World Poker Tour Championship - Part III - Ten Men Strong

In Part II of this series (available at www.CardPlayer.com in the magazine archives section), we watched over the first three days of play at the seven day Five-Star World Poker Classic championship. This World Poker Tour (WPT) event determines the season three overall champ of the prestigious Wednesday evening poker tournament series seen on cable's Travel Channel. A field of 452 came to the beautiful Bellagio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas to pony up $25,500 or enter via linked satellite victories. The combatants were bifurcated into fields of 234 players (competing on day one) and 218 competitors (the day two starters). The survivors (344) were combined and trimmed to 164 during the third day of competition.

Phil Ivey

DAY FOUR: The limits have been completed in symmetrical fashion, five per day. We start at noon and play ends before 9 p.m. each evening. The Fontana Bar area seats 180 players. Since 164 remain, the tournament has reached its destination for the next three days. The final table will be set up in the more spacious Spa Tower ballroom. With the small blind at $1,500, the big blind at $3,000, and antes at $400, I expect the action will pick up during level 11, since each round of folding will cost a player $8,100 (nine players are seated at most of the tables). Our short stacks, notably Thor Hansen ($25,700), Bob Feduniak ($24,000), Josh Arieh ($22,000), Anthony Cousineau ($16,300), and John Defrancis ($13,700), will have precious little time to make their moves.

I watch Thor Hansen play his way to at least $60,000, but meet his tournament demise an hour into play. Feduniak, one of poker's true gentlemen, and his elegant wife, Maureen, depart within the first 35 minutes. I find empty seats when I check on Josh and the others. I was hoping to relate some plays that enabled one or more to get back in the hunt, but evidently they all did what they had to do, make all-in moves quickly. Each was gone before the start of level 12.

As an overview, Tournament Director Jack McClelland announces that the plan is to complete five rounds today, play down to 27 tomorrow (in actuality, play got down to 27 so quickly that a decision was made to play down to 17), and establish the final six on day six.

HELP IS ON THE WAY

During the first break, I hang with one of the day-three leaders, Juha Helppi. I had never met Finland's best player and winner of the inaugural WPT Aruba Poker Classic. We chat about paintball and poker. I didn't realize how big team competitions were both here and abroad. The growth in college paintball has been phenomenal. The National College Paintball Association spreads an annual tournament (something NCAA football hasn't been able to put together). More than 7,000 competitors represent 256 schools. Juha has been on Finland's national team. He is approximately 6 feet 3 inches tall and maybe 190 pounds, so I ask him if his size isn't a disadvantage. He smiles and says it is, and that's why he plays defense.

Helppi, now 28, traded in his dealer's shirt for a seat at the poker table three years ago. His friendly demeanor away from the table is diametrically opposed to his quiet, unemotional, unreadable play with cards in hand. He begins play with $334,600 today. Juha is very aggressive and fearless, the type of player who is a real threat to go a long way in this championship.

Many players, especially those with shrinking stacks, will have their eye on the monitor that tells us the number of players remaining, along with the current structure and time left at the present limit. The magic number is 100 players. The 101st-place finisher will leave with a huge round of applause, because players finishing from 51 through 100 receive $30,000. That's a very long, flat payoff structure, so I expect some gambling after the bubble player departs in 101st place. Why? Let's say you are assured of $30,000 and find yourself in (approximately) 80th place in chips. Wouldn't you take substantial risks to build chips rather than playing snugly and finishing in 55th place?

PLAYING SMALL BALL

Table 55 looks like an interesting cast of characters:

Antonio "The Magician" Esfandiari raises to $8,600. Tony Ma, always immaculately dressed and possessing hair that Donald Trump would give $30 million for, defends his big blind and we see a flop of Q J 9. Both check in a flash. Antonio fires $12,000 when the 8 comes on the turn. Tony calls and indicates that he is checking in the dark on the river. The dealer delivers a second queen. Antonio taps the table and we get to see Tony's hand. It is Q-J, the nuts. Ma is a former Card Player Player of the Year. He and I have talked some throughout the years when I've watched him play. He has a great poker mind, but as Simon Cowell might say, "If I must be honest, I was surprised by his decision to check in the dark."

I caught up with Tony a day later. I asked him if he recalled the hand in which he checked in the dark (the question was phrased to determine whether he had used that strategy several times in day four). He said, "Yes, against Antonio." When we discussed the situation, Tony provided this explanation: "When I checked my two pair on the flop, I wanted to check-raise, but he checked behind me. When the turn made a possible straight, I checked and he bet $12,000. The reason I checked dark is if the diamond comes, I can't make a full house, but he has to check. There is much more chance of a diamond coming than there is for me to fill up. So, if the deuce of diamonds comes (for example), he has to check because he knows if I make a defense call with no position on the turn, I probably have some draw that can beat a straight. I know he doesn't have a straight on the turn because he would have made a bigger bet to protect against a diamond."

