| WORLD SERIES OF POKER 2002
EVENT #30 NO-LIMIT HOLD'EM
Thursday, May 16, 2002
$3,000 BUY-IN
$3,000 in chips
DERAILING "THE ORIENT EXPRESS"
Yesterday we found out what happened to 'Famous Last Words.' Today we found out what happened to a 'Foregone Conclusion.'
There were 352 entrants in the $3,000 No-Limit Hold'em for a total prize pool of $992,640. Three tables were paid, a total of 27 players.
To setup the Final Table Thursday afternoon, Harley Hall was the shortest stack and went all-in for $5k and a 10 9. The small blind called with K 6. When a King flopped, Harley didn't need a Hall pass to leave the building.
THE FINAL TABLE: 22 mins left of 75. The blinds were $2,000/$4,000
Seat 1 Jon Hoellein Lakewood OH $ 55,500
Seat 2 Simon Trumper London, UK $ 77,000
Seat 3 Sherman Burry Inglewood CO $ 84,000
Seat 4 Johnny Chan Las Vegas NV $307,000
Seat 5 Randal Heeb Paris, France $ 97,500
Seat 6 Sid Miller Wyncote PA $ 99,500
Seat 7 Huck Seed Las Vegas NV $138,500
Seat 8 Pierre Peretti Luzarches, France $ 64,500
Seat 9 Alan Betson Dublin, Ireland $ 30,500
Seat 10 Kathy Liebert Las Vegas NV $102,500
Too bad for Huck Seed that he doesn't smoke. Taking a cigarette break at the start of this Final Table might have made him $355,320. That's the difference in payout between 1st place and 10th. In a hand that will be talked about for
years, Huck Seed sailed all his chips into the pot against the only guy at the table who could bust him--Johnny Chan.
In one of the first hands of the match, Huck was second in chips when he decided that either Johnny wouldn't call his all-in bet, or that he'd hit his open-ended straight draw. Seed was wrong on both counts. Chan had bet $20k on the Q 3 2 flop (one Diamond) with the Q 10 of Diamonds. Huck had a 4 5 and a dream that all his chips would return to him. Oddly if the turn card had been a 6 or Ace of Diamonds instead of the 9 of Diamonds that came, Huck would have led for only one card. The 8 of Diamonds that did river would have beaten Huck, anyway. In the shock of the WSOP this year, Chan planted Seed in 10th. Wow!
Surely everyone was playing for 2nd, now. (You know Surely. Nice girl.) This was a classic 'Foregone Conclusion.' Johnny Chan could walk to pick up his 7th bracelet. Chan had almost half the chips on the table and over a 4-1 chip
lead on 2nd. If this race were to be priced, it would be off-the-board. No less an authority than TJ Cloutier sitting nearby said to the audience, "This is the greatest No-Limit Hold'em player in the world." "Thanks, TJ," Chan
replied. Small problem. There were still eight players to be eliminated.
Five left quickly. Jon Hoellein led the Conga Line out the door. Hoellein reraised Pierre Perretti all-in with his last $25k and J J on the button. Sherman Burry crashed over the top of them both all-in with A K. With an Ace on the turn, Jon was no more in 9th.
Sid Miller may never play pocket Kings again. He ate them twice in the first hour. The second meal of Kings was Sid's last. Johnny Chan became the first player in WSOP history to make $3,000,000 in earnings when his A 8 went full
over Miller's end in 8th.
They weren't leaving fast enough for Randal Heeb, so he dumped two at once. Alan Betson had no shot all-in for only 2k in the big blind. But Kathy Liebert was another matter. When the flop came 9 4 4, Johnny Chan whispered to a friend that Heeb had a 4. Kathy Liebert didn't think so. She liked her pocket Jacks. Randal let Kathy get all-in for $45k on the turn. Heeb had just enough to cover her with $47k. Then Randal turned over A 4. Liebert was drawing dead to a Jack on the river that didn't arrive. The first 'Million
Dollar Woman' was 6th.
