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In the
last issue I told you how Annie Duke, Russ Hamilton,
Erik Seidel, and Antonio Esfandiari went out of the 2004
World Series of Poker. Now, let's move on to a
couple more players of note — Howard Lederer and Doyle
Brunson.
When
I reached Howard Lederer ("Bub" to his friends), he had
just won a lot of money playing heads-up poker at
Bellagio on the sixth day of the WSOP's "big one"
in a 50K-100K match. As a side note, Jennifer Harman
Traniello and Todd Brunson also have done well playing
heads up Texas Holdem for those kinds of stakes.
Howard was eliminated in around 400th place by someone
who is no stranger to anyone in the poker world today.
"It was very strange," Howard said. "I happened to get
high-carded to the TV table alongside Doyle. When the TV
table got down to sevenhanded, I happened to be in the
big blind at the table nearest the TV table. My
tournament had been pretty uneventful. I ended day one
with $13,000, and then I was up to $50,000 and was
making steady progress. I then bluffed a bit too much
and found myself at $10,000 or so, and when I moved to
Doyle's table, I had roughly $30,000.
"I flopped
a pair, stole a pot or two, and had $45,000 when the big
hand came up between Doyle and me. By the way, this hand
will definitely be on TV. Although some might think
Doyle's play odd, I happen to like the way he played
this hand. He opened from middle position for $3,500
with the K 10, and everyone folded to me in the big
blind. I looked down at 7-7, and called $2,500 more.
Now, there was about $8,000 in the pot, and the flop
came down 7 4 3. I checked, and was debating in my mind
how to play this powerful hand. Was I going to
check-call or check-raise, and if I check-raised, how
much? Then, Doyle announced, 'I'm all in.' Decision time
was over, and I nearly beat Doyle into the pot. The
second he said, 'All in,' I said, 'Call.'
"Then, Doyle said, 'Uh-oh.' He knew by the speed of my
call that I had a superstrong hand. The K came on the
turn, which meant that we would have played a big pot
anyway. And then, the 6 came on the river. Boom! I was
gone — the agony of defeat! I mean, one second you're
comfortable and playing in the biggest poker tournament
in history, and the next second, you're gone. The
finality of it all is really something. As I said, I
like Doyle's play here. I mean, if he bets $8,000,
what's he supposed to do, fold for my all-in $30,000
raise? He can't, so why not put the maximum pressure on
me and any pair that I might have, like J-J, 10-10, 9-9,
or something similar."
Since I couldn't reach Doyle by my column deadline,
Howard told me the unbelievable scenario behind Doyle's
exit in 53rd place. Howard said, "I was needling Doyle
the next day after he busted me out about his verbal
declarations. I was telling him that he was too lazy to
put his chips in the pot. Unbelievably, day five rolled
along and the following hand came up between Bradley
Berman — Lyle Berman's son — and Doyle. Doyle was down
to about $100,000 in chips, with the blinds at about
$6,000-$12,000. Doyle verbally announced, 'I'm all in,'
but it was extremely noisy in the building at the time,
and everyone folded around to Bradley, who was in the
small blind.
"Bradley thought that everyone else had folded, and that
he would be raising the big blind only. So, he
announced, 'I raise,' at which point he was told that
Doyle had already moved all in, and that he must raise
Doyle's $100,000 bet. The big blind folded, and Doyle
flipped up pocket tens. Bradley, with a little egg on
his face, sheepishly flipped up his A-7. He flopped an
ace when A-5-5 came, and it was over for Doyle in an
instant.
"Can
you imagine if Doyle had made it to the final table? At
70 years of age, moving through 2,576 players like a
surgeon, what a feat that would have been."
Howard concluded by saying, "Next year the Texas Holdem
pros will play even better against the amateurs. It is a
learning curve for all of us, and we will be better
prepared by next year. Some of us try too many moves
against the amateurs, rather than just playing them
straight up."
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