Still recovering
Sorry for the lack of personal posts the past few days. Too much has been going on between home and work for me to get a good moment to clear my head and write about poker. In addition, my body is playing havoc with me, as it is begging for some relief from my natural insomnia. Tonight, and maybe the next few nights, I will definitely be catching up on all the sleep I've missed the past few weeks.
My own poker play has been a mixed bag of late. On the positive side, I had a good night at my sometimes weekly live game last Friday. Well, it ended good, anyway. The start of the evening was rather horrible, as I kept getting good hands against better ones. My first $10 buy-in was gone after three hands, when I caught two straights and saw them get run over by a flush and a full house. Now, you have to keep in mind, we only had four players. I could lay down a straight with an apparent flush or full house at a full table, but when it's short-handed, you don't expect to keep running up against the nuts (well, not the nuts, but damn close enough). The second buy-in lasted a little longer, but I ended up losing that as well. During that period, I had a full house cracked by quads. The third and final buy-in wasn't looking so good either at first, but I finally turned things around and ended the night up $35.
Online ... well, that's a different story. I'm officially done for awhile, not because I quit, but because my sickly bankroll quit me. I won't go into all the nasty details. Suffice to say that it turns out Omaha high-low wasn't quite as easy as my initial results had led me to believe. Anyway, both the free bankroll and the BIRE skipped town Monday night.
There's plenty more I could write about, but I am mighty exhausted right now. We'll have to catch up on all the tidbits from around the world of poker after I've rested up.
But thank the lord we're down to just one tournament right now. The WSOP Circuit Atlantic City ended last night, with Nghi Van Tran winning the main event and Erick Lindgren posting second. I also have to send a nod out to Aaron Bartley, who is better known to the rec.gambling.poker community as frequent poster GambleAB. He finished fifth in that event and picked up nearly $142K for his efforts. Great job!
Finally, I'll end with the latest results from Tunica. If you're not one who enjoys the tournament reports, you might want to give this one a shot. The final heads-up match sounds like one for the ages, not necessarily because of the play, but because of the boozing, the 27 rebuys and a proposal to pool the first- and second-place winnings and play for them winner-take-all. Sounds like a wild finish, but what else can you expect from Robert Williamson III? Anyway, here goes:
Pot-Limit Omaha
Buy-In: $1,000
Number of Entries: 135
Number of Re-Buys: 225
Prize Money: $328,829
Official Results:
1. Mads Andersen, Copenhagen, Denmark, $118,379 plus a seat in the $10,000 championship event
2. Robert Williamson III, Dallas, TX, 65,766
3. Karl Limbert, Margate, England, 36,171
4. Dale Morrow, Tunica, MS, 26,306
5. Larry Kozlove, Louisville, KY, 23,018
6. Sherkhan Farnood, Kabul, Afghanistan, 19,730
7. Tony Lay, Oklahoma City, OK, 16,441
8. Ayaz Mahmood, Houston, TX, 13,153
9. Raul Paez, Barcelona, Spain, 9,865
The Great Dane
Former Backgammon World Champion
Mads Andersen masters a ‘new’ game:
Danish player wins first poker tournament and $118,379
Experts in any one field tend to be extraordinary in other areas, as well. For instance, those with a special talent for languages can learn a third or even a fourth language much easier than the rest of us. Great thinkers tend to understand multiple sciences – physics, chemistry, and mathematics, for example. Inventors are likely to initiate multiple discoveries, not just one. Intellectual aptitude extends to game theory, also.
As proof – consider the winner of Event #12 at the 2005 Jack Binion World Poker Open. Danish-born master gamesman and 2002 Backgammon World Champion Mads Andersen topped a highly-competitive field of 135 players and earned his first poker victory. Not since Paul Magriel has any backgammon expert broken into the sanctified winner’s circle of a major poker tournament. Magriel, renowned for his backgammon expertise and achievements during the 1970s and 80s, made a number of poker tournament final tables in recent years.
Now, Mads Andersen has invaded the poker world and is taking no prisoners. He arrived at the final table sixth in the chip count, overcame several short-stacked situations, staged a startling comeback, and by wiping out one of the world’s best Pot-Limit Omaha players, made a bold statement that he has arrived on the poker scene.
