More From Day Four Of The WSOP Main Event
7:30 p.m.When I first saw the chip leader, Jeremy Joseph, I was surprised that he didn't have any patches on his shirt or hat. The way the sites and agents were all over Brian Schaedlich, I thought for sure he would be decked out all NASCAR style. He didn't have one on though. He was sitting next to Johnny Chan though and when they returned from the first break (before Chan busted), Joseph had on two All In Energy drink patches. I wonder how much Chan gave him to do that.
Over on the other side of the room, Phil Hellmuth was up to his usual antics. After making a bet of 25,000 into a 100K+ pot on the turn on an A-5-x-x two heart board, Hellmuth checked behind his European opponent. His nemesis showed 7-5 off for two pair and Hellmuth jumped out of his chair and flipped over his cards, K-Q of hearts for a busted flush draw. “This idiot called me with 7-5. Are you kidding me?”
He went over to his wife, ranting and raving, came back and used his not so new line of, “this guy can't even spell poker.”
Even Charlie, the tournament director, had to cover his mouth to stifle laughter. The reality of the situation is Hellmuth makes these ridiculously small bets into large pots all the time. Sure, 1 out of 4 times he's doing it with the nuts but 3 out of 4 times he's beat. Let's see... call 25K to win 100K, 3 times I win 100K, 1 time I lose 25K. I think it's safe to see it's a good call. People have started to pick up on this Hellmuth pattern I think.
A few hands later, Adam Levy took a pot off of him when he bet 75K on a K-Q-x flop and Hellmuth folded jacks face up. “You all are going to give me all your chips and I'll be up to a million by the end of the day,” Hellmuth said.
The kid next to Hellmuth is laughing his ass off at Hellmuth's ridiculous antics. Hellmuth sees Jack Effel and calls him over to the table. “Jack, when are we going to get a new dealer? I've lost 19 out of 20 hands with this guy.”
He doesn't stop though, not for one second. “It's extraordinary I'm here. No one will know how great I was today. They'll just report how I was lucky to flop a set of aces and get paid off but they won't say a word how I folded hand after hand to survive.”
Gus Hansen comes over and gives Phil an impromptu poker lesson as only Gus could... “Phil, maybe you should change your starting requirements.”
Players are back from the dinner break. 216 remain, blinds are 5,000/10,000 with a 1,000 ante and the average stack is $633,704. They are going to play one more level today.
11:03 p.m.
They have stopped play with 38 minutes remaining in level 19 and 189 players left (9 tables of 21). I don't understand why they stopped at this point. They only played for 7 hours and 22 minutes today, an additional 38 minutes wouldn't have killed them and they could have gotten the field down another table or two.
Phil Hellmuth has managed to chip back up to approximately half a million but not before he lost a sizable pot to the same guy that called him with 7-5 earlier. The board was K-J-x-x and Hellmuth had made flop and turn bets with what he said was a pocket pair. Hellmuth checked the river and his opponent showed J-10 to win the pot. “Donkey calling me with 2nd pair,” muttered Hellmuth under his breath.
At another table, Mark Vos and William Soffin tangled in a huge pot on an A-J-6-7-4 board. Vos bet enough on the river to leave Soffin with exactly 1,000 in chips. Soffin made the call with A-6 but was dominated by the pocket jacks of Vos. The table, Soffin included, had a laugh at Vos not betting enough to set Soffin all in. “I wanted to give him a chance to come back,” explained Vos, almost blushing.
Pocket 9's have been winning a lot of all ins it seems this evening so when a player was all in with pocket aces and his opponent had 9's, he was understandably nervous. The flop came all blanks and the player with aces turned around, unable to look. He was whispering to himself, “six, six, six,” and I asked him if he was nervous. “Yes,” he said in a hushed tone. The turn and river were good cards for him but his table mates took the opportunity to mess with him by doing a fake groan on the river. He turned around to see the bad news but laughed when he saw his hand was still best.
Just a minute ago, Mike Matusow let out a string of expletives at the top of his lungs and Phil Hellmuth went over and consoled him. I'm not sure what happened but Hellmuth and Matusow started walking in front of the media area and Matusow walked out of the room saying, “What do I care? It's just a poker tournament and I'm blessed to be here. I'm just frustrated right now.”
A short day for the players who will need the rest as they are in for a long weekend. I'll be back tomorrow with the day 5 action.
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