2002 WSOP $2,000 Buy-in Limit Hold'em
"It's
a Long Way from Over, Baby"
By Andrew N.S. Glazer
The 33rd Annual World Series of Poker kicked off with
an action-packed, big money event today...except that it sort of
also kicked off yesterday, and depending on your interpretation
might have kicked of the day before yesterday, or about a week ago.
Those voting for "a week ago" are including the new World Series
of Gin and World Series of Hearts tournaments held earlier this
week. Me, I thought this was the World Series of Poker, so I stayed
away until they started playing poker.
Those voting for the "day before yesterday" want to include the
$500 buy-in "Casino Employees" event: after all, it is poker, and
it does come with a bracelet. To me, though, any event that excludes
98% of the world's best players isn't really a WSOP event...even
though the fellow who finished third in that event, long-time dealer
Mike Majerus, also made the final table here today.
Those who want to vote for "Yesterday" not only have on of my favorite
Paul McCartney tunes going for them, they also have the day when
610 optimists put up Two Large each to enter the $2,000 buy-in Limit
Hold'em Championship.
I'm voting for today, though, because today is when the first big
money got handed out, and is when we had our first tension-filled
final table...even though we didn't have it quite the way we've
had them in the past.
FINAL TABLES ARE THE NEXT DAY, SORT OF
In previous years, the WSOP has played down to a final table on
Day One of each event (other than the Championship), and then brought
the eight (for stud games) or nine (for flop games) finalists back
at 4:00 p.m. the next day. Everyone who was to have trouble sleeping
could at least know that he or she was a WSOP final tablist.
A lot has changed at this year's World Series, and that tradition
is one of them, because now tournament officials are only going
to play a certain number of levels/hours the first day, and if a
final table hasn't been decided yet, those players who remain come
back at 2:00 p.m.
Fourteen players braved the first day storm, and it took about 45
minutes to knock that group down to ten, who then took the stage
in the final table arena. Whether this means that an appearance
at this final table by the player who finished 10th will
count as a final table appearance in the record books, no one can
yet say. I guess with the number of other uncertainties surrounding
the 2002 WSOP, "no one can yet say" is a phrase bound to get a lot
of usage this year.
Just before 3:00 p.m., we set the final ten, whose seat and chip
positions were:
Seat Player Chips
1 Peter Costa $37,000
2 Laura Chao $18,000
3 Mike Majerus $250,000
4 David Chiu $135,000
5 Svetoslav Nechev $121,000
6 Nevio Nicholich $80,000
7 T.J. Cloutier $180,000
8 Ram Vaswani $126,000
9 Huck Seed $151,000
10 Jerry Stensrud $127,000
Majerus was on a big roll getting to the final table, with the twelve
grand he'd won for coming third in the Casino Employees event three
times as much as he'd ever won in a poker tournament before, and
he started in at the final table using the same style that had been
working the past couple of days: raise, raise, raise, push, push,
push, and for a while, with the opening blinds at $2,000-$4,000,
playing 4&8, it worked quite nicely, as he built his stack up
over 300k while the other players looked somewhere else for a fight.
Eventually, though, Majerus found someone willing to fight, and
had the misfortune to hold A-Q in a Q-rag-rag-rag-rag-rag board
when another optimist held K-Q and Jerry Stensrud held K-K. The
120k pot shot Stensrud up near the chip lead.
Although Laura Chao had come to the final table lowest in chips,
she remained patient and looked for spots to get her last precious
few chips in well, and was still hanging in when Nevio Nicholich
got low and entered a hand by calling for $4,000 of his remaining
$5,000, holding A-Q. He got four callers and an optimal looking
flop of Qs-3d-10c, flung his last $1,000 in, and not surprisingly
got four more callers at this bargain price.
OH, SO THAT'S WHY THEY CHECK DOWN AN ALL-IN PLAYER!
The 5d hit the turn, and everyone checked, and the Qd hit the river.
Nevio's cup runneth over, it would appear, except Stensrud suddenly
stopped checking and fired $8,000 at the pot. Everyone else folded
and Stensrud turned over his 4d-7d, a runner-runner flush that was
as excellent example of why good tournament players often check-down
an all-in player, giving everyone the maximum chance of hitting
some miracle to beat him. The unwanted third queen sent Nicholich
out 10th.
