There are not enough superlatives to describe just how dominant Malibu’s Jamie Gold was Thursday night, or all week, for that matter, as he absolutely steamrolled the competition en route to becoming the 2006 World Series of Poker Main Event champion. Leading going into Day 4, Gold never let anybody get even remotely close as he sealed up what was really an inevitability in the wee hours of Friday morning, pocketing $12 million, the richest purse in the history of poker.
Gold’s absolute destruction of the final table included more than just his significant chip lead throughout. He single-handedly eliminated seven of his eight competitors. Let’s take a look at how he did it (Gold’s starting hand listed first):
Dan Nassif – 2-2 versus A-K
Erik Friberg – Q-Q versus J-J
Richard Lee – Q-Q versus J-J
Rhett Butler – K-J versus 4-4
Allen Cunningham – K-J versus 10-10
Michael Binger – 3-4 versus A-10
Paul Wasicka – Q-9 versus 10-10
The most interesting, and, perhaps, the most crucial hand of the night was the one where Gold knocked out Binger. Three remaining players, Gold, Binger, and Wasicka saw the flop after Binger raised to $1.5 million from the big blind. The fireworks started after the flop of 10c-6s-5s. Wasicka checked, Binger bet $3.5 million (he had about $11 million at the start of the hand), and Gold moved all-in, having both players well covered. Wasicka stood up, pondered his decision, looked like he was going to call, but then folded. Binger, as expected called, putting himself all-in.
Binger turned over Ah-10h for top pair, top kicker, while Gold was on a straight draw (not unusual for Gold that night) with 3c-4s. Because of the ridiculous hot streak he was on, most in the crowd expected Gold to hit one of his eight outs, and they weren’t disappointed as the 7 fell on the turn. Binger was drawing dead and was to settle for 3rd place and a paltry $4,123,310 check.
The fact that this took the tournament to heads-up was not the interesting part. That came after the hand was over. Wasicka announced that he had folded 7s-8s, which actually means he folded the hand that would have been the favorite to win. With an open-ended straight-flush draw, he had fourteen outs to win the hand (only the 4s was gone), giving him an almost 54 percent chance to take down the pot after the flop. Had he stayed in the hand, he would have won, as the flush hit on the river.
If Binger would have still called all-in after a Wasicka call, Wasicka would have actually taken the chip lead. He had approximately $18 million going into the hand and after doubling-up through Gold, plus taking Binger’s $11 million, he would have had around $47 million, compared to Gold’s $43 million. The course of the tournament would have changed dramatically.
Wasicka received criticism for his fold, but a few things could have been going on in his head to make him come to that decision. First, he may have figured that Binger would not have called had he pushed, thus decreasing the size of the pot. Second, he may have been thinking the worst – maybe one of the players had a set and one was on a higher flush draw. If, for instance, Binger had pocket 10’s and Gold was on an Ace-high flush draw, Wasicka’s chances of winning would have been reduced to around 25 percent. Third, and this is not insignificant, while professionals generally play to win, there was a $2 million dollar real money difference between third and second place. While winning the whole thing was the goal, at that point, the prospects of possibly earning another $2 million AND have a fighting chance going into heads-up play were probably quite attractive.
It is easy to be an arm-chair final table player in situations like that. It is a whole different thing to actually have to make those kinds of decisions in the heat of battle.
As for our champion, many onlookers referred to him as a “luckbox,” as he went on such a rush of cards, a rush that did not stop for days, that is appeared that anybody could have won sitting in his seat. It was amazing. Every time he needed a card, he got it. Every time someone had a good hand, he seemed to have a better one. He only got sucked out on in any significant manner once at the final table, and he had so many chips that it didn’t matter. Even some of the players he eliminated commented that it would be nice to catch the cards he was catching.
But the cards don’t tell the whole story. What Jamie Gold did Thursday night/Friday morning, and really every day he had the lead, was play very good big stack poker. Because his lead was so tremendous, because his stack was so gargantuan compared to the blinds and antes, he was able to play a lot of hands to see if he could sneak up on somebody (example: his Q-6 versus David Einhorn’s Q-K). He could make loose all-in calls with marginal hands (example: his 7-8 versus Prahald Friedman’s A-3). He could also bully the table. When the big stack is in on most pots and you, as one of the “other” players at the table, know that any time you get involved, it could be for all your chips, it is a disconcerting feeling.
