A Poker Life -- Jordan SmithThe November Nine Bubble Boy |
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“All-in.”
“Call.”
The audience took a collective gasp and rose to their feet. This could be it.
The all-in player, Jordan Smith, got a look at his opponent’s hand —- pocket eights, a set of eights on the flop. He glanced back at his pocket aces with consternation written on his face. The most coveted preflop hand in hold’em was failing him, and the reality was setting in. A tournament pro for years, Smith knew the odds, and they weren’t good. He needed one of two aces left in the deck, a running straight, or a running flush — or he would be eliminated from the World Series of Poker main event in 10th place, the November Nine bubble.
The Land Before Poker
So what led Smith down the path that eventually landed him deep in the most prestigious tournament in the world? It all began in Tool, Texas. That’s where a young Jordan spent his days, learning toughness from his older brother by four years. Shy around strangers, but energetic and outgoing with his close friends, Smith was a natural in school, getting straight A’s through elementary school and finishing fifth in his eighth-grade class.
“Then I started realizing that if I got a couple B’s, my parents weren’t going to kill me, so I started doing the bare minimum and being rebellious, I guess,” said Smith in his charming Texas twang.
Sports were big in the Smith home, and when he wasn’t getting beaten up playing football in the living room with his brother, Smith was on the baseball diamond. From age four to 18, Smith said that baseball was all he ever thought about doing. He planned on playing in college but was plagued by injuries his senior year. After high school, Smith attended a junior college with the intent of trying out for a baseball team after a year. That year passed, and then another year passed.
“I just couldn’t come back after that. I’d like to be Josh Hamilton, but it’s not going to work out like that. I didn’t get motivated to do it, and I guess I kind of regret that now,” said Smith, in a wistful tone.
From Amateur to Pro
With baseball out of the picture, poker became bigger part of his life. Having begun playing in high school with friends, Smith continued to improve, and became a consistent winner amongst the group.
“When I was in junior college, we started playing a lot, and I was making money. I feel bad about it now, because it was at my friends’ expense. We were having fun, but I wasn’t going to try to lose on purpose.”
In Texas, much of the poker scene occurs in underground games. Where Smith lived, there were three games a week: a $5-$10 mixed, a $10-$20 hold’em, and a $20-$40 game with a round of hold’em, a round of Omaha, and a round of dealers choice, flop games only. All games were limit at the time. In January 2003, at age 21, Smith decided to quit school and play full time. Smith admits to having a lack of knowledge about bankroll management when he started.
“I just played whatever game it was, whether I was sitting with my entire bankroll or 10 percent of my bankroll. As long as I had some money in the bank and enough to pay my bills, I was OK.”
Shortly after making poker his only source of income, Smith began playing online, and slowly moving from cash games to tournaments. He’s made numerous four- and five-digit cashes under the moniker “scarface_79.” Throughout his tenure as a poker pro, Smith has endured a few financial hardships, and gives much of the credit to his parents for helping him with moral and fiscal support to get through the difficult times. Despite having a nearly $120,000 score after winning a preliminary event at the 2009 Southern Poker Championship, Smith was still short on dispensable cash to come to the WSOP this summer.
“I was actually make-up online, so I didn’t make all of that money, but it definitely was a big relief. I had a lot of final-two-table finishes, and when the payouts are so top heavy, it was good to finally get my first win,” said Smith. “I’ve been living an expensive lifestyle for past couple years. Poker used to be a lot easier a few years ago, and I didn’t make a lot of sacrifices, even though I wasn’t making as much money. In tournaments, there’s a lot of variance, and I was getting low on money, so I almost didn’t come out. But it’s the World Series; I found a way.”
Decision Gone Right
This decision, he’d soon realize, would prove quite profitable. He started out with a min-cash in event No. 11, a $2,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em event. A few tournaments later, in event No. 36, another $2,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em event, Smith outlasted a field of 1,696 players to win the top prize of more than $586,000 and WSOP gold.
“It didn’t sink in right away. I was so tired that day, just exhausted. I was glad it was over with. It was just a big relief, especially financially.”
With momentum and confidence on his side, Smith entered the main event. He said his strategy was to wait for other players to make mistakes and avoid marginal situations. The structure catered to patience.
Smith had a somewhat smooth tournament for the first few days, but the physical and mental wear took a toll on his body.
“I was sick during the last three days of the tournament. I might have had strep throat or something,” Smith said, laughing. “You’ll see on TV that I’m losing my voice.”
He fought through the sore throat and complete lack of energy and focused solely on making the best decisions possible for his tournament life. As the field grew shorter and the tables continued to break, the tension pumping through the room could be felt. Smith described what he observed when there were two tables left to go.
“Whether anyone was talking about it or not, everyone was thinking about making the final table. Ben Lamb and Billy Kopp, both good players, were opening it up and being really aggressive. There were a lot of interesting dynamics that were coming into play. You would want to three-bet them, but they know their images, and they that know you know their images, so they might ship it and four-bet you. It’s kind of like a game of chicken.”
With the elimination of Billy Kopp in 11th place, the remaining 10 players took their seats at the televised final table. One more player needed to be eliminated before play stopped for the summer and the media frenzy around the November Nine began. After only a few shuffles into 10-handed play, Smith looked down at A
A
. He raised to 650,000 and got no action. A couple of hands later, he picked up A
A.
The Final Hand
Eric Buchman raised preflop to 650,000, and Darvin Moon called on the button. Smith put in a reraise and made it 2.6 million to go.
“I knew it was the final-table bubble, and I had already thought of all the things that go along with that. I was thinking that I wanted to make the reraise the right amount to get action, but not give them the right odds to set-mine.”
Smith also said that he knew that Moon was capable of taking a flop for a lot of chips, and it didn’t take him by huge surprise when he called the reraise which equaled about 20 percent of Smith’s stack. The flop came 8
4 2. Smith checked, and Darvin bet 4 million. Smith check-raised all in, and Darvin called with 8 8.
While the crowd erupted, Smith remained calm in his chair, awaiting his fate. The turn was the 5, giving him an extra four outs to a wheel, but the river was the 10, eliminating Smith from the tournament.
“People asked me why I didn’t just shove [preflop], but I don’t have any regrets as far as that goes. I think that on 80 to 90 percent of the flops, if I check, he bets, and he’s going to stack off on a lot of safe flops. If he was just straight set-mining and planning on check-folding, he wasn’t getting the right price, so I’m OK with it.”
As the others celebrated, Smith quietly and professionally dealt with the immediate shock of getting knocked out after eight long days of play. Many in his situation would be devastated, as some argue that this is the biggest bubble in tournament history, but Smith says that he wasn’t upset at all. His affable and good-natured personality allowed him to do the proverbial “looking on the bright side,” as he confessed that there were a number of times he could have gone broke much earlier. Smith referred to winning a crucial all-in on day 7 when he was short-stacked with K-10 against pocket jacks after two players admitted to having folded a king. The payout at the point was only $200,000 compared to the nearly $900,000 he received as the 10th-place prize.
“I guess in the last six months or so, my attitude and outlook on life has changed a lot. I had gotten to where I was a pretty negative person for a while, and, basically, I just knew I had to start looking at things differently. I realized I was really blessed as a human being, and I’m grateful for all of it.”
Smith has weathered highs and lows that come with his chosen profession, and with an unassailable positive attitude and a newly boosted bankroll, it’s likely that the poker world will be seeing much more from Jordan “scarface_79” Smith.
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