With everyone now guaranteed at least $4,500 more in prize money,
to say nothing of a little more room to spread out, Phil Hellmuth
stopped by the final table to tell me that if T.J. Cloutier finished
seventh or higher, he'd pass Hellmuth for the all-time WSOP money
lead. Given Cloutier's typically patient play, this seemed like
a lock, and Phil wanted to be there to pass the baton.
The clock went off, moving us up to blinds of $3,000-$6,000, playing
6&12. This didn't leave Peter Costa and his remaining $8,000
much time to make a move, and on the second hand at this new level,
Vaswani, a British star whom was being routed on fervently by several
members of Britain's famed "Hendon Mob" (no hooliganism, though)
made it $12,000 to go, Costa decided to give it a go with pocket
nines, calling all-in. Everyone else folded and Vaswani turned over
A-10. Costa dodged the first four bullets, but a ten hit the river,
and Costa was out ninth.
WORLD CHAMP DUELS TOC CHAMP
1996 World Champion Huck Seed had started the final table above
par, but got hurt badly on what may or may not have been a big draw
out by 1999 Tournament of Champions winner Chiu. The duo raised
and re-raised each other until they had four bets in each before
the flop, and when the flop came a harmless looking 7h-7s-2d, Huck
bet out, with Chiu calling, a scenario repeated for $12,000 when
the 3h hit the turn. Another relatively safe looking card hit the
river, the 10s, and Seed led out again. Chiu raised it to $24,000,
and staring at the $129,000 already in the pot, Seed had little
choice but to call.
Chui turned over pocket tens, a full house made on the river, and
Seed mucked without showing, so we'll never know for sure. Seed
is an aggressive player, capable of making a play like this with
eights or nines, but it seems more likely that Chiu's tens had run
down a bigger pocket pair.
Seed had only about 50k left, and looked like he might be in trouble
on the very next hand, a battle of the blinds, when the flop came
A-2-3, Vaswani bet out 6k, and Huck called. A four came off on the
turn, Vaswani bet again, and Seed make it 24k to go. Vaswani decided
to call. When an eight hit the river, Seed bet straight out, and
Vaswani, who apparently had been thinking Seed was tilting and trying
to take advantage, decided he couldn't call. Seed had only about
15k left in front of him after he made the final bet, but this pot
got him right back in the game. If it was a bluff, it was a magnificent
one, although Vaswani's unwillingness to pop Seed back on the turn
or call on the river suggests Seed might have been bluffing with
the best hand.
A little while later Chao, who had continued to nurse her short
stack back to health, had 49k in front of her when she made it $12,000
under the gun. The ever-aggressive Majerus three-bet the hand, and
everyone else got out of the way.
The flop came 7s-Ad-7h, Chao checked, Majerus bet, and Chao called.
Majerus could so predictably be expected to start the action that
I had a feeling Chao was springing a trap. The 2h hit the turn,
Chao checked, Majerus bet, and Chao made it $24,000, with Majerus
only calling even though Chao had only a single $1,000 chip in front
of her.
A third seven hit the river, Chao tossed her final chip into the
pot, and Majerus called. A-K for Chao, A-Q for Majerus, who had
earned a split when the final seven hit, cost Chao a chance to move
over 100k.
SOME EMPATHY FROM A CHAMPION
"That's brutal," muttered an empathetic Seed.
We had another brutal moment only a few hands later, when Cloutier
and Vaswani hooked up on a multiple raise hand with Cloutier holding
Q-Q and Vaswani K-K. With no scary cards ever hitting the 6-7-2-7-5
board, the hand cost Cloutier close to the maximum, and I wondered
for a moment if Hellmuth was going to escape with his money lead
intact, until I checked out Cloutier's stack. He still had 142k
in front of him, which meant the money title was almost certain
to move. Of course, had the previous hand been Q-Q vs. J-J, it might
have been certain to move a lot.
The imminence of a new Eminence grew close shortly thereafter, when
Chao raised a hand to 12k and the ever-raising Majerus made it 18k.
Chao called, and we looked at a Jd-10h-8h flop. Chao checked and
called the predictable Majerus bet. Both players checked when the
9h hit the turn, and Chao checked again when a fourth heart, the
2h, hit the river. Majerus bet, and that aggressive style of his
earned him a call. He turned over Ah-Ks, an ace-high flush, and
Chao had only 9k left.
