WSOP 2010 REPORT NUMBER 03

The vultures are circling

It is the end of 12th July, which has been Day 3 of the World Poker Championship. We are now down to 1204 players, out of 7319 hopeful starters when the whole affair began on 5th July, and those 747 places in the money, not too far away, must now look very tempting to the survivors who will go into Day 4 tomorrow. As expected, Day 3 demanded new casualties. Among them were Canadian superstar Daniel Negreanu; American Barbara Enright, the only woman so far to reach the final table of the Main Event of the WSOP (5th in 1995); and regrettably also Jack Ury, the 97-year old gentleman who still has the record of being the oldest person ever to participate in the World Poker Championship. Out of the seven former world champions (out of 19 originally starting) who entered Day 3, four are still in the tournament. Jim Bechtel, the 1993 world champion and these days a ranch owner in Arizona – now you know what he did with his money – fell early in the day. Also out during Day 3 were 2003 world champion Chris Moneymaker, and the reigning 2009 champion Joe Cada. The throne must then at the moment be considered vacant, until this year’s final table is played out in November. Still in contention when we go into Day 4 tomorrow is the lowstacked 1998 champion Scotty Nguyen; the slightly better-stacked 1995 champion “Action Dan” Harrington (whose ironical nickname derives from his tight playing style); the medium-stacked 2002 champion Robert Varkonyi (who named his then newborn daughter Victoria to celebrate his win); and double 1987/88 world champion Johnny “Orient Express” Chan, who is currently a very respectable ninth in chips with his enormous stack of 636K. Incidentally, while interviewed during a break on Day 3, Chan was asked why he still plays the game which he has played for 30 years now, and laconically replied: “Because it pays the bills.” Hmm, hard to come up with a better answer than that... Chipleader after Day 3 is American James Carroll from Nevada, with 803K; in second is another American, Imari Love from Chicago with 741K; and in third is Gerasimo Deres from Sweden, with 734K. So far, no one has yet broken the million mark – but this will of course happen on Day 4. While USA, Canada and Great Britain dominate the list of players from 92 nations here in the World Championship, a number all the same have a respectable showing: Japan with 18 players, for example. At the “bottom” of the list are 28 nations and territories represented by only one (1) player each; among these are Qatar, Botswana, Paraguay, Angola, Liechtenstein, Panama, Mongolia and French Polynesia. Even Iceland has 2 players here! Rushing around trying to keep up with the excitement are the ubiquitous television teams from ESPN. They are not appreciated by all; former world champion Doyle Brunson, who was knocked out on Day 2 this year, has disdainfully nicknamed them “vulture cams” as they often seem to be circling around a big name pro who is shortstacked and heading for eventual demise... Among the players still in are two who have been on the final table of the World Championship not just once, but several times. The record list looks like this, incidentally: Five times on the final table: Doyle Brunson, Jesse Alto Four times on the final table: Johnny Chan, T.J. Cloutier, Dan Harrington, Berry Johnston, Johnny Moss, and Stu Ungar. Stu Ungar represents a special case: He is the only player to actively win the tournament three times (Johnny Moss won his first “title” in 1970 by vote of his peers, before the tournament concept was invented). The fourth and very off-beat time for Ungar was in 1990 when he amassed a giant stack of chips on Day 1 but then overdosed on drugs in his hotel room and had to be rushed to hospital during the night. His stack was however big enough to survive Day 2, despite blinds and antes, and make it to the final table by itself on Day 3 where it wound up in ninth place and cashed – with Stu Ungar still hospitalized! The prize for the outdraw of the day has to go to player Yevgenyi Timoshenko. On the flop of 7-8-9 Timoshenko’s opponent bets 15K, Timoshenko raises to 45K, his opponent goes all-in and Timoshenko after some deliberation calls with K-K... whereupon his opponent reveals J-10 for the nut straight. Timoshenko is in bad shape, but the turn is... a King, and the river... the fourth King, which gives Timoshenko quads and a giant pot!! As they say, nowhere will you witness sicker badbeats than here in the World Championship... And as for me? Busted out on Day 3, unfortunately. To make a long story short UTG + 2 raises, next player calls, and with 9-7 of spades I move in from the big blind as a squeeze play as none of my opponents has shown any strength... but after long deliberation, the second player who is the largest stack at the table calls, with only K-7 off (!!) -- whereupon the board is blank and I am out. :-(

DAN GLIMNE