WSOP Event #12: Bob Chalmers is Anonymous No More

You won’t find a much more unassuming champion than Bob Chalmers. Tall and friendly with glasses perched atop his head of red hair when not on his face, he looked more like the father next door than someone about to win a WSOP bracelet. But win a bracelet he did, playing consistent, solid poker in the $1,500 limit hold’em event to pocket the $258,344 first prize.

While all of the final table players were good players in their own rights, the real competition started after Thanh Nguyen was eliminated in fourth place (side note: this was Nguyen’s first ever WSOP event – not bad).

Just before dinner, Tam Ho appeared to be in control of the match, but more because of his play than because of his chip stack. Chalmers started to make a move on him and in reality all three remaining players had a legit shot to win the whole thing. Then it was Warren Wooldridge’s turn to take a chunk out of Ho’s stack, doubling up to $280,000 when he rivered a king high flush.

After dinner, Ho was under attack again from both Chalmers and Wooldridge, although Wooldridge could never seem to really gain any traction. Every time he took a big pot, he seemed to give most of it back the next hand. Case in point: with the board reading A-A-4-4-A, Wooldridge bet out on the river, only to have Chalmers raise him. Wooldridge probably knew what was coming when he called the raise…Chalmers had the case Ace and thus rivered quads.

At this point, just after 10:00pm, Chalmers had taken a commanding lead when Wooldridge was able to grab about $100,000 from him. But, as was the pattern, he gave most of it back the very next hand, finding himself with only around $60,000 left, with the level at $15,000/$30,000.

Surprisingly, with that short of a stack, Wooldridge folded after his $30,000 bet was raised on the very next hand! It’s hard to imagine what he might have been thinking – if there was ever an example of being pot committed, that was it. Then, to top it off, on the next hand, he folded his big blind and was down to $20,000, barely enough for the small blind.

Lucky for Woolridge, when he went all-in on the next hand with A-7, he was able to survive and push his stack to $90,000 after he hit top pair on a board of K-8-4-A-3. Chalmers showed K-2, having flopped the original top pair, and Ho mucked.

As if that wasn’t lucky enough, two hands later in the big blind, Woolridge found himself all-in on the river with a dominated hand: K-5 versus Chalmers’ K-8. The river was, as you probably guessed from the word “lucky” in the last sentence, a 5, and all of a sudden, Wooldridge was up to $220,000! Those last couple hits for Chalmers allowed Ho to take the chip lead.

At this point, Ho took the next three hands uncontested, with Chalmers taking down the next pot after the flop, after he and Wooldridge two-bet pre-flop. On the very next hand, Woolridge raised pre-flop and Ho called. After the flop of 5-J-2, Ho led out, Wooldridge raised him, and Ho re-raised, forcing Wooldridge to fold. Shortly thereafter, Wooldridge called Chalmers’ pre-flop raise, only to fold after the flop.

Why detail these hands? Because after fighting his way back into contention, Wooldridge gave it all away again without even going to showdown.

His night finally ended when Chalmers flopped tens over nines on him. Wooldridge never saw it coming and was all-in on the river.

Going into heads-up play, Ho had a $20,000 lead on Chalmers. With less than one big bet difference, they were essentially tied. The players took a ten minute break before resuming play, and while nothing was officially reported, the assumption in the stands was that they probably made a deal to split the money and play for the bracelet. Again, this is purely speculation, but it something that would make sense under the circumstances.

Once heads-up started, Chalmers assumed complete control. He pretty much pummeled Ho into submission, with the crippling blow coming when both players had two pair, Jacks and sixes, but Chalmers had a better kicker. Because they both had good hands, a lot of chips went into the pot, and it would’ve taken a miracle for Ho to come all the way back when he was down to two big bets.

On the final hand, Ho moved all-in in the dark as the flop of Q-4-7 was being dealt. He showed A-2 against Chalmers’ Q-3. Chalmers was in the lead with a pair of Queens. The turn Ace gave Ho the lead, but Chalmers caught a 3 on the river for two pair and the championship.

One would not say that this was the most thrilling of final tables. It was, after all, limit poker, not really the adrenaline rush that no-limit can be. But, one fun thing about this competition was that all of the players seemed to truly enjoy playing against each other. There was frequent joking, goofy celebrations for winning a hand, and an appreciation for one another’s skill. Sure, the players didn’t like losing pots and getting knocked out, but there did not seem to be hard feelings like we have seen in some of the other tournaments.

And as a final anecdote, continuing this happy feeling, while the final table was being contested, there was another celebration going on elsewhere in the Rio poker room. Scott and Lisa Dinsmore got married at Table 201. That’s right. They got hitched right there at the poker table. They had come to Vegas to play in the WSOP, as well as get married, so they decided to just combine both and take their vows right there on the felt.

And guys, no bad beat jokes, please.

Originally published July 9, 2006