Winning a World Series of Poker tournament conveys lifelong membership in a very exclusive club, and when the final two players left are both frequent tournament players who haven't yet earned this membership and the gold bracelet that symbolizes it, the tension often gets high.

You might think it would go exactly the opposite way, because amateurs closing in on a bracelet would think this is their one chance of a lifetime, but amateurs don't really understand how difficult it can be to even get to a final table, much less win the bracelet. Experienced tournament players know that when they get in position, they need to take advantage of it, because that position might not come again for a long while.

About halfway through Barry Shulman's hour-long duel with Dan Heimiller for the $1,500 entry Limit Seven-Card Stud Hi-Lo Split Championship, each player was the proud owner of a raggy board and an open pair of threes. The pot wasn't particularly large, each checked on the end, and Shulman, the owner and publisher of Card Player Magazine, announced, with a twinkle in his eye, "Three threes" (an obviously impossible hand).

That was when I thought Shulman was going to take the title, because if he could still crack jokes at a time when the tension was this high, it meant he was pretty calm.

Half an hour later, three real sixes did win him the title, and with son Jeff (Card Player's Editor) and wife Jan ("the real boss," according to Jeff, but officially Vice Chairman of Shulman Media), having sweated Dad throughout, three Shulmans were celebrating, continuing a family theme that's been emerging at this WSOP, where first Nani Dollison's win meant money for her sister's family, and then Phil Hellmuth's meant a bracelet for his son Phillip.

If siblings Ken and Stan Goldstein get heads-up in the Big One (or Howard Lederer and Annie Duke), you heard it here first. Hey, we could have Harry Thomas vs. Jerri Thomas, too. I'm ruling out Barry Shulman vs. Jeff Shulman, on the grounds they would both become too insufferable to work for, and I'd rather keep working for them.

230 players started this tournament, yet another record, and when we started play at the final table, the chip counts at the final table were remarkably balanced:

While the chips were balanced, the players weren't. Chip leader Heimiller was missing in action when the cards went into the air, with $400 antes, $1,000 for the low card bring-in, playing $3,000-6,000, and he missed four hands ($1,600 worth of chips) until he hurried in and sat down. He joined a table that had a distinctly Card Player flavor, not merely because of Shulman, but because Shulman's web developer, Ragir, and another of his columnists, Burgio, were also in the hunt.

These three were doing almost all the talking, especially Ragir, but in his case, it seemed like a bit too much talking for his own good. Ragir was laughing and joking like one of the boys in the regular Wednesday night dealer's choice nickel-dime-quarter game. His personality is engaging, but his chips kept flying into pots when he had the worst of it, especially calling when it looked like he was drawing to try to get a split, and his stack dwindled rapidly.

Burgio finished him off on a hand where Vince started (4d-5d) 6d, and then caught the 2h-3d. Staring into that formidable board, Ragir kept playing showing 7-8-9, and Burgio, who had already grabbed a couple of nice pots, added insult to injury by making a flush, and was the new chip leader with about $85,000.

The clock went off ending the 42 minutes that had been left at this level, and the antes moved to $600, with a $1,200 bring-in, playing $4,000-8,000.

A CORROLLARY TO MURPHY'S LAW

Everyone has heard of Murphy's Law: "If something can go wrong, it will go wrong." It's kind of the national anthem for pessimistic poker players. In our case, the short-stacked Bill Murphy provided a new corollary, by going on an "inverse rush" where he caught the low bring-in card five times in a row and seven hands out of eight. Getting forced to put money into a pot is bad enough when you have a big stack. When you're short, it's murder, and with one exception, Murphy never had anything in the hole to back up his forced bet.

When Murphy finally did find a hand, split kings, Heimiller and Burgio played along with him, and they chopped up his few remaining chips when Heimiller made kings and threes, and Burgio made a low.

"I think I'm going to make my nickname 'dog pound,' I had so many useless K-9's (canines) today," Murphy quipped. "But at least I moved up one spot, and I'll tell you, I found out why poker players travel the circuit. Getting to the final table of an event like this is an unbelievable rush."

For a while it looked like "Wink," an Atlantic City player who has a strong preference against his last name being published, was going to follow Murphy out the door, but he survived a couple of all-ins, and then more than tripled up when Bernstein and Heimiller played with him all the way and couldn't beat his aces-up.

We were two hours into play when I estimated the chips at

Wink, $46,000
Burgio, $74,000
Bernstein, $13,000
Heimiller, $85,000
Kreskanko, $35,000
Shulman, $92,000

So much for chip counts: on the very next hand, Heimiller gouged $32,000 out of Shulman's stack with queens-up. Heimiller, a Michigan native who now lives in Las Vegas and travels the tournament circuit almost full-time, is known as one of the most aggressive and wild bettors in the world. This "Action Dan" reputation earns him a lot of chips when he does catch some cards, because his opponents tend to assume he's on another of his bluffs. I doubt Shulman would have called down anyone else at the table staring into the two open queens.

