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Part I. Sweating Humberto in the WSOP $40,000 Buy-in
By GamingReviewJun 07, 09 07:58 AM
In late May, I had the privilege of sweating Humberto Brenes in the 40th Annual WSOP special one-time only $40,000 Buy-in No-Limit Texas Hold'em tournament. The Rio, in Las Vegas, saw 201 of the greatest Hold’em players of our era fighting it out for first place prize money of nearly $1.9 million. The player line-up was similar to what one saw at the Main Event ten to fifteen years ago, with top professional tournament players competing with the best “amateur” high-stakes ring game players. For me, it was the greatest learning venue I have ever experienced. For two days, I stood behind "The Shark," observing his play up close and personal. On the opening day at Table 83, 2008 Main Event Champion Peter Eastgate was to his right, Internet star Johannes Strassmann was two to his left, while Andy Black, Barry Greenstein and Chris "Jesus" Ferguson were at the other end of the table. When Eastgate was eliminated, chip leader Chris Moneymaker took his place.
Since I had my media credentials, I was able to follow all of the action on the floor. Walking from table to table I saw some of the most exciting play of my life. Nearly every table contained two or three top ranked tournament players. Not only the recognizable television tournament players, but high stakes cash game specialists and Internet professionals were present. The tables looked as if they were pulled from the set of “Lucky You.” Though every table was tough, the following tables were some of the most deadly Hold’em tables I have ever seen:
Table 58: Huck Seed, Shannon Shorr, Nicolas Levi, Brian Townsend, Doyle Brunson and Greg "FBT" Mueller.
Table 60: Jonathan Little, Shaun Deeb, Eli Elezra, Neil Channing and Gavin Smith.
Table 64: James "mig.com" Mackey, Vanessa Rousso, John Juanda, Ivan Demidov and Johnny Chan.
Table 70: Phil Ivey, Tom “durrr” Dwan, Scott Seiver, David Pham and Scott Montgomery.
Table 72: Kathy Liebert, David "Devilfish" Ulliott, Dan Shak, David Benefield and Cory Zeidman.
Table 76: Chris Moorman, Daniel Stern, Gavin Griffin, Andy Bloch, Brian Rast, Yevgeniy Timoshenko, Luke Staudenmaier and J.C. Tran.
Table 90: Phil Laak, Erick Lindgren, Ted Forrest, Vivek Rajkumar and Chad Batista.
Table 93: David Benyamine, Justin "BoostedJ" Smith, Chau Giang and Josh Arieh.
Besides those table matchups, other notable players in the event are: Greg “Fossilman” Raymer, Nevad Medic, Phil Hellmuth, Freddy Deeb, Antonio “The Magician” Esfandiari, Mike “The Mouth” Matasow, “Tony G” Gouga, Jim Bechtel, Nam Le, Brian Townsend, David Chiu, Hassan Habib, Michael Demichele, Per Magnus Ummer, Mark Seif, Daniel "The Kid" Negreanu, Eric "E-Dog" Lindgren, Dario Minieri, Lex "RaSZi" Veldhuis, Steve Solotow, Vitaly Lunkin, Isaac Haxton and Joe Hachem. Notably absent from the field were: Lyle Berman, Erik Seidel, Gus Hansen, Todd Brunson, Patrik Antonius, T.J. Cloutier, Internet pro Cliff "JohnnyBax" Josephy and high stakes ring game player Minh Ly. The Media Room rumor mill was active, with word floating about that “The Great Dane” purportedly did not make the tournament due to having a lot of money riding on the French Open. Erik Seidel Tweeted/Twittered/Twoot his followers with an apology, saying that he had to attend one of his children’s graduations. T.J. was seen roaming the tourney floor talking to some players, while encouraging others on Day Two. If you would like a list of all of the participants, send me an e-mail at DAN@PokerInsider.org.