On Day One, 126 players were eliminated short of the prize money. The final table was played on Day Two and the players were eliminated as follows:
9th Place – This was Raul Paez’s second time to make it to a final table. He won the Pot-Limit Hold’em event a week earlier, earning nearly $100,000. Unfortunately, Paez was knocked out 40 minutes into the finale. He was short-stacked and made his last stand with Q-Q-x-x. However, Dale Morrow had 8-8-x-x and flopped an Eight, bouncing Paez out in 9th place. Paez, from Barcelona, Spain added $9,865 to his JBWPO money winnings.
8th Place – Ayaz Mahmood, from Houston, TX has now attended the JBWPO for five straight years. This was the cash-game specialist’s second appearance at a final table. Mahmood played his final hand with A-A-x-x, normally a very powerful starting hand in Pot-Limit Omaha. However, Robert Williamson caught a full house with 8s full of 10s, and destroyed Mahmood’s chances of victory. Mahmood received $13,153 for 8th place.
7th Place – Paired Aces proved to be the downfall of another player, when Tony Lay was dealt A-A-x-x and raised ‘all in’ against Mads Andersen, with A-K-Q-J. The final board showed two Kings and a Jack, giving Andersen a full house. Tony Lay – who finished second in this same event last year – collected $16,441.
6th Place – When one thinks of the nation of Afghanistan – poker is probably the last thing that comes to mind. Sherkhan Farnood (from Kabul), Afghanistan’s #1 ranked poker player – got unlucky when flopped the ignorant end of the straight with 9-8 after the flop came 10-J-Q. Unfortunately, Dale Morrow caught the better end of the runner, with A-K, and Farnood was out. This was Farnood’s best poker tournament finish in the United States – good for $19,730. He won the Australian Open poker tournament in 2003.
5th Place – Larry Kozlove started with fewest chips, but moved four spots up the money ladder and took 5th place. He was crippled when he lost to Karl Limbert’s flush, and with his last 1,000 was ‘all in’ on the following hand. Kozlove was eliminated and collected $23,018 in prize money. Remarkably, Kozlove has now played in only two Pot-Limit Omaha tournaments in his life – making the final table each time (he was 3rd in the Mid-America Poker Classic in Tunica, last summer).
4th Place – Dale Morrow, a real estate developer with multiple homes in Tunica, MS and Myrtle Beach, SC, went out next. He flopped top-two pair but ended up losing to a straight. Morrow has made final tables at the Bellagio, Binion’s Horseshoe Las Vegas, and here at the JBWPO. His win amounted to $26,306 for 4th place.
3rd Place – British bookie Karl Limbert was low on chips early, then doubled up twice with A-A-x-x. In fact, he had the best run of anyone in the finale – moving up from dead last in chips, ultimately to 3rd place. Limbert’s last hand was a real heartbreaker. He was dealt A-K-7-7 and flopped the nut-flush draw with clubs. However, Mads Andersen had A-Q-10-9 and flopped the nut straight. The final board showed K-J-9-J-6 – for Limbert, one club short of the flush. Limbert, making his second final table at this year’s tournament, received $36,171 for 3rd place.
The head’s up confrontation between backgammon superstar Mads Andersen and former JBWPO and WSOP multi-tournament champion Robert Williamson III was one of the most spectacular in recent memory. It was one of the few final tables where the amount of spectators actually swelled as the competition became more intense, and overtly theatrical. It lasted about an hour, and for most who watched – it was too short.
This two-player finale had literally everything anyone could want in a poker match – including Williamson drinking and clowning, both players toasting each other and the crowd, wives and girlfriends laughing and cheering, Gus Hansen at tableside serving as a sort of mentor to Andersen, guest commentary by John Bonetti and George “the Greek,” and side bets between the players and spectators.
At one point amidst the poker circus, ringmaster Williamson made the mind-boggling offer to pool both first and second-place prize money -- and play for it all. Andersen nearly agreed to the deal, but passed. Brit bookie, Karl Limbert (out third) made Williamson a $10,000 side wager he wouldn’t win, and tossed two $5,000 chips onto the felt, which Williamson covered. Meanwhile, the cocktail waitress could not bring drinks fast enough, and Williamson must have consumed two dozen shots and beers – nearly the amount of re-buys he put into this event (a staggering ‘27’ by Williamson’s own admission).
