18
#249G – London Journal #15G – Million Dollar Cash Game #7 – Fireworks
At about 4:40 PM, Tony G and Phil Ivey got into it.
5h-3c-7h-Jc
On this board, Phil bet and Tony G went all-in. Ivey asked for a count. The dealer counted the chips. $94,400 more. Then Ivey asked three more times, I assume hoping that Tony G would say something or do something. But he had his elbows planted on the table, the lower half of his face obscured by his hands, and his eyes were fixed downward.
My earlier note about the buy-ins was correct. Six players bought in for $100,000. Antonius and Ivey bought in for $200,000. Coming out of the break, though, Tony G bought in for another $50,000.
Phil stares at him, his lips moving silently. Then he rubs his eyes and rests his hands over his face. He picks up four black chips, $100,000, and moves them between his fingers, looking at Tony. He looks like he’s going to throw the money in at any second … almost. Tony betrays nothing.
Phil, keeping the running scorecard on the props, had made a note after a recent hand and grumbled, “minus fifty.” I’m going to speculate here that Ivey is the sort of smart gambler who complains in inverse proportion to how he’s doing. He and Lindgren got into a discussion about how fast Lindgren could run a mile. Could he do it in six minutes? Erick, who recently played four rounds of golf in one day, walking, during the World Series (so the temperature was way over 100) and he had to play under a certain score (which he did). All this, to win $350,000. Lindgren is apparently still hurting.
He claims he can’t run a mile much quicker than eight minutes. “But you could run a mile in six minutes Phil, probably tomorrow.”
“I bet you I can’t,” which puts an end to the conversation because these crazy performance bets rarely allow a bettor to take the “don’t” against himself. But Phil mumbles something about trying to get back two hundred (thousand, it’s safe to guess) so it’s likely he was on the other side of the Lindgren-four-rounds-in-one-day bet.
Finally, he calls Tony G.
Tony turns over 7d-5d for two pair. He’s waiting to see Phil’s hand but Phil won’t show it. There’s some disagreement, never actually resolved, over whether Ivey has to show. The river card is the king of clubs and Ivey says, “Take it.”
But Tony G wants to see his hand. “We’re going to play a lot of pots. I’d like to see your hand.”
Ivey mucks his cards hard at the dealer, one of them falling on the floor. Then the dealer replaces it in the muck and Tony starts asking him to turn over cards. There’s no ruling over whether any of this is proper. There’s a five, a six, a ten – two of them are clubs. Phil says, “You can’t turn over the whole deck.”
There’s grumbling by both players about whether Phil had to show, but with no resolution.
Erick Lindgren had been dealt out before that hand and he comes back to inform everyone that he’s done for today. He’ll apparently be back tomorrow. He takes a break from the game with $139,900 in chips. Brian Townsend buys in for $200,000 and is immediately collared about getting into the prop betting. He declines. “I haven’t slept in 36 hours.”
Mel Judah, in the bar, tells me the pot was $350,000. It was, in any event, the biggest pot of the day though it’s possible it wasn’t quite that large. Tony G had rebought after the break, giving him $110,000 at the start of the hand and there was other action. I’m certain it was at least $250,000, and Tony G is asking for drinks ….