Six of that nine thousand immediately had to go into the pot as
the big blind, and I assumed Chao would call any raise blind, but
when Majerus made it 12k under the gun, no one decided to call,
including Chao, who now had exactly enough left to post the small
blind. Hellmuth, sensing the passing of his title, decided to take
the microphone to announce the tournament to the packed crowd.
With no other truly short stacks, Chao's fold seemed like an odd
decision, but it paid off, at least temporarily, when Chao survived
Vaswani's raise on the next hand. Majerus didn't play along, and
Chao's A-8 held up against Vaswani's Q-10. Chao had inched back
to 9k, but was still in trouble with the next two short stacks near
70k. Meanwhile, Hellmuth continued announcing.
A few hands later, Chao tossed her remaining 9k all-in, and Seed,
who already had 6k in the big blind, called the other 3k without
bothering to look. It turned out to be a pretty good no-peek hand:
pocket nines. Hellmuth smiled as he realized that the hand that
had given him his 1989 World Championship was probably about to
give his money lead to Cloutier, and shook his head with even more
irony when he saw that Chao held A-7 suited, the very same hand
Johnny Chan had held against those two nines.
IT WAS FUN WHILE IT LASTED
The nines held up, and Chao was out eighth. "Congratulations, T.J.,"
Hellmuth announced, "It's not over yet, though, baby," he added
with a good natured smile, as he handed the microphone back to Co-Tournament
Director Matt Savage, and went to shake his respected friend and
rival's hand. "Thanks, T.J.," he said, smiling. "I held onto the
lead for exactly one whole tournament."
Usually I like to count and record every hand at the final table,
even if (thank goodness) I don't report them all, but there was
so much activity surrounding this star-studded final field, and
so little room to work, that I didn't have a good chance until after
Cloutier had regained the money crown. The hand numbers you'll see
from this point forward start at exactly that point, as does this
chip approximation:
Majerus, $370,000
Chiu, $170,000
Nechev, $90,000
Cloutier, $82,000
Vaswani, $180,000
Seed, $85,000
Stensrud, $170,000
Nechev, a Swede, hadn't been too active, and one of the ways he
was expressing his displeasure with the relatively small number
of good hands he'd been dealt was by consistently leaving his chips
in a completely unstacked mess, not only making it impossible to
estimate his chip count with any accuracy but also making it difficult
for him to count out bets. Nonetheless, on the third hand after
The Coronation, he found himself counting out quite a few.
A HEAP OF CHIPS LEADS TO A HEAP OF TROUBLE
Cloutier held the button. Majerus opened the hand with a raise to
$12,000, Nechev called, and Seed called from the big blind, giving
us a $39,000 pot. The flop came 9s-6h-2h, Seed checked, Majerus
bet, Nechev made it $12,000, and both opponents called, moving the
pot up to a tasty $75,000.
The Jc hit the turn, and everyone checked to Nechev, who, picking
his chips up in twos and threes and haphazardly tossing them into
the pot, bet $12,000, and again got two callers in what was now
a $111,000 pot. The 10h hit the river, and Seed bet straight out,
with Majerus calling. Nechev gave it up, as surely one of his callers
had made a flush, perhaps both, but instead, each player turned
over 7-8, an open-ended straight draw that had arrived on the river,
and they chopped up Nechev's chips. Nechev decided to stack what
he had left, a little under 60k, as the "jumbled pile theory" had
been disproved.
Two hands later, Chiu, who had been relatively quiet (action-wise:
NO one at this table was doing any talking, with Seed's quiet "that's
brutal" about the only comment of consequence that hadn't come from
the rail), opened a hand to 12k, and Majerus, who must have defended
his big blind 80% of the time this day, called from that spot.
The flop came Qc-2d-4h, and Majerus checked. Chiu stared at the
board a long time, long enough so that a whiff of something fishy
started coming my way, and finally he pounded the table and said
"Deal!"
The 2s came off on the turn, and Majerus bet out for $12,000. Chiu
looked skyward with a combination of disgust, anger, and reluctance,
but somehow found the strength to call. At this point I was positive
he had pocket queens and had flopped a set. The 8h hit the river,
Majerus bet out again, and here came the raise to $24,000, which
Majerus called.
