The final fiesta
Editor's Note: This column contains information about winners of some events in the 2005 World Series of Poker that will be televised later this year on ESPN.
Thursday, July 14, 2005, 2:45 p.m., WSOP Daylight Savings Time:
ESPN crews broke down the set in the Rio poker hangar after play ended Wednesday around 9:40 p.m. and reconstructed in Benny's Bullpen at Binion's, finishing around 5 Thursday morning.
Benny's Bullpen is darkly lit. The TV table is in the middle of the room instead of against a wall the way it has been. Two other tables are roped off to account for the final 27 players out of 5,619 in the $10,000 buy-in main event. The tournament organizers are dressed in tuxedoes. Must be special.
And it is. This will be the last World Series of Poker event played at Binion's. Harrah's, which owned Binion's Horseshoe and the WSOP last year, sold the casino, but kept the poker franchise, and agreed to hold the last two days of the Big One at Binion's this year. But from now on, all events will be played at the Rio.
The crowd outside Benny's bullpen overflows, and there are enough camera lights and flashes that it feels like a red carpet event.
"I want to take my time, play good cards at the beginning, see how people are playing and then take advantage of opportunities,'' says Phil Ivey, among the chip leaders.
Ivey will be at the TV table along with Greg Raymer, the defending champion, and just the fact that Raymer is this far stuns Ivey.
"What Raymer's done is truly unbelievable,'' Ivey says. If he wins this year, it's something that I don't think will ever be done again with these fields.''
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Scott Lazar wears a shirt that reads: "You played that crap?'' That is the greatest shirt in poker.
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Turns out, each player is allowed only two guest passes, which means chip leader Mike Matusow's father, cousin and aunt are left outside.
"I know it's small,'' says Matusow's brother, Scott, who gets inside with their mother, Gloria, "but there should be some way to get people in.''
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Card Player magazine CEO Jeff Shulman was remarking how so many players get to this level and don't realize what's at stake.
"When I finished 7th, I won $150,000 and I was thrilled,'' Shulman says. "I went home and said, 'I won $150,000 in the World Series.' Then it hit me the next day: I had a chance to win the World Series.''
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Matusow: "I want to get to the final table with $10 million (he has about half that to start the day). I want to give myself a shot at the big money. I know a million bucks is b big money, but I want BIG money.
"The last time I got to the final table (in 2001, the year Carlos Mortensen won), if I had this many chips, I'd have won the tournament.''
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Many pros in attendance: Phil Gordon, Andy Bloch, John Juana, David Plastic, Sam Grizzle and Erik Seidel (who owns a piece of Matson).
"I predicted before this tournament started a professional would win this tournament, and I'm sticking by it,'' says Gordon, noting that five of the 27 remaining players are regulars on the tournament circuit.
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First hand, kabob. Matson raises to 140 grand, Seat 2 calls. Seat 3, Shawn Sheikhan, thinks and thinks and thinks. He's on a short stack. He folds. The flop comes 9-7-A. Sheikhan slams the table and knocks over his chair, apparently saying he had A-9. This ticks off Matusow because he can't bet out like he hit a big hand.
But he bets out anyway and apparently mutters something that prompts Sheikhan to ask in a demanding, ugly tone, "What did you say?''
Seat 2 raises. Matson re-raises all in, Seat 2 folds.
"What did you say, Mike?'' Sheikhan demands, and then he calls over assistant tournament director Jack Eiffel.
"Did you hear what he said?'' Sheikhan asks. No, Effel says, as Matusow yells that Sheikhan was talking during a hand he wasn't even involved in. No matter. Sheikhhan tells him that Matusow said, "Shut the (bleep) up.''
Effel gives Sheikhan and Matusow each a 10-minute timeout and threatens more if either gives him some lip. Matusow is pulled away by Gordon and taken to a quiet corner of Benny's Bullpen, where Gordon talks his high-strung Full Tilt Poker teammate off the ledge.
Sheikhan, meanwhile, still wants a piece of any tournament official who can tell him which rule prevents him from hitting the table.
Moments later, Matusow walks over to where I'm talking with Shulman and Rio floor man Jody Ivener, and he explains his side. And just then Sheikhan walks over.
"You're an idiot,'' Sheikhan says.
"You were wrong and I was wrong,'' Matusow says, and after some more back and forth - I didn't hear everything - Matusow says loudly, "So, now you're threatening me?''
Ten minutes later, they return to the table, and Sheikhan, who owns some tattoo parlors/head shops in the Vegas area, has some sarcastic words for Effel. Fun guy.
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Media access to hands at any table except the one on stage is virtually non-existent because only ESPN camera crews are allowed inside the ropes. So, I'll get what I can get. Deal with it.
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Australian Joseph Hachem doubles up through Ramer and is serenaded, as usual, with the chant from his fans: "Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oye, Oye, Oye; Aussie, Oye, Aussie, Oye, Aussie, Oye.''
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Matusow raises on the button. Sheikhan moves in with Q-Q. You just know Matson will call, and you know that Sheikh an knows that Matson will call, and, in fact, Matson calls. He calls with 7-deuce. Yes, 7-deuce, the worst hand in holder. Sheikh an doubles up.
Lemma ask you something that someone in the peanut gallery asked me: Would it surprise anyone if this were some premeditated act by Sheikh an to try to get Matson and his chip lead on tilt?
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Matusow raises to 100 grand. Sheikh an moves in. Matusow gets a chip count of his possible call. He tells Sheikhan he can make the decision: Call or fold. Sheikhan apparently said call. Matusow folds.
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Matusow raises 100 grand again. Sheikhan moves in again. "Are you going to go all in everytime I raise?''' Matusow asks. Seat 6 moves in for his last $300,000 with 7-7. Matusow folds, and Sheikhan turns over A-K. Seat 6 gets no help. Sheikhan suddenly has gone from about $200,000 to $1.6 million.
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We've lost two players in an hour or so. We have to lose 16 more to set the final table. We're on pace for just a 10-hour day.
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Sheikhan: "You're quiet, Mike. Cat got your tongue?''
Matusow: "Now instead of $200,000 to give me, you have $1.5 million to give me. You're just lucky I like you.''
Sheikhan: "You're not getting a dime from me when this is all over.''
Matusow: "It'll be all over for you pretty soon. I pull for you every hand I'm not in. That means more chips you've got to give me.''
A comment from Sheikhan's posse on the ropes prompts Matusow to say, "He's the guy we build the games around. You think I'm scared of him?''
And then Sheikhan and Matusow bump fists and smile. Go figure.
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It actually gets quiet along the Matusow-Sheikhan border. But then it doesn't. The original issue gets re-raised by Sheikhan, to which Matusow says in a high-pitched voice, "Then you run to the floorman like a little girl.''
Sheikhan is still demanding that Effel show him the rule that calls for a 10-minute penalty for hitting a table, and Effel says the rule is that he can penalize players for any conduct he deems inappropriate. So there.
Says Lazar from another table: "They really need to switch that table to decaf.''
Matusow: "I picked the wrong year to quit doing drugs.''
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At the TV table, Aaron Kanter moves in with Q-J. Raymer calls with the bigger stack and the bigger hand: K-K. But Kanter rivers a heart to make a flush and double up. Raymer is pretty much crippled.
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Back at the TV table again, and it's Raymer and Kanter again. Raymer, this time with the smaller stack, moves in with A-9. Kanter has 5-5. The board comes K-K-7-K-2. The pocket 5's stand up. Raymer is out. The king is dead in 25th place.
Raymer gets a standing ovation from fans. What's more, he gets a standing ovation from players at other tables.
"I appreciate that,'' Raymer said. "That's a sign of respect. I have a long way to go in this game to show I deserve that respect.
"If I win this thing next year, I'll quit being humble.''
Doubtful. Because the truth is, Raymer proved to be as classy in defeat as he was as champion. Many pros were slow to give Raymer respect, but they spent a lot of time praising his incredible accomplishment of making it to the final 27 of the two biggest fields in history.
"It doesn't matter what the tournament is,'' Raymer says, "if you make it deep and don't win, you're disappointed.''
Because the erstwhile patent attorney from Connecticut was thinking about back-to-back, believe you me.
"I imagined repeating about two hours after winning last year,'' Raymer said.
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Here's something that only the Rio tournament organizers would have to worry about for the first time: Paying players at the final few tables of the main event at someone else's casino. When Harrah's owned the Horseshoe, it paid players on site. But it sold the casino last year and now is only renting space. So, the problem was, how would they pay players as they get knocked out?
"We can't take $40 million over to Binion's,'' tournament director Johnny Grooms said.
So, here's the deal: Players see pay mistress Dixie Callesen in Benny's Bullpen, and she calls tournament assistant John Bastarache at the Rio to tell him who finished in which place and how much they get, then after filling out some paperwork at Binion's, players can collect their loot at the Rio as long as they present a picture ID.
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At the TV table, Tim Phan moves in with pocket 10's. Andrew Black calls with A-Q. The flop comes A-10-9, giving Phan a set. The turn comes a Q, giving Black two pair. The river comes another queen. Killer. Phan, the Day 2 chip leader, is out on runner-runner Q's. Suck out, all caps.
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Matusow wins a $1.5 million pot with a straight. "That's what happens with mommy behind you,'' Gloria Matusow says from her chair just outside the ropes.
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Aaron Kanter and Joe Conor get all in, with Kanter having the bigger stack and the biggest pair: aces. Conor has jacks. Nothing comes. Five players are gone in less than three hours.
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Bernard Lee, who won a Poker Stars freeroll but almost didn't make the event because his wife underwent surgery for an ovarian tumor, moves in and kisses the pictures of his children that he keeps on his chips. Everyone folds.
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Matusow is back at it, asking Sheikhan's posse if he learned to play hold'em lately because "used to be the worst player in the world and now he's just bad.''
Sheikhan sees Effel and offers, "Jack, you did a fine job.''
Effel: "You don't mean that.''
Sheikhan: "Yes, I do, now that I have chips.''
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Hachem moves in for $3.5 million with A-6 of clubs. Black calls with Q-Q. The flop comes Q-7-9, all clubs. Hachem hits the nut flush and doubles up. "Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, oye, oye, oye.''
Oy.
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Tommy Vu goes out to leave 21 players. We have three tables playing seven-handed, still on a pace of losing two players an hour.
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Deathly quiet now. Ivey is all in. With jacks. Kanter has the bigger stack and the bigger pair: kings.
