A Time to Celebrate

It happened as afternoon became evening on Friday. The 2006 World Series of Poker Championship Event bubble was burst.

At about 4:30pm PDT, the tournament was paused with 889 players remaining so that round-for-round play could start. Sixteen players needed to be eliminated to put everybody else into the money. It took a while for things to start up, as tournament director, Jack Effel, needed to explain the procedure:

Each table would play one round, or orbit. If a player was eliminated, he or she would need to stand up and wait to be escorted out, so that tournament officials could keep track of eliminations. If, after the round, not enough players had been knocked out to get down to 873 competitors remaining, they would continue with another round – those who were bounced would go home without any winnings. If, however, there were enough players eliminated to reach the money, those players would split the prize money of how ever many places into the money they reached.

For example, if twenty players were knocked out, yet only sixteen were needed to reach the money, there would be an overlap of four paying spots. The twenty players would then split the combined prize money for those four places.

It was announced that this was the way it has been done at every WSOP, but this is incorrect. Last year, they played hand-for-hand, rather than round-for-round, in order to prevent players from stalling to try to get into the money. Round-for-round seemed to work just fine, although there is still some incentive to stall. After all, if you prolong your tables orbit, you may be able to find out if enough players have been knocked out and can then adjust your play accordingly. Overall, however, round-for-round, while slow (the two orbits it took to make the money each lasted half an hour), was a success.

The first round saw thirteen players eliminated, meaning only three more needed to hit the rail to make everybody else very, very happy. And after the second round, Jack Effel made the announcement everybody was waiting for.

Cheers erupted throughout the Amazon room as if everybody’s favorite sports team had just won a championship. Some players jumped on chairs and extended their arms to the heavens. Players who had just been trying to take each other’s chips embraced. Even those of us in the media, who generally had no vested interest in who did well and who didn’t, couldn’t help but smile at the joyous celebration.

And then, just like that, 140 players were eliminated in about fifteen minutes. But that was expected, as now all the short stacks were just pushing, pushing, pushing. They made the money and trying to hang on a little longer most likely wasn’t going to make them any richer.

By the time play ended for the night, there were only 481 players left, well ahead of the target of 600 set forth by the WSOP. The intention for Saturday was originally to get down to 300 players, but they very well might just keep playing, as 300 will most likely be hit fairly early.

Leading the pack after Day 3 is Jon Lane with $654,000. Dmitri Nobles, the leader going into the day is just behind Lane with $650,000. It was an up and down day for Nobles, who wielded his huge chip stack like a sledge hammer. He was raising pots left and right before the bubble, taking advantage of those who were afraid to bust out without winning any money. Sometimes he’d give someone a courtesy double-up, but then he’d just win a whole bunch of pots to make back those chips. One hand, he raised pre-flop with 9-2 off-suit, kept betting without fear of what cards were showing, and eventually forced his opponent to fold. He took a huge hit towards the end of the day, but again, but a decent amount of the loss back before quitting time.

Four other players have over $600,000: Albert Padilla ($640,000), David Chiu ($632,000), William Thorson ($628,000), and Alex Balandin ($621,000).

Other notable players still fighting for the championship:

Eric Lynch $541,000 (ultra-successful internet player, known online as “Rizen”)
Jason Strasser $483,000 (another famed internet player)
John Hoang $290,500 (multiple final tables this year)
Allen Cunningham $278,000
Prahlad Friedman $272,000
Jeffrey Lisandro $236,000
Annie Duke $180,000
Hoyt Corkins $163,000
Joe Hachem $139,000
Ted Lawson $135,000
Tom McEvoy $130,000
Kathy Liebert $126,000
Mark Vos $96,500
Daniel Negreanu $93,500
Ted Forrest $78,000
Surinder Sunar $71,500
Cyndy Violette $42,000
Susie Isaacs $23,500

Temper, Temper

At about 3:00pm, about two hours before the bubble was burst, the tension mounted at a table way back in the corner of the Amazon Room. With the cards out on the board, bracelet winner Jeff Cabanillas bet enough to put the player in Seat 1, a fairly short stack, all-in. After Seat 1 thought about what to do for about a minute, Cabanillas called a floor manager over to put a clock on the player, giving him only one more minute to act. Cabanillas said to the floor manager, “This is like the second or third time with him.”

Seat 1 looked up and said, “You know what? You’re a baby.”

As one might expect after a comment like this, the two argued for several minutes, with Seat 1 trying to make Cabanillas understand that as a short stack near the bubble, he needs to take some time to think about his moves. He asked Cabanillas, “Wouldn’t you take your time if you were short?”

When Cabanillas said no, Seat 1 said, “Well, that’s just stupid. Let me play my style.”

To the short stack’s credit, while he did complain about the episode for a while longer, he did try to make light of the situation, joking, “Security! Can you get this guy out of here? He’s being mean to me.”

Cabanillas lost a huge pot to Seat 2 shortly thereafter and the player in Seat 1 was extraordinarily happy.

Quote of the Day

“He was going to throw up. He may be the first player to throw up on the table.”

This was said while watching a short stack move all-in from the button with pocket Queens during the second, and final, orbit of round-for-round play. The blinds folded. Had he been called and lost, he risked going home without a paycheck. This same player agonized over two previous hands during round-for-round, once saying he folded Queens.

Originally published August 5, 2006