Slowrolling Harman
Cory Zeidman’s apparent slowrolling of his straight flush against Jennifer Harman’s full house has become one of the most notorious moments of last year’s WSOP, and repeated ESPN footage and indignant blogers have cast Zeidman as the villain of the tournament. Eight months after the fact, we caught up with Jennifer and Cory to find out how they feel about the hand now.
Jennifer Harman
I’m not mad at Cory now. I think he probably
got caught up in the moment, and was very excited about
making that straight flush. I don’t think he slowrolled
me intentionally; however, any poker player would be
upset about getting slowrolled in the biggest poker
event in the world. He apologized at the time, and I
accepted his apology, and I still accept his apology
now. For me, it’s in the past.
Cory Zeidman
It was early in the tournament and I was down
to about 7,700 in chips, so things hadn’t been going
particularly well. Every time I tried to make a move,
someone would come over the top. Jennifer, who probably
had a couple thousand more in chips than I did, was
in the 1-seat and I was in the 6-seat. She was just
to the left of the big blind and made a small raise
before the flop. I looked down at my hand (and I hadn’t
had a lot of playable hands), and saw 8.9.. So I decided
to call. One other gentleman had called in the hand,
too.
The flop came 10-J-Q rainbow. So I had a straight. Jennifer was first to act, and she bet 500. Now, because she had raised pre-flop, I was a little concerned about the A-K, so I wanted to find out where I stood, right there, and I raised it to 2,000. The other gentleman folded, and Jennifer thought for a while and called. At this point, I was fairly sure she didn’t have A-K because she would have made a solid raise back at me. So I felt I had the lead.
The turn was a card I didn’t want to see – a ten. Jennifer quickly checked. I knew she could now have a full house – it suddenly seemed plausible that she had flopped the set. So I made a tentative bet. I believe I had about 5,700 in chips, and I bet 1,000 into a pot of over 4,000. It was just a probe bet – I was concerned about the pair on the board, and this small bet meant I could still get away from the hand if I needed to. At this stage, I hadn’t even noticed that I had the up and down straight flush-draw.
Jennifer raised to 3,000. I started to speak out loud, vocalizing my thoughts. I wanted to see if she’d respond to anything I said. At this point, I honestly felt I was in big trouble. I almost threw my hand away a couple of times, when I thought, “Well, things really haven’t been going well today, but now I have this straight and an up and down straight-flush draw (which, by now, of course, I’d spotted). Maybe it’s good.” So, even though I thought it was probably a bad call, I called.
The river card was the miracle 7..
Now, Jennifer is a softly spoken individual – and remember, she was in the 1-seat and I was in the 6-seat. She made a bet, and I thought she said 2,000. When you watch it on TV you hear the announcer say, “Jennifer bets 3,000,” but that’s inserted afterwards – there’s no one announcing it at the table. I now had 2,700 in chips in front of me and I thought the bet was 2,000 and that I was raising all-in. In fact, I had already been put allin. Why Jennifer didn’t just say, “I’m all-in,” I don’t know; she must have known she had me covered.
So, now knowing I had the best hand, I picked up my chips and out came the words, “I guess I’ll go sightseeing if I lose this.” But the important thing is that you hear me say, “I’m all-in!” Why would I say that if I thought I had already been put all-in? I would have just said, “I call.”
When I said all in, she turned over her cards – queens full – but I thought I was waiting for her to call me. She now said something, which, again, I didn’t hear, but I assumed it was “call,” and I immediately – immediately – turned my cards over and said “straight flush.”
So I’m getting accused of being a slowrolling asshole and all kinds of things – making a speech before calling with the nuts. But I thought I was raising with the nuts. The only thing, I feel, that was wrong with my behavior was that comment about sightseeing, but the truth was I had thought that on fourth street, and when I hit the straight flush on fifth street, it just came out. You don’t expect to hit your straight flush and it can kind of throw you. At the time, that’s why I thought Jennifer was mad, and that’s why I apologized to her. I didn’t know, up until a couple of weeks ago, that she had actually bet 3,000. I hadn’t seen it on TV due to work commitments. I only found out when I Googled myself and saw what some people were writing in the blogs.
I have been known to purposely piss people off at a poker table. I’m very good with my mouth and I know how to get under people’s skin, but it’s generally in retaliation. I have huge respect for Jennifer as a player and I would never do anything as mean and despicable as that of which I’ve been accused.