It's Uh-Oh Time.
The flop brings a king, giving Kanter a set. But the turn brings a diamond, giving Ivey a flush draw.
The river's a heart. The future king is dead in 20th place.
Kanter has now busted Raymer and Ivey. He also is the chip leader. "Killer'' Kanter.
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Right after the dinner break, John McGrane moves in with A-9. He's up against Hachem's A-10. A board of K-K-5-5-Q sends the taxi driver back to London with more than $350,000.
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Tiffany Williamson, the last woman in the field, makes a move. Doesn't work. She moves in with A-3 offsuit and gets called by Brad Kondracki's A-K.Williamson is crippled.
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With a stack of just $1.1 million, Michael Kessler gets the right hand: Big Slick. He moves in and gets a call from Lazar with Q-Q. Classic race. And Kessler loses it to go out in 17th.
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"Killer'' Kanter is at it again, calling Johnny Howard's all in. Howard has queens, Kanter A-10. The flop comes K-J-7, giving Kanter a straight draw. The turn comes a 10, and the river comes the worst card for Howard: another one of his queens. Kanter makes a broadway straight.
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With just $340,000, Williamson finds pocket 5's and shoves in. Tex Barch calls with J-8 of clubs. The board comes 9-9-7-J-K. Williamson, the London corporate attorney who won a seat in a British card room for 10 pounds - that's $17.50 U.S. - walks off with $400,000, the most money ever won by a woman in a WSOP event.
Small consolation. She puts her hands on her head in disbelief as she goes through the payout procedure. She moves her hands to her forehead while getting pats on the back from a couple friends. Then she walks behind a curtain and just loses it, crying on a friend's shoulder. Williamson tries to collect herself, but she just can't. It takes a good 10 minutes before she can return for the ESPN bustout interview, and even then, she needs a pep talk from a friend.
"It's been awesome,'' she says. "Seeing all these incredible players on TV and thinking one day about playing in the World Series, and then sitting beside all these great players.''
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Kanter kills another one - Oskar Silo - with Q-Q and a Q on the flop. We have 13 left.
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Break up Aaron Kanter. "Killer'' takes out one of my favorite stories: Bernard Lee. Kanter raises, then Lee re-raises all in with K-7. Kanter calls with Q-6. The flop comes K-6-3, giving Lee top pair and Kanter middle pair. The turn comes a jack, meaning Lee just has to fade a Q or a 6. The river comes a 6, giving Kanter a set.
Suck.
Out.
"If that's what was meant to be,'' the classy Lee says, "that's it. This was the best week of my life.''
A senior marketing manager for Boston Scientific, Lee said he hadn't called home because it was well after midnight in Massachusetts. But he gave all the credit to his wife as the reason he was here.
It wasn't just his wife's surgery for an ovarian tumor that presented a problem, but it also was a sudden trip to the emergency room for potential complications on July 4 when Lee was scheduled to leave on July 6. It wasn't serious, as it turned out, and she told him to go live his dream. And he almost did.
During his bustout interview with ESPN, Lee took out pictures of his young children - the pictures he rested on his chips through his six days in the main event and the ones he kissed after every all in - and held them up to the cameras as he said, "I'm coming home - with extra cash ($400,000).''
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Irishman Andrew Black is charging to the chip lead and things like this: Flipping over K-K to call Conor Tate's all in with A-K. Nothing higher than a queen, and Tate is out in 12th. We are two from the final table eight hours after play started.
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Another Matusow-Sheikhan showdown: At the TV table, Sheikhan moves in his small stack with A-J, Matusow calls with K-Q. The board comes A-10-4-Q-K. Straight for Sheikhan, who has some words for Matusow, who has some words himself. Can you feel the love?
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Midnight. And revenge. Sheikhan goes all in and gets called in two places, one of those being Matusow, but you had to figure that. The flop come J-3-K, two clubs. Check, check. The turn comes the 2 of clubs. Matusow bets, Lazar folds, the hands are revealed, and Matusow thrusts his arms in the air. He has A-Q of clubs and turned the nut flush. Sheikhan was drawing dead with A-7. Sheikhan hits the road in 11th place. We are on the bubble. Ten players remain. Next one out blows the chance to make the final table. Players will redraw for position as they play 10-handed at the TV table.
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1 a.m.: Still 10 players. Raise it/take it.
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Matusow raises to $220,00 - and gets five callers. The flop comes K-Q-10, two hearts. Check, check, check, $1 million bet by Black, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold. Black shows 10-8 offsuit.
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1:55 a.m.: Still on the bubble.
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3 a.m.: Still on the bubble. Matusow says he's going to raise everytime until the table loosens up. You go, guy.
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3:06 a.m.: "Killer'' Kanter finally kills the bubble. On a flop of 7-3-3, two hearts, Kanter raises $600,000. Ayhan Alsancak thinks, then re-raises all in. Kanter calls immediately. Alsancak shows Q-Q. Kanter turns over A-10 of hearts. The turn is the 10 of spades. Kanter needs a 10 an ace or a heart. The river is the 8 of hearts. Big noise. Alsancak is done. The final table is set, and here it is (with chip count):
Aaron Kanter - $10.7 million.
Tex Barch - $9.33 million.
Andrew Black - $8.140 million.
Mike Matusow - $7.41 million.
Steve Dannenmann - $5.46 million.
Joseph Hachem - $5.42 million.
Daniel Bergsdorf - $5.27 million.
Scott Lazar - $3.37 million.
Brad Kondracki - $1.18 million.
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Wednesday, July 13, 2005, 11:15 a.m. WSOP Daylight Savings Time:
It is supposed to be the hottest day of the year in Las Vegas, something like 120. It is already the coldest day in the Rio, something like 35 degrees. No lie. I'm buying a World Series of Poker fleece, it's so ridiculously cold. Worse, there was no hot water in my room. I don't know if it was only my room, but that was the only room that matters to me.
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Farzad Bonyadi, who starts the day with about the same chips as Mike Matusow among the top three and starts at Matusow's table: "I got about five hours sleep. That's enough.''
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Tiffany Williamson hustles her way through reporters, pushed by a friend to get to the table - and I mean literally pushed by a friend. She is the last woman in the field, and quite a story. The African-American woman, who starts seventh in chips, grew up in South Carolina, became a corporate attorney and lives in London. She caught the World Series of Poker on the telly, thought it would be fun, and here she is, at ESPN's featured table facing defending champion Greg Raymer.
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Matusow's mother Gloria and his brother Scott hug him for good luck. Matusow says he doesn't see his brother much, but he said he's give Scott $15,000 if he lost 60 pounds.
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Will O'Brien moves all in with jacks. Seat 8 calls with A-K offsuit. The board comes Q-10-7-5-10. The jacks hold up. "I keep telling you guys you keep trying to raise 'Mr. Lucky,''' O'Brien says.
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Assistant tournament director Jack Effel: "Ladies and gentlemen, World Series of Poker champion, Mr. Phil Hellmuth.''
Barely a response.
"Ladies and gentlemen,'' Effel repeats, "World Series of Poker champion, Mr. Phil Hellmuth.''
Enough response that we don't have to hear it a third time.
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I just saw John Juanda fold. Third time in three days, I believe.
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Seat 8 moves in with A-7 offsuit. Kenna James calls with A-Q offsuit. A Q comes. Ballgame. And a $300,000 pot for James.
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Mastusow is predicting doom, specifically, having to play late into the night to get to 27 players before moving the show to Binion's for the last three tables.
"I remember at Commerce,'' Matusow begins, "to get from 27 down to 9 took from 1 in the afternoon until 4 in the morning. And this is a better tournament with the structure. That's why so many pros play. The WPT (World Poker Tour) should be like this. Does the WPT want to play poker or does it want to play shove? They want to get six people at the end and have people just shove in their money for $3 million. They don't want to play poker. This is a poker tournament here.''
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Men "the Master'' Nguyen makes an appearance. "Hello, Mighty Mouth,'' he says to Matusow. "You're quiet today. You must have chips. When you don't have chips, you talk a lot.''
Responds Matusow: "When I win this tournament, they going to call me 'Mike Where Did He Go?' because I'm going to disappear on an island.''
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On a board of 7-2-4-Q, two hearts, Phil Ivey, who started the day fifth in chips, bets $10,000. Seat 1 folds.
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Matusow: "I see who's left and I see who has chips. Great players with chips don't blow them off.''
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Kenna James holds up a bottle of Coors and says, "Breakfast of champions.''
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Seat 6 makes it 60 grand to go. James makes it 150 grand. Seat 6 says he already laid down pocket 10's. And now he lays down whatever else he has, and James has a gang of chips.
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Ivey makes it 10 grand to go preflop. Seat 1 folds. This is a trend, folks.
"If Phil Ivey wins this,'' Hellmuth says, "I should just retire from poker. I'm in it for all the records, you know? That would be bracelet No. 7 before the age of 30 (for Ivey) and a huge all-time money lead. My hat's off to him. My hat's off to Juanda, too.''
Well, nobody's won anything yet. Tuesday, it looked like instant replay for Greg Raymer, and then he lost more than half of his $1.6 million stack.
Funny thing is, even with that hit, Raymer's getting this deep in a record-breaking tournament for the second straight year has earned him respect among the pros.
"Yeah,'' Hellmuth said, "because he played with us for a year and only made one or two final tables, max,''
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The first break comes, but Ivey is still playing a pot. He makes it 10 grand preflop. Seat 4 calls. The flop comes K-9-4, rainbow. Seat 4 checks. Ivey bets out 20 grand. Seat 4 folds.
Ivey is chopping at pots, running off callers and minimizing confrontations, a perfect strategy if you're Phil Ivey. He seems a favorite for the final table, so what exactly would it mean to the Ivey, as extraordinarily talented as he his unemotional to win this thing?
"It would be incredible because to get through 5,600 players is a once-in-a-lifetime thing,'' he says. "This is like a dream come true for a poker player to have a chance to win this tournament.
"It's like the Super Bowl. You don't get this opportunity too often. When you have the opportunity to win a tournament this big, it's big. I'm just trying to take my time today.
"When you sit down, you don't feel like you have much of a chance, But when you get under 100 players, you feel like you have a chance. On that first day, you feel whatever, let's just play some poker and try to get some chips.
"When you get down to where you can see everybody in this tournament, you start feeling good.''
And the rest of the field starts feeling bad.
