Sunday, June 28, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
When last we left Brandon Cantu he was walking out of the Amazon Room after losing a heads-up battle to Ray Foley for the $1,500 No-Limit Hold-Em bracelet. Brandon had Foley in bad shape twice in that tournament, A-Q to A-7 preflop and with Foley needing a ten on the turn or river to stay alive (he caught one on the turn). Cantu came so close, this close to his second bracelet, and it slipped through his fingers.
Flash forward five days. After entering the $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha/8 event Brandon spent much of the tournament obliterating the field, racing to a huge chip lead as the final table started this afternoon. PLO8 is a swingy game and “swingy” is also a word that could be used to describe Brandon’s game, as he slipped from the top spot as the final table played down and at one point was the short-stack with five players left. But he survived (the first rule of tournament poker) as the other players were sent to the rail, including Jacqmin Mathieu, who went from chip leader to out in ten short minutes.
That left Brandon heads-up against the extremely tough Lee Watkinson, who has a $10K Omaha bracelet to his name. Watkinson started off with a 2.5 million-900,000 chip lead and before long extended it until he had Cantu outchipped by a 6-1 margin. The situation looked bleak for Brandon, but I remembered that when Matt Graham won his Omaha bracelet (on the same night Brandon came runner-up) he’d trailed even worse at one point. As I said, Omaha (in any variant) can be a swingy game. There was nothing for it but to batten down and get to work.
There were a couple of hands where the chip went in the middle and everyone along the table would stand and crowd close to see if this would be the decisive hand. A few of those pots ended up chopped. But Brandon doubled once and then quartered Watkinson in a huge pot when Brandon’s Ac-10h-8c-2s took the high against Lee’s As-Kc-9h-2c when Brandon flopped an eight and Watkinson couldn’t beat it.
There were a few more hands like that, Watkinson all in and the crowd pulling close, only for the pot to be chopped and everyone to return to their seats. But one last time the two wouldn’t share the pot–after a 6h-4c-Qc flop the rest of the chips went in and Cantu showed Ah-10c-7c-4d to Watkinson’s 2c-3c-5s-7h. For those of you without an abacus Brandon had a pair of fours with a flush draw, while Watkinson had straight draws and the best low draw. Any baby card that didn’t pair the board would’ve won Lee the pot, but the turn brought the 9s and the river the 4h and just like that, Brandon Cantu was the champion. Well, it wasn’t exactly “just like that”–with Omaha (and split-pot games) it can take a second or two to decipher what happened. There was a pause before everyone figured it out and this is what Brandon looked like when he realized the truth:
After falling just short less than a week ago, Brandon Cantu came from behind to win his second World Series of Poker bracelet. And his grandfather was there to watch him do it:
And then it was time for the usual photo ops:
And:
“I can’t believe I just won a PLO8 bracelet…How does that happen?” he tweeted an hour after his victory. Who knows how anything happens, but Brandon Cantu won the $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha/8 event by crushing the field early then fighting back when his back was against the wall. And this time there was no heartbreak at the end.
Tags: 2009 world series of poker, 2009 wsop, Brandon Cantu, brandon cantu bracelet, brandon cantu wsop, ub, ub bracelets, ultimatebet, world series of poker, WSOP, wsop bracelet
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Wednesday, June 24, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
By now you know that Matt Graham won his second World Series of Poker bracelet last night, so there’s no news to break here. But I took some pics of the final table last night that you might enjoy and I think for the most part they explain themselves. So, without further etc etc:
Tags: Matt Graham, wsop bracelet
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Wednesday, December 31, 2008 - HollywoodDave
2009 is almost here, thank fuck, and not a moment too soon! Despite pulling it all together in the 11th hour, I spent the vast majority of ‘08 buried in a deep hole that played havoc with not only my gambling bankroll, but more importantly, my emotions as well. The good news is, I learned some incredible lessons this year that I will never forget.
I answered a question awhile back for a player on UB about bankroll management, a lesson I had beaten into my head in 2008. Although I’ve come outta the mathematically-savvy background of professional blackjack, where BR mgmt goes hand in hand with skilled play, over the past few years of playing poker I had allowed some of those caveats to slip away, and found myself not heeding my own advice last winter.
The year started off alright — several nice cashes the first 2 weeks of January — but then a disastrous downward spiral from mid-January to mid-April decimated years of work. Problem was, rather than moving down in stakes as the losses mounted, I stayed at the same level — and in some cases, actually increased levels. Ouch!
In hindsight, its easy to see how badly I compounded my own problems by not adjusting downward in stakes as my BR shrunk, but what’s morel troubling to me is the sometimes uncontrollable swings that are commonplace in poker. I admit it, I’ve been luckier than most; in over 5 years as a professional gambler, I never had a losing year. Sure, some years were better than others, but coming off of a quarter million in poker wins in 2007, I was totally unprepared for such incredible negative variance.
As a blackjack player, swings are built in to the equation. As a card counter, I can only depend on 1-2% advantage, which means I’m losing nearly half the time. You learn that its not about the session results, but only about applying the right plays under optimal table conditions. Shit, I even wrote a book about it! So you’d think I woulda known better, because truth be told, poker is the same way — fuck the results, just play well & under the right conditions & it will all work out in the end.
The difference — at the time, anyway — was that despite the cool math of the blackjack world, my reaction to the poker losses was much more emotional in nature. I found myself getting upset in ways I never did when losing at blackjack. I began to feel cursed, as the daily losses mounted. Some days I’d take a break, only to come back later twice as frustrated when the results still did not return. And the farther I dug myself in, the unhappier I became, until it seemed like my entire life revolved around this negative figure that loomed larger each and every day.
Eventually I came to realize that this was bigger than just wins and losses, it was about my mental health, my happiness as a person, and my quality of life outside of whatever was happening on the tables. And somewhere inside something shifted, and I realized that I was not gonna be held prisoner to my results anymore. Rich or poor, I was gonna try my best to take the emotion out of the equation, and remember that I was gonna be the same cool person regardless of what happened. And you know what? The losing stopped!
Now, the point of this story isn’t what you’d think — I’m sure it helped, but i don’t think the ENTIRE problem of why I lost for so long was simply my attitude towards it. Sometimes shit happens, and we go through long losing streaks — happens to the best players out there, and I’m certainly no exception. But what 2008 DID teach me more than anything is that I can’t make the quality of my life about the quality of my results. Sure, winning a WSOP bracelet and a couple million bucks is definitely on the list for me, but inside I will still be the same person. Same person as I will be when fighting to keep it all from flying away.
So thanks, 2008. Sick, twisted emotional and financial rollercoaster, but you know what? I appreciate it. I get it. Thanks for making me stronger. Thanks for actually letting me get all those losses back at the end of it all — I guess I can still say I never had a losing year as a professional gambler. And now please fuck off, cuz 2009 is a-comin’ and I am more than ready to rock it out all year long!!
-hd.
Tags: 2009, bankroll management, blackjack, downturn, Happy New Year, Hollywood Dave, negative variance, new year, Poker Poker Poker, wsop bracelet
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