A Canadian at the WSOP

In what has officially become an annual event, I am once again linking up the WSOP trip reports of Mr. Dave Scharf, a Canadian poker player and writer. Unfortunately my bet on Dave did not end up paying off, and even more depressingly, my bet on Phil Ivey making the final table failed to pay off either when Phil imploded on the 6th day. At that point I thought he was a lock and would pay from my brand new monitor (and no, I paid nowhere near this price). Here’s a snippet from Dave’s last day in the main event:

HAND #7: Middle position raiser. I have this player in a solid box. I am not worried about him. BIG stack flat calls. Hmmm… either a BIG hand (AA, KK or an implied odds hands). I have Q-Ts in the SB and decide to see a flop.

I TELL MYSELF: Danger danger.

The BB also calls. That’s good. If I can land a hand it will be a BIG pot. The flop is T-3-3. I considered a probe bet but I told myself, “You do not need to waste any chips on a probe bet because the original bettor will tell you what he has without wasting any chips. You have him in a tiny little box.”

OK. I check. The BB checks. The original bettor goes $30K.

I TELL MYSELF: “HE HAS AN OVERPAIR. THAT IS WHAT HE HAS.” The big stack goes into the tank. While his is thinking about it I am telling myself “When the action reaches you, fold.” The big stack folds and I, instantly, move all-in. Rammy the Mad Poker Pirate suddenly grabbed the tiller. This is THE “monkey mind go blank” leak. I KNEW WHAT HE HAD, and I moved in. I told myself to fold. Yet, when the action reached my, I MOVED in. Worse, it was only another $8K to him so he WILL CALL.

WSOP Update #1 – Wednesday
WSOP Update #2 – Thursday Morning
WSOP Update #3 – Friday Morning (part 1)
WSOP Update #3 – Friday Morning (part 2)
WSOP Update #4 – Saturday Morning
WSOP Update #5 – Sunday Morning
WSOP Update #6 – Monday Morning

One Response to “A Canadian at the WSOP”

  1. Anonymous says:

    As a fellow canadian it would have been nice to see one do real well in this years WSOP, and i was as surprised as you to see phil ivey get knocked out before the final table. i was keeping track of him with the daily updates and i was shocked to see him and raymer gone. anyways keep up the blogging and i’ll continue to read your stuff. you can check out my poker stuff at
    http://www.burnandturn.com