So much for being positive about Chiu's hand: It wasn't Q-Q, it
was K-K, and the three-time bracelet winner (including one in this
event in 1996) now had some ammunition.
Meanwhile, Nechev's luck was running out quickly. He'd lost $24,000
the very next hand after losing the big split hand to Seed and Majerus,
and lost another $18,000 right after Chiu's attempt for an Academy
Award. With Majerus holding the button on the hand after that, Cloutier
opened for $12,000 under the gun, and Nechev decided to defend his
big blind with what we later found out was 10s-9s.
ALERT THE MEDIA, TJ FINALLY RIVERED SOMEONE
When the flop came 7d-6s-Ks, Nechev bet out, and who could blame
him, with both a flush draw and a gutshot for a straight? Cloutier
called. The 10h hit the turn, keeping Nechev's draws alive but also
giving him a pair, so he bet again, and Cloutier, who saw that Nechev
only had 5k left in front of him, called again. A jack hit the river,
Nechev tossed his last five grand out there, and Cloutier had a
pretty easy call with A-J. Perhaps Cloutier would have called the
turn anyway, given that he figured to have good winning chances
with an ace, jack, or queen, but knowing both that he had a desperate
opponent and that he would only have to face a 5k bet on the end
made it easier. Nechev was out.
T.J. Cloutier didn't know it at the time, but his lucky river card
was to be his last piece of good luck for a while. They played another
dozen hands until the clock hit, and Cloutier's stack shrank steadily
in the waning moments before the move to $5,000-$10,000 blinds,
playing 10&20.
They took all the thousand dollar chips off the table, and for the
first time in a while (I've never seen a final table where the participants
kept their stacks in more uneven, difficult to count amounts), we
could get an accurate count with the $5,000 chips:
Majerus, $390,000
Chiu, $235,000
Cloutier, $45,000
Vaswani, $125,000
Seed, $165,000
Stensrud, $260,000
It was 5:20 p.m. when the players returned from their break, and
by 5:22 p.m., Huck Seed's chances for winning this tournament had
taken a very bad turn.
With Chiu holding the button, Huck made it 20k to go, and Vaswani
called from the big blind. The flop came 10h-8h-5c, and Vaswani
checked and called when Seed bet. The 4c hit the turn, Vaswani checked,
Seed bet, and Vaswani made it 40k. Seed called, and called another
20k when Vaswani bet straight out after the 7s hit the river.
Vaswani turned over 4-5 offsuit for two pair, and Seed mucked in
disgust, the hand costing him $90,000 and leaving him in bad shape
at such high betting limits.
Ten hands later, another tiny hand played a mighty role. With Stensrud
holding the button, Cloutier opened with a raise to 20k, and Majerus,
staying with form, defended his big blind. The flop came Ah-6c-4d,
Majerus bet out, Cloutier raised to 20k, and Majerus called. The
3s hit the turn, Majerus checked, Cloutier bet twenty of his last
thirty thousand, and Majerus called again. The lowly 5c hit the
river, and Majerus bet T.J.'s last 10k.
Cloutier called, and Majerus turned over his 6-5, a second pair
on the river that ran down Cloutier's A-8. The man who is now not
only the WSOP's all-time leading money winner but also tournament
poker's all-time leading money winner was out sixth.
Five hands later, Seed, whose small stack had taken another hit
from Vaswani two hands after Cloutier busted out, tossed his last
15k in, and both blinds (Chiu and Vaswani) called the small wager.
I was expecting a check-down, but when the flop came 3-10-K, Chiu
bet and Vaswani folded. Chiu turned over K-J, and Seed showed his
A-5. No saving graces or miraculous aces for Huck, and he was out
fifth.
THAT RELAXING FEELING...
I don't know about you, but if I'd been sitting amongst those final
four remaining players, the comforting thought that Huck Seed and
T.J. Cloutier had just been knocked out within minutes of one another
might have given me a little adrenaline boost. (Of course, for me
to have been sitting there, I would have had to have finished about
500 spots higher than I did, but those bad beat stories will have
to wait for another millennium).
The game stayed four-handed for another full 65 hands, as the chips
ebbed and flowed as regularly as the tides. If you got short on
chips, you won; if you started to pull ahead, you lost. Someone
would pull ahead, and the next moment you looked, everyone was right
near 300k again.