An interesting statistic was that only 2.5% of the field were women willing to put their $40,000 on the line: Annie Duke, Vanessa Rousso (the only woman to cash, finishing 27th), Kathy Liepert, and Jennifer Harmon were the well known women players, along with relative newcomer Heather Sue Mercer.
The aspect of the $40K tournament that most impressed me was watching the players change gears as the tournament progressed. It was fascinating to see players known for their loose play when seen on televised Final Tables actually playing quite tight in the early stages of a big money tournament. I can really appreciate the differences between a $40K buy-in tournament and a $2-$5 No-limit table. Many players were late for the start of the tournament. I asked Chris “Jesus” Ferguson if there was a reason for his two hour late arrival. He replied that “I play poker every day, so I don’t need to be here the whole time.” Unfortunately, he only lasted for four more hours. Phil Hellmuth took over three hours to make his grand entrance (shucks, I missed it). Annie Duke was also late arriving, but showed up an hour earlier than her brother, Howard “The Professor” Lederer.
At this tournament I readily experienced the difference between watching from the rail with no idea of cards being played and sweating a top player and seeing his cards from behind his shoulder. One of the poker skills I pride myself on most is my ability to mask the strength of my cards with a “Poker Face.” It was a good thing, too, since I would have hated for opponents to know the strength of Humberto’s hand by viewing my expressions. From watching him on television in the 2003 WSOP Main Event and other tourneys, I know that Humberto is a tight-aggressive player, the type I term “The CEO” in “Winning Blue-Collar Hold’em” (Available through Amazon at www.PokerInsider.org). His tight image allowed him to not only steal blinds, but some sizeable post-flop pots. It was his discipline to lay down hands that I would have played that was the most impressive.
One notable example of Humberto’s discipline occurred midway through Day Two when he was dealt the Ace – Queen of Spades. After David "WhooooKidd" Baker limped from middle position, Humberto raised a modest three times the Big Blind bet to 26,000. With only a quick thought, Phil Ivey re-raised by shoving his smaller than average stack of 84,000 All-in. Sorel Mizzi then pushed it up to 150,000 from the Small Blind. Baker immediately folded and The Shark went into the Tank to decide if he was willing to risk three-fourths of his stack. After several minutes, Humberto looked at his suited Little Slick one last time before sending them to the dealer. After Mizzi flipped over his cards to show pocket Tens, Ivey turned over the unsuited Ace – Queen, the hand that he has been knocked out of nearly a half dozen World Poker Tour Final Tables. A rainbow Jack – 6 – 6 Flop was no help to Ivey, while a 9 on the Turn and a King on the River ended Ivey’s chance at a WSOP Event 2 payday (Ivey later redeemed himself with his sixth WSOP Bracelet in the $2,500 No-Limit Duece to Seven Draw Low-ball tourney).
Time and again I saw him folding middle suited connectors (oft-played by professionals Daniel Negraneau and Sammy Farha) and Weak Aces. After watching him fold Ace – 6 suited from the button, I was surprised to see him make a substantial raise to take down an uncontested pot two hands later with Ace – 3. When I asked him why he folded the better hand in better position, he replied that it was the player he was up against. Looking back, I realized it was extremely loose-aggressive Greg Raymer in the Big Blind when he folded the hand and a young Internet player’s Blind when he pulled off the successful semi-bluff. It is a shame that Humberto was ousted at the end of Day Two in 37th place, won spot before his 2003 nemesis Chris Moneymaker and ten places out of the money.
FooFoo
3 points to your much winded blog-
1) Humberto Brenes is a dick the way he waves his stupid little shark in the face of his opponents. I have no respect for him whatsoever.
2)Absolutely no way did you see his hole cards from over his shoulder. I call bullshit on that one. Anyone playing in a 40k buy knows how to hide his cards. Shit, anyone playing in a $5 buy in knows how to hide his cards better than to allow someone behind to see.
3)I didn't read your post, not all of it anyway. Only unti