© June 1, 2009
Daniel L. Cox
Editor, Poker Insider Magazine
Las Vegas - In late May, I had the privilege of sweating Humberto Brenes
in the 40th Annual WSOP special one-time only $40,000 Buy-in No-Limit
Texas Hold'em tournament. The Rio, in Las Vegas, saw 201 of the greatest Hold’em
players of our era fighting it out for first place prize money of nearly $1.9
million. The player line-up was similar to what one saw at the Main Event ten
to fifteen years ago, with top professional tournament players competing with
the best “amateur” high-stakes ring game players. For me, it was the greatest
learning venue I have ever experienced. For two days, I stood behind "The Shark,"
observing his play up close and personal. On the opening day at Table 83, 2008
Main Event Champion Peter Eastgate was to his right, Internet star Johannes Strassmann
was two to his left, high-stake cash game player Keith Lehr on his left, while
Andy Black, Barry Greenstein and Chris "Jesus" Ferguson were at the
other end of the table. On opening day, when Eastgate was eliminated, chip
leader and 2003 WSOP Main Event Champion Chris Moneymaker took his place. It
seemed as one superstar left the table another sat down to replace him.
Since I had my media credentials, I was able to follow all
of the action on the floor. Walking from table to table I saw some of the most
exciting play of my life. Nearly every table contained two or three top ranked tournament
players. Not only the recognizable television tournament players, but high
stakes cash game specialists and Internet professionals were present. The
tables looked as if they were pulled from the set of “Lucky You.” Though
every table was tough, the following tables were some of the most deadly Hold’em
tables I have ever seen:
Table 58: Huck Seed, Shannon Shorr, Nicolas Levi, Brian
Townsend, Doyle Brunson and Greg "FBT" Mueller.
Table 60: Jonathan Little, Shaun Deeb, Eli Elezra, Neil
Channing and Gavin Smith.
Table 64: James "mig.com" Mackey, Vanessa Rousso,
John Juanda, Ivan Demidov and Johnny Chan.
Table 70: Phil Ivey, Tom “durrr” Dwan, Scott Seiver, David Pham
and Scott Montgomery.
Table 72: Kathy Liebert, David "Devilfish"
Ulliott, Dan Shak, David Benefield and Cory Zeidman.
Table 76: Chris Moorman, Daniel Stern, Gavin Griffin, Andy
Bloch, Brian Rast, Yevgeniy Timoshenko, Luke Staudenmaier and J.C. Tran.
Table 90: Phil Laak, Erick Lindgren, Ted Forrest, Vivek
Rajkumar and Chad Batista.
Table 93: David Benyamine, Justin "BoostedJ"
Smith, Chau Giang and Josh Arieh.
Besides those table matchups, other notable players in the
event are: Greg “Fossilman” Raymer, Nevad Medic, Phil Hellmuth, Freddy Deeb, Hoyt
Corkins, Antonio “The Magician” Esfandiari, Mike “The Mouth” Matasow, “Tony G”
Gouga, Jim Bechtel, Nam Le, Brian Townsend, David Chiu, Hassan Habib, Michael
Demichele, Per Magnus Ummer, Marco Traniello, Mark Seif, Daniel "The
Kid" Negreanu, Eric "E-Dog" Lindgren, Dario Minieri, Lex
"RaSZi" Veldhuis, Steve Solotow, Vitaly Lunkin, Isaac Haxton and Joe
Hachem. Notably absent from the field were: Lyle Berman, Erik Seidel, Carlos
Mortensen, Gus Hansen, Todd Brunson, Patrik Antonius, T.J. Cloutier, Internet
pro Cliff "JohnnyBax" Josephy and high stakes ring game player Minh
Ly. The Media Room rumor mill was active; with word floating about that “The
Great Dane” purportedly did not make the tournament due to having a lot of
money riding on the French Open. Erik Seidel Tweeted/Twittered/Twoot his
followers with an apology, saying that he had to attend one of his children’s
graduations. T.J. was seen roaming the tourney floor talking to some players,
while encouraging others on Day Two. An interesting statistic was that only
2.5% of the field was women willing to put their $40,000 on the line: Annie
Duke, Vanessa Rousso (the only woman to cash, finishing 27th), Kathy
Liebert, and Jennifer Harmon were the well known women players, along with relative
newcomer Heather Sue Mercer. If you would like a list of all of the
participants, send me an e-mail at DAN@PokerInsider.org.
The aspect of the $40K tournament that most impressed me was
watching the players change gears as the tournament progressed. It was
fascinating to see players known for their loose play when seen on televised
Final Tables actually playing quite tight in the early stages of a big money
tournament. I can really appreciate the differences between a $40K buy-in
tournament and a $2-$5 No-limit table. Many players were late for the start of
the tournament. I asked Chris “Jesus” Ferguson if there was a reason for his
two hour late arrival. He replied that “I play poker every day, so I don’t need
to be here the whole time.” Unfortunately, he only lasted for four more hours.
Phil Hellmuth took over three hours to make his grand entrance (shucks, I
missed it). The Apprentice’s Annie Duke was also late arriving, but showed up
an hour earlier than her brother, Howard “The Professor” Lederer.
At this tournament I readily experienced the difference
between watching from the rail with no idea of cards being played and sweating
a top player and seeing his cards from behind his shoulder. One of the poker
skills I pride myself on most is my ability to mask the strength of my cards
with a “Poker Face.” It was a good thing, too, since I would have hated for
opponents to know the strength of Humberto’s hand by viewing my expressions.