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The board comes J-2-Q-5-K, three hearts. Matusow bets out 250 grand. Then he just sits there. Seat 6 thinks. Then he looks at Matusow and says, "You're so quiet.'' Matusow responds, "I'm debating whether I was you to call or not.''
Seat 8 calls. Matusow immediately says, "Flush,'' showing 6-8 of hearts. Seat. 6 mucks. The pot is about $800,000.
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Juanda sits and waits and folds. It has to be killing the terrific pro who spent the last few days playing almost every pot.
"When you're short-stacked, you can't make too many plays because people will call you down,'' he says. "They're not afraid of you. They not intimidated. The time to be active is when you have a huge stack. People are afraid of you, knowing you can bust them. When you're short-stacked you just have to sit back and wait for good cards.''
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Bernard Lee comes over to rub the jacket sleeve of ESPN poker analyst Norman Chad.
"I stood behind him a couple times yesterday,'' Chad explains, "and he won some hands. He rubbed my jacket and he kept winning. He said, 'Tomorrow, you'd better rent a tuxedo.'''
Lee qualified for the main event by winning a freeroll on Poker Stars. But he almost didn't make the trip from Massachusetts.
"My wife had surgery a week before we came out here for a 9 cm benign tumor on her right ovary,'' Lee says. "My wife is a physician, so she knew it was benign. We got it out and everything looked fine. As long as she recovered well from the surgery, we were fine.
"We went back in July 4, two days before I was supposed to come out, and she had to go back into the ER just to make sure everything was OK, because thought there was something wrong. But everything was fine. I'll be honest with you, I told Poker Stars I might not be able to go, They said, 'We already put you in.' She was fine and she said to come.''
"I give her all the credit for letting me come. She's letting me live out a dream. I've told her for a year-and-a-half, two years now: I'm not Juanda, I'm not Ivey - I'm not; let's be realistic, you needs cards - but I'm not a bad player. I call myself a professional amateur. I play a lot and I try hard. It's like a second job.
"I said, 'If I can put a week together, anything's possible,' and I'm putting that week together. I've got 17 people to go (to get down to 27) and I'm going to Binion's tomorrow. That's what the goal has been. Goal 1 was to get out of Day 1. Goal 2, make the money, Goal 3, get to Binion's. Seventeen more people, and I'm going. I'm telling you, I'm going to go to Binion's tomorrow. Then who knows? I mean, 27 people - why can't that 27th person be me, and then it's truly anybody can win the World Series. I've never been in this zone. I never think about the final destination. I think about getting out of the day. You can't play Day 7 if you don't finish Day 1.''
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Matusow makes it $55,000 to go. Seat 1 moves all in and puts on Raymer-like lizard-eye glasses. Matusow has to call $128,000, meaning he's getting better than 2-1 on his money.
"I don't know what's worse: being priced into a call or having you turn over that hand,'' Matusow says.
After continuing his monologue of the possibilities, Matusow calls with K-8 unsuited. Seat 1 shows A-J of spades. The flop comes Q-7-Q. The turn comes a jack.
"I'm stone dead,'' Matusow says.
The river comes a king.
"I'm a superstar,'' Matusow says, then starts singing, "Poker poker, it's all skill. Start with the worst hand and go uphill.''
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A three-way all in. Seat 1 has A-K offsuit. Seat 7 has A-Q offsuit. Seat 8 has K-Q of diamonds. The board blanks. Big Slick holds up. "Who needs pairs,'' says Andrew Black in Seat 1.
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The board reads 5-5-2-10-J, three spades. The pot is massive. Matusow had re-raised preflop and was called by Bonyadi. Matusow bet $110,000 on the flop and was called again. He bet out $250,000 on the turn, and was called yet again. He shoved in on the river. After taking forever, Bonyadi folds. He asks to see Matusow's cards.
Six-deuce of clubs.
"I just lost my mind and got away with it again,'' Matusow says. "We're playing for $10 million, and I'm trying to throw it over to the guy with the big stack. I'm sick. No, that's smart. I'm sick and I have heart. That's a deadly combination.''
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Seat 5 goes all in on a flop of J-4-3. Ivey calls the $300,000 with J-10. Seat 5 has A-K of clubs. The turn and the river come blanks. Whatever anyone else thinks he knows, Ivey seems to know it better.
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Lee Watkinson moves all in. Seat 4 calls. Watkinson has 9-4 offsuit. Yeesh. Seat 4 has K-J unsuited. The turn comes a 4. Watkinson pairs. The river comes a jack, Watkinson is out. The roller coaster "fell off the tracks,'' Watkinson says on his way out.
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Ivey raises to $60,000. Seat 9 calls. The flop comes A-10-5, two diamonds. Ivey bets out 100 grand. Seat 9 raises another 100 grand. Ivey thinks, gather his chips, then re-raises 200 grand. Seat 9 calls. The turn comes the 6 of spades. Ivey asks for a chip count of Seat 9, then bets him all in. Seat 9 thinks. Ivey rests his cheek on his fist. Seat 9 folds. Ivey doesn't show. The power of the big stack.
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The flop comes 9-6-A, two spades. Matusow makes it 60 grand to go. Seat 8 raises it to 200 grand. Matusow shoves in. Seat 8 mucks. The power of the big stack.
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The flop comes 5-8-3, two diamonds. James bets out $80,000. Bonyadi calls. The turn comes the 2 of diamonds. James checks. Bonyadi bets out 400 grand. James moves in for another $212,000. Bonyadi calls with 9-4 diamonds for a flush. James shows 3-5 of clubs for two pair. The river comes a deuce. James goes out. He looks positively stunned under that big, black cowboy hat. He walks slowly and a little unsteady to the podium to collect his payout card. He slowly leaves the tournament area. This hurts, and he says later it'll take a while to get his courage up for the next one.
"It's an emotional roller coaster, it really is,'' he says. "For me, anyway. To get this far, you really need a lot of heart. You really have to throw yourself into what you're doing. Mentally, emotionally, physically, I invest myself in what I do,.
"I'll be fine. Everything will be great. I'll be looking for the next game. But you go from having a million dollars - literally, a million dollars - to nothing. It's not just the money, but the title. And you wonder when you go through fields of this size when you're going to have the opportunity again. You get close to victory and it's snatched.
James stunned look and his slow gait, I tell him, made me wonder if he was going to be able to keep his legs under him as he left.
James considered my appraisal. He paused. His eyes welled up again. This is about 10 minutes later. He looks left. He looks right. He is choked up.
"Sorry,'' he says unnecessarily.
"It's just so many hours. And not just these hours. It's a multiple of hours in years. It's been a long road, a fight. The interesting part of this game is a battle within yourself -- whether you think you can win, whether you think you're a winner, whether you have the courage. There's so much of that. Sometimes people win on ignorance. It's a game of decisions. The biggest decision is you have to decide if you're a winner or a loser, are you a quitter or are you game?''
***************************************************************
Bonyadi moves in with A-K of hearts. Tex Barch calls with aces. This is shortly after Barch won a pot worth about $2 million from Bonyadi. The board comes a king, but nothing else that helps Bonyadi. He's busted.
***************************************************************
Ivey limps for $24,000. Seat 6 makes it 250 grand. Seat 9 shoves in for $576,000 more. Ivey folds. He tells me and Juanda he had limped with Q-4.
"Suited?'' asks Juanda.
"No,'' Ivey says.
"You don't play that bad,'' Juanda says.
"Yes, I do,'' Ivey says.
Seat 6 called the $576,000 all in with A-J of spades. Seat 9 shoved in with K-Q offsuit.
"How do you guys get these tables,'' Matusow asks with envy.
Seat 6's ace holds up.
***************************************************************
Seat 6 goes all in. Ivey calls. Seat 6 has 10-10. Ivey has 5-5. The board blanks. Seat 6 doubles up in one of the rare instances where Ivey's instincts betrayed him. Hope they got video of that.
***************************************************************
Table 121, A-Q vs. A-3 all in. The board comes A-3-4-3-3. The worst hand hits quad 3's.
***************************************************************
Will O'Brien goes out in 36th place. Mr. Not-So-Lucky.
***************************************************************
The players go on a 30-minute break at 6 p.m. Problem was, Bing Wang thought it was a dinner break of 80 or 90 minutes. He is the only player who doesn't return and he is getting blinded off. Andrew Black is pleading with assistant tournament director Jack Effel to declare a dinner break for Wang's sake or at least stop the clock until he can return. No go.
***************************************************************
A half-hour or so into the new level, Wang returns after floorman John Bastarache reached him on his cell phone. And Wang returns just in time to post the big blind on his already short stack. Good news is, while he was away, three players were busted, so he moved up on the payout schedule.
Shortly thereafter, Wang moves in with A-9 of clubs. Seat 7 calls with queens. A queen hits the flop. But so does an ace. Then another ace hits the turn. A set for Wang. A full house for Seat 7. Back to dinner?
"I could've missed a few more hands and maybe made it to Binion's,'' Wang says with a smile.
***************************************************************
Ivey makes it 90 grand to go. The blinds fold. This is Ivey doing what Ivey does.
***************************************************************
Ivey open-raises to $90,000. Everyone folds. See?
***************************************************************
Raymer moves in. Williamson calls. The defending champ flips over K-K. The rookie and last remaining woman in the field has A-J unsuited has Raymer covered. This could be it for the 2004 king with kings. But no. The board is all numbers. Raymer doubles up. He now has chips. We've seen this film before, haven't we?
***************************************************************
On a board of 10-K-6-A-8, three hearts, Matusow makes it 100 grand to go. Seat 5 calls. Matusow shows 10-8 for two pair. Seat 5 mucks.
***************************************************************
Dustin "Neverwin'' Woolf shoves in with A-K. Seat 4 calls with 10-10. The flop comes K-A-3. Two pair for "Neverwin.'' The turn comes a 10. A set for Seat 4. "Neverwin'' lives up to his nickname.
***************************************************************
Another three-way all in, the lowest stack being Juanda. He has 8-4 of hearts. Seat 1 has 10-10. Seat 4 has A-Q of hearts. A queen hits the board. Seat 4 triples up. Juanda is out in 31st place. Here's a lovely parting gift of $274,090.
And at the next table, Ivey calls Seat 5's all in. Ivey has A-K unsuited. Seat 5 has jacks. Seat 5 makes trips. Ivey takes a hit.
