'Play the Player!'

Early on day two of the main event of the World Series of Poker, I found myself limping in with the 4 4. The blinds were 200-400, I called 400, and a player from my home state of Wisconsin – I have lived in California for the last 14 years – with a Green Bay Packers sweatshirt on made it 2,000 to go. I called, and the flop was 10 6 3. I checked, and Wisconsin boy bet 5,000. I called, thinking that my pair of fours was the best hand. The turn card was the 3. I checked, and Wisconsin boy bet 17,000. I folded my fours faceup, and Wisconsin boy flipped up the J 5 on the table. He just had to show me his stone-cold bluff, and I really was a bit steamed! You see, I had been friendly and chatty with Wisconsin boy as we discussed our hero Brett Favre and his future with the Packers. Still, he made a good play, and it is always war at the poker table. However, I told him, after I was done being a poker brat, "Good play, but you shouldn't have shown me your hand. Now I'm going to focus on you and take you down."



With more than 6,800 entrants this year in the WSOP main event and a $9 million first-place prize, not to mention six weeks of coverage on ESPN, the main-event title is the most prestigious and prized in the poker world. The main event is the only tournament that enables you to call yourself "World Champion of Poker" after you win it. Every great poker player in the world – and every wannabe – plays in this tournament every year. In 2008, the final-table players were determined on July 14, but they will not play it out until November.



I entered day two with 81,000 in chips, and the average chip stack at that point in the tournament was around 36,000. After Wisconsin boy bluffed me out, I was still sitting on about 81,000, and I really didn't want to go after anyone. Getting personal in tournaments is never a good idea, but sometimes I cannot help myself. I studied Wisconsin boy for the next five hours. Every time he entered a pot, I paid attention to the hand he flipped over: Was he strong or weak? What did he look like when he raised before the flop? What were his tells? How did he throw his chips into the pot when he was strong or weak? Finally, I thought that I had a pretty good read on him, and I was ready to use that information to my advantage. In one key hand, when I was holding the 4 2 – with the blinds at 400-800 – I decided to make my move. Wisconsin boy opened for 2,400. From the small blind, I called the 2,400 and raised another 5,000, and Wisconsin boy called. The flop came J 6 5, and I bluffed out 7,000. Wisconsin boy made it 20,000 to go, and the hand was over, right? Give Wisconsin boy credit, as he had outmaneuvered me! (He later told me that he had pocket tens.) I mean, what could I do? I couldn't move all in and risk my whole tournament, could I? What if I was wrong? The obvious choice was to fold my hand, but somehow, folding just didn't seem right to me. I reasoned that I probably would just call the 13,000 raise if I had pocket kings. Thus, I decided to take the bluff one step further and represent that I was holding pocket kings. I called the 13,000, and when the 5 hit on the turn, I bet out 12,000. Now, Wisconsin boy looked visibly upset. Was he upset because on some level he knew that I was on a bluff – a bluff that no player could reasonably carry on this far? Was he upset because he knew on some level that he had to fold the best hand? Now, the ESPN cameras appeared, and I smelled a new line in the making. When Wisconsin boy folded his hand, I almost folded my hand facedown, but I couldn't resist showing him – and the world­ – my big stone-cold bluff, so I asked the people who had gathered around to watch this hand, "Do you want to see my hand?" Of course, they all begged to see it, and I flipped up the 4-2, and pandemonium ensued!



Wisconsin boy was really upset, and his voice quivered as he asked me, "How could you call the 13,000 raise on the flop?"



I said, "I called the 13,000 raise to bluff you on the turn and show you who I really am." Then, I looked squarely at the ESPN cameras and said, "Play the player! You don't have to play the cards when you can play the player!"