The $27,000 ‘investment meant that Williamson had to finish third or better in this event to make a profit -- and to his credit, he accomplished that. In fact, the heavy booze, the clown act, the intimidating stares, the jive-talk, the overbearing human volcano that is Robert Williamson at a poker table disguised the fact that behind all the verbal lava is a great poker player.
But even great poker players….lose. In fact, they sometimes run into players who are just as good, if not better. Andersen was down 3 to 1 in chips at one point, and was ‘all in’ and one card from elimination. However, he managed to patiently wait for the cards to turn, never gave up, and seized the chip lead – much to the astonishment of Williamson and a packed poker gallery.
On the final hand, Williamson flopped three Queens with Q-Q-x-x. However, the three flop cards were all made up of clubs. Andersen had the 5-3 of clubs in his hand – good for the ‘made’ flush. Williamson had plenty of outs, and needed the board to pair. But in the end, the club flush held up and Mads Andersen was the new poker champion. Amazingly, Williamson won this event previously in 2003 and also won a gold bracelet in Pot-Limit Omaha at the 2002 World Series of Poker. So, defeating Williamson in heads-up play was quite an accomplishment – even for a master gamesman like Andersen.
“In backgammon, it’s all about playing percentages. If I know I have a 55 percent edge, I’m going to fire at it,” Andersen remarked. “I think backgammon was good for me in that way, because I’m not afraid to bet everything when I know the percentages are on my side.”
After the win, poker icon Gus Hansen sat alongside Andersen – unquestionably the most powerful 1-2 punch in Danish poker. In the years ahead, poker historians may make a convincing case that 2003-2004 was the “Gus Hansen era.” No other player quite made such a name for himself nor dominated both tournament and live action poker the way Hansen did. But now, there’s a new Dane in town. And the question is -- might this be the start of the “Mads Andersen era?”
Final Table Started at: 4:00 pm CST
Final Table Ended at: 10:35 pm CST
Report by Nolan Dalla – JBWPO Media Director
Tournament Director – David Eglseder
Co-Tournament Director (Horseshoe) – Ken Lambert, Jr.
Co-Tournament Director (Gold Strike) – Robert McGovern
My own poker play has been a mixed bag of late. On the positive side, I had a good night at my sometimes weekly live game last Friday. Well, it ended good, anyway. The start of the evening was rather horrible, as I kept getting good hands against better ones. My first $10 buy-in was gone after three hands, when I caught two straights and saw them get run over by a flush and a full house. Now, you have to keep in mind, we only had four players. I could lay down a straight with an apparent flush or full house at a full table, but when it's short-handed, you don't expect to keep running up against the nuts (well, not the nuts, but damn close enough). The second buy-in lasted a little longer, but I ended up losing that as well. During that period, I had a full house cracked by quads. The third and final buy-in wasn't looking so good either at first, but I finally turned things around and ended the night up $35.
Online ... well, that's a different story. I'm officially done for awhile, not because I quit, but because my sickly bankroll quit me. I won't go into all the nasty details. Suffice to say that it turns out Omaha high-low wasn't quite as easy as my initial results had led me to believe. Anyway, both the free bankroll and the BIRE skipped town Monday night.
There's plenty more I could write about, but I am mighty exhausted right now. We'll have to catch up on all the tidbits from around the world of poker after I've rested up.
But thank the lord we're down to just one tournament right now. The WSOP Circuit Atlantic City ended last night, with Nghi Van Tran winning the main event and Erick Lindgren posting second. I also have to send a nod out to Aaron Bartley, who is better known to the rec.gambling.poker community as frequent poster GambleAB. He finished fifth in that event and picked up nearly $142K for his efforts. Great job!
