WSOPE Wrap-Up
An old soldier once said that war is long periods of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror. You could really say the same thing about poker tournaments. The fi nal table of the World Series of Poker Europe had it all, packed with current stars, future stars (notably the young Russian Stanislav Alekhin), and heart-stopping moments. The only problem was that these incidents were delivered to us on a piecemeal basis over a period of 21 intense hours. This table broke all records. It was the longest and probably the hardest fought fi nal table in the history of tournament poker. As a spectator sport, it was at times like watching a crossword puzzle competition; at others it was pure, gory gladiatorial combat.
We journalists watched the marathon from a tiny roped off section, craning to see the action. No strolling about amongst the players for us. This was a World Series fi nal table and ESPN had moved in on the operation. For the next 21 hours, ESPN owned poker.
All the talk up to this moment had been about John Juanda and Daniel Negreanu. Daniel had been off like a rocket from the outset, amassing a king’s ransom in chips throughout the early stages of the tournament and hanging on to them too. He was chip leader at the end of Day 1 and remained in the top fl ight all the way to the fi nal, to which he arrived fourth in chips. Meanwhile Juanda had been getting busy. As far as we could tell, he didn’t seem to lose a single pot throughout Day 3, and his unstoppable run towards bracelet glory saw him head the fi eld going into the fi nal table.
Last year, all the chatter among us journalists had been all about Annette. A mysterious 18-yearold Internet legend winning a World Series Main Event – that was the story we all wanted to write about. We’re supposed to be impartial, of course, but we confess we were secretly willing her to win. We’ve got to sell magazines, right? This year the idea of a Negreanu and Juanda heads-up battle had us salivating. But that wasn’t the only story.
Ivan Demidov had us all talking, too. The Russian wass one of the November Nine who played for millions at the WSOP Main Event fi nal table last month. Two WSOP Main Event fi nal tables in one year – that’s a staggering achievement, particularly when you consider that no one had heard of him before last summer.
Then there was Scott Fischman who took the 2004 World Series of Poker by storm, winning two bracelets, but has been relatively quiet of late. There was also Bengt Sonnert, representing Scandinavian hopes, and one of the few Internet players with a face built to grace the covers of magazines. With a win from Robin Keston, the highly respected London cash game player, we might have had our fi rst openly gay poker world champion.
And then there was the dark, hooded fi gure in seat nine. Russian Stanislav Alehkin, starting the table second in chips, looked like Phil Laak’s evil twin brother. He was a stone-cold, unfl inching, remorseless poker sith. But more on him later.
Shuffle Up and Deal
The start of the fi nal table was delayed slightly by Scott Fischman’s shirt, which featured the silhouette of a woman pulling down her panties. This was deemed too racy for ESPN’s delicate sensibilities and a Full Tilt sticker soon censored the offending article. “How am I going to win this thing without my panties?” demanded Scott. ESPN may now have their work cut out in the editing suite, as the fi rst ten minutes of the tournament revolved around a discussion about Scott Fischman’s panties.
Negreanu raises the fi rst hand and Fischman calls from the big blind. Fischman then leads out on a fl op of 10-8-6 and Negreanu reraises. Fischman folds and Negreanu shows aces. Little does Negreanu know that this is the last time he’ll see a decent hand all night.
Sonnert soon doubles up through Keston when Keston’s A-K fails to improve against Sonnert’s Q-Q. Sonnert moves to a respectable 800,000 in chips, while Keston’s previously sizable stack is halved. The very next hand, shortstack Chris Elliot is eliminated at the hands of Alehkin. Elliot opts to slowplay his two pair on the fl op, allowing Alehkin’s ace-high fl ush draw to get there via the tradesman entrance. It’s a measure of how good Alehkin is running and a taste of things to come.
Next Demidov takes a huge pot from Juanda, moving into to the chip lead and signifi cantly denting the stack of Juanda who had been so commanding up to this point. Demidov reraises Juanda’s pre-fl op bet and Juanda makes the call. Juanda check-raises a fl op of J-J-6 and Demidov calls. Juanda bets again on the turn and Demidov moves in. Juanda mucks without a second thought.
