FULL TILT POKER BLOG

#590 – World Series Final Table #3 – What I Saw in the First Nine Hands

Posted by Editor | Filed under Uncategorized

I know it sounds like a cliche but the tension was palpable during the first hand. The world of possibilities is so open, so infinite, that every moment before anything has actually changes is precious.

Just watching, it felt like a weight was pressing down on my chest as each player looked at his cards and folded in turn on the first hand. (They neglected to start the clock, so I had to yell “start the clock” several times while this was going on, before they got it started.) Kelly Kim, on the button, was the first to bet. By far the smallest stack, Kim has less than 11 BBs.

But his button-raise was tiny, to just 560k. (Blinds are 120k-240k with antes of 30k.) Craig Marquis folded his small blind and Dennis Phillips (the biggest stack), in the big blind, took some time to think before folding.

Dennis is probably the only true amateur at the table, but he is dangerous because he has the chip lead and, apart from having played well enough to GET the chip lead, was the only player at the final table who publicly hired a coach, Roy Winston.

For me, there was a feeling of relief. Kelly Kim did not get eliminated on the first hand. It would have been an exciting start to have an all-in confrontation on the very first hand, but it also seems too fast for that kind of thing.

On the other hand, I feel comfortable saying that Dennis Phillips made a mistake, one that’s subsequently been repeated by the big blind on most of the hands of the first round. With the blinds and antes, there is 630k in every pot before there’s action. With Kelly’s raise, there was nearly 1.2 million in. It would have cost Phillips just 320k more to see a flop to get what would now be a 1.5 million pot. And because Kim had just 2 million more chips, it’s really a significant chance to pay 320k to get a 3.5 million chip pot. Under most scenarios, Dennis would either lose 320k or win 3.5 million. And his chances of winning are probably a lot greater than 1 in 10.

This led to two interesting developments that held up throughout the nine hands that comprised the end of level 33. First, the raises have been tiny. The biggest opening raise was to 600k, just 2.5 BBs and less than the total amount of chips in the pot. And everybody followed with these small opening raises. Second, there weren’t any flat-calls in position or by the blinds. For such small amounts, it makes sense to me to see some flops, either in position or for the tiny additional amount the big blind would have to pay.

In only two hands of the first nine hands was their further action. Both times, it was a reraise, which lead to the other player folding. We saw no flops in the first nine hands at the end of level 33.

The first development, the small raises, encourages me to believe these are very skilled players ready to play the game in a serious way. By the second development, the lack of calls in position or from the blinds, leads me to believe these guys either DON’T want to see flops or that everyone is a little nervous starting out. Players with this level of skill – and it’s a VERY skilled final table – should be paying to see some flops.

During the second hand, Ty Stewart took me up to the stage. The stage looks exactly like the final table area from the Amazon room. Same camera positions, same overhead lights, same cables snaking the floor, same packed bleachers.

But what Stewart really wanted to show me was the view from behind the table: the audience. “Did you ever think you would see this?” he asked me. “Packed both levels of the theater. Hundreds more outside waiting to get in.”

It was a neat sight, and Harrah’s seems pleased with how their decision has worked out so far.

SLIGHTLY LATER NOTE – Level 33 ended at 11:37 AM. It’s now 11:55 so we’ve started level 34, 150k-300k blinds, 40k antes. So far, we’ve seen just one flat-call (by Scott Montgomery in the big blind, which he took by betting out after an ace-high flop) and just that one flop. Anybody else who has wanted to play has reraised, which turns this into a very short-stacked game.

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