The Final Three

    The mood in the Penn and Teller theater seemed tense as Tuesday's 3-handed showdown got underway. It was the beginning of Day 10 (not in a row) for these three players and millions of dollars were on the line. The four month wait was over and on this night a champion would be crowned.

   We begin with the WSOP Player of the Year, my top horse at this table, Ben Lamb. He not only wins an award  for sharing my first name, but he also gets the Blow-up award. Lamb ended up all-in with K-J on the first hand and lost to Staszko's 7-7!! That didn't bust him, but Q-6 did a few hands later. Okay, let's think about this for a minute. You are 3-handed. You've played 9 days. You are the WSOP POY. You are a favorite to win even though you are 2nd in chips. Most importantly, you have like 40-something big blinds and you can beat these guys with only 10 big blinds and one card tied behind you're back! It's possible he just didn't want to play anymore, but K-J off really??? And Antonio "The Magician" Esfandiari thinks it's the right play? Maybe he can do a magic trick and make himself disappear from next year's broadcast. Sorry Antonio, mad respect, but I just think you're dead wrong on that one. Sidebar: I can't believe I'm saying this, but I liked Phil Hellmuth's commentary better. Now I've thought a little about this and I see where Lamb was coming from. He knows he can take Heinz, but Staszko is cold and calculating and hadn't been playing too many hands compared to Lamb and Heinz. Also, he was virtually impossible to read. It's possible Lamb's strategy was to in fact be in a coin flip situation with a chance to knock out a tough player. If he loses he still has some chips and can grind back maybe.  If he wins he's heads-up and almost even in chips against Heinz who I suspect he had a good read on. Not a bad situation to be in but think about your equity here. You can at least grind with these guys and get heads-up. If you draw Heinz you are probably a favorite even when behind. If you draw Staszko you are gonna have your work cut out for you if he has a lead in chips. Then you can go all-in with K-J. To me, the top three is a new tournament. I treat it the same way as when there are 9 people. Don't finish 9th, don't finish 3rd. I'm guessing many poker players (especially the "pros") would disagree with me and say you should just go for the win. This is fine. Maybe someday we can see whose theory works on the felt. I long for that day! Not taking anything away from Benba, but I thought it was impatient and not the correct play in that situation.

   The heads-up match between the 45 year old looking 35 year old Czech, Martin Staszko (Worst Dressed award) and 22 year old Pius Heinz (Most Aggressive award) was entertaining whether you are a poker enthusiast or not. There was virtually no interaction verbally between the two players. Maybe that's because they speak different languages? It was White vs Plaid for the Championship. Seriously, plaid? What is it 1992? I was waiting for Smells Like Teen Spirit to start playing whenever Staszko won a hand. If he'd had a pocket protector and thick horn-rimmed glasses to go with it I think he would've won the tournament. I must say though, it was an epic battle. The lead changed hand several times and the level of aggression between these two was unlike anything I would have imagined given the money at stake. In the end it was Heinz and his A-K prevailing over Staszko's 10-7 suited. Germany rejoices!

   So there it is in a nutshell. Poker has a new potential ambassador. I can only hope Pius Heinz does what he can to promote poker in Germany and around the world. ESPN deserves a lot of credit for great coverage while protecting the integrity of the game with their 15 minute delay. Poker has come a long way in the last 8 years and still has a long way to go. This year's coverage of the final table with Lon McEarhen, Norman Chad, and Antonio Esfandiari (is it just me or does he sound like he just did a wake and bake before he went on the air?) was refreshing and I already can't wait till next year. Till then...

Good Things Come To Those Who Wait... And Bet

   Well The WSOP Main Event is over and congrats are in order for the winner Pius Heinz and the other 8 contenders for a very entertaining Final Table. It was definetly fun to watch. ESPN's coverage was excellent and it was great to be able to see every hand played. There were questionable plays, questionable analysis, and some questionable wardrobe choices, but all in all whether you are a poker fanatic (like myself) or not you had to appreciate the conditions and the pressure these nine individuals were under. In this post I will be discussing the first three eliminations.

