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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.
 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. |
