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Jesse May in
Las Vegas |
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T-2 (fantasy line-up)
You can’t overestimate the
positive effect of the structure changes at this year’s World Series of
Poker. Tournaments have been accelerated at the beginning and slowed down at
the end, a seemingly simple move, but I see it as both a major force in
ensuring that the World Series of Poker remains the most prestigious poker
tournament in the world, and the move that proves that tournament poker has the
right to be considered as viable a competitive sport as any in the world,
perhaps even more so. Why? Well, now the cream is really rising.
Anybody who suspects that the supremacy of the brand names in this
year’s WSOP is a statistical anomaly is paying no attention at all. Better
players are dominating for one reason only, because now you have to play better
to win. A whole lot better. While it used to be common for final tables to be
described as crapshoots galore, this year they have been long, drawn, and
grueling. Anybody who took a bracelet in 2003 should be considered nothing but
world champion, and judging by the crowds who are showing up to watch, I’m
not alone in this feeling. It’s tournament poker.
Take the final
table for yesterday’s $3000 no limit Hold’em event, which read like a
poker fan’s fantasy of who he’d like to see tangle it up. Phil
Hellmuth, Erik Seidel, and Daniel Negreanu were chip leaders 1-2-3. Jay
Heimowitz, Tony Ma, Mark Seif, and the low profile Al Stonum all fighting like
dogs. And three other players who could become heroes or goats. Anyone
who’s ever picked up Cardplayer would want to see this one play out, and
if they had had cameras under the table they could have charged your right arm
and left leg to watch. I’d have lopped mine off in a second. What was
played out yesterday was at the highest level of tournament poker, and two
hands I watched during the first hour of play for me made the whole thing
worthwhile.
It was chip leader Phil, the small blind in an unraised pot
with Mark Seif and Curt Kohlberg. After the flop came down rainbow, k-7-3, Phil
cold called 17,000, a 14,000 Kohlberg raise of Seif’s 3000 tester. Seif
folded up shop and an ace hit the turn. Phil checked again and went into pose
one, out of his chair, towering over the table in his gold rimmed sunglasses,
and staring right down at Kohlberg, who was suddenly moving in slow motion and
looking very small. After an eternity of shuffles and chip counts, Kohlberg
sticks 25,000 more into the pot and Phil calls immediately, sitting back down
and splashing five brown chips. When the river card paired the three Phil got
out of his seat while checking again. Kohlberg is shrinking, small and weak in
that bad dream slow motion where you watch your hands move and are powerless to
stop them. Kohlberg thinks for an eternity before finally announcing check in a
clear voice, the first decisive move he’s made the whole hand. Like he was
scared to tap the table check, scared if he moved his hands he would push them
all in. Phil turned over a king-jack, and it was plenty good, and I just loved
the hand. Kohlberg had sunk in over half his stack, 42,000 trying to win a
fourteen thousand dollar pot with what had to have been no hand at all.
Hellmuth was simple and perfect, it was so strong it was scary. That’s a
Hellmuth hand.
Exactly one round later, Hellmuth is in the small blind
again. Folded around to Seidel who raises to twelve, the first raise he’s
made since he flipped up pocket kings on the very first hand. Phil re-raises
Erik to 40 grand straight. And Hellmuth stands up, staring down on the top of
Seidel’s head, the chip leader taking on the second big stack. Erik Seidel
waits in his dark purple shirt, so mild mannered that he hid behind the rail
when the players were introduced. Seidel waits, staring into Hellmuth’s
stomach, staring at the dealer and scratching his chin before fingering down a
large stack of blue and announcing call with his hands in the pot. The flop
came down 9-8-4, and Phil Hellmuth fires 40,000 more before going into pose
two, hunkered over the table with hand over mouth. After an eternity, a sigh,
some resignation and a scratch of the chin, I can’t imagine there was
anybody who knew what Erik would do. He put two hands in the pot and looked
like a call before announcing, “Raise. The minimum. 40,000 more.” And
within seven seconds after that moment Hellmuth’s cards were in the muck.
Phil went into his shell, head in his hands and looking straight down. Seidel
was mild like milquetoast and his questions were polite, but it felt every bit
as strong. That’s a Seidel hand.
Maybe the two hands were dry as
crackers, maybe. I was thinking they were hands that could have been played
with one million nuances and a thousand variations. But only one path was
perfect. And these are two players who draw perfection out of the mud. Strange
brands of perfection, but there all the same. And I love it when I feel I have
a whole lot to learn.
$3,000 No Limit Holdem Details
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