***************************************************************
Radu Butan gets knocked out at the TV table. He collects $274,090 on his 28th birthday. But there will be no cake for anyone. No dinner, either. Buton is No. 30. With 29 players remaining, the decision had already been made that they will play down to 27, no matter how long it takes.
***************************************************************
Matusow: "I believed I was going to win it every year but this year.''
***************************************************************
Raymer clearly is the fan's choice, the fan's champion. He gets cheers for winning even modest pots at the TV table, and the Everyman known as "Fossilman'' has yet to turn down a request for an autograph or picture that I've seen. Poker was in good hands for the last year, and who knows, might be again
***************************************************************
Table 118, Seat 4 and 5 go all in. Seat 4 has K-J of clubs. Seat 5 has 9-9. The board comes 6-8-7-10-3. Seat 4 is out. Welcome to the Binion bubble.
***************************************************************
A player identified only as Sharam apparently didn't like the way a female dealer did something, so he called her a "bitch'' at the TV table. The woman began to cry and had to be replaced. Sharam eventually apologized, though it took a good deal of prompting from tournament director Johnny Grooms and spectators.
***************************************************************
Matusow to Raymer during a break: "I haven't had a playable hand today. I have a weak table and it's just been raise, raise, raise, raise.''
***************************************************************
Ivey makes it 120 grand under the gun. Seat 7 calls. The flop comes 3-10-7, rainbow. Seat 7 checks. Ivey bets out 150 grand. Seat 7 calls. The turn comes a 9, no suits. Seat 7 checks. Ivey bets out 300 grand. Seat 7 calls. The river comes a 5. Seat 7 checks. Ivey makes it 600 grand. Seat 7 calls. Ivey turns over 5-5. Seat 7 mucks. Ivey takes down a pot worth more than $2 million. He's at $3.9 million in chips.
***************************************************************
Matusow bets 80 grand with 4-6 of spades on a board of overcards. Two other players fold. Poker is not about cards.
***************************************************************
Gregory Rice, whose A-J just lost an all in to A-Q that cost him almost $1.5 million, moves in for his last $175,000. Seat 2 makes it $350,000. Matusow calls. The board comes 7-9-10, rainbow. Seat 2 checks. Matusow makes it 400 grand. Seat 2 folds, showing his pocket queens. Matusow turns over 10-10 for a set. Rice has J-5 clubs. The turn is a 5, the river a jack. Rice's bubble bursts. Matusow is over $5.4 million in chips. Ivey is second at more than $4.6 million. Steve Danneman, Tex Barch and Raymer fill out the top five at $3.6 or more. On to Binion's.
***************************************************************
Tuesday, July 12, 2005, 11:30 a.m. WSOP Daylight Savings Time:
Daily dealers meeting in the hallway. This is where the dealer get their table assignments.
Spankings, too, apparently.
The guy in charge of the dealers is tearing a piece of paint off their collective backsides, calling their performance Monday "the worst'' in the World Series that is now in its sixth week. They didn't break other dealers efficiently enough, it seems. Lots of urpiness everywhere in this final week.
***************************************************************
They have colored up to start the day, bringing the $10,000 chips into play. The 10 dimes chips are black and orange. Trick or treat.
***************************************************************
Table 144: Phil Ivey, John Juanda, Cam Kim Hua and Farzad Bonyadi. Bring chips.
***************************************************************
Table 124, Seat 3 is yelling at the dealer about what he bet and how much. Two floormen come over, one virtually bodies up on Seat 3. It gets loud. But no blood. Move along, folks, there's nothing to see here.
***************************************************************
Table 127, Seat 6 has his hand called dead by a floorman. Seat 6 was on his cell phone when the first card was dealt. Big no-no. Even this late in the World Series, some players don't get it.
"That's a real frustrating issue for us,'' tournament director Johnny Grooms says. "The real intent of that rule was designed so people couldn't use communication devices at the table, whether it's text messaging, whether it's walking away and talking on the phone while the hand is being dealt. There are a lot of issues to deal with. We've had to enforce it a lot. The rule is, if you're on the phone at the table during the play of a hand, your hand is dead.
"I can understand the players' frustration, but we have to make a decision. We're fairer than some jurisdictions because there are some places - for example, Atlantic City and New Orleans - cell phones are not allowed in the gaming area, period. Just to make sure players are sure about the rules, we might not allow cell phones in the poker area in the future. It eliminates any gray area.''
Then Grooms adds wryly, "We can still have a poker tournament without cell phones.''
***************************************************************
A lot of eliminated players have returned to check out the action - T.J. Cloutier, Erick Lindgren, Phil Hellmuth, Phil Gordon, Men "The Master'' Nguyen.''
***************************************************************
Dutch Boyd - remember him? - moves in with K-10 of spades. He runs into aces. Oops, babe.
"I had three rounds of blinds left,'' says Boyd, who got a lot of camera time two years ago when he nearly made the final table before going out in 12th. "I won my way into this event in the last satellite and walked away with 40 grand for finishing 177th. Two years ago, when I finished 12, I won 80 grand. One-hundred-seventy-seventh is a good payday.''
The then-leader of "The Crew,'' a bunch of young guns who captured a lot of money and jewelry the last couple years, Boyd hasn't been seen much, at least not on TV events.
"I'm living here in Vegas with my little brother,'' he says. "Been playing a little bit, working on my game. My game is 177th - it's good, but it's not there yet. A lot of things could've gone different. But you know what? A lot of things could've gone worse, too.''
***************************************************************
On a board of 10-J-9, two hearts, Ivey raises to $16,000. Juanda calls. The turn comes the king of spades. Ivey checks. Juanda bets $30,000. Ivey calls. The river comes the seven of spades. Ivey checks. Juanda bets out $65,000.
Ivey stares, grimaces, thinks, looks sideways at Juanda the way only Ivey can, counts out $65,000 in chips, restacks them, counts out his chips again, looks sideways again, says something to Juanda, and they both smile. Now Ivey looks up, shuffles his chips, and calls.
Juanda shows A-Q offsuit. Broadway straight. Ivey mucks. Shakes his head into the next deal.
"I knew he had A-Q,'' Ivey says later. "I had J-Q. No one can fold that hand, but I almost did. But you know what? I'm coming back.''
***************************************************************
Howard Lederer gets up to talk to Ivey, and as he walks back to his table, he marvels at the money, the crowd and the excitement involved. "If they could figure out a way to do this on pay-per-view, it would be great,'' Lederer says. "Live cameras. 'Ivey's all in,' and we go to that. There's so much money. I think people would watch this whole thing unfold.''
***************************************************************
First break, and Joe Beevers walks by. "I didn't win a single pot at that level,'' he says, "but I still have $125,000.''
***************************************************************
Ivey: "I like my chances, even though I lost $300,000 in the first level.''
***************************************************************
Roller-coaster for Lee Watkinson, a respected pro.
"The button raised the blinds,'' Watkinson says. "I had two 8's in the big blind. I pushed all in for $150,000 more. He thought. And he called with pocket aces. Four to a flush came on the river.
"Then I lost another hundred-thousand stack out of that. I had A-K and flopped A-K with three spades. Bet, raise, I call. Another spade came, and I had to fold.
"I was hoping to go through the whole thing without having to go all in. It's possible, but it looks like there's a few more in the cards for me. I don't know how many times (defending champion Greg) Raymer has been all in, but he could go from here all the way to the final table without going all in (with more than $1 million at the time). That's the way to do it - without risking going broke.''
***************************************************************
Always looking for an edge, some players find one just as the breaks are called. Many players just want to hit the bathroom, get away from the table, decompress, whatever. So, other players are raising on those last hands.
Jason Lester, for instance. A top pro, Lester got involved in a pot as many players already had left the Rio poker hangar. He re-raised on the flop and got his opponent to fold.
"I think there's a little larceny in those cases,'' Lester says. "I think some of the good players are more likely to try to steal a pot. People don't want to get involved., They just want to go. But that was not the case in this situation. I had re-raised . . . but you know what? I'd like to take my break. I'll talk to you later.''
***************************************************************
Raymer moves five feet up the hallway and gets asked to pose for five pictures. It's that way his entire walk. Yet another request. "I will after I come out of the bathroom,'' he says.
***************************************************************
Paul Darden mouths the words "I'm still here.''
With about $20,000, just barely.
***************************************************************
Lederer raises to $110,000. The woman in Seat 6 comes over the top all in. Lederer folds.
***************************************************************
Darden is all in for his final $17,000. Seat 5 calls. Darden shows 8-7 of spades. Seat 5 flips over A-10 unsuited. The flop comes 3-3-7, giving Darden top pair. The turn comes a 5. But the river comes an ace.
"I just can't fade the river,'' Darden says on his way out. "This level, a critical stage, there were five big hands where I couldn't fade the river: the queen against Juanda; I had 10's against A-J and a jack came; I had J-J against 8-8, and a gutshot 7 came; I can't remember the other one; and then this last ace on the river.
"You have to be able to fade some. It's frustrating and disappointing. That's poker. If I didn't start with the best hand, I had the best hand until the river. The river is my enemy. It's been that way in No Limit for the last couple years. The cards just treat me so unkindly.
"But hey, there's always next year.''
***************************************************************
Table 21, Seat 4: "God, (F-bomb).''
Uh-oh. Penalty time. Did you give him 10, I ask floorman Louis Jones.
"I gave him a year,'' Jones said. "He just got broke.''
***************************************************************
Seat 7 bets out $22,000. Seat 3 calls. Ivey calls. The flop comes 5-Q-7, rainbow. Seat 3 checks. Ivey checks. Seat 7 makes it $45,000 to go. Seat 3 folds. Ivey calls.
The turn comes the 3 of diamonds. Ivey checks. Seat 7 bets out $75,000. Ivey calls with a grimace.
The river comes the 4 of spades. Ivey checks again. Seat 7 checks. Ivey shows a Q. Seat 7 mucks.
Ivey calls down $120,000 with top pair against a board showing a gutshot and a flush draw. Guts. Instinct. Read. Hide the women and children.
***************************************************************
Classy Brit Joe Beevers gets knocked out at the featured table.
***************************************************************
Volatile pro David Plastik busts out, his A-Q losing to A-K. As he takes his payoff card, Plastik undoes a velvet cordon and flips it away, hitting another player with it.
"Out of my (bleeping) way,'' Plastik says.
More F-bombs to follow. Supposedly a threat. A request for security. Have a nice day.
