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 I
had the best experience watching this particular episode of the World Poker Tour held at The Bicycle Casino. I happened to
be working when my friend and winner of the event,
Mel Judah walked in the casino. He came to watch the
episode in the bar and I was able to join him for the first hour of the show. He did in depth play by play commentary
including bad moves made by players and he also pointed out a few tells of one certain player. I received more knowledge
from him on this episode than I had by watching any previous ones.
The show started by introducing the players,
Paul Phillips,
T.J. Cloutier,
Phil "The Unabomber" Laak,
Chip Jett, Fred Bonyadi and Mel Judah. In my
tournament player bios I state that two of these six players are on my top ten list. It was a little disappointing to see
Chip get absolutely no air time. I imagine this had something to do with the fact that he never had many chips. Overall,
this second season episode was much better than the first. They had better commentary, better graphics, and they did a
better job at showing chip counts (although not enough). I like the interviews with the players but did not like the little
skits by Mike Sexton and Vince Van Patten. Also Lou Diamond Phillips doing the rundown on how to play poker was a little
repetitive since I've been playing for many years. I understand many viewers are new to poker, but the summary took too
long. The first season has contributed greatly to the amount of players attending the events. Last year there were 89
entries and this year they had 309 including celebrities. I found it amusing that the WPT did a segment in the beginning of
the show about the celebrities that played the event. In between showing Lou Diamond Phillips and Ben Affleck, they showed
Howard Lederer and Gus Hansen. Two players that have become celebrities in a sense by their success on the WPT.
The first hand is almost always uneventful and happened to be the case again. Chip raised with pocket queens and everyone
folded. He picked up the first pot uncontested. On the second hand shown Phil raised to $16,500 with AJ and T.J.
reraised with pocket fives to $56,500 and Phil
reraised all-in for $149,000. T.J. folded the hand, which revealed the raise to be questionable in the first place. If Phil called,
T.J. would be out of position with a hand that
could never be the best. If Phil-re-raised, T.J. could not call with his hand that was either 50/50 or a big dog. In other words,
his raise gave Phil a lot more options than he gave himself.
Windows - Mac
 During the
interview with Phil Laak, he stated that when he found out there were 309 entries, he wanted to get his money back but
didn't have the chutzpah to ask. He said, "My name is Phil Laak and I shouldn't be here." Normally I am drawn to people with
confidence bordering on arrogance, but I found this comment refreshing. I was pleased he was there because he was
entertaining. He did not last long enough though. One of the first hands he got involved in was interesting (Do I sound like
Vince?). Paul raised to $24,000 with J2 clubs and Phil called with pocket fives in the big blind. The flop was AK7 with two
clubs. Phil bet $31,000 and Paul called. The turn was a 9 spades and both players
checked. The river was a four of spades. After Phil checked,
Paul bet $80,000 and Phil folded. Paul said he normally doesn't show his hand, but he showed the audience and the players that he just picked
up that pot on a pure bluff. I believe this bluff negatively affected Phil's play on the following hands.
Fred raised the next hand we see with A9 and Phil called with KQ. The flop was AT6 and Fred checked. Phil could have taken a
free card in this situation to try and
hit the jack for a straight, but opted
to bet $30,000. Fred moved all-in for $69,500 and Phil had to lay his hand down. He was eliminated on the hand after
that when he raised to $25,000 with pocket sevens. T.J. moved all-in with AJ and Phil called. The board was T534J.
T.J. won with his pair of tens and Phil exited in sixth place. There was no reason for Phil to get involved in this hand. If
T.J. had a pocket pair, he most likely would have Phil beat and if he had two
overcards it would be a race situation.
Phil was in third chip position at this point and did not need to race. If he won the pot, he would have $372,000 next to
Paul's $750,000. The risk/reward factor wasn't there.
I was watching the program with the knowledge of the outcome, yet I found myself rooting for players. I was hoping Chip was going to triple
up on the next hand and I already knew he must have because he was not next to go out of the tournament. He beat T.J.'s pocket nines when he
outdrew him with AK. After that hand it
showed a chip count and Mel had $33,000 in chips. I asked him, "how the hell you come back from that deficit?" He said,
"by doubling up". His first double was when T.J. raised to $24,000 with AJ and Mel moved all-in with queens. T.J. had a
no-brainer call with this hand since Mel was so short stacked. The flop was K82, six on the turn and another king on the river.
Fred was eliminated when he called in the small blind with J9. T.J. was in the big blind with J7 and the flop came JT7. Fred
checked, T.J. bet $24,000, Fred raised to $80,000 and T.J. moved all-in. Fred had to call now with more than half his chips
in the pot. The turn was a four and the river an ace. Fred could have played this hand a few different ways. First, he could
have raised T.J. preflop. I would rather just take the
blinds and antes. A key mistake was if he
was going to call T.J.'s all-in move, why didn't Fred just move all his chips in on the flop? Have T.J. make the decision.