Finally, I'll end with the latest results from Tunica. If you're not one who enjoys the tournament reports, you might want to give this one a shot. The final heads-up match sounds like one for the ages, not necessarily because of the play, but because of the boozing, the 27 rebuys and a proposal to pool the first- and second-place winnings and play for them winner-take-all. Sounds like a wild finish, but what else can you expect from Robert Williamson III? Anyway, here goes:
Jack Binion World Poker Open - Event 12
Pot-Limit Omaha
Buy-In: $1,000
Number of Entries: 135
Number of Re-Buys: 225
Prize Money: $328,829
Official Results:
1. Mads Andersen, Copenhagen, Denmark, $118,379 plus a seat in the $10,000 championship event
2. Robert Williamson III, Dallas, TX, 65,766
3. Karl Limbert, Margate, England, 36,171
4. Dale Morrow, Tunica, MS, 26,306
5. Larry Kozlove, Louisville, KY, 23,018
6. Sherkhan Farnood, Kabul, Afghanistan, 19,730
7. Tony Lay, Oklahoma City, OK, 16,441
8. Ayaz Mahmood, Houston, TX, 13,153
9. Raul Paez, Barcelona, Spain, 9,865
The Great Dane
Former Backgammon World Champion
Mads Andersen masters a ‘new’ game:
Danish player wins first poker tournament and $118,379
Experts in any one field tend to be extraordinary in other areas, as well. For instance, those with a special talent for languages can learn a third or even a fourth language much easier than the rest of us. Great thinkers tend to understand multiple sciences – physics, chemistry, and mathematics, for example. Inventors are likely to initiate multiple discoveries, not just one. Intellectual aptitude extends to game theory, also.
As proof – consider the winner of Event #12 at the 2005 Jack Binion World Poker Open. Danish-born master gamesman and 2002 Backgammon World Champion Mads Andersen topped a highly-competitive field of 135 players and earned his first poker victory. Not since Paul Magriel has any backgammon expert broken into the sanctified winner’s circle of a major poker tournament. Magriel, renowned for his backgammon expertise and achievements during the 1970s and 80s, made a number of poker tournament final tables in recent years.
Now, Mads Andersen has invaded the poker world and is taking no prisoners. He arrived at the final table sixth in the chip count, overcame several short-stacked situations, staged a startling comeback, and by wiping out one of the world’s best Pot-Limit Omaha players, made a bold statement that he has arrived on the poker scene.
On Day One, 126 players were eliminated short of the prize money. The final table was played on Day Two and the players were eliminated as follows:
9th Place – This was Raul Paez’s second time to make it to a final table. He won the Pot-Limit Hold’em event a week earlier, earning nearly $100,000. Unfortunately, Paez was knocked out 40 minutes into the finale. He was short-stacked and made his last stand with Q-Q-x-x. However, Dale Morrow had 8-8-x-x and flopped an Eight, bouncing Paez out in 9th place. Paez, from Barcelona, Spain added $9,865 to his JBWPO money winnings.
8th Place – Ayaz Mahmood, from Houston, TX has now attended the JBWPO for five straight years. This was the cash-game specialist’s second appearance at a final table. Mahmood played his final hand with A-A-x-x, normally a very powerful starting hand in Pot-Limit Omaha. However, Robert Williamson caught a full house with 8s full of 10s, and destroyed Mahmood’s chances of victory. Mahmood received $13,153 for 8th place.
7th Place – Paired Aces proved to be the downfall of another player, when Tony Lay was dealt A-A-x-x and raised ‘all in’ against Mads Andersen, with A-K-Q-J. The final board showed two Kings and a Jack, giving Andersen a full house. Tony Lay – who finished second in this same event last year – collected $16,441.
6th Place – When one thinks of the nation of Afghanistan – poker is probably the last thing that comes to mind. Sherkhan Farnood (from Kabul), Afghanistan’s #1 ranked poker player – got unlucky when flopped the ignorant end of the straight with 9-8 after the flop came 10-J-Q. Unfortunately, Dale Morrow caught the better end of the runner, with A-K, and Farnood was out. This was Farnood’s best poker tournament finish in the United States – good for $19,730. He won the Australian Open poker tournament in 2003.
5th Place – Larry Kozlove started with fewest chips, but moved four spots up the money ladder and took 5th place. He was crippled when he lost to Karl Limbert’s flush, and with his last 1,000 was ‘all in’ on the following hand. Kozlove was eliminated and collected $23,018 in prize money. Remarkably, Kozlove has now played in only two Pot-Limit Omaha tournaments in his life – making the final table each time (he was 3rd in the Mid-America Poker Classic in Tunica, last summer).
