One of my favorite events of the year. McKeehen with a huge stack to start and $7.7MM on the line. I'm actually 20 minutes behind the broadcast, as I was busy earlier and am watching the DVR. Would love to see one of the old guys win (Neuville or Blumenfield)...
OT: World Series of Poker Final Table
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Yeah, so ballsy with the big raise on Q-8 suited, especially against Stern, who's a known loose cannon, and getting him to fold, on hand 3 and then 3-betting the next two hands with Aces and then Queens! A little unlucky for him that he didn't get callers, especially from Neuville, who made an amazing laydown with tens against the aces - he could've lost a lot of money on that hand - although he only risked less than 10% of his chips to call and if he hit his set, he might've taken a lot of Blumenfield's money. That's why this is so fascinating...
Watching on laptop as Eagles game is on TV. Blumenfield has certainly impressed so far, but that's not a surprise, he's a smart guy. If you like poker and get a chance listen to the Thinking Poker Podcast interview of him. I was real impressed with him after that interview. Rooting for the Jersey guys, Cannuli and Beckley. Also McKeehan is active in the Jersey/PA poker seen so hope he does well.
Way too long - and now he's out, although his strategy almost worked, as he waited for a premium hand, actually got one with AJ, only to be up against the AK of McKeehen, who's likely to raise with almost anything on the button there.
Also, think Neuville may have blown it on the queens by not betting bigger before the flop and not continuing after the flop, even with the ace hitting the flop, scaring him - when I have a big hand, I hate letting flush/straight draws get a free card. Cannuli then got hugely lucky, when he turned the flush and then Nueville spiked Broadway on the river.
Pretty sure I've seen McKeehan at PARX - intense dude, with the stare - think he's playing the big stack decently.
In hindsight it is easy to say but Cannuli would have got more chips by check/shoving the river. Obviously he didn't know Nueville had QQ and his range included a lot of Aces and two pair type hands, so betting was his best option with his limited info.
What a brutal way for Neuville to bust out late last night, as I was nodding off, with AJ, going all in against McKeehen, who, of course, called his all-in of only about 3MM chips (<5% of his stack) with J-6 of hearts - and, of course, got runner-runner hearts to make a flush. Ouch. That's the problem with the small stack - not enough chips to scare anybody from calling your all-in and many times the big stack knows the pot odds are likely to be 50-50 or at worst 60-40, since the short-stack all-ins are usually not on premium hands, since they can't afford to wait for such hands.
McKeehen with nearly half the chips, now, is going to be really hard to beat, although all it takes, really, is for one of the guys with 1/3 his chip stack to win an all-in against him to even out the chip count or to lose 10-20% of his stack a couple of times. We've seen it happen many times. Hard to see him not finishing at least in the top 3, though, which is where the big money starts, as 3rd gets $3.3MM, while fifth gets a paltry $1.9MM, lol.
McKeehen with nearly half the chips, now, is going to be really hard to beat, although all it takes, really, is for one of the guys with 1/3 his chip stack to win an all-in against him to even out the chip count or to lose 10-20% of his stack a couple of times. We've seen it happen many times. Hard to see him not finishing at least in the top 3, though, which is where the big money starts, as 3rd gets $3.3MM, while fifth gets a paltry $1.9MM, lol.
Speaking of brutal, wow, did Tom Cannuli just take it right in the brown. He made a small raise before the flop with aces and Steinberg went all in over the top with 10s and, of course, Cannuli called in a nanosecond. And then Steinberg flopped a 2-outer, spiking a 10 on the flop and knocked Cannuli out. Instead of Cannuli doubling up to ~20MM chips, he is out and Steinberg is now up to 31MM chips. You wait for hours for the perfect opportunity, get it all in with a huge advantage (~80% to win with aces over a lower pair), and then lose. Ouch.
So we got down to the final three last night, with McKeehen (a 24-year old from North Wales, PA just outside Philly) way out front in the chip lead wth 2/3 of the chips, along with Blumenfield. the 61 year old amateur with the now-famous fedora, and Beckley, a 25-year old Jersey kid from Marlton, both of whom have pretty short stacks (Beckley with only 2/3 of Blumenfield's chips). .
Beckley probably made the best play of the night, last night, folding his jacks, after a huge pre-flop raise by McKeehen, who had queens. If he called that raise, it likely would have led him to go all in after the flop and likely lose the rest of his chips. Amazing fold, really. Payouts are $3.3MM, 4.4MM, and $7.7MM for 3rd, 2nd and 1st. Nice.
Tonight's play starts now. Shuffle up and deal!
Beckley probably made the best play of the night, last night, folding his jacks, after a huge pre-flop raise by McKeehen, who had queens. If he called that raise, it likely would have led him to go all in after the flop and likely lose the rest of his chips. Amazing fold, really. Payouts are $3.3MM, 4.4MM, and $7.7MM for 3rd, 2nd and 1st. Nice.
Tonight's play starts now. Shuffle up and deal!
No surprise, McKeehen wins. Hard to beat a huge chip leader, who gets great cards and plays them nearly perfectly. Most dominant performance I can recall in years - wire to wire leader since at least 25-30 players were left - and that piercing stare, lol. Blumenfield played poorly, finishing 3rd - a shame, since he had played so well until tonight. And Beckley played well, but simply couldn't overcome a great player, with great cards. Fun to watch for poker junkies.
Actually think the fold was bad in a vacuum, and I bet if playing a tourney with a smaller prize pool he shoves there, but I can understand why it was done with the ICM/pay jump considerations.
McKeehen ran well and played his big stack pretty perfectly, pushing people around, getting it in when he had the odds, slowing down when he felt his opponents were strong.
I was more impressed with McKeehans ability to fold more often than not when he was beat!! He rarely paid anyone off!!