$1,500 Razz: The Distinguished Gentlemen Beat<p>the Grumpy Old Men<p>

Editor's note: This is one in a series of articles originally written for an Internet website the 2001 World Series of Poker tournament events.

For the first two hours at the final table of the $1,500 buy-in razz tournament at the 2001 World Series of Poker, I observed and heard so much whining, bitching, moaning, unnecessary conversation, and taunting that I could have sworn I was reading a rec.gambling.poker newsgroup thread instead of watching a WSOP event.

There were two primary protagonists, although these two irritated some of the other players enough to involve them, too. Only a few of the players stayed completely out of it, and I'm happy to say that two from the quiet and professional group wound up battling it out for the title. After their two and a half hour heads-up duel was done, Berry Johnston and Mike Wattel remained classy to the end, each crediting his opponent in ways other poker players would do well to observe and emulate.

A total of 144 players started this tournament, which should have been a tip-off that I was about to observe some "gross" behavior, and when we started play at the final table, the chip counts were:

Seat Player Chip Count

1 Edwin Wyde $54,100

2 Andy Bloch $6,900

3 Daniel Negreanu $19,400

4 Richard Schwartz $26,400

5 Andy Lake $14,200

6 Mike Wattel $46,600

7 Mike Landers $5,200

8 Berry Johnston $43,500

Razz, in case you're not familiar with it, is seven-card stud, played for low. The best possible low hand is the wheel, A-2-3-4-5, and as that implies, straights and flushes don't matter, only card ranks do. In seven-card stud high, the low card is forced to bring the hand in to start the action; in razz, the high card must make the forced bring-in.

It's merely a coincidence that the players at this table were razzing each other a lot.

We started with a full 80-minute round, playing with a $300 ante, $600 high-card bring-in, and $2,000-$4,000 limits. With a full table, this meant that an initial raiser was taking a shot at $3,000 in dead money for his $2,000 bet, and that someone who chose to defend his forced bring-in was getting $5,000-$1,400 pot odds on the initial call.

Landers Verdict: Not Guilty, Eighth Place

Mike Landers and his short stack weren't around long enough to be guilty by association. Although he did manage to double through on the tournament's first hand, he got short again on the second hand, and was forced to play about a dozen hands later, when he ran into Wattel's 8-7, and exited eighth.

Richard Schwartz, a player I'd not met previously, got off perhaps the funniest line I'd heard in the tournament when someone on the rail asked him what he was going to do if he won the $83,810 first prize. "I'll probably have to leave the country," he said. "I sold 250 percent of myself, and I'd owe $200,000."

'CK' Didn't Stand for 'Clark Kent'

Everyone was calling Schwartz "CK," and I soon learned that CK stood for "Crazy Kid," a sobriquet he'd picked up as an action guy in the 1970s. He's in his 50s now, but the nickname stands, and I soon learned why. He was an incessant, almost compulsive talker, analyzing most of the hands during and after play, and Daniel Negreanu, a younger star sitting on CK's right, soon asked if the tournament would allow a special exception to the "no headphones" rule.

A railbird suggested earplugs, but Daniel declined, although after one lengthy diatribe, Daniel did a pretty good coyote-howling-at-the-moon imitation with an "ow-wow-wow" howl and just shook his head.

CK wasn't performing a solo act. Wyde, who is about 80 years old and who won this event in 1985, when Negreanu was 11, had started moaning about his bad luck almost immediately, saying things like, "I've never seen cards this bad in my life," and given the length of that life, he was making quite a statement.

Meanwhile, despite the incredibly awful, horrible, bad cards he was describing at every opportunity, Wyde won the tournament's first large pot, making a 6-5 low against 1986 World Champion and four-time bracelet winner Johnston, knocking Johnston's stack down to $25,000. CK tried to point out that Wyde had gotten fortunate on the hand, and Wyde just snapped back that he didn't need lessons.

He Couldn't Paint Himself Out

of This Corner

Lake, an artist who looks like a younger version of Brad Daugherty, also stayed out of the nastiness, speaking up only to talk about poker, or to answer questions about his work, and explaining how much he enjoys it. We lost him at 5:10 p.m. when his 7-6-5-2-A low got edged out by Wattel's 7-5-4-2-A. When he left his seat, CK slid to the left, so he wasn't crowding Negreanu quite as much.