***************************************************************
On a board of K-2-2-8-Q, three spades, Juanda bets out $25,000. Seat 9 moves in. He has Juanda covered. Juanda calls. Seat 9 shows pocket 6's. Juanda shows 6-9 of spades for the flush and doubles up.
***************************************************************
Table 122 breaks. Lederer is on the move. Right into Seat 9 at the table that already has Ivey, Juanda, Bonyadi, ad nauseam.
"The good news is, this table is the next to break,'' Lederer says. "If you're going to draw this table, draw it when it's going to break in 20 minutes. That's my motto.
"It's not a very catchy motto, but that's it.''
Just as Lederer sits down, Juanda bets out $20,000. Seat 3 moves all in. Juanda calls with K-K against A-Q of spades. The board comes 2-7-8-10-J. Juanda busts the guy and is up over $500,000.
Lederer really needs other players at other tables to bust out so this table can break.
***************************************************************
Seat 8 raises to $6,000. Lederer makes it $40,000 and wins the pot. Just to let them know he's there.
***************************************************************
Ivey makes it $18,000 from the button. Juanda makes it $60,000. Ivey calls. The flop comes 4-A-9, two clubs. Juanda bets out $110,000. Ivey does that sideways glance, and so does Juanda. Ivey gets out two stacks, then more. Juanda takes a couple gulps of water. Ivey watches. Ivey mucks.
***************************************************************
Lederer tracks down floorman Jody Ivener, wondering why his table has broken yet. Ivener had only seven seat assignment cards. There are eight players at Lederer's table. Ivener needs one more bustout to break the table.
***************************************************************
Bonyadi re-raises Ivey and Juanda $60,000 each on consecutive hands to take down the pots. Just to let them know he's there.
***************************************************************
Juanda makes it $20,000 to go. Seat 8 calls. Lederer thinks, then moves all in. Then Juanda moves all in. Seat 8 folds 9-9. Lederer was making a move with A-J, diamonds and clubs. Juanda has A-K of hearts. The flop comes K-3-6, two clubs. Juanda pairs. Lederer needs running clubs, running jacks, running miracles. The turn comes the 7 of hearts. Lederer is drawing dead. He shakes hands with fellow Full Tilt Poker teammate Juanda.
But just for yuks, the river comes a 9, meaning Seat 8 would've made a set and busted Lederer and crippled Juanda, which tells you about Juanda's read of Lederer and his all-in move to play heads-up against him and run off Seat 8. Jeez, these guys are good.
So, it's over for Lederer in 132nd place. He walks to the podium to get his payout card and gets a nice round of applause from fans in the area.
"Just to get this deep is something,'' Lederer says. "At some point, you finish last; I finished last in a 132-player tournament.
"I think I can get back. I'm ready to have one of these things every week.''
***************************************************************
Table 144 breaks. Turns out, the bustout that Lederer was looking for was Lederer himself.
***************************************************************
At his new table, Ivey is in the big blind. The small blind makes it $18,000. Ivey looks at the guy and re-raises all in. The guy folds. Just to let them know he's there.
***************************************************************
The designer of the main event championship bracelet walks in with the coveted jewelry. It's platinum with diamonds. No one's saying what it costs.
***************************************************************
Another break ends, and Ivey walks by to say, "I've got $600,000 again.'' Everybody duck.
***************************************************************
A young player at the featured table moved in and won the pot. He then happily brought Mike "The Mouth'' Matusow over to the bleachers to meet his parents.
***************************************************************
Much like last year, Raymer has been reading his opponents correctly - betting pattern, texture of the board, position - but he drops a half-million bucks to Tex Barch when Barch rivers a gutshot. The defending champ and crowd favorite has lost about $900,000 of the $1.6 million stack he had at the dinner break.
***************************************************************
Chip leaders heading into Day 5:
1. Tim Phan - $3,244,000.
2. Mike Matusow - $2,561,000.
3. Farzad Bonyadi - $2,402,000.
4. Steve Danaman - $2,143,000.
5. Phil Ivey - $2,027,000.
***************************************************************
Wait 'til next year: Lederer, Darden, Lester, Hua, Hamilton, Tran, Dollison, Plastik, Boyd, Beevers.
***************************************************************
Monday, July 11, 2005, Noon WSOP Daylight Savings Time:
I criticized certain ways the tournament organizers handled things when players from the three Day 1's reconvened on Sunday for the titular Day 2. But fair's fair, so here goes: They fixed it Monday.
Specifically Sunday, they left the Day 1-C players in the dark about their table assignments for Day 2, failing to post them on a wall or -- and this is their best option -- putting them on the WSOP website and e-mailing them to media outlets that players read regularly.
Monday, bingo. The media outlets received e-mails of chip counts AND seat assignments. I couldn't find the updated information on the official WSOP site, but at least it was out there. What's more, the list was posted on a wall outside the Rio poker hall, so players would not have to herd themselves in line at a counter to see where their bag of chips waited for them.
And really, for whatever glitches there have been during the main event, tournament director Johnny Grooms and his staff have handled a staggering, record crowd in about as efficient and responsive way as could be expected, especially considering this is the first year in almost two generations that it has not been held at Binion's.
Sunday was one of the few times the start of play was delayed, but that was due mostly to a player who opened the wrong bag of chips and several players showing up without their bar-coded playing registration certificates.
***************************************************************
Grroms tells everybody except players and ESPN's camera crews have to leave the tournament floor. He tells players not to leave their seats to wander around the floor. See, we are on the bubble. There are 568 players remaining. Payouts begin at 560. ESPN wants to make sure it catches No. 561, unlike last year, as if the guy who just misses getting paid doesn't feel badly enough. In fact, an ESPN crew member met with dealers before the day's action to explain how they wanted the dealers to take it very slowly after there's a call of an all in just so they don't miss it.
Until No. 561 goes all in and then all out, they will play hand-for-hand, an arduous process where each dealer at each table deals one hand, completes the play, and if there is no call of an all in, the dealer then stands up, and when all 64 tables or so have completed that one hand, they assess the carnage, then play the next hand.
For players with chips, or players with some gamble in them - players such as Howard Lederer, who is at ESPN's featured table, -- this is an opportunity if you come in with an aggressive game plan.
"I don't say, 'This is the way I'm going to play today,''' Lederer says. "They're not all one big Internet player. Some are crazy. Some are horrible. I have to play each player differently.''
***************************************************************
First hand, someone yells, "Re-buy, Table 137.'' There is a lot of time for such merriment and hijinx because the whole process takes seven minutes, an eternity in Poker Table Time.
***************************************************************
First hand, Mike "The Mouth'' Matusow is yelling "Yes! Yes, baby!'' after winning a $250,000 pot.
***************************************************************
Despite repeating that players must stay in their seats and during hand-for-hand combat, Matusow goes wandering in that little galaxy known as Planet Matusow.
Grooms: "I'd like to remind players to remain in their seats.''
Matusow is still wandering.
Grooms: "Mike Matusow, please return to your seat.''
Matusow: "Oh.''
***************************************************************
One hour, eight hands, four players lost, still four players to go. Medic!
***************************************************************
Barbara Enright raises on the button, Lederer moves all in from the blind with pocket 7's. Enright calls with Q-Q. A queen turns. Enright lives. "Barb has been known to raise on the button with less-than-stellar holdings,'' Lederer said. "If she has anything like A-Q, she has to lay down that hand. I'm happy with my play.''
Lederer has played six of the eight hands dealt and "burned about $50,000,'' he says, noting he has three short stacks behind him and plans to pressure, pressure, pressure with raises and re-raises.
***************************************************************
Seventy-five minutes, five players lost, three to go. Whoo-stinkin'-hoo. As if watching poker live isn't boring enough . . .
***************************************************************
2 p.m.: Two more players die. We are officially on the bubble. Next player out gets zip, zero, zilch.
***************************************************************
2:19 p.m.: At last. The bubble bursts. Huge cheers. Money.
Carl Ygborn, you da man.
"I was short-stacked. I only had about $75,000,'' said Ygborn, 22, from Sweden.
"I had A-10 of clubs. I only called (preflop) because I don't want a re-raise here. The flop comes 7-9-10. He checked. I bet $5,000. He raised me to $20,000. I thought I had him. I thought he had K-10 or J-10 or something. I don't want to raise all in, so I only called him. The turn came a deuce. He bet $35,000 and I went all in.''
His opponent quickly called, and that's when Ygborn found out his opponent had J-8 and flopped the nuts.
"I was drawing dead,'' Ygborn said. "Of course I'm disappointed, but I play for first place, not $12,000. Maybe next neat. What can you do? Someone has to lose.''
During his bustout interview with ESPN, another player jumps in and says, "Give him $10,000. Give him his money back.''
Hang on, fella. Watch this.
WSOP media director Nolan Dalla escorts Ygborn to the podium, where Grooms announces that Harrah's is presenting bubble boy with the first entry to next year's $10,000 buy-in main event.
Which means that No. 562, whoever he or she is, was really on the bubble.
No matter.
"I'm happy,'' Ygbnorn said. "That's a really nice gift.''
Ygborn said he plays about four hours a day on the Ladbrokes Internet site, been playing about 2 1/2 years, almost never plays live, got into the Big One by winning a $1,000 supersatellite last week, so he got two $10,000 main events for a grand.
Oh, and what do you do for a living?
"Mostly,'' Ygborn said, "I play poker.''
***************************************************************
Gavin Smith works a small stack, desperately trying to get into contention, and he is trying to help his stack by using an Erick Lindgren poker chip supposedly worth $100, although not in any casino I know of. Lindgren is the player who is staking Smith in the Series, right through this main event. Smith says the chip is a good luck charm. OK. Fine. But is it really worth a hundred bucks?
"No,'' Smith says. "it's worth $2.25 and a lot of good karma.''
We'll see about that.
***************************************************************
Twenty minutes after the bubble burst, it seems like we've lost 20 players. Exhale, bust out, pass "Go'' and collect $12,500.
***************************************************************
Layne Flack calls a raise of $5,000. The flop comes 7-7-10, rainbow. Seat 1 bets $10,000. Flack calls. The turn comes the jack of diamonds. Check, check. The river comes the 8 of hearts. Check, check. Flack has A-8 of diamonds. He takes it with a pair of 8's.
***************************************************************
Two hands, two players, too dangerous -- welcome to the Paul Darden-John Juanda war.
