The Sting: 45 and Counting

4:00PM Update

Article will happen for tomorrow, but in case you’re wondering “Who is Jamie Gold?” He’s a television producer, plays in a Beverly Hills home game and at the Commerce. He’s been playing his big stack terrifically, not being a donkey at all (like I am). Up to $14.7M, now double the #2 stack. Rhett Butler is the biggest stack at the table at $6.7M. We’re down to 30 and quitting when we get to 27, average chip count is $2.9M with median at $1.8M.  Oh, and Ernie got the sweatshirt (sorry about the SWAG update delinquency).

3:15PM Update

Action has slowed considerably at Table 151 as Jamie Gold has announced, “I don’t have to play anymore. If I come into a hand, you don’t want to be there.” He raised then bet a queen-high flop to take a pot, then showed A-Q. It’s a bit strange, he’s like one of these guys I saw once online where he would type, “I have kings,” then he’d get called all-in on a jack-high flop by Q-J only to see kings. He’s absolutely gotten paid off with hands today, and he’s up to $13.5M

Sick hand of the day between Andrew Schreibman and John Magill. Flop comes A1010, and Schreibman bets $75k with Magill call’s call. J hits the turn, Schreibman checks, Magill bets $150, Schreibman moves in, and he’s beaten into the pot with by Magill’s AA. Schreibman has K5 and is out long before 6 hits the river.

l to r: Jamie Gold and Beverly Hills buddy Lee Kort

Humberto Brenes out
1:37PM Update

Did I say almost $10MM? I meant over $12MM. Kevin Aaronson makes it $90k to go, Jamie Gold calls, and Robert Bettscalls . Flop comes AcKd6c, Jamie bets $200k and tells Robert “Just lay it down, it’s no good.” Betts calls, and Aaronson drops out. Jh hits the turn, and Jamie Gold says he’s all-in, with again an instacall this time from Betts. Gold screams “Yes!” as Betts flips over AJ to his AK. Three minutes later, after Allen Cunningham leads every player in the room over for a peak and ESPN crews come from the woodwork, 3s hits the river. Betts is gone, and Gold is glistening.
I’ll probably just be sticking with Table 151 for a bit, and they’ve missed a bigtime opportunity not to have this as the ESPN Feature Table today. There is another event going on with Harman, Chan, Juanda, Ferguson, etc., and I have photos but will get to them later.

1:15PM Update

Jamie Gold moves close to $10M, busting Brian Hansen. Kevin Aaronson makes it $90k, Jamie re-raises to $300k, and Brian calls with Kevin out. Flop comes 8d-4d-9h, and Jamie moves all-in with an instacall from Hansen on the button. “Do you have a set,” asked Jamie, probably one of the worst things you want to hear. He flips over red aces to the pocket 10′s of Hansen. 7c gives him a straight draw, but 5c ends the day for Hansen. We’ve lost four players or three, playing down to 27.

l to r: Jamie Gold and Brian Hansen

11:00 AM An adventurous day yesterday, with plenty of intrigue and excitement for all involved. More of my little idealistic poker world came crashing down as I witnessed Martin de Knijff being asked why the media badge around his neck didn’t match his name. Maybe it was lost in translation.

Jamie Gold

We headed from the Rio around 12:30 this morning, so it was nice to get out at a decent hour. Everyone left has made a quarter of a million dollars, and they’ll get that much more if they can make it to 27th. I should probably get here earlier, but I’m just worn out by the end of the day. I’m trying Pauly’s patience waking up at 9:20 or today 9:30 as I’m supposed to meet him at 9:30 in front of the Starbucks. I’m a punctual guy, so it’s not good for me at all to be late.

It takes 90 minutes to get everything ready for the day, but I’ll need to transition today into focusing on players. Half of the field I don’t know, which may sound bizarre. The reality is that no one knows 3/4 of the field. One of the PokerStars qualifiers busted yesterday, and I told Mad, “Go get him, find out what happened and who he is.” She said, “I don’t know who he is, and I’ve never seen him before.” Looks like some players may actually have bought in yesterday, but it’s just not that easy to figure out who’s who. Tables break immediately, and there aren’t many tools to help matters.

Allen Cunningham, all-in vs. Kyle Bowker. Allen spiked a jack with K-J vs. Kyle’s baby pair. “He was the most dangerous guy in the room, and I wanted to try and get rid of him.” Kyle played great on a card dead day, slipping from $2.2M to $0.9M. That’s a big part of all this, can you be patient in this storm. I’m not sure how many of the 135 players from yesterday would have cashed in the Mondays at the Hoy event. Alot of people cost themselves alot of cash yesterday.

I’ll be trying to update the blog more frequently today, so check back and check often. SWAG ALERT: PokerStars XL sweatshirt worn for four hours by Debra Lalor on Day 4 (she was cold, so I let her wear it). She busted out yesterday, but you’ll be able to smell the WSOP if you get this one. Just leave a comment and email me at csquard@gmail.com, and it’s all yours. Thanks for stopping by.