A recurring comment in some form or another by Gold’s competitors was that they had figured out how he was playing, that they had picked up tells so they knew when his hands were strong and when they were weak. The thing was, however, that no matter what they thought, they couldn’t put any good plan into action.
Look at the elimination hands. Friberg and Lee both hand excellent hands with which to go to battle, but both times, Gold had a better one. Was it just dumb luck? Maybe. But Gold was so good at making his opponents believe that he could not possibly have a good hand that they would overplay their hands when he did. There was no reason for Richard Lee, who was sitting in second place at the time of his elimination, to get all of his chips into the middle pre-flop with pocket Jacks. But he had gotten sick of Gold’s bullying and just did not think Gold had the best hand. Even on the final hand, Gold was able to essentially coerce Wasicka into calling with the worst of it, knowing that when he paired his Queen, it was most likely the best hand.
In the other eliminations, his involvement was almost strictly because he was the massive stack. A loss in the coin-flip versus Nassif would have barely done any damage. He was priced into the pot against Butler, whose stack was so small, it was barely a blip on the radar. In the Binger hand, Gold was the one to make the power play, and with a good draw. And versus Cunningham, Gold said he wanted the coin-flip, and again, his opponent’s stack was so small that it didn’t matter much, anyway.
So, call him lucky if you want to, but Jamie Gold made the most of the good fortune that he received. He was able to make people call him when he had the best hand. He was able to use his stack to push around the table. He, in many ways, made his own luck.
Gold should be an interesting champion, to say the least. The 36-year-old television producer from Malibu, California used to be a Hollywood agent for, among others, James Gandolfini, Lucy Liu, Felicity Huffman, Jimmy Fallon, and Brandy. Basically unknown in the poker world, he has been playing in high stakes poker games in California for some time, but this was his first time ever making a WSOP final table. He was once poker legend Johnny Chan’s agent, and Chan served as a mentor of sorts to Gold. Chan was only a couple yards behind Gold during the entire final table.
Gold, as one might expect from a Hollywood agent, talked a lot at the table, sometimes in fun, other times in an effort to get into his opponents’ heads (it worked on the final hand). But as confident as a man like Gold must be in his professional life, he almost seemed insecure about his poker play, even when trouncing his competition. He showed his cards repeatedly instead of mucking them, frequently discussing with the other players why he made the plays he did. It was almost like he felt the need to justify every move he made. He also, at times, turned around and told Chan why he made certain moves, as if he needed Chan’s approval.
And as outgoing as he was at the table, he was just as reserved away from it. He actually had a security team follow him (frequently running with him) wherever he went, even into the restroom. It became a common sight to see a large man in a pinstriped suit standing, arms crossed, next to Gold at a urinal, on the lookout for any trouble. When asked why the need for such a posse, two of Gold’s friends said that people had been coming out of the woodwork to bother Gold during his run to the championship. Most were just looking for money, but some did cause some concern, so rather than take a chance with his safety, Gold hired security detail. The friends said that the problems stemmed from L.A., not Las Vegas or the Rio. They said that so many people were trying to contact Gold that it was rumored that the Blueberry Growers Association wanted Gold to be their spokesman (you’ll need to watch the telecast to understand that one).
In fact, in the days leading up to the final table, Jamie Gold had said that he did not want to win, that he did not want the celebrity that would come with the title. But, during his post-game interview, Gold said he had a change of heart at the final table, realizing that he did want to win, after all.
When asked what he was going to do with the $12 million dollars, Gold said he was going to give back to his friends who had helped him along the way, but most importantly, he was going to give the money to his father, who is in the late stages of ALS. “It will help my dad a lot,” said Gold.
Gold’s father was on his mind as soon as he won. Even though the cameras, lights, and microphones were all on him, Gold had a moment of quiet while he called his father to tell him the news. Unfortunately, he got the answering machine, but he was fine with that.
“Any night he can sleep through the night is a blessing,” he said. “I hope that he’s sleeping and I hope that he wakes up to find out that I made him really proud.”
And who wouldn’t be proud of a World Champion?
|
English |
Deutsch |
Español |
Français |
Português |
Pусский |
Svenska
.jpg)
