WALKING
ON WATER
You
can already forget the IVEY League, Phil
Ivey is now playing in the CELESTIAL League
with other non-mortals like Layne Flack.
If Chris Ferguson is 'Jesus,' then Phil
Ivey must be 'The Messiah' for the miracles
he's continuing to perform. Co-Tournament
Director Matt Savage said it well, Phil's
"walking on water." It's not supposed
to be this easy. Phil seems destined to
tear up the WSOP record book. Ivey has
THREE gold bracelets already this year
(tying the record held by Phil Hellmuth
and Ted Forrest for wins in a single year).
He has FIVE Final Tables in 23 events.
These accomplishments have the old dogs
of the WSOP in awe. And he still has NINE
more events he could enter. Phil's put
the professional tour on life support
and is putting poison in their IVEY.
There
were 143 entrants in the $2,000 Buy-In,
S.H.O.E. (Stud, Hold'em, Omaha Hi-Lo and
Stud Hi-Lo) for a total prize pool of
$268,840. Two tables were paid, a total
of 16 players.
Prior to the Final Table, Diego Cordovez
was having a Phil Ivey tournament. He
busted everyone. Included were the 'one
out of the money,' and Englishman Ian
Murphy in 9th. Diego seemed close to a
lock for this bracelet with 2 1/2 times
the chips of his closest competitor, Vince
Burgio, and well over three times the
starting chips of that guy way back in
the pack, Phil Ivey. The 'D Train,' Diego
Cordovez, had over one third of all the
chips on the table. Just give the first
place money to Cordovez, right? Everyone's
playing for second, right?
THE
FINAL TABLE:
2 mins left of 45
The game is Hold'em
$1,000/$1,500 blinds
Player
Hometown Chip
Count
Seat
1 Vince Burgio West Hills CA $ 44,600
Seat 2 Chris Ferguson Pacific Palisades
CA $ 25,800
Seat 3 Chris Grigorian Los Angeles CA
$ 8,200
Seat 4 Phil Ivey Atlantic City NJ $ 33,100
Seat 5 Perry Friedman Monterey CA $ 25,800
Seat 6 Brian Nadell Las Vegas NV $ 38,600
Seat 7 Christina Hung San Francisco CA
$ 9,800
Seat 8 Diego Cordovez Palo Alto CA $107,300
But that's why we play the game. No one
knows what's going to happen.
Even
with an obviously burning competitive
spirit added to a charming personality,
Christina Hung was still out to dry. On
her fourth all-in she didn't get any money
back and had to leave in 8th. Playing
Omaha Hi-Lo now, Christina would, on each
all-in, get either the high or the low
to stay alive for one more hand. It was
too much to ask that the diminutive Hung
could continue this high-wire act. In
the hand that defined the success or failure
of both initial short stacks at this Final
Table, Chris Grigorian succeeded and Christina
Hung failed. First Christina went all-in
for $1,800 then Chris followed for $2,600.
Brian Nadell was also in the hand, covering
both all-ins, and representing the hopes
of the other five players that neither
short stack would survive. Christina Hung
on her ability to get either high or low.
Instead her low missed and she made 6's
and 5's for high. No good. Goodbye Christina,
hope to see your smiling face again. Chris
Grigorian made Aces up to charge out of
the shortest stack category and leave
Brian Nadell grasping the lint with his
8's and 6's.
A
family intervention has been called to
keep sharp objects away from Brian Nadell.
It's hard to feel too sorry for Brian,
though. Most would be very happy with
his results. Nadell has three Final Tables
in four events played, with a 2nd, 4th
and now a 7th. He's made a couple of bucks.
He has a loving wife and three beautiful
daughters. If Brian didn't care so much
and show his anguish so clearly, we might
overlook his pain. It's not THAT he goes
out, it's HOW he goes out that is so dramatic.
By
my count Brian Nadell has beaten Phil
Ivey in only one hand of their two Final
Tables together this year. We are talking
ownership here. We are talking 'walking
on water.' In defense of Phil Ivey's miracle
card work, Brian Nadell should never have
been all-in to start with. On the first
hand of the day, Nadell crippled his stack
by calling Ivey all the way to the river.
The flop was 8 3 2. Ivey was raising.
