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We started with an hour and twelve minutes left on the clock with $1,500-$3,000 blinds, meaning an opening raiser could making it anywhere from $6,000 to $10,500. An opening caller could of course come in for $3,000. Anytime you're playing pot-limit and you're not sure of the maximum opening raise, just multiply the small blind by seven. It's a nice little trick that saves a lot of time. We were happy to have Australian Bill "Crocodile" Argyros doing the day's guest announcing job, especially early on, because the Croc is an entertaining guy, and seeing as how the table's first 13 hands were the "bet and take it" variety (sticklers will insist one thriller had limp blind vs. blind with the win coming via a small bet on the flop), we needed all the jokes the Croc could manage. Sometimes final table play is mesmerizing. This was more like morpheusmerizing. SLOW START TURNS INTO FAST SECOND ACT There is a balance to the universe, though, and hand #14 made up for the dizzyingly slow start. With McDow holding the button, McIntosh limped in, as did Donev, the Austrian chess grandmaster who'd won a bracelet here in 2000. Donev couldn't have been feeling wonderful about his final table chances, though: he'd started Day Two as the chip leader, and by the time we'd whittled 17 players down to ten, Donev's stack was last and least among the survivors. The blinds came along for the ride, and so four players looked at a flop of Ah-4d-9c. Turrisi, an Italian who now calls Munich home, opened for 5k, with both Storaakers (a young Swede: once again, we had a very international final table) and McIntosh deciding to call. The 9s hit the turn, Turrisi checked, Storaakers bet 6k, McIntosh called, and Turrisi decided he didn't have enough of this board to keep playing. Little did he know how right he was. The Qh hit the river, Storaakers bet 20k, McIntosh moved the rest of his rather small stack all-in, and Storaakers had a trivially easy call for just a few thousand dollars, especially considering he had pocket fours for a full house. The only problem was that McIntosh had four nines. Storaakers had started the final table as chip leader, and that status was gone. A RAISE AFTER A BAD BEAT MEANS STEAM, RIGHT? On the very next hand, it looked like Storaakers might be steaming when he called "Syracuse" Chris Tsiprailidis' 8k bet before the flop, and then checked when the flop came Jd-7s-2c. Chris bet 11k, and Storaakers bet enough to move Chris all-in. Chris probably figured he was trailing with his 8h-7h, but the pot was large and Chris would have had only about 15k left if he let it go, so he called. Storaakers turned over pocket aces, not a bad hand to pick up right after everything saw you take a tough beat, and all was fine as the 10h hit the turn. The river brought Chris another eight, though, and his two pair took the pot, as a stunned Storaakers tried to regroup after two brutal beats had moved him from the chip lead to a mere 15k in two hands. Two hands later, Donev raised the maximum by shoving 10.5k in under the gun, only to see Vinas raise enough to put Donev all-in just as it looked like the early move might take the blinds. Vinas turned over pocket jacks, a hand that would play a pivotal role many times this day, and Donev showed pocket nines. The board missed everyone, and Ivo Donev was out tenth. Wasn't I just complaining about a boring start? The boys were now making up for it in a hurry. On the very next hand, Storaakers brought it in for 7k, "Syracuse" raised enough to put the short-stacked Swede all-in, and he called. Syracuse had "a Ferguson," A-9, but Storaakers didn't have "a Cloutier" (A-Q): he had pocket aces again, and this time they held up, getting Storaakers back into the game with about 30k. NOW THAT'S WHAT I CALL POKER The pace settled down a bit, but on hand #35, we got to see some real Maverick-style poker. Weiner limped in and Vinas played from the big blind. The flop was rather scary, Js-9s-9c, and both players checked. The Ac hit the turn, Weiner checked, Vinas bet 12k, and Weiner called. Just in case there weren't enough scare cards on the board already, the Jc hit