Yo Fiddy

More ragging on Phil

This is an old Paul Philips post but I hadn't seen it.

Ragging on Phil

Phil Hellmuth rode his luck to accumulate a respectable 135,000 stack, but not without controversy on the way. Featuring on the ESPN coverage table, a fellow player called Dan Druff tried to give the 11 times bracelet winner a hairy time. When Hellmuth raised UTG, Druff sarcastically chimed, 'Can you see my cards? Oh wait, I forgot, we're not on Ultimate Bet' (referring to the Ultimate Bet<http://www.caledonianmedia.com/sitestat.aspx?siteurl=9547> cheating scandal, which saw UB employees with master accounts swindle players out of thousands). Rather than back down, Hellmuth responded, 'So a company has some low-level employees do some dishonest things that people don't know about for awhile. Do you blame everyone in the company for that?'. Before discussions could go any further, a WSOP floor man intervened, and gave players a final warning.

WSOP 8-Game Mixed

Last Caesars tourney of the trip

Played for about five hours and played fine. Didn’t get involved much early. My first table was on the outskirts and I knew it would break. I listened to my Shuffle and had a massage for all of level 2. On my second table I ran an interesting squeeze play. Scandi player in earlier position raised to 1800 at 300/600 level when I was in the SB. The button announced raise and then realized there was a raise already, so he put in 1800. Someone called him on announcing raise so the ruling was the minimum, to 3000. I looked down at KJ. Compared to what I had been getting, it looked like aces, plus I figured it was live. With so much dead money I decided to move in for about 9500. The initial raiser folded and once he did there wasn’t much the accidental raiser could do. The ten seat was smiling like it was obvious what I was doing and I showed the hand. Even when it’s obvious it’s hard to call-off for them in that situation.

At 400/800 with 75 ante the accidental raiser made it 2275 which was all his chips except for his chocolate (5k). I looked down at queens and felt sick, I just knew it wasn’t going to end well. I was up in my seat and agonizing – incredibly, I considered folding. I decided to raise enough to put the initial raiser all-in leaving me about 6500. Two seats later pondered and eventually moved in for 19k. The seat right after him agonized for about 30 seconds before folding and then it folded to the initial raiser who called. As sick as I felt I obviously called. I was shocked to see the initial with KJ of spades – I feared worse. The guy who had me covered had AK-off with one of my suits covered. Flop had an ace right in the door and that was that.

I wasn’t even mildly upset – I saw it coming as soon as I looked down at aces. Poker is like that. When you’re playing a lot you practically see things before they happen, like the Matrix. I was almost 53% three-way and if I win that I have over 30k chips at 400/800. No regrets.

Poker is pretty much done for this trip. Gambling store and Rio tomorrow, Fix for dinner, and Lavo after, then headed home Sunday morning.

Latest Caesars non-cashing experience...

Played the 7pm second chance tourney at Caesars with Andy, Ads, John, Will, and Amir. Chips 6k, 40 minute levels, 25/50 starting. Will and Amir were out within 30 minutes. I futzed around with some small pots and then raised AQ hearts in level 2. The SB re-raised to 600 and I flatted. Flop was 8-high with two hearts. He led and I shoved and he called. Kings, no heart, and I hit an ace on the river. One hit-out down, up to 8500 chips.

Then I opened with jacks after being pretty active raising. The SB flatted and an early limper called as well. The flop with T83 with two diamonds and both checked. I bet a little less than pot and the SB re-raised to 2200 and the limper folded. I didn’t see how I was behind and assumed he was playing back at me because I had been so active. I shoved. He said “oh shit” which made me feel pretty good. But then he said “I’ve already seen you beat this hand” which made me feel like oh shit. He had kings.

After that I had to shove several times. Ax without looking at the second card got called by KT and I doubled up. Tends got called by deuces. I got up to about 4500. I called a raise out of my BB with AT suited and checked AKx flop with two clubs. Raiser bet and I called. Turn was third club and I check-folded and he showed AK. Yeesh. After dropping a couple more small pots (limp, folding flops) the blinds went to 200/400 which put me below 10 big blinds.

A7 suited on the button with a standard raise in front and I shoved. SB (AK guy) said “I’ll give you some protection” and re-shoved. The original raiser folded and the SB had kings. Interestingly with the dead money and the folded big blind I was almost getting value with this hand. At 32.7% the value was 2020 for my 2300 all-in. Neither here nor there but interesting.