FULL TILT POKER BLOG

#250G – London Journal #16G – Million Dollar Cash Game #21 – Access

Posted by Editor | Filed under Uncategorized

On the one hand, Jeremiah Smith and I can practically call out to the players in the game and ask them their cards and their thinking. We can also toddle over to the production room and see the hole cards, or ask. On the other hand, the set-up here is as unfavorable as I could imagine. The people connected with the production are wonderful but there’s no place to type, wires snake their way through the only place I can work, there’s a lot of low/heavy furniture cluttering my work space, no way to follow the action as it’s going on, no way to hear what the players are saying, and the internet access sucks.

While we were out on break, the internet access went out and it just came back on (at about 5:40 PM). They’ve been at it for 20 minutes, plus there was some interesting action just before the break. Here is the recap:

Just before the break, there was a bizarre hand between Howard Lederer and Allen Cunningham. Two players limped so Howard, in the cut-off, limped with 3c-5c. Allen also limped on the button. Six players saw the flop, which was 2-4-6, three suits.

Phil Ivey bet $3,000. Howard made the decision to raise, reasoning he couldn’t win a big pot if no one had anything but he could make a lot if the flop hit someone else.

Allen flat-called his $9,000. The turn was the queen of spades, putting two spades on the board. Howard checked. “I thought there was a chance he had a set. Maybe he can get away if I check-raise him, but I don’t think he can check a set.”

Cunningham indeed had a set, 4-4, but he checked. How could he check? “For value,” Lederer said. “Give me credit for one level of thinking for trying to trap him with a set, but he gets credit for a second level of thinking by checking his set. He has to figure if he gets action from me, all he can beat is 2-2. If I have 6-6 or 5-3, he’s way behind.”

“And that’s the problem,” he continued, “playing against great players. Even at this table, I think any other player would check. But Allen’s really, REALLY fucking good.”

Then the nightmare card came on the river, a deuce. Howard checked and Allen bet $10,000. “Betting like that into a $24,000 pot, I really felt he had a set and made a full house. Maybe if I laid it down it would have gone down as an all-time great laydown. But I called.”

Unless he could have gotten Cunningham to lay down the set on the turn – which he couldn’t do without the check-raise – he played the hand as well as he possibly could. Even if he’s going to regard the call at the end as a mistake, it was a $10,000 mistake instead of a $40,000 mistake, which it would have been if he bets, gets called, and makes a call of a river bet by Allen into the bigger pot.

These were the chip counts at the break:

Seat 1 – Tony G $416,000. Tony announced at the break he was leaving. (He left behind $5,000 for the dealers.)
Seat 2 – Howard Lederer $72,000
Seat 3 – Allen Cunningham $143,200
Seat 4 – Andy Bloch $19,600
Seat 5 – Chris Ferguson $133,300
Seat 6 – Phil Ivey $230,800
Seat 7 – Patrik Antonius $356,100
Seat 8 – Brian Townsend $152,900.

Tony has been replaced by Roland de Wolfe, who starts with $100,000. Erick Lindgren has arrived and is agitating for a spot in the game.

Erick and Phil are talking shit between hands about – what else? – the props. Lindgren is heckling when Ivey tries convincing the other players to raise the stakes.

Phil: “What are you saying?”

Erick: “I’m saying I just want you to get your way Phil.”

Phil: “Why are you starting with me?”

Andy Bloch, who is very short, has asked Erick how much he’ll pay to buy Andy’s seat. “Two pounds.”

They mix it up and Howard Lederer gets in it, saying to Erick (in response to I don’t remember what), “Nice comeback, Erick.”

Erick: “I guess we’re just waiting for your suit to make a nice comeback, Howard.”

It’s a few minutes after 6 PM and there was just a big pot so I want to get this posted, but I have a note that while they were chatting between hands, several players got into a discussion about misreading or forgetting their hole cards. Lederer mentioned there was one time when he thought he had Q-Q when his actual cards were 8-4.

Gotta figure out how THAT went down.

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