the river, leaving each player staring at Js-9s-9c-Ac-Jc Weiner led out for 12k, and Vinas confidently raised him another 40k. As Weiner muttered something about how badly he had played the hand, he showed the A-10 he was throwing away, and then Vinas, a high stakes Houston player, just couldn't resist. He flipped over the 3h-4h, about as big a bluff as you could make in this situation. "I knew he couldn't call me without something huge," Vinas told me later. "The board was just too scary. It was a perfect opportunity." It was perfect enough that Vinas had fooled more than Weiner, me, and just about everyone else in the room. Co-Tournament Director Matt Savage whispered in my ear that he thought Vinas had A-J (not merely the jacks full of nines that any jack would have provided, but jacks full of aces). Vinas now held the chip lead, with my estimate at Storaakers, 46k Dobson, 27k McIntosh, 45k Weiner, 83k Vinas, 110k Tsiprailidis, 51k Waterman, 60k McDow, 38k Turrisi, 50k This chip count proved both useful and useless almost immediately, for starkly different reasons. First, on the very next hand, McIntosh, a burly 42 year-old from Baltimore who goes by "Big John," opened the pot with a raise to 9k. Tsiprailidis, whom I used to describe as a "burly mustachioed Greek" but whose diet and exercise regimen has put most poker players to shame and who therefore is now merely a mustachioed Greek, raised 19.5k more out of the big blind. McIntosh thought for more than a minute and then raised back the last 17k that Tsiprailidis had. Tsiprailidis called and turned over pocket jacks. "Big John" then showed us a big hand, K-K. The board missed everyone, and Tsiprailidis left the tournament area, only to be called back by the shouts of the players who realized Tsiprailidis probably had a few chips left: 5.5k, it turned out. SWAMI SEEKS TRUTH AND CASH SIMULTANEOUSLY Tsiprailidis immediately shoved those 5.5k all-in from the small blind, and Waterman, whose "Swami" nickname derives from his status as an honest-to-goodness seeker of higher truths, called from the big blind. Tsiprailidis turned over Ah-8h, and Waterman As-3s, but it just wasn't Tsiprailidis' day. The flop brought two spades and the turn a third, leaving Tsiprailidis drawing dead. I asked Waterman after the hand if he'd looked at his cards before he'd called, and as Dennis is one of those rare poker players who can actually be believed about statements he makes at the table, I believed him when he told me that "I was going to call him no matter what cards I had, but yes, I did look." By the way, seeking higher truths doesn't prevent success at games that mix chance and skill. Waterman was a world-class backgammon player in the early 1980s and has made the final table in 12 of the 16 pot-limit poker tournaments he's entered. A McIntosh raise took the blinds on the next hand, and we hit the break, and as the players left the table, tournament officials removed the $500 chips from play and sent in the thousands. IT WASN'T AS COMPLICATED AS THE FLORIDA PRESIDENTIAL VOTES, BUT... Remember that comment about my chip estimate being almost immediately "useful and useless?" It came into play when the players returned from break. Dobson looked at his stack and said that he'd been short-changed $10,000 somehow. This caused a bit of a stir, especially when someone said he had added all the chips on the table and they added up to the correct amount, $510,000. It appeared either that Ian Dobson had miscounted, or that tournament officials had, in the process of coloring up the chips, put $10,000 in the wrong stack. Some folks thought the chips had wrongly gone to McIntosh, but my anal-retentive recording of every hand showed that McIntosh had exactly the right number of chips he was supposed to have. I also supported Dobson's claim by showing officials the estimate I'd made just two hands earlier. I can miss by 10k when someone who has 110k turns out to have 120k, but I don't miss by 10k when it's the difference between 17k and 27k. Officials stopped play while they went to check the security cameras, and sure enough, Dobson and I were vindicated, and it turned out that the nameless (to protect