The Russians Take Over
For the next three hours the Russians move into ascendancy. They’re playing a lot of pots and catching a lot of cards, particularly the sith-like Alehkin, who rakes in pot after pot without the tiniest fl icker of emotion. Negreanu, meanwhile, seems to be having a terrible time of it. He’s clearly card-dead, unable to get things moving. He’s become the observer in the game, studying his opponents and absorbing information for use at a time when the deck might prove kinder to him.
Suddenly three players fall in quick succession. First, it’s Toni Hiltunen, who runs his jacks into Alehkin’s queens. Next it’s a shortstacked Keston, whose A-8 fails to improve when called by Demidov’s pocket nines, and then Fischman. Fischman has A-Q on a board of A-J-10 and moves all-in. He’s called in a fl ash by Alehkin who has fl opped the nut straight. Naturally. Three men down, and all at the hands of the relentless Russians, both of whom now have two million in chips, almost twice as many each as Juanda, who is now sitting in third.
As evening approaches, a larger crowd begins to gather at the Empire and by the time we reach the 7:30pm dinner break Alehkin has stormed out ahead with over three million in chips. Negreanu, meanwhile, is still suffering, but hanging on, with 300,000.
Negreanu continues to hang on until 58 minutes after the players return from dinner break when he moves in with A-9. Once again Alehkin wakes up with a hand at the right moment, and his jacks fi nish off the crowd favorite. “Rebuy!” announces Daniel with a grin.
“I wasn’t really hitting any fl ops or getting any starting hands to go with,” Daniel concedes afterwards. “Situationally, nothing really came up. But I never gave up, I hung in there as long as I could and I’m pleased that I put on a good showing. I didn’t do anything stupid anyway. Frankly, my style of poker is somewhat dependent on catching fl ops. But to get here a lot of things went my way. On Day 1 and Day 2 everything went my way. I was hitting way too many cards. To win a tournament you have to have some timing and I guess a lot of the luck I had early on escaped me at the fi nal table.”
There are rumors going around that Sonnert is feeling very ill. You wouldn’t realize this from the way he’s been playing all day, but as the night wears on, he seems to falter – his concentration perhaps lapsing a little. He has become shortstacked, and as midnight approaches, he’s fi nally fi nished off by the pitiless Alehkin. It’s clear during Sonnert’s exit interview that he has nasty, full-blown fl u. He mumbles groggily into the microphone, exhausted, barely able to stand. His performance has been utterly remarkable.
Meanwhile, Juanda has enjoyed a resurgence at the expense of Demidov. The once mighty November Niner seems tired and distracted now. He’s made a few mistakes, lost a few big pots, and Juanda is clawing back the chip lead. Juanda’s stealing a lot of pots too, and at last he seems able to exert some control over a fi nal table which is now approaching its twelve-hour mark.
It’s 3:20am when Demidov fi nally caves in, calling a big bet on the fl op and then calling all in on the turn with a fl ush draw and a gutshot, both of which fail to materialize. Juanda shows pocket aces and it’s over for the brave Russian, who might console himself with the thought of winning the Main Event in Vegas. When we spoke to Ivan afterwards it was clear that he was also physically shattered after this grueling fi nal table. Extraordinary to think, then, that the two players who were now heads up had a further seven hours of play ahead of them.
Endgame
What follows is offi cially the longest heads up battle in poker history. Both players play passive, small-ball poker, although Alehkin seems more willing to stick all his chips in on the river at times, aware that Juanda is loathe to play big pots, preferring to keep things small and rely on his superior experience.
Juanda starts stronger, however, and eventually has his opponent on the ropes, but he forgets himself, gets impatient, and doubles Alehkin up. Alehkin fi ghts back and several hours later it’s Juanda who is playing for his tournament life. At one point Juanda is all in with A-K against Alehkin’s K-J. The fl op comes J-J-4. A queen on the turn gives Juanda a lifeline, and the miracle ten on the river saves him.
