blonde poker forum

Welcome back to the final of the $5k short-handed event. This event is being broadcast on the WSOP site with an hour delay so whilst the final starts at 2pm (10pm UK) we can only start reporting on it from 3pm (11pm). Below are the chip counts and prize money.

Seat 1: Greg Pohler -- 655,000
Seat 2: Alex Bolotin -- 2,010,000
Seat 3: Gioi Luong -- 570,000
Seat 4: Bill Edler -- 535,000
Seat 5: Dutch Boyd -- 705,000
Seat 6: Erik Friberg -- 2,795,000

1st -- $904,672
2nd -- $504,686
3rd -- $345,582
4th -- $232,669
5th -- $169,369
6th -- $110,860

Blinds were 20k/40k with a 5k ante when left last night, so apart from Erik and Alex, the players have very little room to manoeuvre.

Well, we are now in the Vegas stage of not being quite sure what day it is, while being definitely sure that what time of day it is is irrelevant.  The World Series rushes onwards, with several events per day kicking off, whittling down, or coming to their thrilling conclusion.  Like this one. 

Unfortunately, it is "sequestered," (the last time I heard this word was in relation to a jury on a high-profile criminal case) which means that it is taking place live in a tent about 20 feet away from us, with no-one in and no-one out until it reaches a conclusion.  This is so it can be streamed online - we are getting a feed, as Homer says, with an hour's delay on it.  Seeing as it is possible to watch all the hands in real time in exchange for some cash we were unsure as to whether to cover it, but decided to give it a shot anyway.  I probably don't need to say that certain European members of the press think the whole setup sucks for Live Coverage, but there's always the new $1,500 event which started at Midday today to have a peek at.  I know Nick Wright - dino1980 on blonde - won a package and is playing... anyone else?

 :hello: ;applause;

Seat 1: Greg Pohler -- 655,000

Seat 2: Alex Bolotin -- 2,010,000

Seat 3: Gioi Luong -- 570,000 (trying to find a better picture)

Seat 4: Bill Edler -- 535,000

Seat 5: Dutch Boyd -- 705,000

Seat 6: Erik Friberg -- 2,795,000

Incidentally the live feed has Howard David commentating with "Poker Pro" Taylor Caby and "Poker Player" Brian Townsend. Answers on a postcard if you know the difference between a 'pro' and and 'player'.

Is the "pro" about two stone heavier ?

The first exit has occurred!  Gioi Luong is eliminated in 6th place, winning $110,860.

His seat was actually empty for about half an hour after they restarted at 2pm.  That is some oversleep, or perhaps he heard that it would be being shown on plasmas outside the tournament area at 3pm and missed the part about the delay...either way with hundreds of thousands of dollars at stake you'd think timeliness might be a concern.  Plus, say what you will about the WSOP, they do tend to start on time, regardless of how many runners there are, or who they are...

Anyway, he took his seat but only for about 20 minutes.  With short stack Bill Edler picking up quite a few 95k blinds-and-antes pots by just shoving in the correct positions, Luong took his shot with the more than reasonable Qc Kd.  It folded round to Alex Bolotin in the big blind, who announced, "Call," immediately, showing Ahrt Kh.  Some rags on the flop were topped with an Aspades on the turn, and a clearly disappointed Luong headed off the table.  I don't know whether he was allowed out of the tent.

Bill Edler, who has been playing this final table like a turbo sit 'n' go (i.e properly) moves in from the cut-off. Dutch Boyd pushes behind him. The blinds fold.

Bill:

Ad 7c

Dutch:

Js Jh

Board:

3d 5c 8c Ac 8s

Meaning Dutch Boyd is OUT in 5th place winning $169,369

Chip Counts:

Erik Friberg   3,100,000
Alex Bolotin  2,300,000
Bill Edler       1,100,000
Greg Pohler     700,000

Bill Edler just made up the small blind with Aspades Tc, while Erik Friberg appeared to have 9h 3h and checked, with Bill checking the King-high flop but betting the turn.  No one having hit, he picked up another small pot, which set the commentators off again.  A few minutes ago he was shoving with J-4 off, and now he calls the small blind with a pretty strong hand.  Whatever he might have been worrying about, I doubt it was what one of the commentators mentioned: "If the flop comes down T-9-3 he's in a terrible situation."    !   

I am sorry if this information is a little slow in coming (and an hour after the fact) but we have only our 2D source in the hallway.  Periodically it shows, instead of the $5k final, some very odd advertisements instead, for things like Collectibles Sets of chips with the little grinning heads of Negreanu and Hellmuth and Evelyn Ng etc. on them which look like the kind of thing your relatives get you for Christmas since they know you like "Texas Poker", or video games version of casino games, or Partypoker.net...

