WSOP Event #17: Jon Friedberg Dulls “The Razor”

Outchipped seven to one? Not a problem for Jon Friedberg. He had only $189 thousand in chips to start the final table, the second shortest stack, compared to the $1.325 million big stack, but with a little luck and a lot of aggression, Friedberg came all the way back to win the $1,000 no-limit hold’em event at the World Series of Poker Wednesday night. Outlasting 2,890 other players, which meant this event was the second largest live poker tournament in history (last year’s main event was the largest), Friedberg earned $526,185 and his first WSOP gold bracelet.

Friedberg had to make a move quickly, and make a move he did on the tenth had of the final table. After Thang Luu moved all-in for $272,000 after Friedberg raised pre-flop, Friedberg insta-called with K-K versus Luu’s A-J. Neither hand improved and Friedberg doubled-up. Luu was down to less than the ante and was eliminated on the next hand. The double-up catapulted Friedberg into third position, but still well behind first place by about one million chips.

And the hits kept coming. Within the next eleven hands, three players, Mike Halford, Humberto Brenes, and Corey Chaston were all eliminated. A bit of the air was let out of the crowd when Brenes’ A-K was sucked out on by Pomeroy’s A-Q, as people seemed to miss his ebullient style.

In the meantime, John “The Razor” Phan, one of the most unpredictable players around, was raising every chance he got, as is his usual M.O. The problem for Phan was that other players were not intimidated by the fact that he entered the final table second in chips and he frequently got re-raised or beaten by a better hand. His aggressiveness actually contributed to his decreasing chip count and by the time there were five players left only twenty-two hands into play, Phan was the short stack at the table, having lost more than half of his chips.

On the twenty-fifth hand, the tide of the match effectively turned. Kevin O’Donnell, who had just lost a decent sized pot a couple hands earlier, raised pre-flop and was called by Friedberg, who was now sitting in third place. The flop was J-8-4 and O’Donnell led out, only to see Friedberg come over the top all-in. O’Donnell called with A-J for top pair, top kicker, while Friedberg only had 8-6 for middle pair. The river (after a deuce on the turn) produced a third 8 for Friedberg, knocking out O’Donnell, and putting Friedberg over one million chips.

Eleven hands later, luck was on Friedberg’s side again. Like before, Friedberg moved all-in after a similar flop of J-9-7 with only pocket 8’s. Pomeroy, who had already put $200 thousand into the pot after the flop, called with A-9 for a pair of 9’s. Friedberg needed one of two 8’s for a set or one of four 10’s for a straight. It was the straight that he got on the turn and once again, he doubled up.

From here, play slowed down significantly. It took almost four hours for Tom Hawkingberry to bow out in fourth place. In the meantime, Phan didn’t let his earlier troubles deter him, and he continued to raise as often as possible pre-flop. Unfortunately, except for one double-up right after they went to five-handed play, he continued to meet with resistance. Phan just couldn’t get any traction at all. Aggressiveness, on the other hand, seemed to work well for Friedberg, and while he didn’t win every pot in which he involved himself, he seemed to win the big ones and lose the small ones. Friedberg did have the chip lead for a while (and by sizable margin), but Pomery was the one who knocked Hawkingberry out, giving him back his old spot at the top of the heap.

Not quite an hour later, following one double-up by Phan and a series of successful aggressive moves by Friedberg, Pomeroy was eliminated in third place. Friedberg did the dirty work this time, flopping a set of 5’s, while Pomeroy paired his Queen on the turn, apparently believing he had the best hand. Undaunted when the river 9 paired the board, Pomeroy pushed when Friedberg checked his now full house and was swiftly sent packing when Friedberg called.

Friedberg, who started the day in a 7 to 1 deficit, was now almost a 4 to 1 chip leader going into heads-up play with the resilient Phan.

The one-on-one, while agonizingly slow, was not much of a contest. Phan did his best to hang around, even narrowing the gap slightly early on, but Friedberg was able to use his stack to just slap Phan around repeatedly.

The battle finally came to a merciful end when Phan moved all-in pre-flop with Q-4 and Friedberg called with A-7. Phan never improved, while Friedberg did hit the unnecessary 7 on the river to take the title.

In post-game comments, Friedberg was complementary of Phan, saying he was “scared to death” to play against “one of the greatest players in the world.” He admitted that he hoped Phan would get knocked out every time he moved all-in during final table play, not because he [Friedberg] would move up in the money, but because he didn’t want to deal with a such a strong opponent.

Originally published July 13, 2006