Actually, only Chiu and Vaswani were ever in much danger, at least
for the first 50 hands or so. Each got short a couple times and
each made some plays that befitted their lofty reputations. Vaswani
got the deepest into danger when on hand #66 (31st of
the four-handed play), he raised it to 20k, only to see both blinds
call. The flop came 10h-9d-2c, Stensrud bet straight out, Majerus
folded, and Vaswani raised it to 20k, with Stensrud calling. The
7c hit the turn, Stensrud checked, Vaswani bet another 20k (leaving
him with only 15k in front of him), and Stensrud decided to let
it go.
Five hands later, Vaswani had made it back to that par 300k mark,
but the pressure that he kept applying—he and Majerus were
clearly the two most aggressive of the four during the long four-handed
stretch—started to backfire, and once again he found himself
short, down near 100k, when he made one of those "Is it live, or
is it Memorex" (excuse me, I mean, "Was it a great read, or was
it desperation") calls that everyone present will remember for a
long time.
Vaswani made it 20k to go from the button, and both blinds called.
The flop came Js-6s-3d, and everyone checked. The 7c hit the turn,
Stensrud bet out, and both Majerus and Vaswani called. A second
jack, the Jc, hit the river, Stensrud bet out again, Majerus called,
and in the mother of all overcalls, Vaswani called also. Stensrud
showed us 6-4, for second pair on the flop, and Majerus mucked what
must have been something like A-3.
Vaswani turned over Q-7 and dragged the 180k pot.
A little while later, the clock went off, signaling an increase
in the blinds to $10,000-$15,000, playing 15&30, with a chip
count of
Majerus, $425,000
Chiu, $315,000
Vaswani, $300,000
Stensrud, $180,000
You haven't seen Stensrud's name mentioned as often as the other
players, primarily because he wasn't involved in as many wild, speculative
pots. The Commerce Casino executive played a pretty steady, solid
game, very clearly not intimidated either by the reputations of
two of his opponents or the incessant pressure of the third.
A SLIP AT THE HIGH LIMITS IS LIKE A SLIP OFF A HIGH MOUNTAIN
Nonetheless, right after the break, Stensrud's ability to steer
clear from disastrous pots deserted him. Vaswani made it 30k from
the button, and both blinds called. The flop came Ac-4c-8h, Stensrud
checked, Majerus bet, and both opponents called. The Qh hit the
turn, again Stensrud checked, and again Majerus bet, This time,
only Stensrud called, and he check-called when the Jd hit the river,
too. Majerus turned over Q-8, two pair, and took down the $255,000
pot.
We never saw Stensrud's hand, but he'd come in second at a very
bad time, and had only 70k left. He lost 25k of that to the blinds,
and the final 45k on hand #101, when Vaswani raised from the small
blind and Stensrud called. Vaswani bet Stensrud's last 10k blind,
and the flop came 2-6-7. Stensrud saw little purpose in continuing
with 10k against such huge stacks, and called. K-8 for Stensrud,
K-6 (a pair of sixes he'd hit with that dark bet) for Vaswani, and
when the last two cards didn't help, we were three-handed.
Majerus, $550,000
Chiu, $270,000
Vaswani, $400,000
PITCHER TURNED CATCHER TURNS BIG HITTER
Three-handed, some traits and tendencies that had become fairly
pronounced in the four-handed game grew even more prominent. Were
we playing baseball, Majerus would have been the catcher, because
he was involved in just about every play, defended his turf, and,
well, did a lot of catching, albeit cards rather than baseballs.
Vaswani was the pitcher, because he was the aggressor, trying to
overpower his opponents. Chiu would have been the hitter, the guy
who didn't do too much until he caught hold of one big one and WHAM,
he'd win a big pot.
The only flaw in this little metaphor is that Majerus was the real
pitcher: he's a dealer who travels the tournament circuit, pitching
cards at players for a living. The real life pitcher was indeed
catching a lot of cards, though, and inflicted some big hits on
his opponents, although he couldn't do it every time.
