| ALMOST WIRE TO WIRE
Floridian and best buddy to two-time WSOP runner-up Dewey Tomko, Hilbert Shirey gave up the chip lead for only a few minutes in a dominating Final Table performance from start to finish.
Watching cars rust is more exciting than Pot Limit Omaha. The name should be changed to 'Waiting For Aces.' It's amazing that so many cards in so many hours can make so few hands. The only way to get these guys to leave is to double the blinds. If this was poker's 'main game,' there wouldn't be any poker on television to this day.
FINAL TABLE
Seat/Player/Hometown/Chip Count
Seat 1 Joe Beevers London, England 33,300
Seat 2 Hilbert Shirey Winterhaven FL 109,600
Seat 3 Norman Collingsworth Knoxville TN 67,600,
Seat 4 Barry Greenstein Rancho Palos Verde CA 21,000
Seat 5 Robert Williamson III Dallas TX 71,100
Seat 6 Richard Harroch San Francisco CA 76,500
Seat 7 Galen Kester Tunica MS 68,900
Seat 8 Tony Cousineau Daytona Beach FL 48,200
Seat 9 Vegard Nygaard Oslo, Norway 68,000
Pot Limit Omaha players have 'sitzfleisch.' They can look at those four cards in their hand plus the five on the board and see NOTHING. All play and no work makes for nine dull boys.
Statistically the most successful player at the table was the first one out on hand 13. Barry Greenstein is called 'The Robin Hood of Poker' because he takes from the rich poker players and gives to the poor children of the world. Barry's ninth place finish probably didn't generate a sufficient amount to donate. Usually it's in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Barry's high wrap didn't get there. But a naked 7 did. And one of the great human beings in life, poker or no, left the forest.
Let's TIVO this puppy to hand 38 where a frustrated Norman Collingsworth had to leave in 8th. Norman LOOKS like a Omaha player. Like me, he could sit for a portrait of Buddha. Norman couldn't find a hand, in an empty experience.
Someone works so hard for 12 hours to get here and the cards don't come along. It could drive a player to eat. Collingsworth sailed his last few chips in with a suited Ace and a low wrap. Tony Cousineau had the hand all Omaha players wait for, two Aces, which walked Norman to the door.
The blinds still weren't high enough at 1,500 and 3,000 to budge Pot Limit Omaha players. They have to be exploded out their seats.
I made the mistake of telling Jack McClelland that Richard Harroch was the publisher of 'Poker For Dummies.' This was a bounce pass to an easy layup for the jokester McClelland. Everyone in the building, but Harroch, knew that Vegard Nygaard had hit a set on the flop when the Norwegian raised all-in. When Richard called the extra 52k to cripple his stack, Jack couldn't help himself with "Richard has been reading his own book." Mea Culpa, Richard. We are all so tired after two plus weeks of this.
The good news is that Mrs. McClelland had successful heart surgery in the morning of this Final Table and is doing very well. Our thoughts are with the lovely lady.
Harroch lasted until hand 62 when his all-in from the big blind was no match for Robert 'Skinny' Williamson's three Aces. That was three Aces IN HIS HAND, from the small blind, for the newlywed Williamson (three months) whose wife was cheering him on from the sidelines.
Actually, we had a beauty contest break out in the cheering section with Robert's wife and sister, Tony Cousineau's newlywed and Hilbert Shirey's wife all there.
These stakes were really too small for the big bucks Williamson. He said during a break he'd be next out or win it, and he "didn't care which." That may not have been completely true, but it sounds interesting because he was the next one out on hand 78 in 6th. It looks like he cared to me when he groaned as Hilbert Shirey spiked a wheel on the river to crack Robert's overpair Kings.
Male poker players are lucky to have wives at all, let alone one's as gorgeous and attentive as Tony Cousineau's. But the other object of Tony's Omaha affection, pocket Aces divorced him on hand 89. Tony raised all-in from the big blind for an extra 12k over Hendon Mobster, Joe Beevers' raise. Joe had bet the maximum 14k in the cutoff seat.
Beevers called reluctantly with 7 6 5 4. He seemed a little embarrassed to turn his hand over against the Aces of Cousineau until the flop came 9 8 7 for the dumb end of the straight. That built a dam that Tony, in 5th, couldn't break through. Joe 'The Elegance' Beevers is far from dumb. It's my joy to say nice things about a guy who was very kind to me at this year's World Series of Poker.
The other side of the nice things to say is the description of how Joe Beevers was knocked out. The Hendon Mob is a quartet of English players who have been funded for a year by PrimaPoker.com. The poker world has been at their calculators trying to add up how much the Mob has made in recouping Prima's $1,000,000 investment. We'll know if Prima thinks the publicity was all worth it, if the Mob is renewed for another year. Joe Beevers will have to be renewed at another event. He went out of this one in 4th on hand 111 when the dominating Hilbert Shirey raised enough to put Joe all-in. Beevers tried the low end again with A 2 4 5 and a nut club draw. Hilbert took the high road with A K Q 9 and hearts. Shirey made Kings up on the river.
Three handed Shirey and Nygaard had all the chips. Galen Kester is a very tough customer with several WSOP cashes to his credit. But he couldn't overcome the towers to his right and left. On hand 117, Kester went all-in with a flopped two pair 7's and 5's. He might have won the hand with more chips but he couldn't bet Hilbert Shirey off pocket Kings. When a King hit the river, Galen knew he was out on his Kester in 3rd.
When the blinds finally got to 3k/6k it was time for all Omaha players to call it quits. On hand 129, Hilbert Shirey got what all of us poker players dream about. He had the nuts and someone went all-in against him. That someone was Vegard Nygaard (what was his mother thinking?).
In a funny scene for someone who covers poker tournaments, Hilbert was so relieved to get this turkey over with he tore off a couple of hundreds for the stunned dealer who had just sat down in the box to deal the winning hand. The Jack on the turn gave Shirey's 10 9 the nut straight on a flop of Q 8 7. Nygaard had raised all-in with 10 10 7 6.
"Whew, that was a tough one," Hilbert said to me. Indeed it was. Pot Limit Omaha always is even when you go almost wire to wire.
Mike Paulle
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