the guilty) individual who had said the chips on the table BEFORE Dobson's 10k got added had been right had used an adding machine incorrectly. Bottom line: we all got everything worked out. The people who run the WSOP are (surprise!) human and so can make mistakes, but like smart humans they put in systems that provide backup. This meant that the new, improved with little green crystals, a lemon scent, and a golden drop of retsyn chip count was, as we started the round with $2,000-$4,000 blinds, was: Storaakers, 46k Dobson, 27k McIntosh, 97k Weiner, 50k Vinas, 146k Waterman, 60k McDow, 34k Turrisi, 50k Two hands into the new round, Waterman, who had been playing the cagey waiting game that the relatively low blind structure allowed, opened for 12k, but Storaakers raised 26k more, and Waterman let it go. Two hands after that, Waterman tried the same 12k raise, and this time got no callers, and he flipped over A-A. EINSTEIN, MEET THE CROCODILE "I was ready this time," the Oregon native said. Crocodile Bill, still doing his bit as announcer, added more than a joke when he said that "It's not when you find them (good hands), it's what you find them up against." Perhaps we can call this Crocodile's Theory of Relativity. Meanwhile, Dobson, who had nearly been the victim of the chip miscount, and Storaakers, who had been the victim of the two cruel bad beats early, started getting more aggressive and were picking up chips 6k at a time with uncontested raises, and sometimes more, like when Vinas opened a hand for 14k and Storaakers raised the pot without a call. The Swede who had been cut down to 15k after his two bad beats was back to 72k and playing great poker. On hand #55, Weiner made it 8k to go, and McDow re-raised 20k all-in from the small blind. Weiner had a pretty easy call with A-A against McDow's A-Q, and McDow exited eighth. Croc kept doing his bit as an announcer, noting that we were down to "The Magnificent Seven and Yul Brynner is still in." (Waterman is bald). I love those Aussies. I also love the wisecracking Amarillo Slim Preston, who ambled in just at this moment, and commented that "They got signs on the walls here, ‘English Spoken Only,' a jab at Croc's accent. Croc wasn't backing down. "We all love Slim," he said, "especially as he showed the girls in Australia such a good time." A BATTLE OF WITS WITH AMARILLO SLIM? FORGET IT. Slim just looked at the crowd and said "How'd you like to go in front of the Grand Jury with this guy?" I'm sure the situation has arisen for which Slim doesn't have a comeback, but I haven't heard it yet. Between all the wisecracking, Dobson kept increasing his stack a little at a time, growing bolder and bolder with his more frequent raises, and finally on hand #74, Waterman decided to call his raise to 10k from the big blind. Dobson just couldn't possibly have had as many hands as he was representing. Unfortunately for Dobson, this time, he did, sort of. The flop came Qs-Js-9d, Waterman bet out for 12k, and Dobson bet the pot. Waterman called, and each player had a real hand: K-Q for Dobson, but A-Q for Waterman. All the ground Dobson had made up in his chopping style had been lost with one stroke, and with a "Yeah, baby!" that proved even the evolved can get excited, Waterman took over the chip lead. HE GAVE UP A BIT TOO SOON On the very next hand, Vinas, whose stack had been slowly sliding since the electrifying 3-4 bluff, opened for a raise to 12k, and Turrisi moved all-in, a raise of 18k. Vinas called with Ac-3d, while Turrisi showed he'd taken his stand with Ah-4s, a confrontation that rated to split the pot about half the time, with Turrisi owning about a 5% edge. The odds swung just a tiny bit in Turrisi's favor when the first four cards off the deck were A-4-K-4, and Vinas mucked his hand, not realizing that despite Turrisi's full house, if the river card were to be the case ace, the duo would have split the pot, an option no longer possible now that Vinas had mucked. Fortunately for Vinas, the river card was a jack, and he didn't have to live out a nightmare of chips thrown away for no reason other than impatience...but the move was a sign of things to come. Four hands later, I made