Q. The game was on!
When we hit the final table, the lineup was pretty tough including Scotty Nguyen, Erik Seidel, Jeff “Happy” Schulman (who won the next day’s NLH event), Paul Darden, and me. In the end, it came down to me, Scotty, and Paul. With first place paying $16,000, second place $12,000, and third $8,000, no deal was discussed.
With the blinds at $1,000-$2,000 and the antes at $300 a man, the following two hands came up between Scotty and me. The first hand Scotty moved all-in for $7,900, and I began to study from the big blind. There was $5,900 in the pot (S$2,000 + PBB$2,000 + SB$1,000 + $900 antes), and it was going to cost me $5,900 to call with my Jh-4h. I was getting laid 2-to-1 odds, but I knew that Scotty had me beat. Scotty was playing really solid and great poker as usual. I finally decided to call, but I realized within seconds that it was the wrong move. Scotty flipped up Ah-6h, and the flop came down Qh-7s-3h. I flopped a flush draw, but Scotty flopped a bigger one, and his ace-high held up.
Two rounds later, Scotty again moved all-in from the button, and this time it would cost me $10,800 more. This time, I had A-5, and I began to read Scotty for K-Q. Also, I knew that he would play that kind of hand at this point. After careful consideration—I didn’t want to make another bad call—I called and Scotty flipped up Kc-Jc. I wound up winning this pot (I was 3-to-2 favorite), and went on to take a nice chip lead against Paul.
From then on, I could have played better poker, but give credit to Paul for beating me. I need some practice playing one-on-one as I never do it anymore. Hopefully I’ll be getting that practice soon, and lots of it! Congratulations to Paul Darden, for his well-played win!
Tags: Andy Bloch, Card Player Cruise, Caribbean, Erik Seidel, Jeff Schulman, Paul Darden, Phil Hellmuth, Poker Poker Poker, Porker tournaments, Scott Nguyen
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Saturday, July 4, 2009 - Phil Hellmuth
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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?
Tags: Chris Ferguson, Geraldo Rivera, Jeff Schulman, Jim McManus, johnny chan, Phil Hellmuth, t.j. cloutier, WSOP
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