A Flashback to the 2001 World Series of Poker Main Event

Sometimes it’s easy to forget how many players joined the poker scene post-Moneymaker. Many of them regard past World Series of Poker champions as just names on the wall. I was lucky to cover the 2001 main-event final table as a reporter, and still think it was the most interesting final table I’ve seen. It was the first nine-handed final table in main-event history; it had plenty of personality, and a lot of talking. Since WSOP fever is in the air, I thought I’d take a break from my normal column content and tell some stories from that final table, especially for those who are new arrivals to the poker scene.

Mike Matusow’s Big Bluff
Carlos Mortensen, the eventual champion, was the chip leader for most of the final table, and he moved his chips constantly, raising nearly half of the pots preflop. Mike Matusow had just doubled up with K-K against Henry Nowakowski’s J-J, and was getting pretty worked up. He apparently thought that he should personally be the one to slow Mortensen down.

With seven players left, Nowakowski limped in from under the gun for 20,000. Mortensen raised to 80,000, as he often did. Matusow then came over the top and made it 380,000 to go, which was a little less than half of his chips. When the action came back to Nowakowski, he went all in for 445,000 total. Mortensen folded, and Matusow reluctantly called the extra 65,000 while showing 7-2 offsuit. Nowakowski had K-K and doubled up. Matusow was trying to make a play on Mortensen, but didn’t count on running into a big hand from the under-the-gun limper. Nowadays, you see more players make huge moves with rags, but back then, it had a lot of people talking.

Nowakowski, a relative unknown, had more ups and downs than just about any final-table player I’ve ever seen. He started out as the chip leader, quickly lost the lead in a big way, got the huge double-up with his K-K, yet still ended up being the next player eliminated, in seventh place. If nothing else, it speaks to how inexperienced players can get eaten alive under the pressure. It also speaks to how strong his competition was.

Mortensen Shows Matusow How to Bluff
Six players were left, and the blinds were still 10,000-20,000. Matusow opened for 60,000. Mortensen made it 150,000 to go from the big blind. Matusow reraised to 350,000 total, committing half of his chips. Mortensen thought for about five seconds, then declared himself all in. Matusow forcefully mucked his cards, and Mortensen turned up Q-8 offsuit. He then stood and half-jokingly raised his hands in triumph as the crowd cheered enthusiastically, happy to see someone other than Matusow do some over-the-top celebrating.

Again, I’ll relate this play to today’s poker wisdom, which would suggest that once a player has half of his chips in, he’s probably pot-committed. But Mortensen made it clear later that he detected weakness in Matusow’s words and movements, and that led him to push all in with queen high. Clearly, he was right. Matusow never recovered, and finished in sixth place.

The Strangest Final-Table Hand I’ve Ever Witnessed
With five players left, everyone but Dewey Tomko limped in for 20,000 preflop. After a Q-9-4 flop, Phil Hellmuth bet 60,000. Mortensen then check-raised to 260,000 from the small blind. Stan Schrier was next to act. He had never taken more than 10 seconds to make a decision, but now he sat there for two full minutes, apparently contemplating what to do. The crowd was leaning forward in their chairs, expecting a huge confrontation. Instead, it turned out that Schrier forgot that he still had his cards! He quickly mucked them, and the crowd started laughing and joking about what happened.

But the hand was still going on, and Hellmuth quickly moved all in for more than 1 million. It was nearly impossible to hear what the players were saying, because the crowd was still buzzing from Schrier’s faux pas. This was taking place in the old Binion’s Horseshoe bingo room, which was pretty small, so the crowd noise really drowned out everything else. Only when Hellmuth moved his chips forward was it clear that he had declared he was all in. Mortensen then gestured with his hand toward Hellmuth’s chips, and only because I was sitting right behind him, I’m 90 percent sure that I heard him say, “Count,” as in he wanted a count of Hellmuth’s chips. But Hellmuth clearly thought Mortensen said, “Call,” because he quickly flipped up his Q-10. To his credit, Mortensen did exactly the right thing. He wasted no time in flipping up his Q-J, as if he had indeed said, “Call.” The turn and river were no help, Hellmuth was eliminated in fifth place, and Mortensen built a chip lead that would turn out to be insurmountable.

I’m not taking anything away from Hellmuth, as his record speaks for itself, and he had just lost a big all-in pot against Phil Gordon when Gordon’s 6-6 outdrew his 9-9. But, if Mortensen was truly just asking for a chip count, I wonder if a bigger blunder has ever been made in final-table history. Mortensen might have made the call anyway, but I’m not sure. When you are facing an all-in reraise for more than half of your chips, top pair with a mediocre kicker suddenly doesn’t seem very strong. If Mortensen had folded, Hellmuth would have been in second place, with less than half a million between himself and Mortensen, and we can only wonder what might have happened. It’s now eight years later, but that still remains one of the strangest hands I’ve ever seen.

A Memorable Final Hand
With 20,000-40,000 blinds, Tomko raised to 100,000 from the button, and Mortensen called. The flop came J 10 3, and Mortensen led out for 100,000. Tomko made it 500,000 to go, Mortensen moved all in, and Tomko wasted no time in calling with the A A. Mortensen had the K Q for the monster draw. The turn was the 3, but the 9 on the river gave Mortensen a straight and the title.
There were some clues that Tomko had a strong hand. His preflop raise was smaller than the standard raise had been, so he seemed to be inviting action, and his substantial raise on the flop was the first time during heads-up play that he had committed such a large chunk of his chips. But whether Mortensen chose to move all in or not, neither had a hand that could be gotten away from.

It’s one of the few times in main-event history that the final confrontation was truly unavoidable. Those two hands were going to get the money in one way or another, and as often happens, a river card determined the champion. If the river were a blank, Tomko would have had a 2-1 chip lead, and again we can only wonder what would have happened from there.

I hope that you enjoyed this look into the past. Now it’s time to come back to the present and write some new WSOP history. I’m looking forward to being a part of it. I hope you are, too.

Matt Lessinger is the author of The Book of Bluffs: How to Bluff and Win at Poker, available everywhere. You can find other articles of his at www.CardPlayer.com.