Some Stars Shine, Others Fade, as Long Night Ends With Survivors in Daze

Most seasoned professional poker players will tell you that if they're not going to make the money in the World Series of Poker Championship Event, they'd just as soon lose during the first few hours than late on Day Three, because the players who go out "on the bubble" will have worked for three days for nothing.

Most of the players who say that are lying.

From an hourly wage standpoint, they're certainly telling the truth, but great poker players have a lot of pride, and even though it hurts like hell to play for three days and wind up with a $10,000 loss rather than a $10,000 profit, outlasting more than 550 of the world's best poker players not only feels like an accomplishment, it provides two of a poker player's dreams: a good "bad beat" story, and a chance, indirectly, to brag.

"I played in the 2001 World Series of Poker Championship Event, I outlasted 568 players, and I didn't make a nickel."

ON THE LIST OF AWARD'S WE'D RATHER NOT WIN…

The winner of this year's "Most Work for the Least Pay" award is Diego Cordovez, the same man who knocked out TJ Cloutier and Annie Duke within three hands on Day One. Cordovez wasn't playing just to survive into the money. He made a play that gave him a chance to pick up some chips, raising his last $28,500 with ace-queen offsuit, only to run into Richie Korbin's call with pocket queens.

With the hour approaching 1:00 a.m., the board came down 5-6-K-8-5, and our long day's journey into night still hadn't quite ended. We were in the middle of a long hand-for-hand duel, and over at Table 61, Mike May had pushed all-in for his last $21,000 in first position. If any of the players behind him had found a big hand and decided to play along, May and Cordovez would have been eliminated simultaneously, with Cordovez awarded 45th place based on having started the hand with more chips than May.

Each of May's opponents gave it his best "To Tell the Truth" (remember, the old game show where everyone would bluff like he was about to stand up, then sit down again?) fake, acting like he was going to call, and then smiling as he tossed his hand in. When Jim Bechtel released his big blind hand, we were done. May had a $20,000 payday, a "chip and a chair" chance to go for the big money, and we had 44 other tired, triumphant, and exhilarated poker players, each of whom now must, as I sit writing this, figure out how to get some sleep before one of the biggest days of their poker careers.

ANOTHER LONG ONE TOMORROW

Day Four figures to be another long day, too, even though we will probably lose some of the shorter stacks quickly as they try to double up, and even though we only have to play down to nine players, instead of the traditional six.

How hard is it to get into the money at The Big One? Only two of the 45 Year 2001 survivors also made the money in 2000, Mike Sexton and Barney Boatman, and neither of them made the 2000 final table. Sexton does have a pretty good streak going, though. He's entered the Big One ten times and has made the money in six of them, although he's never made it to the final table.

A chip lead on Day Two is no guarantee, either. Of the five players who had the most chips at the end of Day Two, only one, Mel Weiner, remains in the hunt, and he has fewer chips now than when the day started.

With 613 players starting, and $6,130,000 in chips in play, an average stack heading into tomorrow is $136,222, but there are a few players who will be starting off a little more comfortably than that when everyone returns at noon to play with $2,000-4,000 blinds and $1,000 antes.

THE LEADER, BUT NOT QUITE IN THE CLUBHOUSE, IS…

Our chip leader is Henry Nowakowski, with $351,000, and right behind him are Stan Schrier with $337,500 and Phil Hellmuth, Jr. with $310,500.

I'm tempted to save the player chip counts and new seats for the end of the article, but too many of you would skip down to the end and read "whodunit" first, so let's get right down to business, and then I'll back up and tell you some of the interesting tales of triumph and tragedy that came down in the course of today's 13-hour battle.

An "average" table would have $1,226,000 in chips.

Total Chips at table: $1,001,000.

Analysis: Daniel Negreanu catches a fairly major break, landing at a short-chipped table, and holding position on the other strongest player at the table, David Pham. Daniel plays a lot of pots, and depending on how willing the short stacks are to gamble with him, he could take over very quickly, or get into trouble quickly. The other "big" stack at the table (although only slightly above the par figure of $136,222) is Chris Bjorin, a very tough, seasoned tournament veteran.

