#592 – World Series Final Table #5 – Kelly Kim Did Just What I Thought He’d Do

I said that Kelly Kim would get his chips in smart, and he did. After raising the first hand on the button and picking up the blinds and antes, I don’t think he played another hand for an hour and a half. But Ivan Demidov raised Kelly’s big blind from the small blind and Kelly called him all-in.

He probably didn’t have much choice by that point but he clearly was waiting for something to get his last chips in. This is what he was waiting for: K-K for K.K. and K-T for Demidov. Kim stack of 1.9 million is still microscopic but he’s still kicking, waiting for another double up, and clearly content to let someone bust before he has to play another hand.

By the way, I wrote that at 1:58 PM. At 1:59 PM, David “Chino” Rheem made it 800k and Kelly moved in with his 1.9 million. Rheem called.

They both had identical hands. Rheem had Ah-Kc and Kim had Ad-Ks.

This has nothing to do with skill but it will make some damned exciting TV. Dealer peels off three hearts, giving Rheem nine wins or a guaranteed split. The turn was an off-suit queen, which made them both straights. The river – I watched a flash of red – was the queen of diamond. The audience, which let out a huge collective groan after the flop, had been chanting “BLANK! BLANK! BLANK!” erupted in cheers after the split.

Incidentally, Kelly clearly has the second largest and most vocal rooting section after Dennis Phillips. And especially with Phillips having a nightmarish couple of hours, it’s almost been stunning hearing the emotion for Kelly.

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