   The short stack coming in to this final table was Jesse Eisenberg look-alike Sam Holden. He wins my award for Best Hair. The only Englishman at the table he had quite an uphill climb. Unfortunately his A-J suited in spades ran into Ben Lamb's A-K and he was out in 9th place. Personally, I don't think he had to go broke there. Lamb open raised and Holden could have called and taken position in the hand. When the flop came three clubs, Holden easily could have folded and gotten off the hand leaving himself with over 10 big blinds. If I came in as one of the short-stacks, my goal would be to not finish 9th. Let someone else make that mistake.

   The second smallest stack entering play on Sunday was also the youngest player at the table 21 year old Anton Makiievski from THE U-kraine. Anton gets the award for Hardest Name To Spell. His bust-out was probably the worst. I should give him an award for that too. Anton went all-in with K-Q off and was called by Heinz and his 9's. Flop came K-J-J and the turn was a 9. The river blanked and Makiievski was out in 8th. Exactly where he entered the final table. No harm no foul on his decision. He took a bad beat. Nothing more you can say other than shit happens. He played well and picked a decent hand to move with in my opinion.


   That brings us to our 7th place finisher, and one of my horses, Bahdi Bounahra. He came in running 6th and played well I thought. He wins an award simply for holding his own against significantly younger opponents. The oldest player, and possibly least experienced, made a good showing and made his country proud. His bust-out hand was A-5 offsuit, but I don't fault him for it. He was extremely short on chips compared to the rest of the table and A-5 is better than A-6 as a blind all-in hand. Good for Bahdi and good for Belize. Way to go!


   In my next post I'll discuss the 6th, 5th, and 4th place finishers. Till then...

The WSOP Main Event 2011

   So this being my first post into the blogosphere, I thought I'd begin with my thoughts on the WSOP Main Event. For those of you who know the game of poker (specifically No-Limit Hold Em) all of this should make perfect sense to you. For those of you who don't forgive my use of its lingo throughout this post. In fact, much of this blog will be about poker and the direction the game is going both live and online. But first The Main Event.

   In 2003, Chris Moneymaker won the biggest poker tournament in the world. An amateur who paid $40 on an online satellite and ran it to 2 million dollars by winning the Main Event. In the 3 years following, the Main Event grew from 839 entries to 8773 in 2006. aka The Jamie Gold Year. In the few years following that the number of entries declined a bit. This year there were 6865.  Not too bad considering the DOJ's smackdown on the big online poker sites in April. Next year will be the year we should see the full effects. I'm guessing the over/under is 4800.

   The true problem for the game right now is its lack of an ambassador. A Michael Jordan if you will. Or a Tiger Woods before all his troubles. The online thing has just rubbed everyone the wrong way and these well-known pros now just seem shady. The Jamie Gold thing was a black mark as well. Personally, I'm rooting for a big name pro to win it. Someone relatively upstanding that can maybe promote poker and have a positive influence. I think it would legitimize the game. Phil Ivey I'm talkin to you!

  Although Phil Ivey isn't in it this year (in fact he boycotted this year's World Series) I think there are some names at the Final Table this year that could do the game some good. First on my list is the hottest (meaning he's on a good run people) player in the world right now Ben Lamb. If he wins it would be an absolutely epic year for him at the WSOP and arguably the best run in the post Moneymaker era. The guy had already made over a million dollars at this year's WSOP before the Main Event even started. It would give him two bracelets and two other Final Tables, one of which was an 8th place finish at the Player's Championship. It would also make him WSOP Player of the Year. In a word: impressive. Did I mention he's only 26?

   Next up is Bahdi Bounahra. He's from Belize. He's the oldest player at the Final Table at 49. It would be pretty fun to watch an old man (relatively speaking of course) whip a bunch of twenty-something's asses. It'd be a great story and great for the country of Belize.

   Finally is Eoghan O'Dea. He has two scores over $250,000. His father cashed in the Main Event 6 times. He's from Ireland and that would be cool to see an Irish champion wouldn't it?





  Well, those are my picks for this year. I'll write again in a couple of days with a full analysis of the Final Table and my thoughts and feelings regarding the results. Till then....