Blinds are now 30k/60k/5k

Greg Poehler raises to 240k, Erik Friberg calls in the big blind.

Flop:

7d 4h 3h

Erik checks, Greg bets 500k, Erik moves in. Greg calls.

Erik:

Ac 4d

Greg:

Td Tc

Turn:

6h

River:

Kh

Greg Poehler doubles up to what looks like 2 million. The commentators are very critical of Friberg's play there and it's not hard to see why, calling OOP with such a weak ace against a guy who has been fairly tight so far.

Bill Edler shoves again (actually betting 1 million, which left him a single chip) - Alex Bolotin decides his 3h 3d aren't worth it...
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Everybody wants to see a flop (it's strange seeing their hole cards some of the time) -
Greg Pohler has 4c 4h
Erik Friberg has Ac 3d
Alex Bolotin has 5c 5h
The only player not getting to the flop was small blind Bill Edler, who dwelled for a good long time before passing his Qs Js.  The hindsight D'Oh meter hit the top as the flop came Ks Jd 3s and no massive action kicked off, Greg Pohler betting out and picking it up on the flop.   The perverse spectators had been calling for a 4s 5s Aspades flop - so like poker railers to immediately create action in their heads.

Greg Poehler raises to a hefty 275k, Bill Edler moves in and Greg calls.

Greg:

Ac Jh

Bill:

Aspades Qd

Board:

Qh 3d 2d Kh 4s

Edler doubles up, once again though, the commentators are critical of Poehler's oversized raises that forced him to commit. They thought Poehler could've raised to 160k - 180k and then he'd have been able to fold afterwards.

Now you too can see what we can see - this overhead still from the Feed is pretty much what we get.

Poehler raises Aspades 9h and Friberg calls with 3c 3h but check-folds the 7d Th Qh to a Poehler bet.

More criticism from Caby and Townsend for the flat call with the threes.

Happy Birthday Chris!

Get a beer on me!

and one on Tikay...

Thanks mate, I will be having a few at the end of this day, better finish this action first though.

First, in a three way pot Alex raises with Ad Jh, Erik calls Qd Ts and Greg calls with 4c 3c.

Flop:

5h 7s 9d

Check, check, check.

Turn:

Jc

Erik now moves in for a big overbet, Alex calls and Greg folds.

River:

Ks

Erik doubles through.

Little break so I went to have a look at today's oversellout $1,500 NLHE.  3,150 players, or something, including a big chunk of alternates.  They are spread all over the place, as we expect the Main Event to be - including in the poker room down the hall (i.e. about half a mile away).  One of the Tournament Areas is in this tent outside (last year the Poker Kitchen was in said tent).  Pictured below is what it looks like in there, complete with what looks like an inflatable air conditioning system (which isn't all that efficient, to be honest).  I would definitely feel like I'd gotten a short straw if my starting table were out there.

I found a few familiar faces out there, among them:
Jan Heitmann
Karl Mahrenholz
Johan Storakers

Greg with Js Td and Alex with Kh 6h see a flop.

Flop:

Ts 5d Kd

Greg check/calls Alex's bet

Turn:

Jh

Now Greg moves in, which puzzles the commentators who think that he'd get more value by check/raising all-in. Alex though makes the call, and Greg flips his cards. He has Qh Js, not Js Td! A Tikayesque misread by those in charge of the feed.

River:

3d

Greg Poehler is OUT in 4th place $232,669

Or in Flushy-speak.

LOL Misfeedments.

Erik Friberg is playing badly in my opinion, and also Peter Hedlund's, who was briefly watching the feed with us.

He just flat-called a Bill Edler 7d 6d raise with 8h 8c and then check/folded on the 5d 5s Qd flop.

Peter tells us that Erik is usually a completely fearless aggressive player and can't understand some of these flat-calls with pairs.