4th Place – Dale Morrow, a real estate developer with multiple homes in Tunica, MS and Myrtle Beach, SC, went out next. He flopped top-two pair but ended up losing to a straight. Morrow has made final tables at the Bellagio, Binion’s Horseshoe Las Vegas, and here at the JBWPO. His win amounted to $26,306 for 4th place.
3rd Place – British bookie Karl Limbert was low on chips early, then doubled up twice with A-A-x-x. In fact, he had the best run of anyone in the finale – moving up from dead last in chips, ultimately to 3rd place. Limbert’s last hand was a real heartbreaker. He was dealt A-K-7-7 and flopped the nut-flush draw with clubs. However, Mads Andersen had A-Q-10-9 and flopped the nut straight. The final board showed K-J-9-J-6 – for Limbert, one club short of the flush. Limbert, making his second final table at this year’s tournament, received $36,171 for 3rd place.
The head’s up confrontation between backgammon superstar Mads Andersen and former JBWPO and WSOP multi-tournament champion Robert Williamson III was one of the most spectacular in recent memory. It was one of the few final tables where the amount of spectators actually swelled as the competition became more intense, and overtly theatrical. It lasted about an hour, and for most who watched – it was too short.
This two-player finale had literally everything anyone could want in a poker match – including Williamson drinking and clowning, both players toasting each other and the crowd, wives and girlfriends laughing and cheering, Gus Hansen at tableside serving as a sort of mentor to Andersen, guest commentary by John Bonetti and George “the Greek,” and side bets between the players and spectators.
At one point amidst the poker circus, ringmaster Williamson made the mind-boggling offer to pool both first and second-place prize money -- and play for it all. Andersen nearly agreed to the deal, but passed. Brit bookie, Karl Limbert (out third) made Williamson a $10,000 side wager he wouldn’t win, and tossed two $5,000 chips onto the felt, which Williamson covered. Meanwhile, the cocktail waitress could not bring drinks fast enough, and Williamson must have consumed two dozen shots and beers – nearly the amount of re-buys he put into this event (a staggering ‘27’ by Williamson’s own admission).
The $27,000 ‘investment meant that Williamson had to finish third or better in this event to make a profit -- and to his credit, he accomplished that. In fact, the heavy booze, the clown act, the intimidating stares, the jive-talk, the overbearing human volcano that is Robert Williamson at a poker table disguised the fact that behind all the verbal lava is a great poker player.
But even great poker players….lose. In fact, they sometimes run into players who are just as good, if not better. Andersen was down 3 to 1 in chips at one point, and was ‘all in’ and one card from elimination. However, he managed to patiently wait for the cards to turn, never gave up, and seized the chip lead – much to the astonishment of Williamson and a packed poker gallery.
On the final hand, Williamson flopped three Queens with Q-Q-x-x. However, the three flop cards were all made up of clubs. Andersen had the 5-3 of clubs in his hand – good for the ‘made’ flush. Williamson had plenty of outs, and needed the board to pair. But in the end, the club flush held up and Mads Andersen was the new poker champion. Amazingly, Williamson won this event previously in 2003 and also won a gold bracelet in Pot-Limit Omaha at the 2002 World Series of Poker. So, defeating Williamson in heads-up play was quite an accomplishment – even for a master gamesman like Andersen.
“In backgammon, it’s all about playing percentages. If I know I have a 55 percent edge, I’m going to fire at it,” Andersen remarked. “I think backgammon was good for me in that way, because I’m not afraid to bet everything when I know the percentages are on my side.”
After the win, poker icon Gus Hansen sat alongside Andersen – unquestionably the most powerful 1-2 punch in Danish poker. In the years ahead, poker historians may make a convincing case that 2003-2004 was the “Gus Hansen era.” No other player quite made such a name for himself nor dominated both tournament and live action poker the way Hansen did. But now, there’s a new Dane in town. And the question is -- might this be the start of the “Mads Andersen era?”
Final Table Started at: 4:00 pm CST
Final Table Ended at: 10:35 pm CST
Report by Nolan Dalla – JBWPO Media Director
Tournament Director – David Eglseder
Co-Tournament Director (Horseshoe) – Ken Lambert, Jr.
Co-Tournament Director (Gold Strike) – Robert McGovern
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