There was one more member of our Conga Line out the door--Pierre Perretti in 5th. He'd made about $25k in real money by not playing a hand, but Perretti was too short to last. Pierre called all-in for an extra two grand over his
small blind with the Q 4 of Hearts. Randal Heeb had J 9 and ended up with trip 9's.
Very suddenly there were four. You had Johnny Chan with half the chips and three guys with the rest. It was a joke, right? A 'Foregone Conclusion.' Even Johnny thought it was over. Chan is a finalist in the long-delayed Gold
Bracelet Match Play event. When asked when he'd like to play Phil Hellmuth for the title Johnny said, " I'll play him tonight. I want to be the first player ever to win two bracelets on the same day." Uh, oh! Those sound like
'Famous Last Words.' Karma Time! The poker gods don't like haughty, not even from 'the world's greatest No-Limit player.'
A straggler in the Conga Line was Simon Trumper in 4th. He waited until the others had left the parking lot before exiting. Simon caught a terrible card on the turn, the 9 of Diamonds. It gave him trip 9's, so Simon said he'd bet
his last $40k. The 9 of Diamonds made Johnny Chan the nut flush. Simon needed the board to pair. It didn't.
It was at this point that a exceedingly strange thing started to happen. The indestructible 'Wall of China' started to crumble. Johnny Chan started losing pot after pot. Randal Heeb won seven straight hands in one stretch. Several of those wins came when he raised over the top of Chan's bets, and Johnny laid the hand down. The audience couldn't believe their eyes. Johnny Chan was being dominated by a 'nobody.' But a crushing loss wasn't to Heeb, it was to Sherman Burry. Johnny was in the big blind when he flopped huge. Chan had the A 4 of Diamonds. The flop was A J 3 with two diamonds. Chan put Burry all-in
for Sherman's last $146k. Burry cremated Chan with an A 3. Sherman had flopped two pair. Amazingly, Chan still had a slight chip lead. It shows how far ahead he once was.
But the momentum was reversed against Chan and he couldn't turn it back around. Heeb continued to come over the top of Johnny and wouldn't be stopped. Finally with only $80k left, Chan went all-in with A J.
So much for a 'Foregone Conclusion.' 'The Lock of the Century' had been unlocked. Randal Heeb had A Q and the Queen played. Johnny Chan was a startling, stunning, mind-blowing 3rd. The 'Orient Express' was derailed. It
couldn't happen, but it did. That's why we play the game.
Randal Heeb teaches 'Game Theory' to PhD candidates at a top business school in Paris. When asked if he'd used his game theories against Chan, Randal replied "not really." He continued, "I had good cards..." and he bet them
fearing what Chan would do in response. "I didn't know when he was bluffing." Heeb is originally from Idaho and studied poker under the guidance of Tex Morgan of TEARS fame. He specializes in no-limit tournaments.
It took only a few minutes for Randal to dispose of Sherman Burry in 2nd. Heeb had pocket Queens, Burry had pocket 10's. Sherman Burry hadn't played in a tournament in ten years. When asked if he'd play in the Big One, he said,
"No more, I can't take this." Evidently, 23 hours of intense pressure wasn't pleasant even for $188,600.
The moral of this day is: Don't count your 8th bracelet before you secure your 7th. You might have to eat your 'Famous Last Words' and be the victim of a 'Foregone Conclusion.'
The Super Satellites are cookin'. As of Friday afternoon, 170 seats have been won. The final number is expected to be over 200 seats won to the 'Big Dance' by Sunday night.
Some recent winners were: David Brewer, Don Thompson, Fred Brown, Samuel Arzoin, Rafael Perry, Serafin Zahapopoulos (2nd), David Singer, Cruz Tijerina, Dolph Arnold, Leo Boothe, Christer Johansson, Dimitrios Magdalinos,
Andre Hidi, Gus Echeverri (2nd) Ray Beck, Malki Marzoug, Nelson Lee, Rick Barabino, John Dobbs, Flan Pilkington, Antonio Estandiari, Martine Oules,
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