World
Series of Poker T+8,9
The
heads up gold bracelet match play competition
is the highlight of the WSOP for me, it's
really exciting to watch the best players
in the world going up against each other.
Yesterday was Amarillo Slim vs. Johnny
Chan, it was sort of like watching a Mike
Tyson match where you know it's going
to be great, but you don't know if it
will last more than two minutes. In the
East corner was the quiet and unassuming
Johnny Chan, in the West was the wily
old school Amarillo. Johnny said maybe
ten words the whole match, Amarillo, who
relies on his constant banter to get a
read on his opponents never stopped talking,
and that may have been his downfall. After
just a few minutes the crucial hand came
out of nowhere, Johnny with T5, Amarillo
with 65, then with a 5 on the flop and
another one on the river it became a mind
game, with Amarillo betting, Johnny raising,
Amarillo reraising all in, and Johnny
finally calling for the win with his Ten
kicker. Andy Glazer did a great report
of the chat that took place during that
final hand, what maybe wasn't so apparent
was that the longer Johnny thought about
calling, the more confident Amarillo became
that he had the best hand, he was using
his banter to gauge whether or not he
wanted a call, and decided he did. Unfortunately
he was wrong on this one, Johnny was using
Amarillo's own chat as a weapon against
him, he knew Amarillo had a good hand
and he finally responded to him to get
his own read on whether or not to call,
it was a whole other game within the game,
fascinating to watch, and now we have
Chan vs. Seidel to look forward to.
Today
was Tom McEvoy vs. Phil Ivey. This was
another one that could have gone on for
a long while, but again a crucial hand
came up early and it was all over in a
few minutes. Tom had JJ, Phil had 75,
the flop came J74, Phil bet a little and
Tom just called. Phil's fate was sealed
when another 7 came on the turn, all the
money went in and it was all over.
The
only thing I don't like about these matches
is that we never know when they will take
place, the two opponents just find a convenient
moment and sit down to play. What I'd
like to see is some sort of advanced warning,
just have both players agree to a time
that is then posted somewhere, then only
allow them to cancel if one of them is
still playing in another tournament, that
way we could plan to be there to watch
these classic matches.
Today
was the 2K pot limit holdem, I really
wanted to play this one but I only managed
to accumulate $1,000 in single table satellites
(played 3, chopped 2 of them). I was about
to play one more (very late, last one
of the night) when they suddenly changed
it from pot limit to no limit, so I backed
out. So this morning I had to decide whether
to put up the other $1,000 but I chickened
out, deciding instead to definitely play
the 1.5K one next week. My pot limit record
has been really good this year so now
I'm sort of kicking myself for not playing,
but there again the final table lineup
tomorrow is full of superstars so I don't
know how I would have faired against them.
The numbers had been holding pretty steady
compared to last year, most a few over,
a couple a few under, but they were way
down today, I think it was 216 vs. 270
last year, but that might be because they
have now added the new event 1.5K pot
limit for next week so people like me
have chosen one over the other.
Instead
I played and lost two satellites today,
both were no limit which I had vowed not
to play any more, my wins have all been
in the limit and pot limit sats. Then
I watched Andrew Prock chop one up as
his finale to an amazing few days in Vegas,
he goes home tomorrow.
I'll
be playing the weekly Mirage evening limit
holdem tourney tomorrow, I might use my
first place winnings to play the 3K limit,
I might not.
Paul
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