14
Sweatin’ Phil
Just a few rounds into the second day of the $2,500 Short-Handed No-Limit Hold’em event, Phil Gordon was on the ropes, having been crippled after losing a coin-flip hand. He shrugged it off and doubled up, thanks to a well-timed move and a little luck. His all-in raise with A-7 got called by a player holding A-10, and Phil caught the 7 he needed on the turn. A couple hands later, he flopped two pair with K-2 to beat another player’s pocket nines. As nice as the change in luck was, he was still on the ropes with only $35,000.
Was anyone in the room counting him out? No way. He’s Phil Gordon, and he knows how to play a short stack as well as anyone. He made a particularly craft play against Bill Chen when Chen raised to $7,500 before the flop and Phil just called from the small blind. “What in the hell,” I asked myself. “What kind of hand would he just call with at this stage in the tournament?” Aces, as it turned out, and he played them well. He bet into Chen when the flop came K-3-8 and Chen quickly raised him all in.
“I almost lost my market there,” Phil said after calling and taking down the large pot. “I had to try to trap.” The hand seemed to inject him with a newfound enthusiasm. “You can feel it, can’t you?” he needled Chen. “You’re going to double me again.” Even though Phil’s stack was still below average, it was clear who the table captain was.
Scratching and clawing for every chip he could get, he made an amazing play on the last hand just before the first break of the day. After everyone at the table folded and stood up from the table, the small blind said, “Raise,” but before he could clarify how much Phil announced that he was all-in. It was a very astute play. If the small blind’s raise had been for $8,000 or more, Phil would have had to fold his hand as the small blind would have been pot-committed and wouldn’t have folded to an all-in reraise. By moving in so quickly, Phil allowed his timid opponent an out: he could declare the minimum raise and fold his hand. Which is exactly what he did. Phil had read his opponent perfectly, and all within a matter of seconds. “He wasn’t going to want to go broke on the last hand before the break,” Phil explained afterwards.
While many of the players left in the tournament were just happy to be in the money, Phil was playing to win a bracelet. He moved all in four out of five hands at one point, two of them coming over the top of $9,000 raises, and each time his opponents folded their hands. Phil was chipping away, building a stack, surging in momentum… when there was a redraw for seating with 18 players left in the tournament.
Placed at the same table as Harry Demetriou, Phil suddenly had a big problem as Demetriou is a very experienced player and his stack made Phil’s look like loose pocket change. Demetriou was also on a rush, having just cracked Jeremiah Smith’s pocket aces with A-K—he not only caught two kings on the flop but also made the nut flush on the river.
Playing bully, Demetriou raised four pots in a row at one point. Knowing that at least some, if not all, were steals, Phil made a move with 10-7 of clubs, pushing all in from the small blind. This time, however, Demetriou actually had a hand—pocket queens—and Phil was suddenly on the rail, out in 16th place.
Despite falling short of the ultimate goal, it was still an impressive run. A worse player would have been eliminated hours earlier. As it was, Phil worked his short stack like the champion that he is, making all the right moves… until the last one, which just didn’t go his way.
