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#256 – London Journal #21 – Last Night in London, Part E – Hungry Like de Wolfe

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The sound system at Little Italy pounded out a playlist of the same 9 songs from the Eighties at over 100 decibels, but about 10% faster than they were meant to be played. I predicted within one minute that we would hear “Hungry Like the Wolf” and I was proven correct within 20 minutes. (I’d have been right with my next picks as well, “Rock Me Amadeus” and “She Blinded Me with Science,” but there was no one to bet against.)

My new hero, thanks to Little Italy, is Roland de Wolfe. I’ve always liked Roland though I haven’t known him well. I know him just a little better, enough to know that he’s the King of Little Italy.

Playing about half of the second day of the MDCG, he was down $50,000 and turned that into a $20,000 profit on three late hands. The first was the hand against Howard Lederer in #253. (By the way, he raised in late position with T-8 and was rewarded with a J-9-7 flop and further rewarded when the player in the big blind, Lederer, had J-9.)

On the next hand, Brian Townsend raised with A-J. Roland reraised him with Q-4s and Townsend, seemingly star-crossed all day, folded.

On the third hand of this sequence, six players limped, de Wolfe included with J-T. The flop was Jc-2h-Th. All six, including Roland with top-two-pair, check. After a third heart on the turn, the five of hearts, Phil Ivey bets $3,000 and Roland calls. The river is the ten of spades, making a full house for de Wolfe. Ivey bets $6,000, a complete bluff – he had straight and flush draws but neither came in (thank goodness for his sake, because they both would have lost of Roland’s full house). Roland raised to $25,000 and Phil pretended to think about it for about 2 minutes before folding.

In the second and third hands, the cards were never revealed but I happened to be walking through the production room, where the hole cards were visible. At Little Italy, I asked de Wolfe about why he didn’t bet the flop with such a strong hand and dangerous board. What did he think, in the end, Ivey had? He answered both in impressive detail, eventually putting Phil on his exact hand – straight draw and one heart – concluding “and he told me what he had after the hand.”

Roland is very knowledgeable in the department of Eighties song lyrics and wasn’t shy about singing along. He liked the music enough that he declared, “I’m going to have to make this my regular bar.”

A former journalist, Roland de Wolfe and I have a lot in common. Or at least we will once I win a WPT and EPT event, a double-play that he is currently the only player in the world to have accomplished.

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