Player's Stories

Word Series Of Poker Day Three: Report from the Rail
By Chadd Berwager

A few days ago I told my brother on the phone that yeah, I had watched some of the WSOP, including two final tables, and it was, as Badger so succinctly put it "like watching paint dry." OK, my bad. My problem is that I only watched limit finals. No Limit, as they say, is a whole new ball game. I watched about three hours of the last two tables tonight, from 13 down to seven players. There was one more to be eliminated when I left (1:30 a.m.), so I don't know the final line-up.

God, the action!! WOOHOO. Some hands that I will never forget:

T.J. vs. Jim McManus (A9o part one). T.J. is in one of the blinds at the 10-20K blind levels. Jim McManus, still wearing his "Press" ID, makes it 60K more from one off the button. T.J. raises back 150K more. Jim ponders, then calls. Flop is little junk, don't remember what. T.J. moves in 200K without hesitation. Jim thinks for about a minute, then calls. Turn is more little junk. T.J. motions all-in. McManus is clearly not happy, and after another minute of chip shuffling, calls all in (T.J. has him outstacked by about 300K). They flip over. T.J. has A9o, McManus AKo. River is no help.

Two hands later, T.J. moves all in before the flop. It looks like he might be tossing in the towel, as someone in the gallery says. Nope. No callers, and he shows TT. The very next hand, Hassan Habib makes a 60K raise, and T.J. calls. Flop is Q32. T.J. checks, Hassan bets 100K, and T.J. comes back over the top, all in for 198 more. Hassan calls immediately, and flips over Q5o. T.J. shows 33, and the two on the turn puts him back in business.

Chris Ferguson vs. Jim McManus (or, A9o part two). Jesus, as CF is apparently known, makes a 60K raise, McM to his left calls, and Hassan calls from the big blind. Three way action!! Only time all night that happened. Flop is AQ2. Chris Ferguson moves all in for about 250K. McM puts his head down on the edge of the table. After about a minute he calls. Then Hassan gets up and goes and consults his coach (I'm NOT making this up!!!!!) He did this at least ten times, goes over and consults a mid-30s Asian guy who I don't know (but of course, I wouldn't know Men Nguyen or Tony Ma if they knocked on my door, either). The coach listens to Hassan whisper to him, then snorts and shakes his head in disgust. Hassan goes back to the table and mucks (I AM NOT MAKING THIS UP!!!!) Chris Ferguson is clearly unhappy, beneath the black cowboy hat, the black beard, and shades, with the call. He turns up A9o with dread. McM looks absolutely thrilled, and the crowd hums in excitement. Then McM turns up A9o also, and both players laugh and shake hands.

Annie's Last Stand (or, A9o part 3) A while later, Jesus makes a 60K raise from 2 UTG. Annie Duke in the big blind ponders, then moves all in for about 300K. Jesus, showing none of the "Turn the Other Cheek" business, calls and flips up red Aces. Duke turns up A9 of spades (c'mon, its ALMOST A9o, give me a break), and that was that. The nine high flop gave the crowd some hope (these were by far the two players with the biggest rooting sections), but alas, Annie Duke goes out in tenth place.

The final table was, from one to nine, Chris Ferguson (Jesus), Hassan Habib, Jim McManus, T.J. Cloutier,Roman Abinsay, Mickey Appleman, Jeff Shulman, Capt. Tom Franklin, and Steve Kaufman. Jeff Shulman was the chip leader at about 1,050,000. Almost everyone else bunched between three and five hundred K. Jeff Shulman was about to go on the rush of his life, Hassan Habib was about to get played like a bitch, and Jesus was about to use the force to hold off the kid. It was tremendously entertaining.

First memorable hand. Hassan raises, Shulman calls on button. Flop is AJx. Shulman bets 100K. Hassan checks him out for a long time, then says, "all in". Shulman mucks immediately. Two hands later, Hassan raises, Roman calls. Flop is Q high. Roman bets 80K, Hassan thinks for about 1/15th of a second and says, yet again, "all in". Roman, too, mucks immediately. Then comes a long stretch where we either never see a flop, or a middle sized bet on flop picks up a pot.

