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#058 – FTOPS Main Event – Final Table Part II – “When I raise that many times, I don’t believe myself.”
In Part I, I raced the 30 miles to Robert Williamson III’s home at 2 AM so I could watch him (a/k/a Miss Lulu) play the final table of the FTOPS Main Event. Amid connection break downs, Williamson’s reluctance to throw away a hand with a funny name, and Clonie Gowen’s attempt to take her measurements, Miss Lulu caught a little run of cards and remained in the hunt. All nine players remained as it neared 2:30 AM local time. Blinds were about to go out to 50,000-100,000. I encourage you to read Part I, which appeared as entry #057 – “The Wine and Clonie Slowed Me Down”.
On the very next hand, Miss Lulu gets A-Js.
Dallas: “I’m limping, I’m limping.”
Clonie: “No, there’s no limping anymore.”
Me: “You’ve done that. They already saw that move.”
You wouldn’t know that we were screaming our advice, with the fervor of a duo who busted early enough to get most of a night’s sleep between our bust-outs and the time we offered it, to a man who was won over a million dollars as the World Series of Poker and, frankly, was not surprised to make the final 9 out of over 3,200.
Miss Lulu raises with the ace-jack, but traheho flat-calls on the button. Kd-4d-9s on the flop. Lulu does not have diamonds. 690,000 in the pot. Clonie is begging Robert to make a continuation bet. “You have to, you have to, you HAVE TO.”
But Robert checks. “I don’t have to. I’ll just outplay him. Next time he does it, I’ll come over the top and take all his money.” traheho bets 400,000. “I might do it right now.”
Miss Lulu slides the 1.63 million on to the “raise” bar. “I like it. But I don’t love it. If I had two overcards, I’d love it.” Williamson folds. “I don’t like raising there. I’ve been raising with too many hands. I gotta think about them, not me. When I raise that many times, I don’t believe myself.”
Where’s the wine? Dallas asks. He, Cate, and Clonie went through the bottle of ’97, Napa Cabernet Savignon from Far Niente, Estate Bottled. “I promised I’d open the bottle of ’94 when I got to the final table. Well, here I am at the final table. Where is the bottle of ’94?”
As they start playing 50,000-100,000 blinds, Miss Lulu is dealt K-Jo. King Jackoff. Second to act, Lulu folds. Boosted J raises and bokpower calls. Boosted has 8-8. bokpower has A-T. Boosted picks up an eight on the flop and it’s over for bokpower, who finishes ninth, making $21,553.90 for his efforts.
It’s 2:30 AM local time and tsarrast has the chip lead with 3.4 million. Boosted J is second with 2.9 million, and traheho has 2.4 million. After that, the players are bunched between one and two million: Balfarios and MychCumstien at 1.7 million, Miss Lulu at 1.6 million, THEOLDLION at 1.2 million, and CoinFlip at a million.
On the next hand, Dallas, in the big blind, has 2-6o and starts expanding, like a Macy’s Parade balloon blown up to out-of-control proportions. “2-6 off seems like the perfect vixen. I think I’m going to move all –“
“Forget about it!” Cate yells as she’s thinking of leaving the room. “Get over it.”
“Just kidding,” Robert tells her, as Dallas has deflated to manageable size.
We chuckle, like we never believed he’d even consider it.
Dallas springs back to life, like the balloon popping back up. “I might! If the small blind raises, I might move all-in.”
The small blind raises to 300,000, making Robert Williamson III look bad in front of his friends and his wife.
While Robert sits there looking at the mocking raise, Clonie tries to offer consolation. “You’ve got two live cards so even if he calls you if you move all-in, you’re good.”
“Yeah,” Robert replies dejectedly, “But it’s off-suit. If it was suited, I’d damned sure –“
Clonie: “You would not.”
Miss Lulu folds. “If it was connected – well, it was vaguely connected. But if it was connected ….”
I tell Robert one of the things I learned from hanging out with Ted Forrest and Huck Seed. Ted had told me many amazing stories about Hamid Dastmalchi, the 1992 champion who occasionally comes by the Bellagio to play for high-stakes or at the World Series, and was a character in The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King. According to Ted, Hamid was a great player, then he slipped a cog, then became a tough player again.
But during that middle time? “Huck, do you remember when Hamid would play any hand with a six, just so he could bust you if you had an ace and the board came 2-3-4-5?”
While folding 6-9o in the small blind, Robert tells Cate, “Don’t worry honey. My money’s going all-in soon. They’re getting a little frisky here.”
On the next hand, on the button, Miss Lulu limps with Kd-6d after another player limped. The blinds are in the hand, too, so four players see the flop: Ah-4h-5d. Robert says if tsarrast checks, he’s betting. But tsarrast bets 325,000 and Miss Lulu folds.
Cate brings the ’94. It’s their last bottle of ’94.
Robert: “We’re gonna have an argument if you don’t get it over here.”
Cate: “Stop. Don’t be a cuckoo.”