Nine hands into the threesome's play, Majerus made it 30k from the
button, and Chiu called from the small blind. The flop came 10d-9d-2c,
and Chiu check-called. The turn brought the Jd, an official scare
card, and Chiu check-called again. The 7c hit the river, again Chiu
checked, again Majerus bet, and Chiu thought a long time again,
looking about as agonized as he had way back when he was going for
Best Actor with those pocket kings, except this time it was pretty
clear the agony was real.
Chiu finally tossed a 30k call into the pot, and his agony turned
to ecstasy when Majerus tapped the table with his cards in a way
that rather eerily reminded me of the way Chiu had tapped the table
with his pocket kings when he folded to Louis Asmo's aces in the
'99 TOC. Chiu's tap then had meant "I salute your good hand" and
Majerus's tap here meant "I salute your good call," because he knew
he couldn't win if called, and sure enough, Chiu's pair of sevens
with Ad-7s was good.
Majerus lost the next pot, too, and with Vaswani's stack approaching
700k and Chiu's at about 350k, Majerus was suddenly the low man.
It looked for all the world like the umpteen hours of poker he had
played the last three days had finally caught up with him...and
then he started catching like a combination of Johnny Bench and
Willie Mays (yes, I know Willie played the outfield, but he made
an awful lot of good catches).
AND THE GOLD GLOVE GOES TO...
On hand #118, he caught an ace on the flop on a hand that Vaswani
refused to stop pushing.
On hand #119, he tried to limp in from the button with 7-5, had
to call a Vaswani raise, and then caught two pair when the flop
came 8-7-5.
On hand #121 (an actual pause for a breath) he caught on that Vaswani
hit about 500 feet, because Vaswani made it 30k from the button,
Majerus called, then check-called the 10-5-4 flop, bet straight
out when another five hit the turn, only to get raised by Vaswani,
and again he called. An eight hit the river, Majerus bet again,
Vaswani raised again, and Majerus just called. "Just" calling sounds
like a good idea, when you learn that Vaswani held A-5, trips with
top kicker. Majerus turned over 6-7, an open-ended straight draw
that got there on the river.
Now that's what I call catching.
Four hands later, I found out I had a lot to learn about catching,
because Majerus made it 30k from the button, and Vaswani called.
The flop came 8c-6c-5c, Vaswani checked, Majerus bet, and Vaswani
called. The 10s hit the turn, Vaswani checked, Majerus bet, Vaswani
made it 60k, and Majerus re-raised to 90k. As he made that big bet,
his hand trembled so much I knew for a certainty he'd flopped a
flush (of course, I'd known Chiu had Q-Q when he actually had K-K,
so I could've been wrong).
Vaswani didn't have very far he could go. He only had 55k left.
He called the re-raise, and then when the 3h hit the river, he bet
out his last 25k, hoping against hope either that Majerus had been
bluffing and that his own hand was good. Majerus called quickly.
Majerus turned over Qc-7c. Not only had he flopped a flush, he'd
flopped an open-ended straight flush draw. Vaswani had A-8, and
suddenly we were two-handed.
With the chips almost exactly 2-1 in Majerus's favor (815k-405k),
the two players decided to take a quick break. There was a two hundred
grand difference between first and second, and even with that big
chip lead, Majerus was a poker dealer who'd been planning on looking
for a regular job only a week before. He was still facing money
pressure, even with 206k in real money locked up, and I thought
he might offer Chiu a deal on favorable terms.
They came back after about five minutes, and the word was, no deal.
Just before they started play, Majerus apparently improved his offer,
but Chiu shook his head "no." Chiu won a small hand, and Majerus
improved the offer again. First was to pay $407,120, second $206,420.
How about, Majerus asked, if they took $100,000 out of the difference
and gave $40,000 to Chiu and $60,000 to Majerus (3-2 on the money
when the chips were still nearly 2-1: clear respect for Chiu's ability).
WHAT'S THE DEAL ON DEALS?
In the event you're new to tournament poker, "deals" aren't cheating
or in any way improper. The players are playing on their own money,
not a sponsor's, and sometimes just want to reduce fluctuation.
If you were someone who made $40,000 a year and suddenly found yourself
gambling for $200,000 on the turn of a few cards, you might be interested
in reducing your fluctuation, too. Deals will have to go if ever
there is corporate sponsorship or live TV, but as long as poker
is a player's game rather than a spectator's game, they're ethical.
Chiu finally nodded in agreement, and boy, was he ever glad, because
if he thought Majerus had been catching before....