It was about ten minutes later when the clock buzzed for a higher betting limit, with the chips now

Wink, $40,000
Burgio, $60,000
Bernstein, $36,000
Heimiller, $121,000
Kreskanko, $23,000
Shulman, $65,000

At this new level, we had a $900 ante, a $2,000 bring-in, and were playing $6,000-12,000. Six-handed, that meant $7,400 in dead money sitting out there for a player making the $6,000 raise to steal. The new level also was large enough, relative to the stack sizes, that we figured to start losing players, even though we'd managed to lose only two in the first two hours.

On the very first hand after the break, Heimiller carved $24,000 out of Burgio when his tens and fives beat Vince's sevens and twos, a low draw that turned into a weak high. Dan's stack does move up and down a lot, but it was suddenly moving all in one direction.

THE RIVER SAVETH SHULMAN

Heimiller and Shulman then hooked up on what proved to be a critical hand. Dan showed 5s-Qs-Qd-Kc, and Barry showed Ac-Jd-8h-10h. They had each put $42,000 into this pot before the river, when Dan checked, Barry bet $12,000 that left him almost dry, and Dan called. Heimiller only had the queens, and Shulman turned over an eight low that (with two high cards showing) he'd obviously made on the river.

If Shulman hadn't made his low (or paired his ace) on the end, he'd have been left with the $12,000 bet he wouldn't have made on the end, and probably would have been gone. As it was, he still had $58,000 in front of him, and on the very next hand, he took out Kreskanko and his remaining $24,000 by getting all the money in on an exchange of raises on fourth street. They turned the hole cards over, and we saw (10-10) 3-4 for Kreskanko, and (6d-7d) 3d-2d, your basic monster drawing hand, for Shulman. Neither player improved until the river, when the 5d gave Shulman a flush and nearly $90,000 in chips less than a minute after he'd been staring at the possibility of a $12,000 stack.

Stud eight-or-better is not a game for the faint of heart.

We lost Wink next when he was showing 10h-Kc-Qs against Heimiller's 9d-Qd-6h. Wink bet out here, and Heimiller raised, with Wink calling. The raiser caught another six on sixth street, but checked when Wink caught the Jd for what had to be, at the worst, an open-ended straight draw. Wink checked behind him, a pretty sure sign he didn't have the straight yet.

NO SOUR GRAPES FOR WINK

Heimiller bet the river, and Wink called for his last $8,000. Heimiller showed the two diamonds he'd started with in the hole and the one he'd caught on the river for a flush, and Wink shrugged and showed the (K-10) he'd started with. Two pair right away, and on the end, a draw at both a straight and a full house, but he caught a blank, and the good-natured if name-shy Wink left with a smile. "I had a good time," he said, as he accepted his $16,735 for fifth place.

Action Dan now had a commanding lead:

Burgio, $40,000
Heimiller, $195,000
Bernstein, $25,000
Shulman, $85,000

Bernstein, whose name you haven't seen much here because he wasn't playing in a lot of wild pots, just playing lots of solid poker that impressed me, kept getting drawn out on, and exited next when he started (2-2) A-A against Heimiller, who drew curious stares when he called showing 7c-9c. Bernstein never improved, and eventually Heimiller showed us (Jc-8c) 7c-9c-9s-4d (Qc) for another flush on the river. The curious now understood the call on fourth street, with Heimiller holding not merely a flush draw and inside straight draw, but an inside straight flush draw. I think most players would take one off in that spot too.

FRUSTRATION HITS BURGIO, BURGIO HITS BACK

Burgio, one of poker's genuinely nicest guys in addition to being one of poker's genuinely best players (he's already a member of the Senior's Hall of Fame), started getting frustrated. He tossed his cards across the table to Heimiller when he couldn't call an early raise, and one of them almost bounced off the table. On the very next hand, he couldn't call another early raise, and tossed his cards again, and this time one of them did hit the floor.

I wondered if Burgio would be given an extremely out of character 20-minute penalty that would have ensured his being anteed right out of the tournament, but Tournament Director Bob Thompson stared at Vince's remaining $30,000 and merely joked, "on the next one, you'll get a one-hour penalty."

Burgio got caught with the bring-in on the next hand, and lightening up, said, as he stared across the table at Shulman's ace, "I'll tell you what, I'll bet you $10 cash money that you're going to raise me." Shulman didn't accept the bet, instead saying jovially, "tell you what, since you're getting on my nerves, I'll give you a blind raise," and indeed popped it without looking at his hole cards. Burgio called, but when Shulman's board improved to A-2-3, Burgio gave it up, with $10,000 left in front of him.

Heimiller had about $185,000 and Shulman about $140,000 at this point, and they got Burgio all-in quickly. Heimiller showed 8s-5s-7d-8d, and Shulman showed 9d-3c-3h-Qs. There wasn't any check-down conspiracy. Heimiller bet out and got called on fifth street, sixth street, and the river. He turned over eights full of sevens, and Shulman turned over threes full of jacks. Shulman did well not to lose more on the hand; not too many players could have resisted raising with a full house on the end, but the paired doorcard and obvious lack of concern for Shulman's high hand provided the appropriate signals. We'd finished off four players in about an hour.