In this scenario, T.J. would have called the all-in bet, but in general you want to be the person betting all-in instead of
the player calling all-in.
 Paul's
decision on the next hand will be talked about for awhile. He raised to $35,000 with pocket queens (one club). T.J. called
with AJ. The board was J62, two clubs. Paul bet $100,000 and T.J. called. The turn was a nine of clubs. T.J. bet
$200,000 and Paul thought about it for awhile. He said, "I'm gonna look stupid on TV if I fold this hand... I'm either gonna
look like an idiot or a genius when that one gets on TV." He laid his hand down and I agreed with the commentators on this
one. He looked like the first. I know first hand Paul is not an idiot, but what was he thinking? He laid down the best hand with the
best draw. This mistake on T.J.'s part (if he believed his hand was the best hand) was rewarded because Paul second guessed himself.
I was starting to think Chip had invisible powers. We did not see him at all on this show. Chip is one of the best players
in the game right now and I wanted to see his moves. Unfortunately he never had any chips and had to make a move on the
button with K9 spades. Paul called with KQ and Mel folded his A3. The board was J8632 and Chip left in fourth place.
T.J. doubled Mel up on the next two hands they played against each other. T.J. raised to $28,000 with pocket threes and Mel
moved all-in with KT for $58,000. Mel flopped the ten and doubled up for his second time in the tournament. The next, T.J.
held AT to Mel's KJ. Mel rivered the jack and now had $242,500 in chips. Mel was on a roll now and decided to bluff against
Paul. Mel held A2 and Paul held J7. The flop was JT3 and both players checked. The turn was a deuce. Paul bet $40,000 and
Mel went all-in for $188,500. Paul said he had top pair, but folded anyway. Mel showed him the bluff and Paul just nodded
his head. Payback's a bitch.
Fourth double up for Mel was from Paul. Mel called on the button with Q9 and Paul checked his big blind holding JT. The flop
was Q96 giving Mel top two and Paul the open end straight draw. Mel bet $30,000 and Paul moved all-in. Mel called quickly.
The turn was a jack and the river was a queen. Mel's stack was $358,000.
I am screaming for the genius to show up for the game. He bought a pot from T.J. the next hand when he bet into a board of
AQJ for $100,000 with pocket fours after T.J. checked his KJ. Okay, I finally think I might start seeing Paul play the way I
know he is capable of playing... until the next hand. T.J. folded pocket deuces on the button. Paul called $10,000 with KQ
and Mel raised him to $100,000 with AQ. Paul moved all-in. Mel called and doubled up again when the board was JT763.
Paul did fold his QJ when Mel moved all-in over the top of him with AK. He made a good
laydown here and got extremely lucky on the next hand.
The combination of both of these things helped him earn second place. T.J. raised with pocket jacks and Paul moved all-in with pocket sevens.
He spiked the seven on the turn and sent T.J. packing.
We saw three hands of heads up play.
The first one Paul called with pocket threes and Mel checked his 98 (one club). The flop was KT2 with two clubs, turn was a
ten of clubs and the river was a seven of clubs. Mel won this pot because Paul did not raise before the flop or bet the
flop. The second hand Paul raised with J3 and Mel re-raised with A9 and Paul folded as he said, "you got my number."
 The
final hand Paul raised with J2 hearts and Mel called with 97. The flop was A63 with two hearts. Mel checked and Paul
checked. The turn was the five of diamonds. Mel checked and Paul checked again. The river was the four of spades
giving both a straight. Mel moved all-in and Paul thought about it for a long time. He says "Wow. That's fun, I have a
straight." Mike Sexton said it was an easy laydown for Paul to make because the pot was small. Mel had worked his way up
from that short stack and was not going to risk it on a bluff in this situation. Paul thought about it too much again. The
horrible thing was once Paul called, before he turns his hand over, he says, "I call, you got me." He knew he was beat.
I pride myself on telling it like I see it. Paul is such an intelligent person and a great poker player, but we didn't him
at his best on this show. He second guessed himself in some key situations and paid the price for it. He made a huge mistake
by saying he was afraid to look like a fool on television because the other players were going to exploit that. I had a
conversation with Mike Sexton recently and he was talking about the second season of the WPT. He was saying the players
played outstanding poker. I asked him specifically about Paul because of his two final table appearances and he said Paul
made some mistakes at The Bicycle Casino, but played absolutely brilliant poker at
The Bellagio (where Mel
also makes the final table). I look forward to seeing that. In the meantime, I enjoyed watching Mel's patience and ability to
read players earn him his first place finish.
Also see the Legends of Poker - Season One and
Season Three reports
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