Total chips at table: $1,445,000.

Analysis: Probably the toughest of the five tables, because it is filled with extremely strong and experienced players in Gazes, D, Baxter, Bechtel, Boatman and Esposito, with Gordon and Korbin only a quarter of a notch below that group. The only player at the entire table who doesn't have a big tournament reputation (yet) is Stan Schrier, a Las Vegas middle-limit (30-60, 50-100) player, and he comes in as the heavyweight with $337,500. Schrier has had big stacks at the end of both Days Two and Three, and hasn't gotten out of line either time, leading me to think he won't blow off chips easily, even though he's drawn an extremely tough line-up, most of whom will probably figure that he is their best chance to garner chips.

It will be interesting to watch the vultures circle his stack. Bechtel, a former World Champion, played short most of the day and finally got hold of some chips late, and he will be extremely dangerous, as will Tony D, a high limit player who won't be feeling any money pressure.

Total chips at table: $875,500.

Analysis: Another very chip-light table, with lots of small stacks. Mortensen is a real rising star, and Sexton an experienced veteran. At other tables, their stacks would put them at a disadvantage, but at this table, they have enough chips to play. Thomas is a very solid veteran, but is short-chipped even in this crowd. Inashima and Brenes both have strong reputations, but very different styles, Inashima being known for fairly tight, conservative play. The stack sizes here are so small, compared to the amount of money it will cost to sit out a round ($15,000), that any player who can either catch some early cards or seize the early initiative could have his way.

Total chips at table: $1,536,000

Analysis: You don't need a whole lot in the way of breaks when you're Phil Hellmuth and you have the third largest stack in the tournament, but Hellmuth catches a tough one with Nowakowski, the chip leader and a fearless player who won't hesitate to play back at Phil if he thinks Phil is trying to steal pots holding position on him. Katz is a super money player who doesn't have a lot of tournament experience, but his success in side action probably means he won't be feeling money pressure here.

McKelvey and Hellmuth were tablemates all day long today, so each already has a pretty good line on how the other is playing, but McKelvey, a very strong player, will start low on ammo. When he tried to grab some very late in the day today, Hellmuth came over the top of him twice. Now the positional roles are reversed. If Nowakowski doesn't give Hellmuth trouble, Hellmuth could accumulate a lot more chips, but that's a big if.

Total chips at table: $1,277,000.

Analysis: Table 64 is the only one where the chips add up to a total very close to what an average table should have, and the three big stars here, Song, Cunningham, and Matusow, all have enough chips to play ball. Cunningham and Matusow are both playing very well right now, and Matusow's positional edge will make it difficult for Cunningham, but nothing fazes Allen Cunningham. If Cunningham wins, he'll become the youngest player to take the title, edging out Phil Hellmuth's record by a few months.

All of this positional and table analysis can go out the window fairly quickly as tables break or players get moved, but based on the chips counts, what I can see of positional advantages, and my takes on the abilities of the players left, I'll predict a final table of Hellmuth, Nowakowski, Cunningham, Matusow, Negreanu, Bechtel, D, Pham, and (to include one short stack) Mortensen. The quite possible chance that I've analyzed this all incorrectly aside, strange things can happen in a hurry, and I'll probably be lucky to get three of the nine right, but that's who looks good to me right now.

WHAT A LONG, STRANGE TRIP IT WAS

More than a few players were, understandably enough, feeling jitters when the day began, and when you combine that with some of the short stack owners' desires to grab hold of some chips quickly, it was easy to understand why we'd busted enough players to break a full table only half an hour into the day's action. Galen Kester was an early casualty, starting the day with $100,300 and busting out in eight hands, losing half of his stack right out of the box when somehow he got $50,000 in before the flop with J-9 offsuit.

Hasan Habib, another of the Day Two chip leaders, and the only player to make the final table at both the WSOP Championship Event and the Tournament of Champions in 2000, took an early big hit when he played his K-K for only a moderate pre-flop raise, letting Nowakowski in cheap enough to play his 5-5, and they got all the money in when a five hit the flop. Habib was left with only about $20,000 after the hand, while Nowakowski quickly jumped near the chip lead.

