Continued from Day Two...
Day One Report
Day Three was being labelled as a chance for durrrr to recapture some of his losses, to start filling the gaping financial chasms left by Isildur and finish the Challenge on a commanding note. However, many of those who were writing off Sammy George had never met or seen the larger-than-life Londoner, nor played a single hand with him in order to draw their premature conclusions. Sammy will readily confess that he wasn’t an expert from the off, and that he did indeed enter the game with a ready-made bankroll, but he’s an enthusiastic learner with a passion for poker, and has thus improved his game to an immeasurable extent. “He’s a difficult player to play against,” commented Neil Channing, who has played more hands than most with Sammy. “He plays an aggressive, unpredictable game where he overbets a lot of pots. There’s no doubt that he puts pressure on people; he could cause durrrr a lot of problems.”
From my perspective – and despite the progress he has made with his game - if Sammy wanted to win this encounter, he had a decision to make: does he ‘go for it’ and risk busting early, or secure himself some TV time but increase his chances of losing? It was a tricky dilemma, but one he needed to confront. The Full Tilt sponsorship means a lot to Sammy, and as a proud man, he doesn’t want to be seen on TV doing his bollocks within five minutes. On the flipside, playing small ball poker would give him a good chance of making the 500 hands, but perhaps decrease his chances of winning due to durrrr’s vast experience advantage and incredible meta-game skills. I couldn’t help but feel that as each hand passed, durrrr would become more of a favourite, and it was for this reason that I hoped Sammy would attack early doors.
Coincidentally, if someone had bashed the fire alarm after the first period of play, then Sammy would have been crowned champion as he grasped the early lead by $100,000. At this point, Sammy – sharply dressed and boasting a recently grown head of hair – was in jovial mood, enjoying his time in the spotlight and loving every single minute. “Can I cash out now?” he joked with a trademark grin. “Shall we play the 7-2 rule?” he suggested, eager to give both himself and viewers something else to munch on. “Sure, why not?” replied durrrr. “If you win with 7-2, you get $10,000, except if someone just folds straight away.” Within just a few minutes, Sammy raised with 7-2 and durrrr folded for $10,000. Durrrr then got jiggy with 7-2 himself, and although he made a pair, was ultimately bluffed off the river by Sammy’s missed gutshot draw. “So sick,” sighed durrrr as Sammy revealed the bluff. “I knew this was a bad idea against you.”
Matchroom director Eddie Hearn was watching from the sidelines as the biggest crowd (although still small) of the week was lured in by Sammy’s natural born charisma. “I knew I should have sold tickets to this one,” he smiled. Eddie’s a nice, friendly chap, a real Essex lad, well dressed and brimming confidence. He has a certain charm that likely makes him a hit with the ladies. If we ever headed out on the pull together, I think I’d be lumbered with “the friend”. Having learned from the best – father and promoter Barry – Eddie has taken Matchroom to great heights through a combination of hard work and innovative ideas, and I’m always interesting to hear what he has to say about televised poker. “Not all our viewers will know who durrrr is, but it’s the concept that attracts them: one guy playing three other pros for a million dollars. It’s an easy sell. The Omaha match was probably ahead of its time, but audiences have matured. I reckon only two percent used to be truly knowledgeable about the game, but viewers are more educated now and it’s probably closer to twenty percent.”
Perhaps one unfortunate circumstance for Sammy was that durrrr had arrived a fresh man. The day prior he could barely keep his eyes open and was injected with 14 cans of Red Bull to stop him from drifting off into a deep slumber. On this day, he still bore bags under his eyes, but was perkier and a lot more sociable. The topic of conversation seemed to revolve around food, with Sammy desperate to get in an order with local Japanese restaurant Nobu. “I’ll order the starters, you choose the main,” suggested Sammy. “OK,” started durrrr. “I want a bunch of salmon, some cucumber, and spicy tuna.” All that money and they order the basics. Tutt.
In recent times, Sammy and durrrr have become good friends, but with so much on the line, the mood was destined to change. With durrrr having clawed his way back to even, we experienced a sudden preflop all-in encounter. In what was a rapid-fire sequence of events, the action went: durrrr raise, Sammy reraise, durrrr 30,000, Sammy 113,000, durrrr all-in, Sammy call, and we had a showdown, durrrr in dominating shape with Ac-Ad versus As-Ks. A 5h-7s-6h-8h-Th board later and durrrr had doubled through to just under $500,000. I didn’t think much of it at the time, but I later informed myself: “You do realise you witnessed a half million pot, that durrrr just won one of the biggest ever live pots. Why has your jaw not dropped? It would take you 15 years to earn that amount, and that’s excluding tax!” I wondered if I would have been more aghast if it had been banknotes surfing the felt, but probably not. It just showed he influence of someone’s reaction. If durrrr had fist-pump-chair-swivelled and roared with delight as a crowd of fans engulfed him, then it would have felt like a half a million pot, but as it was, he just shrugged, agreed that it was a bit of a cooler and waited patiently for Sammy to rebuy.