When the first round ended at 5:30 p.m., I estimated the chips at:

Wyde – $45,000

Bloch – $27,000

Negreanu – $30,000

CK – $15,000

Wattel – $75,000

Johnston – $24,000

For the second round, we moved to $600 antes, a $1,000 high-card bring-in, playing $3,000-$6,000. Negreanu immediately made a big move, almost doubling through Bloch, who saved his last few chips, but Wyde made a bigger one on the next hand, gouging Wattel, an athletic 30-year-old from Gilbert, Arizona, for $27,000 total when the boards came:

Wattel, 4-A-7-8

Wyde, 6-3-J-5

Wyde raised on third street, bet and got called on fourth, checked and called on fifth, check-raised Wattel on sixth, and bet and got called on the river. He produced a 6-5-3-2-A, knocking off Wattel's 7-6-4-2-A, and owned an awfully big pile of chips for someone who'd been so consistently the victim of "unbelievable" bad luck.

Bloch Also Innocent, Also Exits

CK, Negreanu, and Bloch got hooked up in a three-way hand in which Bloch got all in early and CK went all in shortly thereafter, but CK had started with the best of it, (2-3) A-4, and wound up scooping the pot, knocking the quiet Bloch out in sixth.

The chips didn't stay in CK's stack for long, though. He got hooked into a hand with the quiet, silver-haired Johnston, and despite showing a 6-8-7-9 board to Johnston's A-5-J-10, CK was unwilling to call Johnston's last $5,000 on the river. His opponents – Wyde, in particular – began to discuss this surprising muck, which left CK very short.

Division of Ironic Punishments, Part II

The discussion irritated CK, and he snarled at his opponents, "I just lost a big hand, you guys still gotta talk?" The line reminded me of the Simpsons episode in which Homer eats his "soul doughnut" and gets sent to Hell's Division of Ironic Punishments. Homer is forced to eat millions of doughnuts at high speed, and gobbles down every one, still hungry for more, which leaves the demon in charge baffled, saying, "James Coco went mad long before this!" CK, the table's top talker, no doubt missed the irony of his "You guys gotta still talk?" complaint.

Wyde's reply to CK's complaint? "Aw, poor baby." All we needed was an exchange of "Did not," "Did so," "Did not!" "Did so!" to give this game all the mature dynamics of a kindergarten recess.

CK said something back that I couldn't hear, and Wyde replied, "Just needling you, friend; I'm going to be here a lot longer than you are." Maybe I've just slandered kindergarten recesses everywhere.

CK survived several all ins, and Wyde's collection of chips continued to grow, although he didn't stack them. He's one of those guys who makes a long rope out of them that hugs the rail.

Could it Be? Actual Good Poker?

While The Nasty Boys were playing their games, Wattel kept coming into pots with good-looking cards and catching bricks on later streets, and got very short, down to about $12,000, when he made a good move in a three-way hand with Negreanu and Wyde. The boards were:

Negreanu, 4-4

Wattel, 7-K

Wyde, 9-J

Wyde bet, Negreanu called, and Wattel raised, with Wyde reraising. This forced Negreanu out of the hand, and Wattel got his remaining chips in heads up against Wyde. He wound up winning the hand with a marginal low, and Negreanu complimented him on the raise. "Yeah, I hoped he (Wyde) would reraise to knock you out," Wattel explained. "I wasn't a big dog heads up, but I sure didn't like my hand three ways." The well-played hand got Wattel back into the game with $30,000.

That's "Sir Daniel" to You, Bub

Negreanu finally knocked CK out fifth at 6:20 p.m., and a spectator suggested, "If the game were being held in England, you (Daniel) would be knighted for knocking him out." The always-engaging Negreanu laughed, and everyone started to relax a bit, even Wyde, now that the object of most of his malevolence had been removed, although he continued to complain about catching too many paint cards. The chip counts were now roughly:

Wyde – $80,000

Negreanu – $35,000

Wattel – $45,000

Johnston – $55,000

Wattel grabbed a chunk of Wyde's change on a hand in which both were drawing to try to improve king lows on the end, and Wattel made a 7-5 to beat Wyde's 8-7.

