19 October 2009
An amazing 2138 players crammed in to the Rio today for day 1 of the Main Event. The 2006 WSOP is likely to attract nearly 8800 total entries, and judging by the standard of play I witnessed today many of them are total buffoons when it comes to poker.
On the first hand of the tournament a player was knocked out when the following occurred. He raised from middle position with AA and after some hesitation the big blind called and the two were heads-up.
The flop came Q-T-9 and the big blind bet out with gusto. The player in middle position stuck in a huge raise, and the big blind confidently went all-in. Now, even if you don`t play poker you would know that your AA is no good here. You also should know that it doesn`t have to end on the first hand. Not this guy. He called the all-in and the big blind turned over...KJ, naturally, for the straight.
It held up, and that`s one less idiot that can knock me out by accident. Blinds started at 25-50 and everyone has 10,000 chips, so there really is no need to get knocked out on the very first hand.
Play got considerably worse than that, however. On a flop of T-7-5, a guy bets $300 and his opponent raised to $600. The initial bettor called and the turn put the 3 on the board with three clubs as well. The first guy again bets out with $1,500 and is again raised by his opponent to $4,000. First guy calls and the river puts another 3 on the board. The first guy (also no great player judging from how he bet this hand) pushed all-in and his opponent immediately called.
The first guy turns over KQ of clubs for a flush that he made on the turn. Would his opponent have a full house, quads, what do you think?
In fact, his opponent said: "Do I have a straight flush?" and turned over the 8-6, with neither card a club. He then said: "Oh wait, no I don`t." He was eliminated after calling an all-in bet after the river with 8-high. If human intelligence was ranked according to the rules of Razz he would be the nut low.
I interviewed Marc Goodwin today, Europe`s #1 ranked poker player. I was about to tell him that I am the #1 ranked ex-South African poker player currently residing in Redmond, but I didn`t - mainly because it might not even be true.
After we were done congratulating one another on how we spelled our mutual first name, he gave me the low down on a new poker reality TV show that he is participating in. It sounds interesting, and we`ll cover it on the Insider.
Goodwin`s nickname is Mr. Cool - dubbed so by his good friend Dave Colclough, who is known as El Blondie. He is certainly a natty dresser and could run rings around most poker players. He`s also starting his WSOP main event tomorrow, and I`m quite keen to avoid him until day 8, where we will doubtless annoy other prospective millionaires at our table by reminding everyone that we spell our first name the same way.
An hour ago a guy holding 5-5 flopped quads, when the flop came 6-5-5 with 2 spades. His opponent (who was all-in) had 8-8 and was getting his stuff ready for an almost inevitable exit. Instead the turn was the 7s and the river was the 9s and the guy with pocket 8s held the all-important 8 spades for a straight flush. This sort of thing is going to happen a lot with 8800 runners. Too distressing to think about!
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