Continued from WSOPE: Side Events...
Alive & Kicking
It’s been several weeks since the completion of this year’s World Series of Poker Europe, but, for me, it’s worthy of looking back and reflecting on what was an epic Main Event. Every year I fear the festival will fizzle out, destined to be drowned by its Vegas shadow as the novelty inevitably wears off. Fortunately, the WSOP’s younger brother may not possess the glitz and glamour of its sibling, but it’s a fighter, and continues to keep its head well above water. I often thought that the mammoth buy-in and pound-for-pound toughness of the field would see numbers plummet, but its perhaps this factor that keeps the event in the public’s eye. It’s almost a best of the best, and, as a result, has become second only to the WSOP Main Event in terms of prestige. Poker players are peculiar beings: pride often comes before sensibility, and for the sensible man, participation in the WSOPE Main Event would surely be a minus EV play.
It’s not just the WSOPE that possesses the survival know-how of Ray Mears, but also one of its players: the legendary Doyle Brunson. It was only a year previous when I saw him take a tumble in the centre of the Empire Casino. I held my breath intently as I pondered whether or not I was witnessing the final moments of poker’s most iconic figure. At the very least, it was surely a sign that he was on a slippery slope. How wrong I was, as in 2009, he managed to finish a highly credible 17th place for £31,198, an incredible achievement for a man approaching his 80s. Take a look at some old Late Night Poker tapes: how many of those faces survived? How many of them have managed to adjust to the modern game? How many of them are playing in some of the biggest games available? Doyle is, and despite his doubters – he was voted 16th most likely to die in 2009 – appears to be set on continuing his rampage well into 2010.
Fail, He11muth
I always look forward to Phil Hellmuth’s entrance, if only because he arrives alongside enough bosomous delight to have kept the Titanic from sinking. This time, however, I had my reservations as despite the norkalicious eye candy on display, originality was severely lacking with He11muth simply echoing his Vegas outing and arriving dressed head to toe in Romanesque garb. Fortunately, there was a saving grace that spared us from a yawn-fest: He11muth’s stupidity.
Emerging from the distance, He11muth arrived in a chariot, but when his Roman taxi reached Leicester Square, it was brought to a halt by the bollards at the entrance as no vehicles are allowed in without permission from the council. Thus, He11muth alighted his chariot and was forced to walk the rest of the way. Then, as he tried to enter the venue, he was stopped at the door by the manager who told him that the young ladies couldn't come in because they didn't have I.D. Resisting entrance tilt, He11muth accepted the decision, and after much faffing around, finally entered the arena with a depleted entourage and a head held not quite as high.
Upon taking his seat at the televised table, I couldn’t help but notice Doyle’s look of disgruntlement, as if to say, “What ever happened to this game?” But Doyle’s sense of besmirching wasn’t quite as amusing as the elderly lady outside who approached the procession with puzzlement before exclaiming, “Who is that man?!” She wasn’t alone in her ignorance: “Is he a celebrity,” asked another. “I don’t recognise him.” In fact, few people in Leicester Square that day knew who Phil He11muth was, despite his 11 bracelets. It just goes to show how niche our industry is and how someone we deem famous, really isn’t famous at all.
Munns the Word
Remember Mystic Meg on the lottery? Yeah, I could have done that. In fact, if Mr Lottery had been at the Empire Casino last September, he would have hired me on the spot because at the end of Day Two, when unknown entity Ian Munns had twice as many chips as his nearest competitor, I correctly predicted that he wouldn’t even make the money. Oh how they laughed.
With a monstrous 528,300 – and second placed Praz Bansi over 225,000 behind with 299,000 – Munns looked to have a final table seat sewn up. All he had to do was, well, not turn up until the final. But despite his lead, Munns somehow squandered a commanding position to hit the deck (ironically, seeing it was the deck that had hit him) just a few places prior to the cash. “Where’s Ian Munns?” asked a curious reporter. “He’s out,” answered another. “Whaaaaat?!” came the shocked reply, “He had more chips than Harry Ramsden’s!”
The explanation for his descent remains hazy. From my perspective, and considering neither myself or anyone else had ever heard or seen him before, he didn’t seem like someone who’d be locking up and playing a tight game. Then again, poker’s a game of deception and mystery, and he could have simply been a very good player who got desperately unlucky. I like the Mystic Meg idea better though.
Men-y Complaints
A slight lack of organisation and more dwelling than the final question of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire brought an excruciatingly lengthy hand-for-hand spell that made for frustrating viewing. During one of these tense moments, sparks threatened to fly on one of the upper-deck tables as Men Nguyen made unprovoked accusations against Daniel Negreanu. “Rules are always being changed because of you, Daniel,” started Nguyen. “When you say it, they do. It’s a 60-minute clock, you say 90 and they’ll change it. You told them to change the ‘show one show all’ rule, and they did it. They changed the rule just because of you.”
Apparently, the altercation had derived from Nguyen asking the dealer to drop the deck rather than keeping it placed in the palm of his hand, and his request falling on somewhat stony ground. But however it started, Negreanu later claimed in a post on Two Plus Two that it was nothing of note and that he remains good friends with Nguyen. But as William Blake once said, “Thy friendship oft has made my heart to ache: do be my enemy for friendship's sake,” and having made the money, Negreanu coolered Nguyen out the next day in 26th place.
Make Mine a Double
Last year, Ivan Demidov was showered with praise for reaching both the WSOP and WSOPE final tables, yet this time around, his spotlight was dimmed by the near-equally remarkable performances of James Akenhead and Antoine Saout who repeated the Russian’s double with seemingly considerable ease.
A surprisingly impressive Teddy Sheringham (yes, a celebrity who can play!) may have just missed out, but regardless, the last table standing remained a feast of familiar faces with Daniel Negreanu making his second consecutive WSOPE final. Meanwhile, recent PokerStars acquisition Jason Mercier seemed to be proving theories that he is running better than all the Gods combined and adds invincibility stars to his morning cereal: the American held the chip lead with 1,398,000, whilst Hit Squadder Praz Bansi lay in second with 1,160,000.
The eventual winner was someone nobody predicted for victory: Barry Shulman. An epic see-saw battle with Daniel Negreanu had bloggers sweating profusely, but although play bowled into the very early hours of the morning, it eventually came to a close when Shulman’s tens held up against Kid Poker’s pocket fours. The consensually agreed ‘hand of the day’, however, emerged moments before, Negreanu all in with Q-J versus A-A on a 5-8-J flop, spiking a jack on the turn, but succumbing to a dramatic bullet on the river. As my better and more attractive half commented, “The noise was deafening.” Negreanu may have got it in bad, but on the turn, he just needed to avoid two cards to bag himself a Main Event bracelet. It doesn’t come much closer than that.
Shulman may be a dead ringer for Bill Clinton – and thus the first ever WSOPE winning American president lookalikey – but what was perhaps most spooky was that he was part of yet another double having echoed son Jeff’s superb Vegas achievement. As the summer drew to a close, Jeff famously threatened to “throw the bracelet in the trash” if he’d won in November. Would Barry embrace this sentiment? Well, I checked the bins and couldn’t find anything. I’m sure Hel1muth would made the interception though.