It only took ten hands, and the details aren't too relevant. He
flopped whatever he needed until Chiu was desperately short, and
managed to win one tiny pot. Fittingly, the final hand came when
Chiu made a blind call from the small blind on the button, putting
20k on it instead of the mandatory 15k. Chiu drew Qh-6d, and Majerus
8s-6c. Majerus was dead to an eight or some quirky hand. He caught
both: an eight on the flop, and eventually four spades for a flush.
The poker dealer whose previously biggest score was (by a factor
of three) the twelve grand he made two days ago had made almost
four hundred thousand dollars.
I asked him what he planned to do.
A CHANGE IN CAREER PLANS
"I WAS looking for a full time job, but you can tell people the
emphasis is on the WAS," Majerus said.
"Are you going to deal anymore?" I wanted to know.
"I'm done dealing," the Ottawa, Illinois native said.
I was still trying to get some broader answer out of him, so I tried
one more time. "So what are you going to do, play poker professionally,
travel, retire?"
"Yes," he said, answering three questions simultaneously, and so
I turned the ship on another tack.
"What was it like, playing against all these superstars?" I wanted
to know. "Were you intimidated at all?"
"No," Majerus said. "I've always felt like I could play just as
well as the Seeds, the Chius, the Vaswanis, but I've never had the
money to play the events like they do. They play a lot more than
I do, so they win a lot more than I do. Maybe that will change now."
As for Chiu, he was philosophical in defeat.
"There can be a lot of skill in heads-up play," Chiu said, "but
there isn't so much at this high a blind level, certainly not enough
to matter if one player gets hot and the other player can't make
a hand. It's OK. I've had days when I've been hot, too."
I know that anyone who reads this is going to get a pretty strong
feeling that I interpreted play at the final table to boil down
to something like "Decent poker player gets incredibly hot at right
time, wins tournament," and perhaps that I haven't given Majerus
enough credit for his play. The reality is that someone has to make
hands during a poker tournament and it isn't a crime for the underdog
to be the one to do it. He applied a lot of pressure, so much so
that when he did catch cards it was hard for his opponents to give
him the credit for big hands he might otherwise have gotten, and
took the best possible route to victory that a player with his credentials
probably could have taken.
Besides, the WSOP has just begun. The pros will have their chances.
There's nothing wrong with an amateur hitting a few cards to win
a tournament. If it couldn't happen, we wouldn't have had 610 entries
yesterday.
The 2002 WSOP got a nice, dramatic start, and I guess I'm not the
only one who's glad that "it's a long way from over, baby."
Final Official Results, $2,000 Limit Hold'em
610 entries, prize pool $1,146,800
- Mike
Majerus, $407,120
- David
Chiu, $206,420
- Ram
Vaswani, $98,620
- Jerry
Stensrud, $58,480
- Huck
Seed, $45,880
- T.J.
Cloutier, $34,400
- Svetoslav
Nechev, $28,660
- Laura
Chao, $22,940
- Peter
Costa, $17,200
10th-12th, $12,720 each: Nevio Nicholich,
Henry Nguyen, Paul Kim.
13th-15th, $10,320 each: Tim Leung, Jennifer
Traniello, David Plastik.
16th-18th, $8,020 each: John Pires (2nd
place finisher in this event last year), Andrew Smycznski, Chris
Tsiprailidis.
19th-27th, $6,880 each: Shengtao Gan, Scott
Brayer, Samuel Arzoin, Jesse Daniel, JoAnne Bortner, Danny Allgood,
Robert Williams, Oules Martine, Brandon Wong.
28th-36th, $4,580 each: Anthony Tran, Charlie
Brahmi, Greg Wynn, Allen Cunningham, Vince Caluino, Mark Lange,
Roger Tanabe, Larry Weinberg, Robert Turner.
37th-45th, $3,440 each: Ken Lim, James Roush,
Young Phan, C.A, Zdangwich, Clandie Mikessill, Cyndi Graflund, Don
Zewin, Diego Cordovez, "Miami" John Cernuto.
NOTE: Tomorrow's report on the Omaha eight-or-better event
that started today will be brought to you by longtime Poker Digest
writer Lee Munzer, so that your friendly reporter can try his luck
in the $2,000 no-limit hold'em event!
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