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Posted by Editor | Filed under 2010 NBC Heads-Up Championship, David Williams, Erick Lindgren, Heads-Up, Ted Forrest

[This is part of my narrative of the NBC Heads-Up Championship, which this year is not appearing in real time but in serial form, as I write. Although I'm writing quickly, I'm also experiencing it all and trying to give at least a few hours of perspective before writing. Consequently, I'm posting this on Sunday morning from the tournament room, but the "story" is still early in the first round on Friday. I interrupted this order to share the electrifying experience of Annie Duke's victory over Paul Wasicka late last night. I encourage you to check out that post. Or, in the alternative, enjoy the story as it plays out.]

When conventional wisdom fails to divine likely results, what takes its place? Fortunately, I figured that early: karma, kismet, style, destiny, omens and portents. The crystal ball easily outperformed the odds-makers on Friday.

Joe Cada’s opponent at the featured table for the Clubs bracket was David Williams. David has been a popular performer at the HUC since his first appearance in 2006. In 2006-08, he drew tough opponents, played hard matches, and took some tough beats. In 2009, he looked like a man on a mission, defeating J.C. Tran, ending Scott Fischman’s string of four consecutive in-the-money finishes, and beating equally popular and formidable Erick Lindgren. All this only to lose to Sam Farha on a bad-beat of biblical proportions.

I wish I knew David Williams better. He has a fascinating story, but it’s never really been told. He was a teen Magic sensation, supposedly did some porn, stunned the poker world by finishing runner-up to Greg Raymer in the 2004 Main Event, and then silenced critics by later winning a WSOP bracelet, a WPT championship, and generally proving to be a top performer on poker’s biggest stages.

And he has done it all with a sense of style. I think I read somewhere that he once owned 150 pairs of sneakers. He chewed on what appeared to be a diamond-encrusted toothpick. When he won his second-round match on Friday morning last year (wearing blue jeans and a balaclava around his neck), he said to a friend, “Let’s buy a suit,” and picked out a stylish suit, which the tailor readied for him before his afternoon match.

Sitting in Williams’ seat at the TV table was a man I didn’t recognize. Instead of David’s shorn-to-the-scalp look, he had thick, curly dark hair. His serious face was framed by large, thick-rimmed black spectacles. He wore a cardigan sweater, a dress shirt, and a tie.

When I realized it was, in fact, David Williams, I was reminded that I know nothing about this man. Any person who can maintain both a conspicuous presence and an aura of mystery is a force to be reckoned with.

I wasn’t alone in surprise. As Chris Moneymaker was exiting the stage, he did a double-take when passing the TV table. “David? I didn’t recognize that was you. Holy shit!”

That’s when I was sure he would defeat Joe Cada, and he did.

This wasn’t an atypical example of style foreshadowing substance. Ted Forrest was sporting a look I consider positively jinxed in televised poker competition: a sport jacket and a baseball cap. Stemming from watching the videotape of Ron Stanley sweltering in a tuxedo (and a baseball cap) at the final table of the Main Event in 1997, I have always considered affecting a casual look despite a jacket to be bad luck in poker.

As Ted’s match with online qualifier Stephen Quinn dragged on – normally a circumstance favoring the less experienced player – I felt this could still be Forrest’s “ugly time.” Ted Forrest has specialized, in the HUC format, in carrying his matches long beyond anyone else and making the right moves in the marginal situations that inevitably arise when the blinds are astronomical. He calls it “winning ugly” and it’s a high-wire formula that has always worked in the past. But Quinn – and the sport jacket – eventually did him in.

The contest between Peter Eastgate and Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier featured a pair of superbly talented young European pros. Because the match took place across the room from me, I didn’t get to see much of the action, but based on what little bits I picked up, both brought their A-games. It was only after Eastgate won that I discovered the flaw in Elky’s strategy. His formerly blond hair was shorter, straighter, and now dark. Not only was he tempting fate by cutting his hair, but with his lanky frame and dressy, casual look, he bore an instant resemblance to Nicholas Cage. Cage is a talented actor and, at some time, maybe it could get him laid, or at least some positive recognition. But now is not a good time to look like Nick Cage.

After six of the eight matches had concluded, the energy leeched out of the room. Leo Wolpert and Eric Baldwin were playing a great match that, if televised, could have had a serious chance of killing the franchise. Both are great players – Wolpert won the WSOP Heads-Up Championship, Baldwin was CARD PLAYER’s Player of the Year – but neither is a “personality.” And as solid, serious players, both were focusing intensely and looking for small, subtle edges.

Translation: rotten television.

At one point, one player limped on the button, the other raised, and the button-limper folded. Jordan Siegel, the tournament MC, described the action and quipped, “That might be the biggest pot so far.”

I thought it was funny but no one else laughed. Maybe no one had the energy.

The match turned when Baldwin limped with Q-Q, Wolpert moved all-in with Q-T, and Leo made a straight after Baldwin called. Because the blinds were huge, the hand might conceivably ended the same way regardless of whether Baldwin limped with the queens, but I’ve always regarded a special circle of Hell being reserved for poker players who slow-play big pairs heads-up with short stacks. If called to testify, I’d say under oath that bad karma busted Eric Baldwin.

That left Erick Lindgren and Dan Ramirez. Ramirez, and online qualifier playing his first-ever live tournament, took Lindgren to the limit, eventually reaching the 1,000-2,000 level at which they turn off the tournament clock. Even then, the final hand featured Erick’s A-K hitting against Dan’s pocket queens.

Of course, my hypothesis was proved either way: the underDOG lost, but E-DOG won.

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One Response to “#978 – 2010 NBC Heads-Up Championship #4 – Day of the Dog, Part II”

1. Air Jordan Says:
   March 26th, 2010 at 2:56 am

   Great articles and it’s so helpful. I want to add your blog into my rrs reader but i can’t find the rrs address. Would you please send your address to my email? Thanks a lot!

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