7-9. “Every hand, I don’t have any idea if I’m going to fold, call, or raise. Every single hand, when it comes to me, that’s when I make my decision.” This time, tsarrast bets 300,000 and Lulu folds. Then CoinFlip moves all-in for a million and tsarrast calls.
CoinFlip has A-Qo, tarrast A-8s. Eight on the flop and CoinFlip is out in eighth, with $28,953. tsarrast now has 4.9 million chips. Miss Lulu has 1.292 million.
On the next hand, with no small blind, MychKumstien moves all-in for 1.7 million. traheho folds is big blind.
9-6o under the gun, fold. “Actually, I don’t mind my position at all. I’ve got two backside players with the same stack sizes. Big stack to my right; I get to see what he does first. Not a bad position.”
The big stack, tsarrast, has grown to 5.2 million. Miss Lulu had Kd-6s in the big blind. Balforios raises to 300,000.
“In a minute I’m gonna get testy and push you all-in, but I can’t do it this time. “ Miss Lulu folds, 1.12 million left.
7c-9c in the small blind. tsarrast raises to 300,000. Lulu is thinking about moving in. Clonie is in favor. She was ready for Robert to put in an open-raise. “I don’t even mind you going over the top of him right now. I think that’s you’re best play right now.”
Robert is debating it out loud. “I have a whole ‘nother round to do it.” He scans the table, making calculations. “Three-seven-nine-two ….”
And then he’s all-in.
The big blind folds. tsarrast is thinking about it. Why? There is over 1.6 million in the pot and it’s just 800,000 more. Unless Miss Lulu has a big pocket pair, tsarrast is getting those odds or better with almost any two cards.
Robert does tsarrast’s reasoning for us. “He’s the chip leader, wants to protect his lead. He’s plays very good. He might call, ‘cuz he’s got a lot of chips.”
He folds. Clonie says, “It was the right play. That’s why he made the 300,000 bet.”
On the next hand, Lulu has cards that are almost as good, 4c-8c. Two live unders! But THEOLDLION moves all-in and Clonie reaches in to make Lulu’s fold as Robert takes a sip of wine. “But do it slowly, do it slowly.”
Robert periodically scrolls through the room chat.
“Someone is offering to sleep with Miss Lulu.”
I ask the obvious question. “Do they want to sleep with you, Robert? Or the blonde avatar in the cowboy hat? Or the person playing for $288,000?”
“Either-or. Either-or.”
He notices that someone in blue – a player at the final table, not one of the hundreds jabbering from the rail – just said ‘nice hand missus.’ It was tsarrast.
“That means he’s reading the chat in the room, too. That’s good to know.”
Robert folds K-8 and gets K-5 on the following hand. “King-eight’s a better hand but king-five is close –“
Cate: “I HATE king-five.”
“All right,” Dallas says, “I was READY TO RAISE but the wife says, ‘I hate king-five.’ How can I raise when my wife says that?”
Cate elaborates. “I hate king-five more than any other hand in my whole life.” More than any other hand? That’s surprising to hear because king-five is BETTER than most of the hands Dallas purports to fall in love with. “When I was in the green room: king-five, king-five, king-five.”
“Well, you didn’t hear it from me.”
A couple hands later, Miss Lulu gets Ad-Kc under the gun. Miss Lulu limps.
Limps? This is a highly-advanced move, or at least an unorthodox move.
Clonie doesn’t like it. “A raise of 300,000 makes them want to come over the top with ace-queen, ace-jack.”
“I don’t want ‘em to come over the top. I want them to be suspicious. Automatically, traheho is thinking, ‘he’s got something, aw, I’ve got fours.’ I might have sixes. ‘I’m really perplexed. What do I do? Robert called instantly. He’s got something.’ This is the problem but this is the reward. Trust me.”
THEOLDLION moves all-in. And then tsarrast moves all-in.
Clonie: “Now you’re folding.”
“Believe it or not, I am folding.” Robert folds.
I protest but I immediately realize that it is an easy fold: with two all-ins, there is a great likelihood that someone has a pocket pair and someone else has one of his aces. (Of course, it’s even worse if someone has aces or kings.)
He doesn’t need to take chances. “I’ll out play ‘em. I don’t need to gamble. THEOLDLION has T-T and tsarrast has Ac-K. The flop brings and ace and two clubs. More clubs on the turn and river make tsarrast the nut flush.
It is a remarkable escape for Miss Lulu – trapping with ace-king, giving it up to two all-ins, seeing the possibility have having just four outs for a split, hitting one of those outs, and then losing with the second-nut flush to the nut flush.
Clonie and Robert go back to debating the limp. “I still like the 300,000 bet there.”
“But then I can’t get away from it.” Miss Lulu is getting pretty low on chips, not much more than ten big blinds. It would be hard, after betting 25% of his chips, to fold to anything.
Williamson is back to business. “Onetwothreefourfivesix,” he quickly counts before the next hand.
That’s right, THEOLDLION is now gone in seventh, earning $36,995.50.