"HOUSTON, WE HAVE A PROBLEM"

Nowakowski couldn't grab the chip lead, though, because the original leader, "Houston" Sammy Farha, who is more of a money pot-limit and no-limit specialist than a tournament specialist, started stacking chips into mountainous piles early on. He reached a high water mark of about $340,000 fairly early in the day, but lost $95,000 of them when he took pocket kings up against pocket aces, and his stack rose and fell much more likely a money player's than a tournament player's throughout the day. He wound up not making the money, while Steve Guiberson, who started the day with only $9,100, did.

Hellmuth's table started out tough and got tougher in a hurry, a perfect example of the "slaying the Hydra" problem I discussed in yesterday's story. They lost Lindsay Jones and in came Tony D. Then Ray Zananiri departed, and in came the great Padraig Parkinson to replace him. "Nice table here," Parkinson said of the line-up he saw waiting (which also included Negreanu and McKelvey), "there'll be a bloodletting before it's through. I think I'd bet this table to be stronger than the final table is, in fact I think I'd bet it that way and lay the -120," he said with a laugh.

BETTER CHANGE THAT BETTING LINE TO -140

The line-up got tougher still when Paul Phillips got shipped in at about 4:00, when we were down to 90 players, and when we added Phillips' chatter to the white noise coming from pals Hellmuth and Negreanu, we had a lot of what southern boys might call "speechifying" going on before, during, and after the hands.

Parkinson is one of poker's funniest players in addition to being one of its best, but aside from the occasional one-liner he stayed fairly quiet, and as the Irish star collected one pot he bought with a raise, he said in that brogue of his that marks him for his homeland within ten words, "I was going to make a speech, but I've forgotten it. I'll be reminded soon. I know the first two words will be 'god damn,'" and everyone cracked up.

Meanwhile, quite another story was building right next door, as actor Wilford Brimley had built his starting stack of $33,600 into something approaching $170,000. Brimley picked up most of his chips in a big pot with Schrier, but lost them back when he took Q-Q up against Schrier's Ac-8c, and the flop came 8s-6c-3c, giving Schrier top pair, top kicker, and the nut flush draw.

They got all the money in on the flop, and Schrier immediately spiked an ace on the turn, knocking Brimley back down to about $35,000, and Schrier collected the rest of that a few hands later when his J-J held up against Brimley's Ah-Kh.

MIXED EMOTIONS ABOUT BRIMLEY'S DEPARTURE

I'd only met Schrier the day before, and as he came introduced as a friend of a someone else I'd met here whose family I've been close with for years, I'd taken a quick liking to him, so it was with mixed emotions that I saw him send Brimley out of the tournament, because if Brimley had somehow made it to the final table, media coverage of the finale would probably increased by an order of magnitude, and that would've been good for poker. Not only that, Brimley seemed like a very nice guy himself, putting on no airs and just having a grand old time.

The only celebrities left in the tournament are poker celebrities, and those will have to do.

Nervous tension can run pretty high when a chance for glory is nearing, and Gus Echaverri got hit with a double dose in the middle of the day. With $40,000 already in a pot against Bill Gazes, and the board showing 3-J-4-5, a deuce hit the river, and Echaverri got so excited about spiking the card that turned his As-8s into a straight, he just turned his hand over before betting.

NO EXPOSING YOURSELF ALLOWED

In the World Series, you're not allowed to expose cards at any point of a hand while there is still action left to be taken, and so under WSOP rules, this totally unintentional error called for an automatic 20-minute penalty, but tournament assistant Tom Elias ruled that the hand could still play, that is, it was still live for the pot, and that with his cards in full view, Echaverri could bet or check.

Undoubtedly flustered by both the premature hand exposure and the notice that he'd be receiving a penalty, Echaverri made what could have been a huge mistake. Once told he could still act on his hand, he said, "In that case, I go all-in." He did, after all, have a powerful hand, a straight.

There was only one problem: because his hand was right there in Gazes' sight, the all-in bet had no upside. If Gazes couldn't tie or beat a wheel, he would fold. If he could tie it, he'd certainly call, and if he had a six in his hand, he would have had the easiest double up in poker tournament history. "Now that's what I call a freeroll," Gazes told me.

