The First Rule of Tournament Poker...
2008-02-28 11:40:44
By:
Gene Bromberg
Is to survive.
That's what Dan Harrington has said, and that's what Phil Hellmuth and Scott "r_a_y" Montgomery did on the way to the
final table at the L.A. Poker Classic. Both players looked into the abyss after losing brutal hands, but they didn't blow off the last of their chips in an orgy of rage and self-pity. They gathered what few chips remained, focused on the task at hand, and went back to work.
Phil Ivey is regarded as one of the best players in the world. He's so good that it almost doesn't seem fair that he should actually be dealt
good cards on occasion. He doesn't need big hands to win, so why the Poker Gods should favor him with Aces is a mystery. But yesterday that happened two times when Ivey was up against another of the best players in the world--Phil Hellmuth. The two Phil's were among the chip leaders the whole day, and at one point Phil H. had nearly 4 million and was master of the table. Then he lost a big pot when he called a 500K bet on the river and Ivey rolled over Aces. Phil said
in an interview afterwards that he held pocket Nines in that hand, which cost him around 900,000.
Disaster struck much later in the day when Hellmuth raised to 240,000 and Ivey re-raised to 640K. Hellmuth held Ah-Kh and no doubt was thinking that this was his chance to grab this tournament by the throat. He could eliminate his most dangerous opponent and seize a massive chip lead in one fell swoop. Hellmuth moved all-in...and Ivey called and again turned over Aces. Instead of sitting with nearly 7 million in chips Hellmuth was left as the table shortstack with around 1.2 million.
But Phil hung in, picked up some pots here and there and his stack was still large enough to throw away hands when his opponents showed aggression. He gained a small measure of revenge against Ivey when he made an Ace-high flush on the river (the board was paired so he couldn't get too aggressive betting it). He kept picking up pots and eventually picked up a hand, A-Q, that dominated the all-in Wei Kai Chang's K-Q. Phil's hand held up, Chang was eliminated on the TV bubble, and Hellmuth goes into final-table play today with 2.38 million.
Scott Montgomery's path to the final table also featured some dramatic hands, including one with the aforementioned Mr. Hellmuth that sent Phil into tilt-orbit. The tough hand of the day for Montgomery came when he was all-in with pocket Nines against Charles Moore's A-K. Scott made it all the way to the river with the lead, but that's when the King of spades appeared and cost him a 2.2 million pot.
Down to just 375,000 Montgomery switched to short-stack mode and started gobbling up pots with a few timely all-in shoves. He took pots from Moore and Ivey and then came a hand that I couldn't find record of in the play-by-play. But here's what CardPlayer wrote about it in their recap:
It was at this point that Hellmuth came out of his shell a bit to berate Scott Montgomery. Montgomery got it all in on the turn drawing to two outs and hit his miracle card against self-proclaimed best player in the world. This set Hellmuth off as he paced the room, wondering out loud how anybody could make such a poor play.
Like I said there's no specific record of that hand in the live updates, which is surprising considering what Phil's reaction must've been. Scott took his good fortune and ran with it, knocking out Theo Tran with pocket Kings and steadily building up his stack as he won two tidy pots from Ivey. He'll enter play today in 2nd place with 2.68 million.
The chipleader, however, is the formidable Phil Ivey. Ivey has cashed in eight World Poker Tour events--and every time he's cashed, he's made the final table. But he's never won a WPT event and to pull that off today he'll have to defeat a loaded final table. Phil Hellmuth...all he's done is win 11 World Series of Poker bracelets and earn a reputation as the best tournament player of all time. Scott Montgomery has chips and has displayed a willingness to mix it up with both Phils. Nam Le has four WPT final tables and a title to his credit, he won't be intimidated by the moment or his opponents. Quinn Do is a pro making his first WPT final table, and Charles Moore is an amateur who's already posted the best result of his life. It's a monster final table, it's gonna be great for television, and there are six players who desperately want to call themselves a WPT champion. Play starts at 5pm PDT, stay tuned.
Permalink:
http://www.ultimatebet.com/poker-blog-post/The-First-Rule-of-Tournament-Poker/2489