With the chip lead, Alehkin exploits Juanda’s desire to keep the pot small and tests his opponent to the limit. A number of times over the course of several hours, Alehkin checkcalls big bets to the river, and, when Juanda value bets, he check-raises all in, forcing his opponent to fold.
Just as dawn begins to break outside, Alehkin seeks to press his advantage and tests his luck again. Once more he has check-raised Juanda all in on the river. Juanda leaps to his feet, trembling with emotion, his face a mixture of incredulity and frustration. Never have we seen the Full Tilt pro so animated. “Again?” he implores. The unfl appable John Juanda is angry. “Ok, I call.” Alehkin sheepishly shows bottom pair and a busted fl ush, while Juanda shows top two. It’s a massive pot and, fi nally, Juanda is back with chips. This hand would prove to be the turning point.
The morning draws on, and outside the casino blearyeyed Londoners are beginning to scuttle back and forth to their respective places of work. Inside, members of the American media start to grumble about missing their fl ights home, while certain members of the British press complain they’re in danger of sobering up. The bar closed at 5am, they whine. You half expect the cleaning lady to turn up and start hoovering underneath Juanda’s legs.
At 8:30am a fl eet of trucks pull up containing all the gaming tables that the casino put in storage to make way for the poker tournament. There’s nowhere to put them and the casino staff is having a fi t.
And yet the pair remain locked in battle, their concentration intense and unfl inching. I feel like I could throw a fi recracker onto the table and they wouldn’t blink. Despite the physical and mental fatigue that must be immense at this point, and the fact that at times each player has had to fi ght back from near death, their unwillingness to capitulate is absolute. They are two immovable objects, granite fi gures engaged in a battle of sheer, unbreakable will. You feel that they could go on another 24 hours.
But at 10:25am the killer pot occurs. Juanda raises on the button and Alehkin calls. The fl op comes down Kc Qh 7c. Alehkin bets and Juanda moves all-in. Alehkin calls instantly with a club fl ush draw, which fails to materialize against Johnfs K-6. Itfs a strange call from Alehkin, who barely put a foot wrong all night, but considering the tortuous psychological warfare and multiple layers of deception that must have developed between these two players over the last 21 hours, thatfs not for us to say . but it smacks of a man whofs had enough and wants to fi nish it here. Alehkin is crippled. Five hands later, hefs forced all in with A-9 and Juanda calls with K-6. By the river Juanda has quad sixes. John Juanda is the WSOPE champion.
“What took you so long?” quips Norman Chad as he presents Juanda with his fourth WSOP bracelet. The simple answer is an awesome young player named Stanislav Alehkin.
The Bracelet Winners
£1,500 No Limit Hold’em: Jesper Hougaard
With victory in the 2008 WSOPE Event #1, Jesper Hougaard becomes the fi rst player to win a bracelet on both sides of the Atlantic. The Dane shares the aggression of countryman Gus Hansen and put his opponents to the test with big bet moves during the £1,500 No Limit Hold’em event at The Empire.
Hougaard fi rst came to the public’s attention only nine months ago when he fi nal-tabled the EPT Scandinavian Open in his capital city, Copenhagen. In that event he impressed with his feel for where his opponents were in a hand, often making impossibly thin calls in high-pressure situations. His potential was recognized by Bet365, who shrewdly snapped up the 24-year-old pro. Hougaard picked up his fi rst bracelet at the 2008 WSOP in Event #36, a $1,500 No Limit Hold’em tournament, where he overcame a fi eld of 2,447 and a fi nal table including Aaron Kanter, Danny Wong, and eventual runner-up Cody Slaubaugh.
His London victory came against a signifi cantly smaller fi eld, but the Dane had to work his way past Neil Channing, Adam Junglen, and Yevgeniy Timoshenko at the fi nal table to pick up his second bracelet and £144,218.
