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#214 – WSOP #63 – The Long Sit
SHAME ON YOU IF YOU THOUGHT I WAS ACTUALLY GOING TO GO HOME
TURBO TEN-DIMER
It’s 11:10 PM as I write this. They’ve been at it (without subtracting for breaks or dinner) for over 11 hours. Far from driving home with my tail between my legs, I feel comfortable enough in my coverage that I’m going to not only commentate on this spectacle but also play the Turbo Hundo on Full Tilt that starts in 50 minutes. In fact, it’s appropriate that I do that.
How about what I said about Jerry Yang 9 hours ago, huh? The guy turned into Rambo, busting Watkinson, busting the chip leader, busting just about everyone. I thought I could skip the first several hours and still catch all the action. From my room, I learned that 3 players were eliminated in the first 31 hands, including the guy who started the day as the chip leader.
Were they running the WSOP Final Table as a turbo SnG?
I’ve been reading some details about the hands but I haven’t gone through them comprehensively. All I can say is, “What the hell were these guys thinking?”
Like Lee Watkinson, pushing all in with A-7 against Jerry Yang. What’s on his mind? That he’s got a bracelet and a zillion big time final tables and 15 years of top pro experiece, so he better get all his chips in at once so the amateur doesn’t outplay HIM after the flop?
Talking about this with Cory Zeidman, who was waiting (for several hours, it seems) to go on as a guest on the ESPN PPV broadcast, I said, “I think I can talk a better game than I can play but I’m getting there. I think of Lee Watkinson as a top, TOP pro. I think if he has A-7 against A-9, he should be able to get away AFTER the flop if an ace hits. I assume I couldn’t but he should be able to. But I think even I could have gotten away before the flop with his stack.”
I think the problem is all the zeroes. I honestly believe these guys are having trouble getting their heads around the different color chips and the big denominations. If this hand played out in the $500,000 Guarantee on Full Tilt, I simply don’t think this would have happens. Drop 3 zeros.
Blinds are 120-240, 30 ante. Jerry Yang, the chip leader has 45,090. Lee Watkinson has 9,745.. Yang has the small blind. Lee, with permanent position over the big stack, is in the big blind.
Small-blind Jerry raises to 1,000. More than x4. Clearly an amateur play. The bigger the bet, however, the easier it is to let go. Especially when you’re the experienced pro with permanent, unalterable position on the amateur with the big stack. (I’ll grant you, the one element I can’t figure in is what Watkinson is reading off Yang. Clearly, if he has some 99.99% read that Yang is super, super weak, he merely trusted an incorrect read. But I don’t think that’s really at work here.)
If I’m on the left of a big-stacked amateur who raises too big when he plays, I DEFINITELY don’t want to get fancy. If Gavin Smith is doing that, I’d worry about how to put a stop to it – but Gavin doesn’t do that. A top pro doesn’t want to expose himself with a weak hand if someone comes over the top. With an amateur, you need a big hand. With pocket queens, there’s a good chance the amateur will call you. But even if he doesn’t, he’s putting so much money in the pot that you don’t even need to get paid off following your reraise. His 1,000 plus the blinds and antes is plenty.
Lee looks down at A-7. What to do? First thing I think is that you don’t over-analyze. He was the tight guy, the new guy. He’s suddenly active and aggressive with a lot of chips. Blah blah blah. Do you want to play a guessing game with an amateur? Even if you thought you knew the guy and he’s changed into something else, you as the pro don’t NEED to force the issue less than 20 hands into the game. Even you think you’re good, you can call and outplay him on the flop. Or if you think he’s putting a move on – a guess that’s more likely than not to get you in trouble – you can raise his 1,000 to 2,500 or 3,000. If he’s truly making a move, do you really think he would believe he has so many chips that he’ll call? And if you’re worried about that, aren’t you worried he’ll think the same thing about 8,000 more if you push in?
Lee raised the 1,000 to 9,300, moving all in. After getting a careful count, Jerry Yang called the 8,300 with A-9 and eliminated Watkinson.
I’ve played in plenty of tournaments on Full Tilt where a guy gets a big early lead and plays too loose – bets too much and calls too much. And I’ve messed up by trying to force the issue with that guy. But I’m learning and I generally don’t fall into that trap. I’m not sure why Lee fell in, but maybe it was all the zeroes.
NOTE AT 12:02 AM – I had fully intended on playing the Turbo Hundo. In fact, since I’ve been a red pro, I don’t think there’s been a single tournament where I’ve signed up in which I’ve later unregistered. But I got a call at 11:45 PM from Eric Drache. He wants me on the ESPN PPV broadcast.
I unregistered and ran over to the Amazon Room. I’d have stayed registered and missed the beginning (that worked fine in my “Shannon the Redeemer” adventure last Friday night) but based on their production schedule, it was anyone’s guess when I actually went on. Cory Zeidman has been waiting to get on since, it seems, Day 2-AB and they just now put him on.
They told me to come back at 12:15 AM, which I’ll do. The area near the ESPN broadcast area – across the Amazon Room from the final table stadium – is actually much cooler than the final table itself. I’ll tell my stories after I do the broadcast and return to the place where I’m writing this, just outside the media center.
Should be sometime around 3 AM.
Last word before I go for my close-up: It looked like this tournament was going to end super-fast with 3 players busting in the first 31 hands. But Jerry Yang has proven that it’s a lot easier to accumulate chips than to hold them. He once had 75 million chips and he now has just over 50 million and the smallest stack has over 20 million. With blinds of 250,000-500,000, the shortest stack has 40 big blinds. And now that they’ve been here 12 hours, I presume that no one is rushing to prove a point with a ridiculous medium-strength hand, especially if Yang is willing to hand out courtesy double-ups.
The people working the tournament, especially the broadcast, are expecting a long, long sit before it ends.
