WSOP Milestones

With the WSOP Main Event drawing near, it’s becoming more and more obvious which the most memorable moments of the series will be. Such “landmark” moments happen in high stakes poker tournaments all the time, but some of them are just a notch above the rest.
Take Men Nguyen’s bubble exit in the $5,000 PLO event. That’s definitely quite a moment, well worthy of the “most dramatic WSOP 2010 bubble” title. There were 46 players left in the game, and Nguyen had been feuding with Ryan D’Angelo for a while. He had a rather decent stack as he’d done pretty well up until that moment. After a preflop give and take, which cost Nguyen more than half his stack, the flop fell Qs,Jd,9s. Feeling pot-committed and trying to appear as menacing as possible, The Master shoved all-in. Holding As,Ah,9h,5h in his pocket, D’Angelo was faced with a really tough decision. After some time spent in the tank, he decided to make the call though and sure enough, it proved to be the right decision. The dealer spread The Master’s cards over the table, to reveal a stunning Ad,8d,4d,3c. Embarrassed as he was to be caught red handed on such an obvious bluff, Nguyen had nothing further to add.

As far as bad beats go, Danny Wong’s, in the $25k 6-max may not have been the most outstanding one, but it was certainly up there with the best of them. In less than an hour, Danny went from hero (chip leader) to zero (railbird), but it wasn’t like he could do anything about it. At dinner break, he was among those with large stacks, and less then an hour later, he was out, wondering how his top set could betray him in such an utterly unlikely manner. When Danny got all his chips into the middle, holding pocket 8s on a board of 8,7,3,9, everything looked perfect. Life was fine and the sun was shining as his opponent tabled pocket 3s for a dominated bottom set. The 3 on the river was like a nasty military-issue boot stomping onto a child’s sand-castle city. If that doesn’t hurt and make you want to cry foul, I don’t know what does.

Phil Hellmuth’s final table in the $1,500 PLO 8 or better event was certainly one of the milestones of this year’s Series too. It’s no secret that Hellmuth hasn’t really been at the forefront of the high stakes tournament (or cash game) action lately. The Ultimate Bet pro seemed to finally get things going in the above said event, but he eventually withered away, bounced in 8th place. His 12th poker bracelet once again drifting away in the mist of uncertainty, the poker world took little notice of the sorrow of a player whose fan-base is increasingly looking like a one-man operation.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, there’s Allan Kessler. The outspoken tournament structure critic has finished in the money in no fewer than 8 events this year, an achievement which turned him into one of the most successful WSOP 2010 players, and a serious candidate for the Player of the Year title. Kessler’s highest finish was 2nd place in the $10,000 7-Card Stud 8 or better World Championship event, which earned him a $276,000 reward. With all the trash talkers and the controversial personalities taking up most of the spotlight, it is sometimes refreshing to see one of the good-guys score a few for the home team too.

The Tournament of Champions is back on the WSOP schedule. After the first couple of days of action, Mike Matusow leads the field, and even though it would probably be a long-shot to include him in the “good guys” category mentioned above, I’d still like to see him walk away with the gold for some reason.