From watching him on television in the 2003 WSOP Main Event and other tourneys,
I know that Humberto is a tight-aggressive player, the type I term “The CEO” in
“Winning Blue-Collar Hold’em” (Available through Amazon at www.PokerInsider.org).
His tight image allowed him to not only steal blinds, but some sizeable
post-flop pots. It was his discipline to lay down hands that I would have
played that was the most impressive.
One notable example of Humberto’s discipline occurred midway
through Day Two when he was dealt the Ace – Queen of Spades. After David
"WhooooKidd" Baker limped from middle position, Humberto raised a
modest three times the Big Blind bet to 26,000. With only a quick thought, Phil
Ivey re-raised by shoving his smaller than average stack of 84,000 All-in.
Sorel Mizzi then pushed it up to 150,000 from the Small Blind. Baker immediately
folded and The Shark went into the Tank to decide if he was willing to risk
three-fourths of his stack. After several minutes, Humberto looked at his
suited Little Slick one last time before sending them to the dealer. After
Mizzi flipped over his cards to show pocket Tens, Ivey turned over the unsuited
Ace – Queen, the hand that he has been knocked out of nearly a half dozen World
Poker Tour Final Tables. A rainbow Jack – 6 – 6 Flop was no help to Ivey, while
a 9 on the Turn and a King on the River ended Ivey’s chance at a WSOP Event 2
payday (Ivey later redeemed himself with his sixth WSOP Bracelet in the $2,500
No-Limit Deuce to Seven Draw Low-ball tourney).
Time and again I saw him folding middle suited connectors
(oft-played by professionals Daniel Negranu and Sammy Farha) and Weak Aces. After
watching him fold Ace – 6 suited from the button, I was surprised to see him
make a substantial raise to take down an uncontested pot two hands later with an
unsuited Ace – 3. When I asked him why he folded the better hand in better
position, he replied that it was the player he was up against. Looking back, I
realized it was extremely loose-aggressive Greg Raymer in the Big Blind when he
folded the hand and a young Internet player’s Blind when he pulled off the
successful semi-bluff. It is a shame that Humberto was ousted at the end of Day
Two in 39th place, one spot before his 2003 nemesis Chris Moneymaker and ten places
out of the money.
Humberto played well with and without premium hole cards,
but unfortunately he had long spells of being card dead. He was caught in the
steal a few times, most notably against Vanessa Rousso, who stated, “You were
trying to bluff me?” Eventually, the lack of cards was too much, and Greg
Raymer was able to take out the table short-stack when his pocket nines outlasted
Humberto’s Ace – 7.
It is true that not all players tend to “Follow the Book”
while playing, but I was shocked to see some of the players do things that even
I know are not the best to optimize your game. I first noticed Vanessa Rousso
making what I feel is a tactical error in Hold’em, when she looked at her cards
as she was dealt them, instead of watching the other players for tells and
waiting for her turn to bet to first take a look. I cannot really criticize her
play, she did hold on long enough to break the Bubble and finish in 27th
position. Another thing I extol in my book and which I hear time and time again
from professional players is to always observe what is happening at the table,
even if you are not in the hand. As her chip stack dwindled to the danger zone,
Jennifer Harmon began reading a paperback book. I didn’t get a chance to ask
her the title before she was KO’d on the first day. I could also spot serious
tells from some of the Internet (I presume by their age and relative anonymity)
players. These ran the Mike Caro tell gambit from chip fumbling to vividly
readable facial expressions.
As I was walking among poker’s elite, I had one major
question on my mind. For nearly a decade, there have been rumblings from the
professional players that the Main Event is like a Lottery (Doyle Brunson’s
words). To get a feel how the professional players think, I asked several of
the top professional players if they felt that the Main Event should become a
mega buy-in tournament, like this 40th Anniversary tournament or the
$50,000 H.O.R.S.E. Event. Not a single professional I talked with was in favor
of changing the buy-in to $50,000. T.J. Cloutier said that “The Main Event
should stay at $10,000, but a Hold’em Tournament and the H.O.R.S.E. Event
should be at $25,000.” Steve Zolotow felt that it should “remain at $10,000 as
long as $10,000 remains a large sum.” The most surprising answer was from Phil
“Poker Brat” Hellmuth, who has berated the amateur players at the Main Event or
years, saying that “the Main Event should remain a $10,000 tournament to let
the regular players afford to play.” In the end, the general consensus was to
keep the Main Event at its historic $10,000 buy-in, but have a higher buy-in
tournament in the $25,000 to $50,000 range to compliment the prestigious
H.O.R.S.E. event.
Look for this as a two-hour block on ESPN’s reduced coverage
of the 2009 WSOP. Continuing a trend of de-emphasizing tournament poker (the
network no longer covers the US Poker Open in Atlantic City or WSOP Circuit
Events around the country), ESPN is only covering the $40K, the Champions
Invitational, the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. Event and the Main Event this year. Two
years ago, nearly every tournament was covered, while last year and this, ESPN
reduced the number of events with television coverage as Harrah’s Entertainment
expanded the number of tournament events. There was a lot of concern before the
tournament that the downturn in the world’s economy would negatively impact on
the World Series. Through the first several events, this has not been the case,
since nearly every event is smashing previous attendance and prize pool records.
The $1,000 “Stimulus Special” attracted the record breaking (for a non-Main
Event) maximum 6,000 participants.