a chip estimate, which for the second consecutive time "meant" something weird was about to happen: Storaakers, 100k Dobson, 26k McIntosh, 50k Weiner, 70k Vinas, 88k Waterman, 106k Turrisi, 70k The very next hand, the two blinds, Weiner and Vinas, limped in, and saw a flop of 5h-7d-2s. Weiner checked, Vinas bet 8k, and Weiner called. The 7s hit the turn, and both players checked. The As hit the river, and Weiner bet 10k. Vinas studied for a while and decided to call. Weiner tapped the table with his cards, indicating that Vinas had made a good read and call, and Vinas flipped over his 8-2, a pair of deuces. Weiner was getting ready to muck his hand, but instead of throwing it into the muck, he flipped it up, to show the 4-6 he held, an open ended straight on the flop that had failed to get there. The only problem was, the four and six were both spades, which meant he'd made a backdoor flush and had never seen it, so busy had he been concentrating on the straight. THE PERFECT READ WAS PERFECTLY DISASTROUS It's a weird game, but it's a weird life. Vinas had made a "perfect read," only to be punished because the guy he was reading had misread his own hand. The streams of "sorry, sorry, sorry" from Weiner made it clear this wasn't some kind of slowroll, just an embarrassing error, and all Vinas could do was sigh and wish he wasn't as good at reading body language as he was. The accidental slowroll seemed to drain the energy from Vinas, and his chips started sliding from his pile. People came over the top of his raises, and he couldn't fight back. By hand #92, the former leader was down to about 50k when Storaakers opened with a raise to 10k, and Vinas raised the pot, 24k. Storaakers raised enough to put him all-in, and those black pocket jacks appeared again, this time in Storaakers's hand. Vinas had Ah-Kh. The first card off the deck was an ace as the flop came As-10c-10s. Storaakers was drawing close to dead, but the turn card, the Qs, lifted his hopes: now a king, a spade, or a jack would do it: two outs had turned into 13. But a harmless 9c hit the turn, and the formerly slumping Vinas now had about 100k, as well as better posture, while Storaakers was left trying to recover from another tough (albeit nowhere nearly as tough as the earlier ones) beat. We hit the dinner break a few hands later with the chip counts Storaakers, 50k Dobson, 40k McIntosh, 60k Weiner, 110k Vinas, 102k Waterman, 92k Turrisi, 56k Storaakers really showed he was made of stern stuff today. He raised the first pot after the dinner break (with the new blinds $3,000-$6,000), and Weiner, who'd been late getting back to the table to defend his big blind, had to wonder if Storaakers' raise had been based on a hand or a defenseless big blind. Weiner called, and they checked the hand down. A-K for Storaakers, A-9 for Weiner, and Storaakers was back in business. Four hands later, Vinas raised one to 21k, and Storaakers raised the full pot from the big blind. "Boy, that's a raise," said Vinas, letting his hand go, and after Storaakers raised the next pot without competition, he'd turned 50k into 128k in the span of six hands. DOBSON FINALLY ACQUIRES SOME AMMO Dobson, a well-known British star who'd come third in the Poker Million, had been navigating his way through a short stack for nearly the whole tournament when an odd hand came up on #107. Owning only 40k, he raised a pot to 20k, and Weiner raised him back 20k more from the button. Dobson was virtually pot committed and slid his other 20k in. Weiner showed A-J, Dobson 4-4, and when Dobson flopped a set, the dangerous Dobson suddenly had 89k. He turned around to discuss the hand with me. "What sort of play is it to raise me with A-J?" Dobson asked, "When I only have 20k left and must call? It doesn't make much sense." Seven hands later, Vinas' deterioration, momentarily halted when he'd hit his A-K, got back into full swing when McIntosh opened for 15k, Vinas raised 25k more, and McIntosh called. The heavy duty exchange left Vinas with 20k left and McIntosh 17k left, so I assumed that getting the rest of the money in was going to be a mere formality, with so much at stake. The flop came 7c-4c-Qs, Vinas checked, McIntosh