Continued from Part One...
Antsy in Their Pantsy
If you’re a fan of male derrieres, then the WSOP bubble period is the place for you as numerous buttocks clench in unison, each one desperate to still be in the Amazon Room come money time. With 649 players under one roof, the task is a nightmare for tournament directors, and the process ultimately becomes a spectacle in itself as dealers rise from their seats one by one and big stacks suffer in silence as they wait patiently for the next hand to commence.
For some, the tension is too much to bear, and despite being asked not to, will leave their chairs to watch other tables, in the hope of witnessing the bubble burst. At one point, organisers threatened players with a time penalty, but their warning fell on stony ground – like excited children on Christmas Eve, they had ants in their pants, and simply couldn’t stay put. Right at the death, a showdown was announced on the microphone, and as the announcer reported that the short stack had aces against an inferior A-J, the entire room booed without a shed of remorse. When a jack hit the flop, boos turned into a mixture of ooohs and cheers, before being pursued by surreal chants of “Jack! Jack! Jack!” Remorse and courtesy go out of the window when there’s $21,365 up for grabs.
With a jack failing to arrive on that occasion, the bubble remained in tact. However, what many didn’t know was that Kia Hamadani had allowed himself to dribble down to one ante of 500 – a correct strategy for a short stack, despite it being paramount to holding up a white flag and conceding your chance of winning the bracelet. On his final hand, one player raised preflop with 9-3 before bluffing two opponents off a Q-Q-x flop, much to the uneducated disgruntlement of multiple railers. Hamadani had 4-3 and failed to improve, meaning he was the bubble, but, to the surprise of noone, the casualty one place prior – someone who we don’t even know the name of to forget in the first place – was the actual bubble, as Hamadani was brought on stage by Jeffrey Pollock, offered a bizarre “congratulations on being the bubble” before being promised a seat in next year’s Main Event. A consolation I imagine, but almost like the ball landing on green, and you getting half your money back.
Pass the Gag
If you could cut the tension with a knife during the bubble period, then toothpick would have done the job when the big bucks approached. One player who crumbled under the pressure and let rip was sugar passer and 2005 Champ Joe Hachem. During an impromptu interview with PokerListings and with a just a couple of hundred players remaining, Hachem ranted and raved unequivocally about the standard of play. “Until they grow up, and have a brain,” he blustered, “that this is a nine day tournament and you can't win it on any one day except the last day, then they can never win. These guys have no right being at the World Series. They should be playing $2 SNGs online.”
For a PokerStars sponsored player to, in effect, tell the clientele of the company he represents that they shouldn’t waste their time trying to qualify for the Main Event, was a faux-pas of epic proportions and one that he was later apologetic for – with sincerity or not is, of course, a matter of opinion – and the offending video was swiftly removed. Nevertheless, it proved that sometimes even ambassadors need a release of tension, and the WSOP Main Event is regarded with such prestige, that even former winners are as passionate about winning as everyone else. Naïve, perhaps imbecilic diatribe, certainly, but he’s not the only one guilty of losing the plot due to an opponent’s poor play. Still, what was he thinking! I play $2 SNGs.
Being Dennis Phillips
After his efforts were tarnished last year by jealous cries of “lucky fish”, Dennis Phillips returned this time around to prove he’s more than just a face by finishing a highly credible 45th for $178,857, just pipping reigning Champion – is he still reigning now he’s out? – Peter Eastgate who departed in 78th.
Accompanying Phillips to the Amazon Room were a long line of fans, all of whom arrived clad in typical Phillips attire. In fact, it was all rather surreal and reminded me of the film Being John Malkovich when John Cusak dipped into the mind of Malkovich. I wanted to chat with some of them, but was scared they’d just answer, “Phillips, Phillips, Phillips,” and freak me out.
Ivey League
One of the most astonishing facts about November’s final is that even if Phil Ivey wins the Main Event, and thus his third bracelet of the Series, he still won’t have done enough to warrant the title of Player of the Year due to Jeff Lisandro having cashed an extra couple of times. Obviously, the skewed points system doesn’t account for field sizes, meaning that ploughing through a field of 6,000 plus equates to the same level of achievement as overcoming a couple of hundred pensioners in a Draw event. Then again, I doubt Ivey cares.
There’s no doubt that Ivey’s in a league of his own. Speak to anyone who crosses his path, and they’ll concur that he is a fearsome competitor who possesses an unnerving air of ‘don’t mess me or else…’ about him. Even FullFlush is in awe of him.
Bin There, Done That
Jeff Shulman may have cashed 14 times in the World Series and final tabled the Main Event in 2000 – the year, incidentally, when Chris Ferguson snapped up the title – but this didn’t stop him renouncing the WSOP bracelet, claiming that if he were to make the final table – which indeed he did – he would promptly throw the shiny, wrist bling into the garbage. The reason? As CardPlayer editor, Shulman feels besmirched by Harrah’s for selling exclusive rights of the WSOP coverage, thus shunning the other media outlets, and is generally unhappy with how the World Series has been run in recent years. A fair gripe and, to an extent, justifiably sour grapes, but does this explain his participation, and thus support/endorsement, of the event, and in what way would spitting on the bracelet benefit the world of poker? It reminds me of when wrestlers take a WWE belt and publicly throw it in the trashcan on a competitor’s show, except this is real and with no spandex in sight!