After watching this table for an hour, and considering Tony's excellent explanation, I have arrived at an additional reason that Tony checked in the dark. He has decided to play small ball at this level. He wants to avoid the big-stack players, but attack opponents who possess smallish stacks and may move in with marginal hands. He is above par ($22,600,000 exists in aggregate chips and there are approximately 136 players in seats, thus the average stack is just above $166,000). He is biding his time, waiting for a big opportunity – the type that almost occurred against the aggressive Esfandiari.

Hasan Habib	Isabelle Mercier	David Sklansky

MORE ACTION AT TABLE 55

Allen Cunningham has been nibbling successfully and folding quickly to reraises. His net has been a gain of approximately $40,000 from the $151,900 he started with today. I look away at an all-in hand at another table for about 15 seconds. When I turn back, I see Allen's chips in the pot and the A K face up. I assume he's in coin-flip hell for all of his chips, but I'm wrong. Paul Testud has red kings (a strong 66-to-34 favorite). No ace comes and Cunningham is gone as quickly as he folds hands (a great player doesn't need to put on a Hollywood- type act every time he is reraised when caught stealing). I attempt to discuss the hand with Paul and discover we don't speak the same language. I try some awful French. That doesn't work, either. Speaking of French, Isabelle Mercier started with $120,300 today and has (at least) doubled through. You know I will cover Isabelle as closely as possible if she survives today.

While I'm shooting a photo of Alan Smurfit's favorite fan, Guadalupe, we have a major development at table 55 – the magician has disappeared. Hartmann's 9-9 fends off Esfandiari's big slick (A-K). Back to Smurfit … the retired businessman now pays his way into most of the big events after getting hooked while watching the WPT season one series. He's doing well, as evidenced by his recent pot-limit Omaha victory in Europe.

LEVEL 15 ($5,000-$10,000 WITH $1,000 ANTES) CONCLUDES

When the action stops for the day, only 45 players remain. Reza Payvar leads the way with $1,638,000 in chips. He is trailed by John Smith ($1,611,000) and Tuan Le ($1,480,000). Looming as big threats are Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi, Phil Ivey, and David Williams. As faithful Card Player readers know, I always follow Hasan Habib because he is friendly, photographs well, talks to me about hands, and is, by any measure, one of the best players in the game. Habib has $299,000. I expect him to make a big move or flame out tomorrow. Hasan has no interest in carefully moving up the prize money ladder.

DAY FIVE: I'm in huge jeopardy of overrunning my word quota if I get into more hand analysis today, so I'll venture into virgin territory (for me). I have never mentioned David Sklansky in any of my writings. Of course, I have watched and studied the prolific author who is responsible for so many playing our game and playing it well. His game is inordinately solid, as one would expect from the author of The Theory of Poker. David reads opponents well, has a great ability to adapt to table composition, and handles the mathematical part of the game in his sleep. As for interactive tendencies, David rarely speaks when playing and almost never shows Isabelle Mercie Hasan Habir David Sklansky emotion, although during the current FoxSportsNetwork Superstar series, he held pocket aces five times in the first round and demonstrated mild amusement concerning the defiance of mathematical probability, albeit via a miniscule sampling.

SCOUTING SKLANSKY

I watched Sklansky play in the World Series of Poker (WSOP) championships during the first years of this century. I wasn't in Las Vegas in 1982 when David put on a spectacular show, winning three WSOP bracelets. Of course, field sizes have dramatically increased in the last 13 years. Jack Straus outlasted a mere 103 competitors in 1982 to win the main event.

In 2001 (or possibly 2002), I remember a railbird asking me about David's chances of winning the big one. I responded that, in my opinion, he would need very strong cards to make a final table of a major event because he had too much math sense and not enough "gamble" to survive the growing fields. Of course, Sklansky is unquestionably smart enough to have pondered his strengths, areas of concern, and field size adjustments, and he surely factored in the "new type" players who might be classified as "aggressive gamblers." He also authored an excellent book titled Tournament Poker for Advanced Players in 2002. Possibly during research, he changed his game somewhat, because he appears more eager for confrontation and seems to play a few more hands these days, giving him greater potential to pull in big pots with minimum risk. Whereas I had written him off a few years ago, I now believe he is a factor in a championship event. I advise you to consider him when I start a fantasy poker league.

Sklansky struggled with a smallish (not panic-sized) stack almost all day. He dropped well below his starting count of $360,000 almost immediately, but picked up enough pots from late position to hover around $200,000 and keep moving up as players dropped off. His survival was impressive, since the blinds had escalated to $15,000- $30,000 during level 20.

Here's one more thing: I'm sure David couldn't care less about my "Mel Kiper analysis" of his play.