Negreanu's stack kept eroding, as promising starts led to bricked finishes, and when the clock went off to end the round at 7:15 p.m., the chip counts were:

Wyde – $54,000

Negreanu – $22,000

Wattel – $64,000

Johnston – $76,000

The antes remained at $600, and the high-card bring-in moved up to only $1,200, playing $4,000-$8,000. Negreanu's stack just kept melting away, and he finally got his last $10,000 in against Wyde, who wound up making a wheel and sending Negreanu out in fourth place at 7:35 p.m. There's not supposed to be any cheering in the press box, but I always hate to see Daniel get knocked out of an event. He's one of poker's good guys and is very funny, and besides, he owns and wears the best collection of hockey jerseys this side of the Canadian border.

Wyde surged into the chip lead after a big confrontation with Johnston, but gave the chips to Wattel when their boards came:

Wattel, 5-4-10-7

Wyde, 6-Q-8-J

Wattel check-raised on fifth street, and then despite hitting a 7 to Wyde's jack, got a call when he led out on sixth street. Wattel bet in the dark on the river, and again Wyde called. Wattel turned over the expected 7-5 low, and Wyde showed his 8.

Another confrontation with Wattel left Wyde just about broke, when the boards showed:

Wyde, 3-J-A-3

Wattel, 3-5-9-Q

Wyde three-bet on third street, and then called Wattel down on fourth, fifth, and sixth. Wattel bet out again on the river, which would have put Wyde all in, but Wyde finally laid the hand down, leaving the chips:

Wyde – $7,000

Wattel – $160,000

Johnston – $49,000

The Gentlemen Go to Work

Johnston eventually finished Wyde off with a 9-6 that beat Wyde's 9-8, and we were heads up at 8:10 p.m. The two gentlemen who had remained above the nonsense at the other end of the table were going to play for the bracelet, and neither was in unfamiliar territory. I've already mentioned Johnston's four wins, and Wattel won an Omaha eight-or-better bracelet in 1999.

Wattel started with a chip lead of $150,000-$66,000, and aside from one brief span when Johnston got up near $100,000, maintained that lead for much of the two and a half hour, no-deal duel.

It was a genuine pleasure to watch these two play it out, even though like all journalists I was rooting for a quick end to my day. They sparred carefully, and perhaps one hand in eight got past fourth street; neither one of them wanted to put a lot of money in when it was obvious that he was trailing, and in razz, unlike stud, most of the time it's easy to know when you're trailing.

This is one of the reasons that razz isn't a popular game anymore: The good players are too good for the bad players, and without bad players, the good players have no reason to play. Most of the time these days, razz is played only as a part of a rotation game like H.O.R.S.E.

Not the World's Biggest Action Game

This same scientific and analytical aspect of razz also makes it much less entertaining to watch than, let's say, no-limit hold'em or someone flossing his teeth. I encourage you to go watch World Series final tables, but if you can pick only one, it probably shouldn't be razz.

That said, it was a pleasure to watch true professionals at work, and both Johnston and Wattel were cool and imperturbable. They handled their chips smoothly (you should have seen Wattel shuffle a stack of 20 one-handed), and seemed both relaxed and focused simultaneously, displaying that Zen balance for which so many poker players strive and so few attain.

Fifteen minutes into the duel, the antes moved to $1,000, the high-card bring-in to $2,000, playing $6,000-$12,000, but that didn't really change the game. For almost two hours, they avoided playing big pots, and at 10:05 p.m., we finally hit a level where one hand could really damage someone. The antes moved to $1,500, the high-card bring-in to $3,000, playing $10,000-$20,000, with Wattel at $135,000 and Johnston at $81,000.