"I know poker,'' Darden says, the medallion bearing his nickname "The Truth'' hanging around his neck. "Poker breaks even.''
But how it breaks even is why we watch.
"The first hand,'' Darden says, "I was the large blind. John Juanda had been raising everytime he was on the button. He raised. I look down, I see A-K. I called $6,000 with $15,000. He calls the $15,000. The flop comes A-4-3, rainbow. I don't slow-play. I don't try to trap. I know he's got a big pair to call that. I bet $22,000. He calls. I'm like, "Wow, does he have A-Q?' The turn comes an ace. I look at his stack. He has like $85,000, so I bet $50,000 to let him know I'm committed and 'if you call, you're committed, you have to go all in, you have to hit gin, you have to get lucky.' He thought about it forever and said, I'm all in.' I call immediately.
"Then he says, 'Do you have an ace?' It's scary that this is a professional player and thinks that at this stage with these stacks that I'm trying to buy a hand from him. Why try to buy a hand from anyone? This is still the early stages. The tournament is juts beginning now, you know? And he got lucky on me - queen on the river. He had two queens (for a full house) against my three aces.
"I didn't flinch. The player to my left says, 'How do you not punch something?' I told the player on my right, 'Don't worry, I'll knock him out.' He said, 'Good, because he keeps raising in front of me.' I said, 'I'll knock him out. It just might take a couple of hands.''
And that's about what it took.
"He raised $6,000,'' Darden says. "I have two 8's. I just smooth-called. I love it when I have position on him. The flop comes down 5-4-2, two suits. He puts in $12,500. I said, I've got to try to take him off the hand right here.' So, I call and put in a raise of $29,500. He asks me how many chips I have. I have about $60,000 more. He thinks about it and he says, 'OK, I put you all in.' I said, 'OK, it looks like I might have to get lucky on you. I might.' I called. He said, 'Good call.' He shows A-K. I have two 8's and the 8's hold up. I end up making a flush on the river.
"I know that a man of that caliber always has a shot of making a hand. He needed an ace or a 3. At this point, you've got to be willing to play. When the tournament gets shorter and everyone has chips, you will have to go all in. People will put you to the test. I'm over $200,000, and I feel good about it. It's a long day and I'm taking my time. It's a long week.
"I just want to be lucky enough to fade a river. Knowing on the turn with one card to come that I got the best hand and the person is hoping for a one- or two-outer, I'll take it everytime. Give 'em to me. I'll take it everytime.
"The first time he had a queen. The second time he didn't get so lucky.''
***************************************************************
Grooms announces to the room: "No standing on chairs. You'll be escorted from the room.'' So, of course, Matusow puts his foot on a chair to ask what Grooms just said.
***************************************************************
He was wearing a backward ballcap and a Julius Peppers jersey. He just graduated from North Carolina with a degree in business administration and plans to get a masters in accounting. Looks like the 22-year-old kid might be able to help pay for his education, because James Pollock was second in chips to start Day 3 of the main event.
"I won a few hands at the beginning and it gave me confidence,'' Pollock said while standing with his parents during a break. "Then I started pushing people around.''
Great story, Pollock. Like a lot of the players remaining. He got into the main event for $25 by winning a satellite on UltimateBet.com, then winning another satellite. Twenty-five bucks, and there he was, sitting next to Phil Ivey at the featured table Sunday.
"They told me to write down the people I admired and the people I'd least want to play against,'' Pollocl says, "and I wrote Ivey down as the player I'd least like to play against, and in parentheses I wrote, 'And I'm sitting next to him right now.' It was really intimidating at first, but I got used to it. When we got to the featured table, he started pushing people around because everybody was nervous.''
***************************************************************
Heard in the hallway:
"I raised eight hands in a row one time.''
"Bet, raise, re-raise, re-raise, all in.''
"I went out with A-K vs. Q-7.''
***************************************************************
So much for that $100 Lindgren chip. Gavin Smith's Q-10 runs into A-A and runs out of the tournament. Which means that Lindgren's last horse is some guy whom everyone calls "Zog.'' He has about $14,000. And he's at Ivey's table. Yikes, babe.
***************************************************************
Defending champion Greg Raymer trades in two racks of black chips for four purple chips, and still has almost no room, what with his stack of about $450,000.
***************************************************************
Sammy Farha briskly moves past Phil Ivey and I thought I heard him tell Ivey, "I'm over $700,000.''
Did he say $700,000?
"That's what he said,'' Ivey said.
So, I go to check Farha's stack. Maybe $50,000. Never believe a poker player.
***************************************************************
Farha moves all in with A-Q offsuit. He gets a call from Q-Q. Farha hits runner-runner heart to double up. Suave and lucky - how good a combination is that?
***************************************************************
After dinner, Juanda is about to begin play while enduring a roller-coaster session. I mean, he's playing pots like he's on commission. "Yeah, I have been playing a lot of hands,'' Juanda says. "I have to slow down.''
First hand, Juanda open-raises.
***************************************************************
Sunday, July 10, 2005, 11:50 a.m. WSOP Daylight Standard Time:
About 1,800 people wait in the hallway outside the Rio poker hangar. Seems they aren't allowed in until the chip bags are at the tables. There is some unrest among the players, but fortunately, when the doors open, it doesn't turn into a Who concert.
***************************************************************
But wait. It gets worse. Bad enough that the Day 1-C players - the final one-third of the opening field -- had to play from 11 a.m. Saturday until 2:30 a.m. Sunday and then return for a noon kickoff Sunday instead of, say, mid-afternoon.
But tournament organizers failed to post seat assignments for Day 1-C players on the wall where they had posted seat assignments for the Day 1-A and 1-B players. The list was on a counter, limiting the number of players who could figure out which table they were supposed to start at.
Whether it was fatigue or oversight or whatever, the seat assignments also weren't posted on the World Series of Poker website or e-mailed to websites that player regularly read, such as PokerPages.com and Cardplayer.com.
I can sympathize with the fatigue factor five weeks into this World Series marathon, but if tournament organizers can make Day 1-C players finish at 2:30 a.m. and demand they return as early as noon - unfairly, I believe - then they can certainly inform players more efficiently of their table assignments, especially when tournament organizers have already posted mid-afternoon starting times for the last two days of the event (or three days, if the Big One becomes the Bigger One).
"We have to play some very long hours until we get down to 27,'' tournament director Johnny Grooms said. "Some of those days will be extremely long and the players will play into the morning, so we'll start later the next day.''
"This is a different situation. Those days the field will be smaller than this day will be. Logistically, it's much easier for us to get 27 or 35 or 80-some people back than it is to get 1,800. We need to get these guys back as quickly as possible, because as you can see, we haven't started late hardly any day except for today (40 minutes after the scheduled "Shuffle and deal'' announcement) because we had to get 1,800 people back to open their bags (of chips) up and go through this whole process. They had to be back early to make sure we got this done.''
But still, poker players are used to playing until 3 or 4 in the morning. In fact, some probably prefer it.
"That's exactly right,'' Grooms said, "but we had to make sure we got them back early and got this taken care of.''
Tournament organizers expected Sunday's play to last until 1:30 or 2 Monday morning, so they easily could've started at 2 p.m. Sunday, let the Day 1-C player get a couple extra hours sleep to be fair, and gotten people out at 4, latest, then made all the days start later as the crowds thinned.
What's more, Grooms said they had planned to play the current level that all three Day 1's had begun and then five more - a total of 11 1/2 hours of play. But they were considering completing playing only four additional levels after Howard Lederer began lobbying, pointing out that they could add a level later in the week when there were fewer players.
***************************************************************
Chip Reese enter the Rio poker hangar with an average stack of around $30,000.
"Chips are power,'' says Reese, the youngest person to be inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame, "so if you're one of the chip leaders at the table, you can pick up a lot of antes and challenge stacks. If you're a small stack, you have to wait for a hand. For everybody who's below average, they have to try to double their stack to get chips to play. (As an average stack), I can probably wait for $10,000 (off his stack) for a hand. Once I get down to the $20,000 mark, I have to go.
"You can't win the tournament today anyway,'' says Reese, who does not add - but which is also true - you CAN lose the tournament today.
***************************************************************
Amir Vahedi has above-average chips, so here's his game plan for Day 2: "Same as yesterday: Stay out of trouble. This is still a qualifying round. The tournament hasn't even started. The tournament starts at about 700 people. That's when the actual tournament starts.
"Today is more dangerous than the first day because a lot of people have chips to bust you out. The first day, when you start at 10,000, once you double up, it gives you a safety net because nobody else has that many chips, But today, a lot of people have chips, and one mistake and you're out.''
***************************************************************
Mike Matusow is setting the bar at $75,000-$100,000 for Day 2. "If I get anywhere near that, then I can play some poker he says. Once you get chips, you don't need cards.''
One problem: "I played pretty well yesterday, but I haven't' played good poker two days in a row for about a year.''
***************************************************************
Table 133, Seat 1's card protector is an Elvis Pez dispenser. Thankyouverymuch.
***************************************************************
Early carnage. One hand, and short-stacked Gus Hansen is out. "I had two 9's, he had two jacks,'' Hansen says. "That's how it goes.''
You wonder if a massive field like this plays to Hansen's wild style.
"Yeah, it does,'' Hansen says. "I was a little unhappy the way I played the first day. I wasn't focused, made a couple mistakes, but I thought I had a good chance in a field like this, Unfortunately, I didn't play well enough the first day to make it happen.''
***************************************************************
Table 128, Seat 2 uses a card protector that is one of those fake dog doo things. No lie. Or maybe it's a good-luck charm.
"Both,'' says Mike Turner of Texas. "I left it at home and had to get my wife to get it to my secretary to FedEx it to me.''
When it absolutely, positively has to be there, sick as it might be.
***************************************************************
There was a wedding reception in a room off the main hallway of the Rio poker hangar Saturday, and it turns out, during breaks, a lot of players were going into the reception and getting drinks. That must've been some bar tab.
***************************************************************
The guy at Table 141 who uses a crowned Homer Simpson from a Simpson's chess set as a card protector is all in for $9,175. Homer has A-K suited against A-Q offsuit. Homer's hand stands up.
But wait. I thought you were going to go with Krusty the Clown today.
"I survived with Homer,'' Mark Kriegel says, "so I stuck with Homer.''
Mmmmmm, double up.
***************************************************************
1:05 p.m.: Nice applause as Chris Moneymaker gets eliminated.
