| SUCCESSFUL NEW TOURNAMENT STRATEGY: OVERSLEEP
WOW! Three players knocked out on the first three hands. Four players gone in six hands. If any one of them had overslept and missed the first 10 minutes they would have made $12,000.
So I comment to Jack McClelland that it might be an early night and he said, "Yeah, check back at 11 (p.m.)." That would be an eight hour Final Table, the tournament's longest. In fact we were through in just over four hours.
FINAL TABLE
Seat/Player/Hometown/Chip Count
Seat 1 Lee Watkinson Elma WA 224,000
Seat 2 Humberto Brenes Miami FL 131,000
Seat 3 Cameron Angus London, England 45,000
Seat 4 Stan Mazza Boulder City NV 66,000
Seat 5 Rodeen Talebi Dallas TX 87,000
Seat 6 Steve Landfish Mishawaka IN 87,000
Seat 7 Phi Nguyen Santa Ana CA 60,000
Seat 8 Erik Seidel Las Vegas NV 81,000,
Seat 9 Stan Schrier Las Vegas NV 59,000
The blinds were 2,000 and 4,000 for 57 minutes longer.
So, what do you think?
You play brilliantly for twelve hours to make a Final Table in a major event. You get a good night's sleep. You have at least ten big blind bets in front of you. And you go out of the event on one of the first six hands in under ten minutes.
Would you do that?
Stan Mazza, Phi Nguyen, Cameron Angus and Steve Landfish did. If any of them had overslept they would have been at least $12,000 richer.
I'm kidding, of course. You see a hand that you think will win and you go for it. That's what got you to the Final Table in the first place.
It was just odd, that's all. Like Lemmings diving into the sea to drown themselves.
Hand number one: It happened so fast I didn't get a chance to write down the hands. Here's the betting though. Humberto Brenes makes it 12k to go. Stan Mazza has an A Q, I think, and reraises the maximum of 34k. Humberto puts Stan all-in with another 20k bet. The board is 6 4 3 8 8. My recollection is that Brenes had a pair of 7's. But don't quote me. Anyway, Stan had to leave. No Mazza Tov in 9th.
Hand number two: I got the hands this time. Lee Watkinson made it the maximum raise of 14k. Phi Nguyen came over the top with A K all-in. The board came Q J 3 8 5. Big slick hit the rail in 8th.
Hand number three: A young red-haired Scotsman, with the wonderful name of Cameron Angus, thought that big slick couldn't lose two hands in a row. I would never say that Cameron was cowed by Stan Schrier's pocket Aces, because I'm not like that. But he did have a beef. Room service woke him up too soon. Cameron' s mood was black in 7th.
Three ups, three outs. Sounds more like baseball than poker.
We have to wait all the way to hand 6 to get really short handed. It was tedious but we survived. In the only strange hand of the early going, Steve Landfish (I don't make this stuff up) called a reraise all-in from Lee Watkinson with A 8 offsuit. Lee had a real hand, A Q. Steve won the best amphibian award for 6th.
Ok, the rush to the exits is over. Time to settle in for a poker tournament. The remaining five congratulated themselves for not being insane and played on.
These guys were very quick with their betting. So it was still in the first level that 5th place was decided on hand 36. Stan Schrier has had a couple of excellent WSOP finishes. But one of the new kings of the WSOP this year was Lee Watkinson.
Talk about walking on water, Lee was in the running for best all-around. Stan had to feel a little cold decked by his last hand. Stan had K Q. Lee had Q J. Schrier got all his chips in on the flop of K J J drawing nearly dead. By the river we were four handed.
One person who will never be charged with insanity is Erik Seidel. If Erik hasn't seen it in poker, it hasn't happened. Seidel calmly watched players hand over more money to him by leaving. Erik gives no chips away, ever. They have to take them from him. And that's exactly what the incendiary Lee Watkinson did.
"That wasn't very nice," Erik said quietly as his straight card came on the turn. Seidel's straight card was also Watkinson's flush card, so the simply great Erik Seidel leaves in 4th.
Three handed, it looked for all the world that Lee Watkinson was going to demolish this table. He had well over half the chips and he was playing masterfully. But there was something wrong. I've watched Lee many times this year and up until today I'd never seen him act angry or frustrated. He was always the coolest hand at the table.
But sitting right behind Lee was Humberto Brenes. Clearly one of the best players in the world. For the first two hours, Lee dominated Humberto. But Brenes was biding his time, not showing his anger, just setting his trap for the aggressive Watkinson. Suddenly the trap slammed shut. Lee had checkraised Humberto repeatedly, so Brenes knew he could get all-in with his set of 5's on the flop. Lee checkraised as expected with top pair.
"I'm going to BREAK you," Humberto yelled at Lee when the set held up, twisting his fists apart. "I told you!"
This was obviously personal. No one likes to be checkraised repeatedly. Brenes had made his point and had doubled himself up back in the game.
Who didn't look like they were long for the game was Rodeen Talebi. He was down to 35,000 when he went all-in on hand 65. Brenes had the hand won against both Talebi and Watkinson with a pocket pair of 7's. The board double paired on the river with 10's and 8's to save Talebi and give him a split with Watkinson Ace high.
On the next hand the tide turned against Lee and toward Rodeen. Talebi won an all-in hand with A 5 against pocket 3's for Lee when an Ace hit the turn. Now Rodeen had over 100k and he was a factor for the first time.
The wheels were coming off for Lee Watkinson. Sometimes players feel invincible. I think that's what happened to Lee. He made a couple of really strange calls to put himself out of this event in 3rd place. On the first Lee gave Humberto Brenes 200k in chips when Lee called the Brenes raise all-in preflop with J 9 offsuit. Humberto had a real hand A J.
Then Lee couldn't get off a hand on the flop with the Q J of Diamonds and two baby diamonds on board. Rodeen Talebi had pocket Aces and took almost all the rest of Lee's chips lead away..
The shocking demise of the once invincible-looking Lee Watkinson came on hand 129 when Lee flopped up and down with a pair. The board came 10 9 8. Lee had J 8 and was called all-in by Rodeen Talebi with 10 6. Top pair held up.
Heads up Talebi had a 480k to 360k chip lead on Humberto Brenes. Only an experienced player like Brenes would have lasted as long as he did. Once Brenes made trip 8's on the river and didn't go all-in. Talebi had trip 8's with a better kicker. Another time, Rodeen caught a gutshot straight on the river and somehow Humberto saved some chips. It was a very impressive performance by Brenes. But the inevitable just takes a little longer.
On hand 151 both guys got there chips in the middle. Talebi had Brenes covered with A K against A 7.
This was a very interesting table. It would have been a terrific one to have televised.
Rodeen Talebi just turned pro this year. He is a 28 year old with an Masters in Computer Science. He worked in the telecom industry before deciding poker could support him. The guy looks like an Italian John Cusack, ladies, if anyone is interested.
It's a good thing I didn't oversleep, we would have missed half the table's departure and would have gotten none of the $12,000.
Mike Paulle
MikePaulle@PokerPages.com
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