It's Bill Edler who's taking down a lot of pots by being the aggressor, whether that be preflop, or on the flop.  Erik Friberg has noticed this, in my opinion, re-raising all in preflop with Aspades 8c over the top of Edler (who passed his bag of spanners).  But still, he's getting away with picking up multiple smaller pots, like these two:

Bill Edler sees a flop with the half-Wilson 7h 4h (small blind), with big blind Alex Bolotin holding the Ad 3s.  They both check the 7s 6d 8h, which gets the commentary going on how betting out second pair should have been the move here.  The turn is the Ac, Bill checks, Alex bets 150k, and Bill check-raises him to 500k.  A shorter dwell than I anticipated, and Alex Bolotin gives up a hand he was well in front in.  As for Bill, well, why take the easy option of betting when you're ahead on the flop when everyone's playing pretty tight, when you can wait until you drop behind on the turn and make a nice risky check-raise?  Hmmm.
________________________________

Then it's Bill Edler vs. Erik Friberg, both with total garbage seeing a flop of Jd 2d Ks.  Mere minutes after the previously mentioned hand, Bill check-raises once again, and takes it down.

I really like Elders play.

He doesn't over commit, he's picking up a lot of small pots and he doesn't call off chips.

Erik didn't look comfortable before but I think he's got his head on now.

The other chap is gonna need cards...

Erik is just doing it wrong. He limps on the button with Jh 9d, Alex makes up with 9h 7d, and Bill smells weakness, raises with 7h 2d and they both pass.

Then next time it's Erik's button he limps again with 9h 7h, Alex calls with Kh 2h and Bill raises them off the pot with Ad Jc and they pass again.

Bill should win this, Alex is playing too tight, and Erik is limping too much.

Erik's gonna choose the wrong moment to re-raise...

Erik Friberg is OUT in 3rd place winning $345,582

He was all in against Alex Bolotin

Erik:

Ahrt 3c

Alex:

Aspades Td

Board:

2d 4d 6d Th 7d

Heads Up action starts shortly.

I've wandered off on a $1,500 NL tangent...

Found Nick Wright in the break, pictured drinking the fluorescent yellow caffeine-heavy wonder which is Mountain Dew (why is it so hard to get in the UK?).  He lasted, "About three hours," apparently still feeling the after-effects of Thursday night, during which he consumed several cocktails called Witch Doctors in the Rio's rooftop club the Voodoo Lounge.  The $26 monster apparently contains five types of rum and comes with multiple straws, but Nick saw no need for those seeing as it was just about possible to drink the things from their bowl-like containers.  The rest remains unclear, but his WSOP debut was apparently a bit short.  He felt that it all started with a bad beat, of sorts, when the older gentleman seated two to his left was told right at the beginning of the tournament that he'd taken the wrong seat, and was actually on a different table.  This guy was immediately replaced by someone wearing a Danish sponsor's logo, being photographed by the press, so Nick's dreams of being the button aggressor were, he said, instantly crushed.

The guy pictured below is Richard Buchan, who qualified for this event the same way Nick did - via a pub poker league in Bath.  There were three seats, and 150 players, and the two of them got there... Rich Bucks (hope I got his nickname right - it's not a bad one) has never played a tournament over £50, and never plays online... He's in comfortably-over-average shape with 19k at the break.

Also still in today's tourney is Shelley Rubenstein (pictured).  Although at the last break she wasn't delighted with having come in as an alternate a good ways into the tournament (and then being moved to a table where there were several larger stacks who'd been there, knocking each other out since the very beginning), she's still on the small side of average chips but with a more optimistic attitude.  Apparently recently she has been successfully bluffing, which surprises her - "They actually believe me!"

One final digression:  $1,500 NL Hatwatch, with special prize for the Fergusonalike at the bottom...

Meanwhile, in the heads up action, Alex Bolotin pays the price for letting Bill limp in with 4s 2c and not raising his Aspades 9c. Bill put a 450k value bet on the river of a 2h 4c 7h 2d 5s board which Alex paid off.

Chip counts:

Bill -- 4.7 million
Alex -- 2.25 million

Unless Alex completely changes his strategy and gets aggressive quickly, there's no obvious way he can win this.

And Bill Edler continues to extend his chip lead, taking one pot after another.  The commentators give Bill credit for getting the better hands, but he's also playing his not-so-great starting hands, taking the blinds with J-9 and then playing 7c 3c on the big blind when Alex Bolotin limped with Td 7s on the button.
Bill checked the 5s 4h 9d flop, and then the more helpful 2d turn, but his 275k bet on the 4s river took that one too. 

Chip standings at this point:

Bill Edler  5,300,000
Alex Bolotin   1,900,000

Alex raises it up, Bill moves in. Alex calls quickly.

Bill:

Ac Ts

Alex:

Ahrt Qs

Board:

3h Th 3s 5d 8s

which means Alex Bolotin is our 2nd place finisher winning $504,686

And...

Bill Edler is the $5,000 Short-Handed Champion winning $904,672


Congratulations to Bill, who was certainly the best player on the final table and managed to come from the short stack to win, and win well.