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The Race to 10 Bracelets
I was hoping to be the first player to cross the historic threshold to World Series of Poker (WSOP) win No. 10. With three of us, Johnny Chan, Doyle Brunson and I all knotted up at nine bracelets apiece coming into the 2005 WSOP, the race was on, and ESPN was hyping it all the way. It was about 12 days ago, then, while Brunson and I were both deep into the pot-limit Omaha tournament, that Chan won his No. 10, in the pot-limit Hold’em. Of course, ESPN interviewed the two of us to get our reaction. Brunson and I both said, “Chan is a great player and a great guy, so having him get there first is fine with us.” Brunson added, “I’ll just win this next one and tie him.”
Brunson didn’t make it to the final table in that tournament, but I did. (With a crushing eighth-place finish, though, my dreams of garnering No. 10 there fell well short.) But in the very next tournament — the no-limit Hold’em — the 71-year-old Brunson did make the final table, and went on to win his 10th bracelet. I’m very happy for Brunson and Chan, and proud of them, but I’m not crazy about losing my record! (ESPN will show both of their wins, sometime in the next few months.)
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Old Lions Still Roar
Right now, I’m at the center of the poker universe. With 35 or so World Series of Poker (WSOP) tournaments currently being played out over six weeks (June 3 to July 15) at the Rio Hotel in Las Vegas, practically all the great players in the world are here trying to win bracelets. As I mentioned in a recent column, there are also plenty of wannabes here, too — and this is a wonderful thing. Some, like 2005 WSOP champion Greg Raymer, who picked up $5 million, will become rich and famous; others will find the road to poker riches too hard to handle.
My longtime pals T.J. Cloutier and John Bonetti (“Bono”), a couple of “old lions,” are here and showing the “young guns” a trick or two. A few days after Bono’s 77th birthday, he made the final table of the $5,000 buy-in no-limit Hold’em, along with 65-year-old Cloutier. (Both lions will be at my fantasy camp in August; have a look at CampHellmuth.com).
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Pocket Aces Are No Guarantee
On June 3, with a record field, the 2005 WSOP (World Series of Poker) got under way at the Rio Hotel in Las Vegas. The first event, a $1,500 buy-in no-limit Hold’em tournament, opened with 2,305 players! First place was roughly $700,000, and 200 players would make the money. I’m proud to say that I was one of those who made the money, which was my record-tying 46th “cash” (qualifying for prize money) at the WSOP. In fact, with about 60 players left I was the chip leader, but I faded down the stretch and finished a disappointing 24th.
Allow me to discuss the sickening hand I witnessed during the second day of the first tournament. With 236 players left (200 would make the money), a $100 ante and $400-$800 blinds, Jason Steinhorn opened in first position with 10-10. In the second position Ralph Levine made it $10,000 to go with his A-A. And now Greg Smallowitz, in third position, made a great fold with his J-J.
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Grading Three Different Approaches to One Hand
A few years back, I was teaching my friend Jeff Pulver how to improve his limit Texas Hold’em game. Pulver is heavily involved within the VON (Voice Over the Internet) industry, and, in fact, a 2004 FCC ruling was named the “Pulver Order.”
The following hand came up in a limit Hold’em game at the Bellagio. The No. 1 position called the $15 bid with Kd-Ks, and Pulver “limped in” (called) with 8s-8h in third position. The fourth position (to Pulver’s immediate left) raised to $30 with Qs-Jd, and the fifth position (the button) called the $30. The big blind called, and the first position called $15 more with his Kd-Ks. Pulver then re-raised the bet to $45 total, and everyone else proceeded to call the $45.
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A Dominating Victory
In my last two columns, I talked about the finals of NBC’s “National Heads-Up Championships,” which pitted Chris Ferguson against me. In the finals, we were playing a best-two-out-of-three format, and we now had one win each.
After Ferguson pulled off a big bluff in the deciding round of the finals, he had a chip lead of roughly $900,000 to my $400,000, and his follow-up tactic was to raise a lot of pots before the flop. I responded by folding a lot before the flop. After a while of this back and forth, I made a stand when I re-raised (I moved all-in) with my A-3. Ferguson eventually called me with his K-Q, which meant that I was only about a 56 percent favorite to win, and could lose the championship. The first four cards were 9-3-2-5. The last card, lifted Ferguson right out of his chair. He momentarily mistook the face card for a king or queen. But it was actually a jack. This marked the first time in the finals that I was all-in with a chance to lose the match. But I pulled it out with a pair of threes. -
Give Credit to a Great Bluff
In my last column, I talked about the bad beat that Chris Ferguson put on me in the second of our three matches during the finals of NBC’s “National Heads-Up Poker Championship.” I had won match one, and was staring at victory in match two when Chris and I put in all our money on a board of 9s-5h-4h-2h, with Chris holding 9h-2s to my Ah-3s. This was, believe it or not, only the third hand of the second match. Chris then proceeded to hit a 10-to-1 shot (meaning there were 40 possible wins for me and merely four for him), when a nine popped up on the river, stealing my championship in dramatic fashion.
I literally fell on the floor when the nine hit (I was on my way to standing up and shouting, “Yes!”), and after losing the next small pot — I was all-in — I headed up to my room to meditate and try to gather myself.
I was steaming, talking to myself, moving at a fast clip up the Golden Nugget’s hallway, while the cameras recorded the whole thing. At the elevator, I told the security guards to stop the cameras; otherwise I’m sure they would have followed me all the way to my room.
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