DERAILING "THE ORIENT
EXPRESS"
Yesterday
we found out what happened to 'Famous
Last Words.' Today we found out what happened
to a 'Foregone Conclusion.'
There
were 352 entrants in the $3,000 No-Limit
Hold'em for a total prize pool of $992,640.
Three tables were paid, a total of 27
players.
To setup the Final Table Thursday afternoon,
Harley Hall was the shortest stack and
went all-in for $5k and a 10 9. The small
blind called with K 6. When a King flopped,
Harley didn't need a Hall pass to leave
the building.
THE
FINAL TABLE:
22 mins left of 75
The blinds were $2,000/$4,000
Player
Hometown Chip
Count
Seat
1 Jon Hoellein Lakewood OH $ 55,500
Seat 2 Simon Trumper London, UK $ 77,000
Seat 3 Sherman Burry Inglewood CO $ 84,000
Seat 4 Johnny Chan Las Vegas NV $307,000
Seat 5 Randal Heeb Paris, France $ 97,500
Seat 6 Sid Miller Wyncote PA $ 99,500
Seat 7 Huck Seed Las Vegas NV $138,500
Seat 8 Pierre Peretti Luzarches, France
$ 64,500
Seat 9 Alan Betson Dublin, Ireland $ 30,500
Seat 10 Kathy Liebert Las Vegas NV $102,500
Too bad for Huck Seed that he doesn't
smoke. Taking a cigarette break at the
start of this Final Table might have made
him $355,320. That's the difference in
payout between 1st place and 10th. In
a hand that will be talked about for years,
Huck Seed sailed all his chips into the
pot against the only guy at the table
who could bust him--Johnny Chan.
In
one of the first hands of the match, Huck
was second in chips when he decided that
either Johnny wouldn't call his all-in
bet, or that he'd hit his open-ended straight
draw. Seed was wrong on both counts. Chan
had bet $20k on the Q 3 2 flop (one Diamond)
with the Q 10 of Diamonds. Huck had a
4 5 and a dream that all his chips would
return to him. Oddly if the turn card
had been a 6 or Ace of Diamonds instead
of the 9 of Diamonds that came, Huck would
have led for only one card. The 8 of Diamonds
that did river would have beaten Huck,
anyway. In the shock of the WSOP this
year, Chan planted Seed in 10th. Wow!
Surely
everyone was playing for 2nd, now. (You
know Surely. Nice girl.) This was a classic
'Foregone Conclusion.' Johnny Chan could
walk to pick up his 7th bracelet. Chan
had almost half the chips on the table
and over a 4-1 chip lead on 2nd. If this
race were to be priced, it would be off-the-board.
No less an authority than TJ Cloutier
sitting nearby said to the audience, "This
is the greatest No-Limit Hold'em player
in the world." "Thanks, TJ," Chan replied.
Small problem. There were still eight
players to be eliminated.
Five
left quickly. Jon Hoellein led the Conga
Line out the door. Hoellein reraised Pierre
Perretti all-in with his last $25k and
J J on the button. Sherman Burry crashed
over the top of them both all-in with
A K. With an Ace on the turn, Jon was
no more in 9th.
Sid Miller may never play pocket Kings
again. He ate them twice in the first
hour. The second meal of Kings was Sid's
last. Johnny Chan became the first player
in WSOP history to make $3,000,000 in
earnings when his A 8 went full over Miller's
end in 8th.
They weren't leaving fast enough for Randal
Heeb, so he dumped two at once. Alan Betson
had no shot all-in for only 2k in the
big blind. But Kathy Liebert was another
matter. When the flop came 9 4 4, Johnny
Chan whispered to a friend that Heeb had
a 4. Kathy Liebert didn't think so. She
liked her pocket Jacks. Randal let Kathy
get all-in for $45k on the turn. Heeb
had just enough to cover her with $47k.
Then Randal turned over A 4. Liebert was
drawing dead to a Jack on the river that
didn't arrive. The first 'Million Dollar
Woman' was 6th.
There
was one more member of our Conga Line
out the door--Pierre Perretti in 5th.