bet his last 17k, and I just about fell off my chair when Vinas folded. He'd saved his last 20k, but to what end, I wasn't sure. VINAS LOSES, BUT STORAAKERS "LOSES" MORE The end, it turned out, came seven hands later, when Storaakers opened for a raise to 17k, Dobson raised 43k more, and despite this double showing of strength, Vinas called for his last 17k, probably figuring that he would only have to face Dobson. He was right about that, as Storaakers folded As-Qs, and Vinas showed his Ac-Js, while Dobson turned over pocket kings. The flop came 5s-2s-10s, the pink-cheeked Storaakers turned green, and no ace arrived to save Vinas, who exited seventh, while Storaakers, who'd certainly been right to fold into the strength of Dobson's raise and hand, could only be left to wonder what if he'd made the wrong move at the right time and flopped the nut flush. Weiner moved up the scale a bit when he did a nice job milking Waterman with his A-K on a K-4-K flop, but Waterman was still in the hunt at hand #129, when McIntosh limped for 6k, Weiner limped for 6k, and Turrisi saw a chance to try to steal some limp money, raising almost the full pot (a 24k raise would have been legal but Turrisi had enough only to raise 23k). McIntosh called with pocket sevens, and Turrisi was in big trouble with Ks-7s. The flop never came close, and Turrisi was out sixth, with the new chip count roughly Storaakers, 102k Dobson, 145k McIntosh, 138k Weiner, 82k Waterman, 43k Waterman fought the good fight for a long while, but on hand #151, he opened for 20k, Storaakers raised the 23k necessary to put him all-in, and Waterman called with that ever popular hand, pocket jacks. Storaakers had has As-Qs again, and while the 7d-9c-3d flop seemed harmless, the Qc hit the turn, and the likeable Oregon truthseeking logger was out fifth. A few hands later, we hit the break, with the blinds now $4,000-$8,000, and the chip counts Storaakers, 94k Dobson, 164k McIntosh, 111k Weiner, 141k A "TOURNAMENT HAND" Six hands into the new level, Dobson, who had survived so long with his short stack and finally found a way to take the lead, opened a pot with a raise to 20k. McIntosh decided to flat call from the button. The flop came 5d-7d-4s, and each player checked. The 10h hit the turn, Dobson bet 20k, and McIntosh raised a mammoth 72k more. When Dobson pushed all-in, McIntosh knew he was in trouble but had no choice at all: he had to call for the few chips he had left. Dobson turned over pocket jacks, and McIntosh turned over 8-9, an open-ended straight draw that he'd clearly hoped to win just with his bet. It was even worse than he could have expected, because two of the jacks that could have made his straight were in Dobson's hand. McIntosh had six outs. "Pair the board," Dobson muttered. "Just pair the board." The jack of diamonds fell on the river, certainly one of the most unlovely and unwanted sets Ian Dobson had ever made in his life, because the card gave McIntosh his straight and the chip lead. Dobson immediately doubled to 80k when McIntosh raised the next hand to 24k and Dobson went all-in for his last 40k, with his A-9 standing up against McIntosh's A-4, but it was clear the previous hand hadn't left Dobson's thoughts. "That was a tournament hand," he said. "That's the sort of hand that makes or breaks tournaments." Tournament hand or not, Dobson still had a chance a few hands later: Storaakers, 100k Dobson, 100k McIntosh, 210k Weiner, 100k The slugfest went on, but on hand #187, Storaakers opened for a raise to 18k, and McIntosh called. The flop came 3s-5h-7d, and McIntosh bet 40k. Storaakers moved all-in, a raise of only 12k, so once again McIntosh had no choice but to call for the size of the pot. Storaakers held 9-9, and McIntosh was again drawing with 8h-6s. When you're hot, you're hot. The 4s hit the turn, giving McIntosh his straight, and ending a very courageous and well-played day for young Johann Storaakers. The chips were now roughly Dobson, 104k McIntosh, 190k Weiner, 216k I was seated directly behind Dobson, and even though he was concentrating on the game, it was plain that the straight McIntosh had hit was still bothering him as the trio danced and