Four Bracelets and Four Stars for Humility

Berry Johnston started getting interested in playing. "He's a better limit poker player than I am," Johnston said afterward, a pretty stunning statement from someone with Johnston's poker resume. "I'm probably better at pot-limit or no-limit, but there's no question in my mind that he's a better limit player than I am, at figuring out how to collect extra bets and all the little things that make someone a good limit player. So, my goal all along was to try to hang around until the limits got high, so I could gamble with him, because I was pretty sure I was going to have to get lucky to beat him."

This was a 65-year-old former world champion who also owns three other bracelets talking about another man 35 years his junior. Earlier in the day, Mike O'Malley had told me that Johnston was "his poker hero," and I started to understand why.

The hand that changed everything came almost immediately after the limits reached those high levels Johnston had sought. The boards were:

Johnston, J-5-4-8

Wattel, 5-8-J-Q

Johnston brought the hand in, Wattel raised, and Johnston called. Wattel bet out again on fourth street, and Johnston called $10,000 again. On fifth street, Johnston led out for $20,000, and now Wattel was reduced to calling, a scenario repeated on sixth street and the river.

And With One Mighty Blow …

Wattel showed the (A-3) he'd started with, and the 6 he caught on the river for an 8-6-5-3-A. Johnston showed the (2-3) he'd started with, and his river card didn't matter; 8-5-4-3-2 for Johnston, and in one mammoth stroke, he'd reduced Wattel's mighty stack to $50,000 and had taken more than a 3-1 chip lead.

Wattel's stack had shrunk to about $40,000 when the end came. Wattel had to bring the hand in with a jack, and Johnston raised with a 4. Wattel reraised, and Johnston called. On fourth street, the boards became:

Johnston, 4-Q

Wattel, J-J

Johnston bet, and Wattel called for the rest of his chips. "I figured he had a pair," Wattel said. "He didn't reraise me on third street."

Wattel was right, because with the cards turned up, we saw:

Johnston, (7-7) 4-Q

Wattel, (3-7) J-J

Mike Wattel did what he wanted to do: He got his last few chips in with the lead. He had three cards to a jack low, and Johnston had three cards to a queen low. Johnston wound up making the queen low, Q-7-6-5-4, and Wattel wound up making a full house, (3-7) J-J-7-A (J). Berry Johnston had won his fifth bracelet, tying him with Jay Heimowitz for fourth place on the all-time list.

A Dream Hand Turned Into a Nightmare

It was a tough defeat for Wattel, leading most of heads-up play, and starting the big hand that changed everything with (A-3) 5. "He played very tough; I didn't expect anything less of him," Wattel said.

I mentioned to Johnston that he'd stayed out of all the whining that had gone on at the other end of the table, and asked if he thought that all the moaning had hurt his opponents.

"I don't see how it could do them any good," he said, "although this is how I always play – I usually stay pretty quiet. I want to tell you something right away, though; the best player finished second here today. This was a big upset." Johnston went on to say the other gracious things I've already documented about Wattel's poker abilities.

I wish we'd had two bracelets to award, but if we were going to give just one, it felt ever so appropriate for it to go to an unusually gracious winner at a table where two others at the other literal end of the table were also sitting at the other figurative end as well.

Final results:

$1,500 razz

Entrants: 144 o Prize pool: $209,520

1. Berry Johnston $83,810

2. Mike Wattel $41,900

3. Edwin Wyde $20,950

4. Daniel Negreanu $12,570

5. Richard "CK" Schwartz $10,475

6. Andy Bloch $8,380

7. Andy Lake $6,285

8. Mike Landers $4,190

Fun and Games at the World Series

Although I didn't have as much time to watch high-stakes side action as I would have prefered, I picked a pretty good moment to visit the $200-$400 blind pot-limit Omaha game. With three spades on the K-5-3-10 board, and $50,000 already in the pot, a player I didn't know bet $40,000 cash (those $5,000 chips are fun, but there's something about seeing a pile of $100 bills that big) when another 3 hit the river. His opponent thought for a long time, and called. The bettor's black pocket kings (his hand also included the Q´, so he had the second-nut flush as well as top set) had made a full house, and the caller showed his A´ J´ for the nut flush.

And you thought you've had some bad river cards lately. A "bad beat" story doesn't have to be about a one-outer on the river. In a $140,000 pot, any beat on the end is bad!