For some reason Brian couldn't put Phil
on A 4. Plus, Nadell couldn't even beat
Christina Hung's 6's and 2's that she
made on the river for high. Later, playing
Stud Hi-Lo, Brian made a low with a flush
in a pot he sorely needed to scoop. Vince
Burgio's jaw dropped as Ivey turned over
a runner runner full house for a split.
Now all-in, Nadell had Q Q 9 against Phil
Ivey's 6 8 8. Phil got to a low draw with
two babies on 5th and 6th St and a gutshot
straight for high. Nadell had three Queens
that didn't fill. What made the river
card for Ivey so dramatic was that it
was dealt up. Matt Savage had decided
that he wanted to stop the time-consuming
'squeezing' of the last card. So all-in
river cards were now dealt face up. Brian
Nadell could only be scooped if a gutshot
straight 7 came on the river for Ivey.
BANG! That's what came, a seven. Phil
Ivey is a tremendous card player. It's
not fair for him to be this lucky, also.
This
was the second Final Table of the year
for Chris Ferguson. In the first, he probably
would tell you he should have won his
fourth bracelet. His first three beauties
are clasped together as the hatband for
his black Stetson. Chris is now 4th all-time
in money earnings. He's the first player
to win $1.5 million in the Championship
Final. This event won't add much to his
running total. Ferguson can be very aggressive
or very patient. Today he had to be patient
because he wasn't getting any cards. After
the change to Stud, Chris went all-in
with a King showing. Phil Ivey called
with buried 4's and caught another 4 on
4th St. FORE! Former Champion being driven
out of the tournament!
Doing the Grigorian chants for luck in
the stands were Chris Grigorian's wife
Anahit and parents. This was Chris' first
Final Table in the WSOP and he was VERY
excited. He wanted his family with him
to share the experience. What Chris may
remember most is outlasting former World
Champion Chris Ferguson, sitting immediately
to his right, when Ferguson started with
over three times the chips. Grigorian
survived several all-ins and claimed to
be happy with his 5th place finish. Starting
in 8th, it was quite a climb. With split
Queens in Stud, Chris didn't improve on
his last all-in and lost to Diego Cordovez'
two pair.
Is
one bracelet a year enough for the reigning
Ro Sham Po champion? Maybe. Because Perry
Friedman didn't come close to getting
another one today. Unlike his win a few
weeks ago, the deck missed him completely
down the stretch. The only mind Perry
was in today was his own in 4th. It might
be a good idea for everyone in poker to
fold every time Phil Ivey bets for a while.
He's become unbeatable. Still in Stud,
Friedman could only make 5's and 4's to
Ivey's Queens and Jacks.
"I've
never seen anything like it," Vince Burgio
repeated. "I remember Men (the Master)
when he was going great. It's not even
close." No less an authority than Burgio
was talking about the hot streak that
Phil Ivey is on. When asked if he'd ever
seen anyone this torrid, Amarillo Slim
said, "No, and it's good for poker." It
may not be good for a few people's bankroll,
however. Vince and Diego Cordovez were
clearly stunned by the cards Ivey was
catching. It seemed like divine intervention.
The poker god was sending in cooler after
cooler to help out an already outstanding
player. There was no defense for Ivey's
force. Burgio finally had to laugh; there
was nothing else to do. The capper came
when the game had changed to Hold'em.
Vince was in the big blind. The flop came
10 9 9. Phil bet out. Vince called to
the river and mucked his hand when Ivey
showed him that he had caught runner runner
Aces with his A 4. Even all-in on the
next hand Burgio found Ivey with a pair
of 6's. It never stops.
And
it didn't stop against Diego Cordovez.
We aren't talking chopped liver here.
The 'D Train' has already won $500,000
in a hold'em tournament this year. He's
in the quarter finals of the Gold Bracelet
Match Play having beaten Humberto Brenes,
Barry Shulman and Mike Laing heads up
to get into the money in that event. Yet,
against Phil Ivey with a 2-5 chip disadvantage
it was no contest. Phil wiped Diego out
in short order. Ivey showed Cordovez everything:
rivered straights, pocket pairs, higher
two pair, the works. The all-in hand was
anti-climatic as Ivey made a pair and
Cordovez didn't.
The
UltimateBet.Com people have a promotion
going with the T-Shirt reading "I have
20% of Phil." Maybe they should change
the wording to read: "I have 20% of the
WRONG Phil." Phillip Ivey is walking on
water.
Mike Paulle
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