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#478 – WSOP Notebook #47 – What I Saw at the World Series of Poker, Part IV-A

Posted by Editor | Filed under Erick Lindgren, Full Tilt Pros in the news, Mike Matusow, WSOP 2008

#476 – WSOP Notebook #47 – What I saw at the World Series of Poker, Part IV-A

This is the last part of my four-part essay on my observations about the 2008 World Series of Poker. Becuase of the length, I’m breaking it into two posts.

Part IV-A – The State of Poker Professionals, According to the World Series of Poker

Perhaps the biggest (and most pleasant) surprise of this year’s World Series of Poker was the remarkable number of great performances turned in by top pros. I include in this group the next generation of great young players who have accomplished themselves online but are generally unknown to the larger public of poker fans. It shouldn’t be surprising that great players play great, but with the events as large as they are, it’s difficult for the pros to navigate the traffic. Also, the Series is so long – so many events, so much money – that it’s physically and mentally difficult to maintain peak focus through it all. There are so many unknown excellent players, plus so many ways a superior player can get tripped up by a sea of inferior players in a given event, that it’s still a little surprising to see the big names there at the end.

Here is what we got to watch at the Series, what you’ll be seeing on ESPN, and what will become a particularly eventful period in poker history: [These are not in any particular order, nor do I purport to describe every great performance at the World Series. Plus, There are a bunch more coming in Part IV-B.]

1. The Hinkle Brothers

Grant Hinckle won event #2, the $1,500 NLHE event that drew nearly 4,000 players. His brother Blair won event #23, $2,000 NLHE, making them the first brothers to win bracelets in the same year.

2. Nikolay Evdakov

Nikolay became the first player in the history of the World Series to cash 10 times in one year. And, between days of his play in the Main Event, he made the final table of a Bellagio Cup event.

3. Erick Lindgren

Erick won $1.5 million, the Player of the Year honor, and distinguished himself not just as a superb poker player but a gentleman with a heart like a lion. It seems like he is always in a good mood, always a pleasure to play with (socially), and he displayed amazing tenacity, even for an experienced pro, during this Series. He won the $5,000 over an elite field and came from 91st out of 94 at the end of Day 1. A week later, he bubbled the final table in Limit Hold ‘Em. With a cash in the Heads-Up Championship sandwiched in between, he made final tables in the two toughest fields in the World Series: $5,000 (with rebuys) No-Limit Deuce-to-Seven and $50,000 HORSE. He finished 4th in the Deuce and 3rd in the HORSE.

The HORSE finish was particularly impressive. When Lindgren started three-handed play at 11 PM with Scotty Nguyen and Michael DeMichele, he had 1 million chips; they each had about 7 million. By 2 AM, Erick had 4.5 million chips and all three players were just a million chips apart. Things went south for him after that but he fought on until finally going out in third at 4:30 in the morning.

4. Mike Matusow

What more can I say about Mike’s performance this year? He won the No-Limit Deuce-to-Seven, one of the very toughest events to win, between the quality of the field, the ridiculous rebuy action (Mike didn’t rebuy once, stick with just his original $5k buy-in and an add-on at the end of the rebuy period), and the fact that this is a form of poker that nobody really plays, so it’s all about reading opponents and trying to get your head inside the ideas that underly various features of poker games. Then consider that at the dinner break, when they were three-handed, Mike had 405k chips, to over 1 million for Barry Greenstein and over 2 million for Jeffrey Lissandro. Those are some pretty good players to have to spot 2-to-1 and 4-to-1 chip advantages. But he won his third bracelet that night, then followed up by making the final table in the Omaha Eight-or-Better Championship (remember, Matusow is responsible for that chapter of The Full Tilt Poker Strategy Guide) and turning in a remarkable performance in the Main Event. He went out in 30th, to one of the worst beats imaginable.

5. Barry Greenstein

Greenstein won his third bracelet, this time in Razz, which may make it impossible to make fun of that event any more. And like Erick Lindgren, made the final tables of the No-Limit Deuce-to-Seven and the $50,000 HORSE. He also cashed 3 other times. He could be the best perofrmer in the WSOP over the last five years, which is really saying something.

6. David Benyamine

David, a Full Tilt pro and one of the world’s highst-stakes cash-game players, has been knocking at the door of the WSOP the last couple years. In 2008, he came barging through: 5 cashes, 3 final tables, a bracelet, and nearly $1 million. He made the final table of the Deuce-to-Seven, finished 3rd in the monstrous $5,000 PLO with rebuys, just missed the final table of the Stud Eight-or-Better Championship, and then won the Omaha Eight-or-Better Championship. And as the final table was being set for the Main Event, he finished second in the WPT Bellagio Cup for another $840k.

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