jabbed through the next dozen or so hands. Then, on #200, Dobson made it 20k from the button, McIntosh raised it the maximum 48k more, and Dobson moved all-in, a raise of about 50k. McIntosh had gotten into position with drawing hands, but he wasn't drawing now. Those ubiquitous pocket jacks were in his hands, while Dobson held Ad-Jd. The board came 2h-2s-9s-5d-Js, Dobson was gone, and the two players I'd thought best of the final four were third and fourth. McIntosh started the heads-up battle with slightly less than a 2-1 chip lead. WEINER STARTS PLAYING "DARK BET" POKER AT AN ODD TIME If you've never played 20+ hours of high pressure poker in two days, you can't understand how the cumulative strain can make you do odd things. On hand #202, McIntosh called from the small blind on the button (SBB), Weiner raised 16k, and McIntosh called. Weiner then bet 20k in the dark, and the flop came Ks-7c-3d. McIntosh called. They checked the hand down the rest of the way as fours hit the turn and river, and Weiner turned over his pocket fives, but there was no Presto today: McIntosh turned over 7-9 Five hands later, Weiner decided to make another "bet in the dark play," this time limping in the dark from the SBB. McIntosh decided that with almost $90,000 in real money riding on the difference between first and second, he might do well to look at his cards before acting, and when he did, he raised 16k, with Weiner calling. The flop came 4s-5s-7d, and McIntosh bet the maximum, $48,000. Weiner moved all-in, a raise of about $54,000, and McIntosh called. McIntosh turned over Ad-7h, top pair top kicker, and Mel Weiner turned over his "dark" call hand, 3s-4h. It was top pair against middle pair, and Weiner picked up extra outs when the 2h hit the turn, giving him wins if an ace could hit the river. For what seems the umpteenth time in the last two WSOPs, the card that means "death" in so many non-poker games, the queen of spades, fell on the river, and "Big John" McIntosh was our champion. McIntosh has been playing poker for a long time, usually money games at the 20-40 level, but tournaments only for the last five years or so. I asked him what he wanted to list as his profession. He said he played a lot of poker. "Do you want to be listed as a poker pro?" I asked. "I think I was more of a poker bum," he said with a smile, "but maybe I can be more of a poker pro now." Unlike so many winners who, in the flush of victory, claim that they won because they outplayed their helpless opponents, John McIntosh was very real and very honest. "I didn't have a special game plan," he said. "This was my first final table ever at the WSOP, and I wanted to just see how things came together, and to learn, and I figured if I could catch some cards, I could win." One of John's catches will have Ian Dobson sleeping fitfully for a few nights, but if you want a game without luck, go play chess. McIntosh had a champion's courage and a champion's luck, and if, in his first ever go at a WSOP final table, he didn't outplay every single opponent, I think he can be forgiven, especially since he also displayed a champion's humility. Final Official Results, Event #21, $1,500 Pot-Limit Hold'em Total Entries: 340 Total Prize Pool: $479,400
11th-12th, $5,760 each: Bruce Van Horn, Dr. Max Stern. 13th-15th, $4,800 each: David Evans, Brian Decater, Ken "Skyhawk" Flaton. 16th-18th, $3,840 each: Minh Nguyen, David Chew (sic), Josh Arieh. 19th-27th, $2,880 each: Melissa Hayden, Danny Qatami, Randy Allen, Peter Vermaas, Bruce Atkinson, David Dodgion, Tom Cawley, Harry Demetriou, Larry Wright. Comments & ContactI love getting reader feedback and questions. Don't be shy about disagreeing with anything you read in Wednesday Nite Poker. If I decide you're right, readers will hear about it (with attribution or without, as you prefer); if you're wrong, you'll probably learn something important when you hear why you're wrong. Email me at: wednesdaynitepoker@casino.com If you would like to read previous issues of Wednesday Nite Poker you can find them here. Interested in advertising in this newsletter? Contact us at: ads@casino.com. Wednesday
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