A Day Off Commentating for ESPN

I had a great day at the WSOP yesterday, and I didn’t event play a hand of poker. Well that’s not entirely true, I did play a small tournament on Full Tilt early in the morning with 185 players and took 7th place, but then I got a call from the ESPN 360 producer that they need a color commentator for the 2-7 no limit single draw final table who was a specialist in the game, and since none were available they asked me, just kidding.

It was a really strong final table with Michael Binger, Steve Sung, John Juanda, Archie Karas, David Benyamine, Ville Wahlbeck, Vince Musso, and Nick Schulman. Roland De Wolf and Justin Smith just missed the final table. Vince Musso started as the chip leader and played well until he mis-read John Juanda and called his all-in having to draw two. For those of you unfamiliar with 2-7 no limit single draw it is the ultimate game of position and playing the other player, and calling an all-in having to draw 2 cards is to be avoided at all cost. Binger and Benyamine were both pretty short and although they played well, they got a little unlucky and finished 8th and 7th respectively. Archie Karas is the well known gambler who turned a small stake into double digit millions at Binion’s, and at one time had every $5,000 chip in the casino. Juanda got it all-in good and just got coolered.

One of the most impressive players to emerge at this WSOP is Ville Wahlbeck. He is from Helsinki Finland and has been on quite a run, with 3 cashes in this series, including a 3rd and a win in the 8 game mixed event. All of his cashes have been in 10k buy in events, and is currently way out in front for MVP at the WSOP. The other great story at this table is Steve Sung who at 24 years old is really on of the great ones. He won the largest field non-main event with over 6,000 runners at the beginning of the series. I have played with him many times and he is a formidable opponent and a great guy. It is interesting to note that his win in a massive relatively soft field is completely opposite from this, perhaps the toughest field of any event, 96 of the best players in the world.

Heads up play came down to Ville Wahlbeck and Nick Schulman, with Nick having a big chip lead. Of note, is the fact that Nick was the short stack most of the day, and really played brilliantly to hang around and pick his spots. Nick ground it out and then, after a one card draw for each player, managed to make a wheel, 2 3 4 5 7, which is the unbreakable nuts, and they got it all in. I was happy to see Nick win, he is a great player, a friend, and a fellow Full Tilt Pro. I will be playing the $1,500 no limit event today, hopefully I will be playing instead of commentating at the final table this time.