Sammy had told me prior to kick-off that there were no limits to how many times they could refill, and, if they wanted to, they could rebuy for $500,000. This, along with a proposed 6am finish, hinted at the possibility of some gargantuan pots, possibly record-breakers, and later in the day, we were a gnat’s pubic hair away from hitting that magical one million mark. Ironically, it was the 7-2 that would come back to haunt him. Having made two pair with Ad-6c on a Jh-Ah-6h-3c-3d board, durrrr moved all in for 400,000 on a stonecold bluff with 7s-2h. Sammy dwelled for longer than Rodin’s ‘The Thinker’ before eventually folding, and a relieved durrrr snapped up the pot and the additional $10,000. It wasn’t a turning point in the game, but it could have been for Sammy. Instead, he seemed demoralised, and it was possibly for this reason that he was never quite able to recover.
“I made a pretty questionable flop call which I kind of regret, it was probably bad even with the $10,000 bonus in the 7-2 game,” durrrr later told Full Tilt/Matchroom. “Once Sammy checked the turn I had to bet in my mind as I thought I was going to win a lot of the time. On the river I might have given up but on the board-pairing river I think it was an easy shove as it’s so believable that I have a full house there and Sammy has a tough call with any hand. He rarely has a full house and it’s likely he just has aces or something like that, so I really like my shove on the river and fortunately Sammy didn’t make the hero call. It would have been an absurd call and luckily for me he didn’t make it – I was pretty worried for a while that he was going to make it but thankfully it worked out.”
As the game progressed, the clientele changed slightly as various known poker players, and one celebrity, arrived for ‘The Big Game’, one of London’s largest cash games that many of the pros would give their left testicle to play. Catman and Catwoman also made appearance at one stage – the latter sadly sans catsuit or all-over body suit – and I quickly found myself immersed in a conversation with Catman. I sensed his confidence had been dented over the criticism of his durrrr interview, and he was quick to self-deprecate. I assured him that his Andrew Feldman interview was a lot better – which it was – and that, whilst it was certainly messy in parts, his durrrr encounter was at least entertaining. Catman’s an interesting character, if only because he calls himself Catman and never reveals his name, but also because he’s a personality, and the poker world is always in need of something different. I think he’s misunderstood at times. He’s a sensitive chap, but seems to have a good heart, so I’ve always got time for him if I see him around.
Meanwhile, once I’d established that it just wasn’t going to be Sammy’s day, I thanked Eddie, Beiju Patel and co. for the invite and made my way home. I followed the Matchroom updates online in hope of a turnaround, but it never emerged, and with just a few hands to go, Sammy called it a day when he lost his final 90,000 with 9c-4c versus Ad-7h on a 7d-6c-4d-6h-2c board. Overall, Sammy had lost $750,000, whilst durrr had finished the Challenge in the black and $796,000 to the good.
I felt sorry for Sammy in a way. He was brave enough to take on one of the world’s best poker players, tete-a-tete, but on the day, the Poker Gods just weren’t on his side. Many will say, “See, we told you he’d get crushed,” but on another day, it could have been a different story. “I caught a lot of hands tonight,” added durrrr, eager to defend his fallen foe. “He made a few pretty tough folds like when he had a pair of kings and I hit the flush on the river, I thought he played really well that I saw at least. He happened to make one big fold that was wrong but it was a pretty impossible call there – I am bluffing with any hand I get to the river with that isn’t a pair or better, but it’s so rare that I get to the river without a pair so his fold is pretty reasonable and I would make the same fold just about every time.”
As I sit writing this piece, I find myself being reminded of how unique this industry is. I went in to this week thinking the poker industry was unreal: a bizarre and wonderful world in which the value of money becomes distorted and people play for millions as if its small change. Where celebrities are made of those who know when to move chips across some green felt. A game in which somebody’s loss is entertainment to many. An arena that, despite it’s claim to offer everyone the same platform, still boasts an elite tier that only a select few can reach. A place where someone can lose millions, yet remain unfazed. I went in thinking poker’s a crazy game, and after my time at Les Ambassadeurs, I don’t think my opinion has changed. In fact, I’m just getting used to it.