Sklansky, along with 16 others, makes it through the night. We lose star European Dave Colclough (43rd), our season one champ Alan Goehring (40th), our World Champ Greg Raymer (33rd), Isabelle Mercier (28th), David Williams (25th), and Dewey Tomko (22nd).

DAY SIX: The 16 players behind Phil Ivey probably would be able to name 500 players they'd prefer to chase, but the fiery, demonstrative, confrontational, excitable, flamboyant Ivey has the lead.

Nah, I'm playing around with a description of Australia's Tony G. Ivey is the epitome of professionalism at the table. He is quiet, cordial to opponents, and stoic. I watched him take one of the most horrific beats of all time (at the 2003 WSOP) without flinching. He lost with aces full to running treys that gave his opponent quads at a key time in the main event. He simply pushed his cards in, focused on the next hand, and eventually built his chips back up to finish a spot away from the final table. Ivey prefers to use his seated time to study and focus on the little things that may pay off immediately, or months later.

Alas, Phil is not what I term "press friendly," thus we won't get anything like we did from Spencer Sun on day three and we often do from Habib. Speaking of Hasan, he plans on downing a cheeseburger with the works and a Coke during a midday break. Habib now stalks menacingly from third place. Tuan Le, a big threat and former WPT winner (at Foxwoods in November 2004), is sandwiched between these great players.

Jeff Shulman

17 STRONG SURVIVORS

There's nary a weak link to exploit. Former World Champ Chris "Jesus" Ferguson resides in fifth place, the redhot Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi starts from sixth, Hendon mobster Joe Beevers, one of Europe's finest, is seventh, Joseph Cordi, possibly the best Internet player alive, holds down ninth, the dangerous opportunist John Phan is 10th, and Card Player President/CEO Jeff "Happy" Shulman occupies 11th place (my contract is up for renegotiation this month or I'd have stopped at 10th).

Actually, I enjoyed a pizza luncheon in the office last week and the conversation got into tournament strategy and Jeff. Since Jeff wasn't present, I opined that he might be too solid – not enough gamble – for an event like this. The fact that he will be seated on day six proves me wrong. Jeff later revealed to me that it was a weird tournament of starting hands for him. He couldn't remember many tough decision hands, such as Q-J suited. He had either easy muck- type hands or premium holdings, thus didn't get into too much trouble along the way.

TABLE ONE IS STACKED

We start imbalanced in two ways: Table No. 1 (shown below) has nine players and 60.6 percent of the chips in play.

The second table also should be interesting to watch. Tuan Le has shown a strong propensity to gamble. With his "bully stack" I expect him to put pressure on the small stacks and use the fact that Phil and Hasan are at the other table to his advantage (until the tables are combined or a big-stack player is moved to his table).

Paul Maxfield disposes of the other Paul (Testud) eight minutes into play when he spikes an ace on the flop. Just before 1 p.m., Jack announces that we are moving to blinds of $20,000-$40,000 with $5,000 antes. Tony Ma and Sklansky are short and must make moves. Sklansky chooses to try a steal with 5-3, but Phan gives him action with 6-5. The flop comes 10 8 4. Both players pick up straight draws when the 2 turns. A second snowman (8) ends David's excellent run. He takes home $75,485.

Tony escapes two all-in hands in which he has the lead, but succumbs on his third attempt to double through when Joe Beevers' K-Q snags a queen on the flop and makes a flush on the river to take down Ma's 8-8.

There are always pivotal hands in long tournaments. Yesterday, Tony lost with the A 9 to a player with 10-9 offsuit (a 30-to-70 underdog). Tony's opponent surprisingly chose to make that weak holding his "now or never" hand. Tony's stacks were halved when a 10 came. He was demoted from top 10 percent in chip count to an average stack. Although Ma recovered well, that hand deprived him of a great shot to make the final table.

THE BOSS TAKES 12TH

After suffering a loss of 75 percent of his $440,000 in chips in a coin-flip situation against Cordi (Jeff held slightly favored pocket tens over Joseph's K Q), Shulman now commits to Q-8 and dominates Phan's Q-7. Oops, a 7 flops to knock Happy out in 12th place. He has to be happy about his strong performance (outlasting 440 players), but saddened by the loss of the potential huge and prestigious score that our 11 remaining competitors must remove from their minds as they concentrate on everything that affects their stack sizes.

The tables are combined at 10 after Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi's $712,000 all-in bet with A-J is called by Rob Hollink's A-Q and the board comes 10-9-2-8-2.

Hasan can't be happy that he has failed to escape the right side of Ivey in the seat draw. Of course, taking a huge pot from Michael a short while ago when Hasan's pocket queens bested the Grinder's 6-6 eases the pain.

The chip counts are now:

Play slows down at this time as the players are focused on making the final television table (six players) as well as building their chips. Who do you think will make the final table? In Part IV you'll find out, when I report on the heated action during the battle for first-place prize money of $2,856,150.