A Couple Thoughts on the WSOP Circuit Final Table at Harrahs

I was taken aback by the first hand of the Final Table at Harrahs New Orleans in the recent circuit event. Here is how it went down, with my thoughts mixed in. Remember, this is the very first hand of the day:


Chip Leader (687k) raises from the 4 seat to 22k.

2nd in chips (400k) re-raises to 45k from the 6 seat.

4th in chips (300k) smooth calls from the 7 seat.

Let's break that sequence down: Chip leader raises, no big deal. 2nd in chips picks up a hand or wants to send a message, reraises. 4th in chips smooth calls so he must have a monster since the chip leader still has to act behind him on the re-raise. He can't figure he's priced into anything. At this point I would give the credit to the 7 seat, 4th in chips and put him on the biggest hand.

Until...

Chip leader reraises to 120k.

2nd in chips moves in for his 400k.

4th in chips calls for his entire 300k.

Wow. A ton of action. This sequence would tell me that the chip leader has a hand. If it was only 1 reraiser, maybe he comes back over the top with a marginal hand. But a reraiser and a smooth-caller? He must have something. The shove by 2nd in chips tells me he must have aces to have re-raised the initial raiser, been smooth-called and then re-raised again on top of it and still feels like his hand is the best. Aces or perhaps Kings. He was only invested for 45k, he could easily get away from almost anything else. The problem, however, is that I feel the same way about the smooth-caller's call. He must have aces or kings with only 45k invested and all that action in front of him (raise, re-raise, re-raise, all-in). How can he call with anything else? Being priced in is not a factor at this point for either of 2nd or 4th in chips since if they lose, they go out with something like $23,000 for 9th and a little more for 8th and the winner of it all takes $387,000. Only the chip leader can really contemplate that since he has them covered and can still have a good stack to play with. However, even he can still get away as he's in for 120k and there is still another 280k to call and there has already been one caller.

And the kicker.

Chip leader also calls the double all-in. AND he had the A,A. He must have been in shock when these guys started shoving and knowing that he had aces, had them dominated.

2nd stack turns over J,J for, in my opinion, a poor play. Very poor. You've had a raise in front of you, re-raised yourself only to have been called and re-raised (warning flags, anyone????) and you decide to shove for everything when you're only in for 45k and have 400k total??? With J,J???? I hate that play. You have to figure one of them has you. Plus, there is no need to shove at that point. The shows of strength around you are there. If you want to play them, call that re-raise and try to take it away on the flop if anything comes that could be considered a scare card. At that point, a call could mean he had almost any pocket pair that he initially re-raised with and Aces and Kings would be wary of any set.

Similarly, I don't like the play by Q,Q to call the all-in. Yes, it is hard to lay down Q,Q, much harder than J,J. But again, he had not once raised this pot, the other 2 guys each raised twice, doubling and tripling the amount (3x raise, 2x raise, 3x raise, 3x raise) and you're going to call that for everything? Again, only 45k invested at the time the action came back to him where he was put all-in. Have to figure one guy has at least K,K or A,A and another has at worst A,K. Don't like the call at all. Not as bad as the shove with J,J into the pot at the time, but still pretty rough. Just no need to risk it. The risk of all your chips and 9th place prize money (since he was the smaller of the chip stacks that could be eliminated, he would get the lower finishing spot if they were both eliminated) where you could easily be dominated 4 to 1 vs. reward (at best a coin flip for all your chips, where if you win you take the chip lead) doesn't seem to fit to me, not with all the action.

I can only recall seeing one hand like this, in the final table at the USPC at AC one year when one of the local pros (a young Italian-American guy) had a ton of action before him, looked down at Q,Q and folded it in about 1 second and watched the other two turn over A,A and K,K.

So the cards come, the A,A painkillers hold up and 2nd and 4th chip stacks are eliminated on hand 1 of the day.

The only thing I can think is that it being the first hand of the day, no one was in a groove yet or could believe that they were going to get cold-decked right out of the gate.

What a way to start the day though, huh?