£2,500 HORSE: Sherkhan Farnood
For the £2,500 he put up to play Event #2 at the 2008 WSOPE, Farnood was going to have a story to tell, if nothing else. Seated to the left of Phil Hellmuth, Farnood managed to have a hold on the Poker Brat, but perhaps not through skill alone. Farnood would be the fi rst to admit that he caught a couple of choice cards in big pots, which in turn saw Hellmuth label him “the worst player [he’d] ever played with.” Hellmuth’s appraisal fell on deaf ears because Farnood went on to win the event.
Poignantly, the Afghan dedicated his win to his fellow countrymen: “This is for the people of Afghanistan,” he said, after polishing off Ivo Donev to capture the title. “Because (I won) all the people of my country have a gold bracelet with me.”
Farnood certainly wasn’t the bookies’ favorite in this particular horserace, with Howard Lederer, Phil Ivey, Jeff Lisandro, and Mark Gregorich on hand to test the Hellmuthian hypothesis. Lederer’s tournament effectively ended in a big pot with Farnood, while Ivey also failed to exploit any perceived weaknesses at this particular table. He might be a little luckier than some, but don’t mistake Farnood’s win as a fl uke; after all, H.O.R.S.E. is the pro’s event, right?
£5,000 Pot Limit Omaha: Theo Jorgensen
The Danes resumed their successful run in Event #3 after the disappointment of missing out on the H.O.R.S.E. win when their man Theo Jorgensen picked up the second bracelet for the Scandinavians. Like Hougaard, Jorgensen is a player who has been close to success before, with fi nal table appearances at the 2007 EPT Scandinavian Open (wearing a very silly hat, we hasten to add), the 2007 WSOP $5,000 Seven Card Stud Event, and the Main Event of the 2007 WSOPE.
Jorgensen faced a tough-looking fi nal table in the Pot Limit Omaha event, with Sorel Mizzi, Max Pescatori, Chris Ferguson, and Jason Mercier all standing in the way of his bling and £218,626. It eventually came down to Mizzi and Jorgensen, and despite having a three to one chip lead on the Canadian, Jorgensen almost blew his chance to win his fi rst major title. With a freeroll to the fl ush with one card to come, Mizzi could have picked up his fi rst bracelet, but it wasn’t to be. No doubt he’ll have his day soon enough.
Fun in London
Hellmuth Look-Alikes
The sun was shining in Leicester Square and it seemed like the perfect day for a Phil Hellmuth look-alike contest. We’re big fans of the silly publicity stunts Phil likes to pull just prior to big tournaments, and this was no exception. One of our own, BLUFF Europe’s Richard Murnaghan, even entered the competition, hopeful of getting his hands on the £2,000 prize money. Of course, Richard looks nothing like Phil Hellmuth and was heavily penalized for his lack of Hellmuth-style shades, but, hey, we give him an ‘A’ for effort.
The contest was eventually declared a tie between Duncan McDougall and Matthew Robinson, whom Hellmuth deemed to have been cast in his image to an equal degree. In all his infi nite wisdom, Hellmuth also awarded £1,000 to the prettiest girl that happened to walk past that day.
Doyle v. Annette
It was America versus Norway, man versus woman, young versus old, and two of the best players in the world battling it out heads up. Yes, the long awaited match between Doyle Brunson and Annette “Annette_15” Obrestad took place just before the Main Event. Ultimately, Brunson proved to be a little too strong for Annette in the best-of-three match, but only after a little luck helped him on the way.
The opening game was a cautious affair, with each player trying to get a grip on the playing style of the other. In the end the fi rst chunky pot went to the Texan, and he eventually sealed the fi rst win after half an hour.
The second game started much better for the young Internet prodigy, but then luck turned against her. In two key hands, she lost her chip lead and then the match; fi rst when an open ended straight draw got there on the turn for Obrestad, only to be beaten on the river by a higher straight. The fi nal hand saw all the money go in on a jack-high fl op, with Obrestad’s K-J far ahead of Brunson’s J-3. A three on the turn was cruel and brought the clash to a premature end.