THE PAUSE THAT REFRESHES

At this point, the two remaining players decided they wanted to count their chips and stretch their legs. Shulman had $122,000, and Heimiller $223,000. When they returned from the relatively brief break, they agreed to change the antes from $900 to $1,000, so they could get the awkward $100 chips off the table.

Shulman quickly surged into the chip lead, winning $19,000 on the first hand and then a big pile on the second, when he check-raised Heimiller showing 8-3-5-8 against Dan's 2-Q-A-9. Shulman bet again on the river, and Heimiller called, his aces and queens no good against Shulman's trip eights, and Shulman suddenly had $207,000 to Heimiller's $138,000.

Shulman picked up another big pot when Heimiller couldn't beat his tens and threes, and Dan was down to $80,000. Dan's stack does move up and down a lot, though, and it started going up: he won five scoopers in a row to give him $230,000, and putting us almost exactly back where we were when we started the heads-up duel. Shulman slumped visibly at the pounding, and I thought, for a moment, that he was out of gas.

It turned out that he was just gassing up. Shulman let Heimiller continue to take the lead, but check-raised several times, and started chopping money out of Heimiller's stack $20,000 or $30,000 at a time.

"NOW YOU'RE TALKING!"

The clock went off, ending the round, Thompson announced we would now be playing with $1,500 antes, a $3,000 bring-in, playing $10,000-20,000, and Shulman enthusiastically said, "Now you're talking!" Heimiller led $210,000-$135,000, but Shulman seemed the more energized of the two.

Shulman continued his pattern of letting Heimiller push at the pot and then moving back at him only after the pot had grown to a reasonable size, and it kept working. It was during this surge that Shulman cracked his "three three's joke," and another time, when Shulman showed the 9d as the bring-in card, and stared across at Heimiller's ace, he took the $3,000 bring-in money and just tossed it into Heimiller's stack, a pretty funny non-verbal "don't even bother raising, just take it."

Shulman reached about $260,000 when the end came. Starting (A-6) 3, he didn't raise, but did bet when he caught a six on fourth street, and Heimiller, showing 2s-7s, called. Shulman caught another six on fifth street and check-called with his trip sixes when Heimiller caught the 8c. Shulman bet out on sixth street when he caught a deuce to give him a low draw to go with the trips, and Heimiller paused for a while to study the board, because he'd caught a possibly scary card, the Ks, for a third open spade.

He had only $40,000 left in front of him as he pondered the call, and decided instead to raise all-in. Shulman called instantly, and they turned the hands over. Heimiller moaned as he saw the trips, because he'd started (2-7) 2-7, and the trapper had become the trapped. A harmless nine fell on Heimiller's river, and gave Shulman the title, with son Jeff leaping into his arms for a big hug.

"I felt I had to change strategies on him, once we got heads-up," Shulman said. "My usual game is pretty aggressive, but Dan is even more aggressive, so I decided to hang back and play more passively, letting Dan create the action, and then pick up pots two bets at a time when I played back."

Even though he owns a leading poker magazine, Shulman didn't try to claim he'd outmaneuvered the entire field. "Winning this bracelet, I feel like I'm in the company of a lot of great players," he said. "I got lucky today, no question about it. I'm not in the league of the superstar players… yet! I plan on working diligently to get there."

It felt a little weird interviewing the boss (I write for Card Player, too). I guess the interview could have gone a lot worse. He could have said, "I owe it all to you and TJ Cloutier, Andy. I do everything TJ says and the opposite of everything you say."

Hmm, come to think of it, that might not be such a bad strategy. Maybe I'll buy in tomorrow and try it.

Final Official Results, $1,500 Seven-Card Stud Hi-Lo:

230 entrants, total prize pool $334,650

1. Barry Shulman $123,820
2. Dan Heimiller $63,580
3. Vince Burgio $31,785
4. Larry Bernstein $20,075
5. Wink $16,735
6. Mike Kreskanko $13,385
7. Bill Murphy $10,040
8. Marshall Ragir $7,030

9th-12th, $4,685 each: Phil Hellmuth, Jr., Richie Korbin, Charles, Andy Sacino.
13th-16th, $3,345 each: Bill Gazes, Paul Honus, Mike Sexton, Eugene Joseph DiPeppe, Jr.
17th-24th, $2,010 each: Earl Linzon, Chai To Shin, Luigi Grilla, Sean Miles Focher, Jonathan Brody, Jennifer Harman, William McKinney, Martin Appel.

POT LIMIT OMAHA FIELD LOOKING SCARY

It looks like they will go a little too late into the night for me to report on who qualifies for the final table in the Pot-Limit Omaha event that started today, but I just took a walk downstairs, and with two tables left, I only saw four faces I didn't know, with a bevy of poker superstars still left in the action. Looks like we should have some fun tomorrow afternoon. Guess I won't be buying into that S.H.O.E. event after all. Barring some major upsets, we will have a final table too good for me to miss. We might even get to see Johnny Chan and Erik Seidel reprise their scene from Rounders (although that moment came in Texas Hold'em… and Erik has gotten a might better since then!).

Andrew N.S. Glazer, Editor
Wednesday Nite Poker

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