***************************************************************
The flop comes K-J-6, all diamonds. Seat 5 raises to $3,500. Phil Ivey thinks, counts out his chips, and raises it $6,000 more. Seats 5 thinks, then moves all in, and he has Ivey covered. Ivey calls immediately. Seat 5 has 8-4 diamonds, a flush. Ivey has A-3 diamonds, the nut flush. Ivey takes the $40,000 pot.
Then someone delivers lunch to Ivey. Wait. He can't be hungry. He just ate up Seat 5.
***************************************************************
Table 57, Seat 9, another guy with fake dog doo. Mommy, make it stop.
***************************************************************
Dan Harrington's table is down to seven players, requiring more aggressive play with a wider range of starting hands. The conservative Harrington open-raises for $2,500. Seat 1 asks for a chip count of Harrington, then re-raises to $10,000. Harrington exhales, grimaces, then folds.
***************************************************************
Harrington open-raises again. Seat 4 calls. The flop comes 7-8-9, two diamonds. Seat 4 moves in. He has Harrington covered. Harrington folds. Man, it's tough getting respect - and cards, too, apparently - for former world champions.
***************************************************************
Harrington moves in under the gun. An ESPN camera crew rushes over. Action folds around to the big blind.
"Knock me out,'' Harrington says to the big blind, "I guarantee it, they'll be showing it on ESPN the whole next year. It'll be worth it. Even if you lose, you'll be on TV.''
The big blind folds.
"You missed your opportunity,'' Harrington says with a smile.
***************************************************************
"American Pie'' actress Shannon Elizabeth gets knocked out.
***************************************************************
Table 93, Seat 3 is Bob Goen, former co-host with Mary Hart on "Entertainment Tonight.'' Goen, who left the show about a year ago, has almost $25,000.
"I usually play small stakes,'' Goen says. "If I lose $30-$40 in a night, it's a big deal.''
And you're popping for $10,000 in the main event?
"I won the celebrity division of a HollywoodPoker.com tournament,'' Goen says. "It's a freeroll.''
Then Goen asks, "How many celebrities are left?''
You're about it, pal.
***************************************************************
Harrington moves in with pocket 5's. He gets called by an A-Q. An ace flops. Harrington, who pulled off the remarkable feat of making the final table the last two years in the two biggest fields in history, won't make it a three-peat.
"This is a tournament where you're going to feel the least disappointed getting knocked out of,'' he says. " How excited can you be with a lottery ticket?''
An announcement is made that the 1995 champ has been eliminated. There is applause, then many players stand to acknowledge a respected figure. Harrington doffs his hat. His eyes well up. He is touched.
"I was,'' Harrington says. "I like people to think of me kindly.''
***************************************************************
4:30 p.m.: From an average stack, Reese now has more than $120,000.
"I told you I was going to gamble today,'' he says with a smile.
***************************************************************
Ivey is now at the featured table. His stack has taken a big hit when he moved in with K-K and got a call from a player he had covered who showed A-Q and then caught a Q on the flop and another on the river.
***************************************************************
Andy Bloch, one of the Full Tilt Poker pros who was knocked out early, is working the floor, checking chip counts for PokerWire.com. Glad he has found gainful employment.
***************************************************************
Greg Raymer's healthy stack takes some hits when he gets re-raised all in on a couple hands and has to fold. But he gets it all back and more when he raises two players out of one pot, then calls an all in with bottom pair and the nut-flush draw and spikes a diamond on the river.
***************************************************************
Paul Darden is seething. Paul Darden is shaking his head. Paul Darden cannot believe what he just saw. Paul Darden's head hurts.
"I have to go lay down during the dinner break,'' Darden says, and here's why:
Right before the dinner break, the two biggest stacks at the able get into it. Seat 1 raises preflop. Seat 4 re-raises $10,000. Seat 1 calls. The flop comes 9-10-rag. The turn comes an 8. Seat 4 moves in. Seat 1 has him covered and calls.
Now, get this: Seat 1 called the all in with pocket 8's for a set. Seat 4 re-raised preflop with J-7 offsuit and moved in after hitting a gutshot.
Darden is sitting between these guys and he is apoplectic.
"He's got bottom set, the guy moves all in and he calls with bottom set,'' Darden says. "I still wouldn't have called with three 8's there. I would've laid it down on the flop with the $10,000 re-raise because you're dealing with another big stack. I would've let the guy with J-7 have it. I had position, but why bother? He's got all the chips, too. What if he's got two jacks and I have two 8's? What if the flop comes J-8-deuce?
"You stay out of those kinds of confrontations. At this level, especially. Today, I haven't had many hands, but you know what? I started with $55,000 and I have $73,00. All I want to do is make sure I'm taking my time. The rush is going to come, and when the rush comes, I just want my hand to hold up, and I''ll be alright. People are getting knocked out left and right. I'm still in it. In two days of play, I haven't been all in once. I want to keep it like that. That's the key.
Wait. You would've folded to the preflop re-raise with 8-8?
"Yes, because he has just as many chips as me and I only would've raised $3,000 or $4,000,'' Darden says. "He can have it. You'll pick that back up on the next blinds and antes you raise. Let him have it. If he robs you, give him a hand clap. When he comes one of those times, you'll be sitting there waiting and the right cards will be waiting for you and the right flop will be waiting even more, know what I'm saying?''
Hmmm, I thought you were shaking your head at the guy who re-raised with J-7 preflop.
"I was,'' Darden says. "It was a horrible call, because the other guy has all those chips and he had position. It was the worst play, He just got lucky. That's poker. Get it? That's poker. I was shaking my head because I couldn't believe he risked getting knocked out. Like there was this other guy who raised all in with two deuces. He smooth-called a raise, then another guy re-raised $10,000, he thought about it forever, called and raised it $43,000 more - $53,000 with two deuces.
"Once he got knocked out, I said, 'I need to lay down and re-evaluate what does $7.5 million (first prize) mean to these people?' It seems like nothing. I knew I grew up poor, but Lord have mercy, I didn't know people grew up that rich.''
***************************************************************
A guy standing outside the closed Full Tilt Poker hospitality suite wore this T-shirt:
"I'm not an alcoholic.
"I'm a drunk.
"Alcoholics go to meetings.''
***************************************************************
They cut the field to 569 players - nine away from the money. That means they will play hand-for-hand to start Tuesday's session. Imagine being a short stack and trying to go to sleep, knowing you'll have to return the next day and if you don't get lucky, you'll be one of nine players going home with nothing while everyone else who survives the hand-for-hand combat will get at least $12,500. Happy dreams.
***************************************************************
Wait 'til next year: Reese, Seed, Vahedi, B.Shulman, J. Shulman, Schoenfeld, Grigorian, Hincliffe, Harrington, Leonidas, Luske, Sklansky, Moneymaker, Hansen.
***************************************************************
Saturday, July 9, 2005, 11 a.m. WSOP Daylight Savings Time:
Huge ovation in the 200-table Rio poker hangar.
Doyle Brunson is in the house.
***************************************************************
This was Day 1-C of the main event, the last of the three split fields. The survivors of the three Day 1's had to play until 2:30 a.m., no matter what, because that's how long the Day 1-A field played to get down to 650 players.
But if Chip Jett had his way, it would be altogether different. It would be old-time poker.
"I'd play for 80 hours straight or whatever it takes,'' Jett said, even though he admitted he has never played more than 40 hours in a row, and that was years ago.
Ted Forrest recalls playing heads-up against Hamid Dastalmachi for four days.
"And they took Hamid away in an ambulance,'' Forrest said.
OK, so I think we all understand why Harrah's is taking nine days to find this year's champion.
So, now how should a player approach it?
"There's two different viewpoints,'' Brunson said. "You're either going to try to get chips early or else you're going to play the waiting game. As tired as I am, I'm going to try to get some chips.''
***************************************************************
Table 115, Seat 3 has a Greg Raymer bobblehead doll.
Yes. Well. Moving right along.
***************************************************************
Mike "The Mouth'' Matusow gets a timeout. A big timeout. Should be called Mike "The Pottymouth'' Matusow.
"Some dealer made up some (stuff) about me,'' Matusow explains. "The dealer said I threw cards at him, which was a blatant lie. Then I whisper in this gentleman's ear that 'this dealer's (bleeping) crazy,' and believe me, I whispered it. " literally whispered it. The guy couldn't have heard it. And he's yelling, 'F-bomb, F-bomb, F-bomb.' I said, 'You're crazy.' He gave me a 10-minute penalty, then I told everybody where to go, which was really out of line, but I was really (ticked) off.
"He gave me a penalty and I went berserk. I called the floorman a (naughty word), the place a (naughty word) and the dealer a (naughty word).
"I was kind of shocked that the dealer went out of his way to make up blatant lies. I mean, if I say something, believe me, I'm the most outspoken player in poker. When I ran out of here, did I call everyone an effing whatever? Yeah, I did it. I was (ticked).''
And so, that's how Matusow ended up with a 40-minute penalty where he had to leave the table and get blinded off.
***************************************************************
Table 44, Howard Lederer. Table 45, Doyle Brunson. Table 46, Huck Seed. Table 48, Phil Ivey. Murderer's row.
Table 47 has nobody I know, which is why Table 47 probably has the player who will win it all.
***************************************************************
Table 58, all in, K-K vs. A-A. A king hits the flop, an ace hits the turn. Oooh.
***************************************************************
During breaks, the part of the hallways that are not filled with a mass of people are filled with smoke - cigars, cigarettes, tiparillos, whatever. So, some players would rather just sit in their seat at the table and avoid the whole mess.
But no. They can't. Rule is, they have to leave the table. Reason is, tournament officials don't want people swiping chips, even though dealers remain at the tables during breaks.
***************************************************************
The hallway:
"I picked up queens against aces twice.''
"He turns over his cards - quads.''
"I've wasted, like, $600 betting after the flop.''
***************************************************************
Simon "Aces'' Trumper shows up about 90 minutes late, gets blinded off for $375 and then gets it all back and more.
"The guy over here bets $300,'' Trumper begins. "I didn't see this. The guy in Seat 10 calls $300. I'm in Seat 4. It comes to me and I look down and I've got A-K. I decide I'll see the flop and I chuck in $100, thinking it's $50. The dealer says, 'It's $300.' So, I throw in $300.