Don't mess with Jesus (Pt 1). Folded all the way to Kaufman in the small blind. He raises 50K, Ferguson comes back for 150K more. Kaufman shuffles his chips until they are thoroughly randomized, then calls (446K in pot). Flop is 777. Crowd hums. Jesus slowly pushes all in. Now we expect a long period of chip shuffling, or maybe a delighted smile that A7s just hit. Instead, Kaufman frowns, looks at the gaping bite wound in his stack, and mucks. Jesus doesn't show.

Hassan gets played like a bitch: (sorry for the vernacular) Roman raises 50K, Hassan comes back over top for 100K more from big blind. Roman, who has just gone on a little tear and collected some chips, after being down to 270K, pushes his chips, one stack at a time, into the middle. 600K, enough to put Hassan all in with a comfortable margin. Hassan jumps up, and consults the coach (I AM NOT MAKING THIS UP!!!!!!). Finally, he sits back down, and tells the table that he is mucking AK, but does not show. Roman flips up red kings as he drags a nice pot, and Hassan continues his decline. He couldn't drag a pot after Annie Duke got eliminated, mostly, though it seemed he was using his position to bully her earlier.

When we got down to seven players, with the elimination of Tom Franklin (ATo, this time, taking it up against AK) and Mickey Appleman, ending a stunning day, going from 6K in chips, to half a million, to eighth place in the WSOP, Jeff Shulman takes over the table. He dropped 200K in a pot to Hassan at one point, then climbed back up to just under a million. As soon as the blinds go to 15-30K, antes 3K, he turns on maniac mode. Hand after hand he raises and picks up the pot. Remember SuperSystem "And you'd be surprised how often they say, 'Take it, Doyle'" That what this was like. Hassan raises, Shulman re-raises, Hassan mucks. Shulman raises 200K and picks up the pot (66K). Shulman raises and picks up the pot. T.J. gets sick of watching the kid vacuuming chips and raises 100K himself. Na-ah. Kid re-raises 200K, T.J. mucks. Shulman folds(!!) Oops. Shulman raises 200K and picks up the pot. Shulman raises and picks...... I'm getting tired of typing that. It sure was fun watching it, though.

Jeff Shulman has more than a million and a half dollars, a VERY impressive stack of chips. The table is cowed, everybody looks unhappy. Then Jeff Shulman raises 200K again, and the best hand of poker I've ever seen happens.

The Power of Jesus: Chris Ferguson, in the blind, looks the kid over, clearly sick of the raising. Shulman has picked up seven of the last nine pots, if I remember right. No one wants to be the forgotten seventh player who doesn't make it on TV, and no one is challenging him. Jesus has had enough though, and when he looks down to see black sixes, he has a decision to make. This is why I will never be a big-time poker player. 66 is clearly a muck against the big stack, right? I mean, Jesus has about 800K in front of him, and is guaranteed a spot in the big show. Right? WRONG!!!! Jesus moves all in. And must be absolutely horrified to see Jeff Shulman stand up and say, "I call". They flip up, black sixes for Jesus, and (!!!!!) sevens for Jeff Shulman. The board that follows would give lesser men heart attacks. Flop is all hearts (Schulman has the seven of hearts) T-6-3. Shulman, who jumped up and whooped when Ferguson showed his hand, now sits down, but studies the board and nods. He has outs. Jesus is implacable, showing no emotion. The turn is a 4 (mebbe five), giving Shulman 14 outs. He can catch a five(4), heart (8), or seven(2) to win. The river is another ten, and Jesus walks over to the rail, absolutely white faced, shaking a little bit. The kid starts pushing stacks of red chips over towards the one seat. When he is done pushing, the red is all gone. He is decimated. He has about 500K left, and Jesus has almost 1.8 million in front of him.

Wow. Too bad I gotta work tomorrow. And the next time you hear someone say that poker tournaments are as boring as watching paint dry, just tell them that no-limit is a whole new ball game.

Note: I did not take notes at the rail. Some details are undoubtedly incorrect. Hell, some of the NAMES are probably incorrect. So if this doesn't wash with Glazer or Paulle reports, they are surely correct. But it was so exciting, I just wanted to share with all you guys that can't be there in person.