Fortunately for Echaverri, Gazes held A-J, and so he simply called and they split the pot. Echaverri's error might, under other circumstances, have handed Gazes a huge pile of chips, but as it was, Gazes' pair of jacks had been counterfeited by the baby straight the deuce gave both players.

BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR, YOU MIGHT GET IT

Most people dream about catching lots of pocket aces in a big tournament, but dreams sometimes turn into nightmares.

A great many people here have been rooting for Paul Phillips to do well, because he had some trying times at the start of the tournament. He didn't catch much of a break getting moved into the Hellmuth-Negreanu-D-Parkinson "Table of Doom," but Paul Phillips has got plenty of game, and while he probably would have preferred an easier table, he wasn't intimidated, either. He steadily increased his chip count, despite the rough company, and then took two almost unbelievably tough beats on consecutive hands.

The first beat was tolerable, because he took his A-A up against Dietrich's 9-9 when Dietrich was relatively short stacked, a nine hit the flop when the money had all gone in pre-flop, so the beat didn't cost Phillips too many chips, and the end came quickly.

IF YOU THOUGHT THAT ONE WAS BAD

On the very next hand, though, Rafael Fursi made it $7,000 to go, and Tony D, who'd been an active raiser ever since joining the table, moved all-in. Phillips moved all-in from the small blind, Fursi got the heck out of the way, and they turned them over: J-J for Tony, A-A again for Phillips, and the first four cards were as innocent and harmless looking as they could be. No chances for a weird straight or flush. Phillips was all set to take a tough opponent out of the tournament and collect his last $72,700, in addition to all the money already in the pot.

One of the two remaining jacks in the deck fell on the river, giving Tony a set, and demolishing Phillips' stack (the fourth time that a jack on the river has ironed out pocket aces in exactly the same way in this tournament). He had about $40,000 left, after getting two big hands where his opponents also had big hands, and he got action with the best of it. He should have had well over $200,000, and instead, he was left trying to recover his composure.

PHILLIPS IMRESSES EVERYONE IN HANDLING ADVERSITY

He did a magnificent job of it, too, because he didn't yell, exclaim, explode or indeed do anything other than say, "That's poker." Hellmuth was impressed by Phillips' calm demeanor, indeed grabbing the microphone from Tournament Director Bob Thompson to tell the crowd how well Phillips had taken the two cruel blows, and then, the microphone safely back in Thompson's hands, showed a little Poker Brat self-awareness by telling the table, his voice dripping with sarcasm, "Yeah, I'm sure I would've handled those two beats exactly the same way."

A few minutes later, he called an all-in raise by the short-stacked Parkinson, who turned over 10-10. Phillips showed Ah-Jh. This was your basic coin flip hand, and even though the board teased him by coming 2-Q-9-K, giving him outs on the end to an ace, a jack, or a ten, a harmless eight fell on the river.

Phillips had $8,000 left. He managed to double up once, but Negreanu's pocket jacks finished him off a few minutes later, and he departed to one of the bigger ovations we've seen or heard here at the World Series.

WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH…

By 11:30 p.m., we only had four players left to eliminate, but the tournament took on the kind of "ground war" status that we had in the Presidential elections in Florida. No one wanted to go out so close to the money, and the players divided themselves into two camps, those who were trying to survive, and those who were trying to take advantage of survival mode to gobble up chips in an effort to take control for tomorrow.

One by one they fell, first Hertzel Zaleweski, then Barry Greenstein, then Jacob Horowitz, and then, finally, after a dozen hands of six-table hand-for-hand war that took nearly an hour, Diego Cordovez.

With all the players who finish 37th-45th scheduled to receive the same $20,000, we're done with hand-for-hand play for a while, but we've got a ground war the rest of the way, a continued battle against the Hydra where the replacement player for the head you've cut off will likely be a stronger player who has a bigger stack, about as bad a double-headed monster as you can face. By the time you read my next report, we'll have nine players left, and two of them will leave the WSOP with million dollar plus profits.

It sure is a hard way to make an easy living.

Andrew N.S. Glazer, Editor
Wednesday Nite Poker

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