"So now, we get a flop, and it comes rag-J-Q, two spades. The first guy to act who raised preflop bets $500. Seat 10, $500. I have no idea how these guys play. My very first hand. It comes around to me and I'm sitting and I'm thinking, 'Well, I haven't got the bare ace or the bare king, but I'm thinking maybe the ace or the king will be good. There's been no re-raise. The guy in Seat 10 hasn't shown strength. And maybe I'll turn a queen. I call the $500.
"Bang! Queen of spades. Not the best of queens, but I've got the nut straight. The first guy bets $1,000, and I'm thinking he's weak. He hasn't got anything. The guy in Seat 10 thinks and thinks and thinks, and calls the thousand. So, now I know where the ace is. I'm certain this guy has the bare ace of spades. So now, I've got to get the first guy out of the pot. I raise it $2,500 total. He mucks immediately. Now, the guy who's left has $5,500. He'd have to bet his whole stack if he re-raises. He sits there, sits there, sits there, and says, 'I call.' I'm thinking, 'I know you've got the bare ace; I just don't want to see a spade.' The river is a 5 of clubs. He checks. I think, 'I'm not going to do anything clever,' so I check, and I turn over the nut straight. Do you know what this guy had in Seat 10? Aces. How lucky am I to have won this pot. This guy has played this so bad, it's unbelievable. If he re-raises on the flop, I'm gone. The pot was $15,700. I played one hand and won $6,000. I got up from the table and said, 'Boys, I'm going to give you a break.'''
***************************************************************
Table 27, Seat 1 has a bronze mohawk haircut.
Table 143, Seat 9 has a red mohawk haircut.
Mommy, make it stop.
***************************************************************
"A player cold-called a raise with A-2 offsuit,'' Robert Williamson III says. "I thought, 'Hmmm, sounds like a good start to get this table later.''
But Williamson did have an issue with the player a couple to his right.
"I was in the big blind and a guy raised from late position,'' he says. "I gave it up. He raised again when I was in the small blind the very next round. I said, 'Uh-uh-uh, I'm not going to take this all day. I'm not going to be your bitch all day. And the last guy I said that to, we got all the money in the middle because I couldn't stand it anymore. He showed me aces. Don't worry. I busted him with K-J offsuit.'''
***************************************************************
The line for the bathroom vs. the line for Starbucks. Discuss.
***************************************************************
Table 80, Shannon Sharpe. Yes, that Shannon Sharpe, the former All-Pro tight end and Super Bowl winner with the Denver Broncos. Sharpe's posse outside the ropes includes former teammates Rod Smith and Keith Burns.
Wearing a bucket hat and sunglasses, Sharpe says he has been playing for about five months - and he's anteing up for the Big One?
"I've got an opportunity to win,'' Sharpe says. "Moneymaker won it. He wasn't a professional., This isn't like any other professional sport. Your first game will never be the Super Bowl. Your first track meet will never be the Olympics. But you pay $10,000, and your first poker tournament could be the World Series of Poker. And I've got a chance to win here. You can take all the skill you want, but if I get good cards, I don't care how skillful you are, you can't beat me. That's the way I'm looking at it.''
Nice game plan.
"Give me aces,'' Sharpe says. "Give me something I can work with. The way you play here compared to the way you play at home with your boys - you play everything.
"You play it here and hope you made the right call. I've been playing with these boys for about four hours. I have an idea of who likes to try and bluff, who likes to raise and try to run you off a pot. I'm like a mother hen. If I got something, I'm not going to leave that pot. Mother hen ain't going to leave her eggs.''
Sharpe said he befriended Mark Seif, who won two bracelets at this year's Series.
"I've been talking to him a lot, comparing strategies, seeing how he would play a certain hand,'' Sharpe said. "In poker, you can play a hand two different ways and win; you can play a hand two different ways and lose.''
OK, big question: A Super Bowl ring or a World Series of Poker bracelet?
"I think I'm going to take the Super Bowl ring,'' Sharpe says with a laugh, "but I'll take the World Series money.''
***************************************************************
Phil Ivey raises to $300 up front. The guy in Seat 8 re-raises to $1,300. Ivey calls.
"I don't know what he has,'' Ivey says. "He's played a lot of big hands, but he's raised a lot of pots, too.''
The flop comes 9-6-deuce, two hearts. Seat 8 bets $2,000. Ivey calls.
"I was pretty comfortable with having $16,000 in chips,'' Ivey says. "If he has kings, queens or aces, I don't want to put all my money in there. I have to be pretty sure he doesn't have it. I thought for a little while and I decided to call.''
The turn comes a 3 of hearts, putting hearts up. Seat 8 bets $3,500.
"I looked at him for a little while, thought about it and called,'' Ivey says.
The river comes a deuce. Check, check.
Ivey turns over J-J. Seat 8 shows A-K offsuit.
"I called on the turn,'' Ivey says, "because I didn't like the way he looked.''
Hands like that are why a lot of people believe Ivey is the pro who will win this thing.
***************************************************************
Outside of the WSOP Lifestyle show in a convention hall near the Rio's poker hangar - "lifestyle?'' try a T-shirt, jeans and no sleep - is a mural of the Full Tilt Poker pros. It's about 15 feet high. Like Phil Ivey needs to look anymore intimidating.
***************************************************************
While Billy Gazes thinks and thinks and thinks about calling a $5,000 raise, Greg Raymer comes to the table to chat with another player, golfer Rocco Mediate. A Poker Stars moment - Raymer gets golf tips, Mediate gets poker lessons.
Eventually, Gazes calls with two pair and gets killed by trips.
***************************************************************
Table 91, Seat 1, Anna Benson, the model and wife of Mets pitcher Kris Benson who was voted best-looking big-league wife by some laddie magazine or something like that. Anyway, she has played poker for all of two weeks, and here she is in the main event.
Boy, is she.
She is providing her unique perspective on the $10,000 buy-in" It's not $1,000 or $100. It's $10,000. That more boots for me.''
Yes. Well. OK.
But wait. There's more.
"Legalize gambling and prostitution,'' she says. "Pay for the war. No taxes.
"They would never let me be president. Too radical.''
A cameraman who was filming all this leaves, prompting this from the guy in Seat 10, who is clearly tired of the model's rambling: "Go cover something important.''
Benson then talks about an F-bomb penalty from a woman dealer she describes as "fat and bitter.''
Seat 10: "She wasn't bitter. She was running the game the way she was told. IS that the standard we judge people - fat?''
Benson: "No. Women are different.''
No kidding.
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5:40 p.m.: Doyle is out. Almost the entire room stands to applaud.
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Table 104, Seat 1 is a guy sporting a flowing red hat with red fur on the brim and the band. At least, I think it's a guy. Either way, it's a look.
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Even before the three Day 1's, the poker tables themselves were getting shredded, specifically the embroidered World Series of Poker logo. Nice idea. Bad execution.
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5 p.m.: Tournament director Johnny Grooms announces what everyone has been waiting for: The main event has drawn 5,619 players for a prize pool of $52,818,600. The main event will pay 560 places, starting at $12,500. And every player at the final table will leave a millionaire.
The payouts:
Ninth place: $1 million.
Eighth place: $1.15 million.
Seventh place: $1.3 million.
Sixth place: $1.5 million.
Fifth place: $1.75 million.
Fourth place: $2 million.
Third place: $2.5 million.
Second place: $4.25 million.
And first place - ta-da - a record $7.5 million.
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Classy Norseman Thor Hansen is amazed at his country's representation at the World Series.
"I was the only player from Norway for all these years,'' he says, "and this year we have 45. It's amazing the way it's growing.''
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Mel Judah walks by and whispers, "I've got a goofball on my hands,'' and he would be talking about the guy in the brown fedora, sunglasses, white T-shirt and gold necklace.
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Jimmy Kimmel showed up to tape some schtick for his TV show. Thus MUST be big.
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Table 47, Seat 3: "That's why I like playing online, because everytime it's your turn, it dings.''
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Matusow, after folding: "I was feeling something. It's might've been gas, but I was feeling something.''
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Dinner break, and Howard Lederer has chips, about $30,000. This is spectacular by a pro's standard, given the carnage the big names have endured.
"I was hearing all these stories about how horrible it is, and it's crazy and you can't play poker with anybody,'' Lederer says. "It's just a soft tournament, a great tournament. It means there are a lot of bad players playing.
"There were a lot of pros calling me yesterday, saying 'You won't believe what you see' and "Prepare yourself to never be able to bluff a hand the rest of your life.' Like it was signs of the apocalypse.''
"I saw some very bad play, but you can still play poker.''
Lederer said he changed his approach for the main event after the tough World Series he had leading into it.
"I had absolutely nothing on my plate, and I won't allow anything to get on my plate until I'm done playing in this tournament,'' Lederer says, referring to the business of poker. "I'm not going to think about anything except this tournament. It's 7 (p.m.) and I've signed about three autographs today. I've kind of hustled right into that (Full Tilt Poker) suite and actually taken breaks.''
Earlier, he was wonderfully accessible to fans and believed it affected his play - the lack of time to decompress during breaks. And if he has changed his approach away from the table, he appears to have stepped up his aggressive style early.
"I am certainly aware of who I am playing poker with at all times,'' Lederer says. "There are certain plays that I'm just not going to try,. If the signals that I'm trying to send with a certain kind of bet won't be received, there's no point in sending those signals, whether it's weak signals, bluffing signals. You always have to be aware of who you're talking to at the poker table.''
Lederer says his aggressive style is paying off earlier in the main event because opponents are becoming more protective of their tournament lives earlier than they were in preliminary tournaments.
"I think I won a pot a little while ago where a guy looked down at his chips and saw that I had him covered, and even though I hadn't bet more than 20 percent of his chips, he realized I could bet the rest of them on the next card and I think he threw away the best hand because he wasn't willing to put his tournament on the line,'' Lederer says.
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Grooms walks by with a paper cutout of a cat with a real cigarette in its mouth. "Don't even ask,'' Grooms says.
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Actor James Woods is out, thanks to pocket 5's running into pocket Q's.
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Down and out for the former NFL tight end Shannon Sharpe.
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Wait'll next year: Doyle, Williamson, Ma, D'Agostino, Giang, Tom McEvoy, Corkins, Seif, Thaler, Baxter, Judah, B.Gazes, Bloch, Jett, Minh Nguyen, Cloutier.
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Steve Rosenbloom is a regular contributor to ESPN.com and writes a syndicated poker column for the Chicago Tribune.