He'd made about $25k in real money by
not playing a hand, but Perretti was too
short to last. Pierre called all-in for
an extra two grand over his small blind
with the Q 4 of Hearts. Randal Heeb had
J 9 and ended up with trip 9's.
Very suddenly there were four. You had
Johnny Chan with half the chips and three
guys with the rest. It was a joke, right?
A 'Foregone Conclusion.' Even Johnny thought
it was over. Chan is a finalist in the
long-delayed Gold Bracelet Match Play
event. When asked when he'd like to play
Phil Hellmuth for the title Johnny said,
" I'll play him tonight. I want to be
the first player ever to win two bracelets
on the same day." Uh, oh! Those sound
like 'Famous Last Words.' Karma Time!
The poker gods don't like haughty, not
even from 'the world's greatest No-Limit
player.'
A
straggler in the Conga Line was Simon
Trumper in 4th. He waited until the others
had left the parking lot before exiting.
Simon caught a terrible card on the turn,
the 9 of Diamonds. It gave him trip 9's,
so Simon said he'd bet his last $40k.
The 9 of Diamonds made Johnny Chan the
nut flush. Simon needed the board to pair.
It didn't.
It
was at this point that a exceedingly strange
thing started to happen. The indestructible
'Wall of China' started to crumble. Johnny
Chan started losing pot after pot. Randal
Heeb won seven straight hands in one stretch.
Several of those wins came when he raised
over the top of Chan's bets, and Johnny
laid the hand down. The audience couldn't
believe their eyes. Johnny Chan was being
dominated by a 'nobody.' But a crushing
loss wasn't to Heeb, it was to Sherman
Burry. Johnny was in the big blind when
he flopped huge. Chan had the A 4 of Diamonds.
The flop was A J 3 with two diamonds.
Chan put Burry all-in for Sherman's last
$146k. Burry cremated Chan with an A 3.
Sherman had flopped two pair. Amazingly,
Chan still had a slight chip lead. It
shows how far ahead he once was.
But
the momentum was reversed against Chan
and he couldn't turn it back around. Heeb
continued to come over the top of Johnny
and wouldn't be stopped. Finally with
only $80k left, Chan went all-in with
A J.
So
much for a 'Foregone Conclusion.' 'The
Lock of the Century' had been unlocked.
Randal Heeb had A Q and the Queen played.
Johnny Chan was a startling, stunning,
mind-blowing 3rd. The 'Orient Express'
was derailed. It couldn't happen, but
it did. That's why we play the game.
Randal
Heeb teaches 'Game Theory' to PhD candidates
at a top business school in Paris. When
asked if he'd used his game theories against
Chan, Randal replied "not really." He
continued, "I had good cards..." and he
bet them fearing what Chan would do in
response. "I didn't know when he was bluffing."
Heeb is originally from Idaho and studied
poker under the guidance of Tex Morgan
of TEARS fame. He specializes in no-limit
tournaments.
It
took only a few minutes for Randal to
dispose of Sherman Burry in 2nd. Heeb
had pocket Queens, Burry had pocket 10's.
Sherman Burry hadn't played in a tournament
in ten years. When asked if he'd play
in the Big One, he said, "No more, I can't
take this." Evidently, 23 hours of intense
pressure wasn't pleasant even for $188,600.
The
moral of this day is: Don't count your
8th bracelet before you secure your 7th.
You might have to eat your 'Famous Last
Words' and be the victim of a 'Foregone
Conclusion.'
The
Super Satellites are cookin'. As of Friday
afternoon, 170 seats have been won. The
final number is expected to be over 200
seats won to the 'Big Dance' by Sunday
night.
Some
recent winners were: David Brewer, Don
Thompson, Fred Brown, Samuel Arzoin, Rafael
Perry, Serafin Zahapopoulos (2nd), David
Singer, Cruz Tijerina, Dolph Arnold, Leo
Boothe, Christer Johansson, Dimitrios
Magdalinos, Andre Hidi, Gus Echeverri
(2nd) Ray Beck, Malki Marzoug, Nelson
Lee, Rick Barabino, John Dobbs, Flan Pilkington,
Antonio Estandiari, Martine Oules, Marsha
Waggoner (2nd), Manuel Teixira (2nd).
Mike Paulle
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