We take a well deserved look back at the 2007 World Series of Poker $10,000 Main Event
It’s also the biggest live poker tournament of the year and this time 6,358 players have paid to do battle for the biggest prize of the year. With the prize structure being flattened to give more at the bottom, and a drop in numbers from 8,773 in 2006, the first prize purse was set at $8.25m.
But that’s nothing compared to the reality of entering poker folklore. And there’s a tremor of excitement as the thousands of players that are starting this year’s event riffle chips and hunker down for – what they’re all hoping will be – an epic seven-day game of no-limit Hold’em.
DAY 1 A, B, C, D
No matter what tournament you play in, you never want to be the first one out. This year it takes a good 10 minutes for the first player to drop, as Matt Jansen’s A♦-A♥ loses out to George Dolofam’s K♥-Q♥ on a flop of J♥-10♥-5♥. Dolofam literally screams, ‘No more hearts!’ and flops back into his seat when the board concurs.
The next genuinely exciting event is the appearance of Doyle Brunson. He takes his seat an hour after everyone else and gets a standing ovation from everyone in the room. Unfortunately he’s one of the early casualities and busts out in the early evening when his top two-pair run into flopped trips.
Late entrances don’t seem to be working this year as Phil Hellmuth arrives late – in a ridiculous NASCAR outfit – and busts out very early. Other Day 1 exits include Ram Vaswani, Jamie Gold, Roland de Wolfe and Greg Raymer, and by the end of play the field has been reduced to 2,340 players split across two Day 2s.
DAY 2
This is when the tournament starts to take shape and it’s the last time the field is split across different days. Lots of big names exit here – Negreanu, Hachem, Tony G, Greenstein and Moneymaker join Brits Dave ‘Devilfish’ Ulliott, Vicky Coren and Ross Boatman on the rail. Gus Hansen on the other hand finishes the day as massive chip leader on 622,300.
DAY 3
With 808 players surviving, all eyes are on the money. The bubble bursts at 622 and possibly the slowest hand- for-hand play begins at 15.42. After three hours of incredibly tense play, the announcement is made that every player remaining is guaranteed $20,320. As is usual, there’s a rash of eliminations after the bubble, and one of the high-flying Brits, John Duthie, is taken out by Gus Hansen when his Q-Q is outdrawn by Hansen’s A-7. Only 337 players make it back for Day 4, including Gus Hansen, Sorel ‘Imper1um’ Mizzi, Julian Gardner, Willie Tann and Scotty Nguyen.
DAY 4
Serious money is up for grabs now and all eyes are on the few remaining pros. Late on there’s a huge hand that looks likely to eliminate Gus Hansen. He calls an all-in, only to find his 10-10 in massive trouble against Tuan Lam’s Queens. Unbelievably he flops a set to scoop the massive pot of $1,406,000. One of the last big celebrity players, Tobey Maguire, busts out in the money (292nd – $39,445), along with Carlos Mortensen, Sorel Mizzi and Donnacha O’Dea. We’re now down to 112 players.
DAY 5
It’s a bad day for the Brits as both Willie Tann and Julian Gardner are eliminated. Tann goes out in 77th place ($106,382) when he makes a move with Q♦-9♠. Raymond Rahme calls with As-Qs and hits an Ace on the turn. Julian Gardner drops in 64th position ($130,288) when he moves all-in on a raise from the small blind. Gardner has K♦-10♥ and the small blind calls with A♠-K♣. The board of 9♦-3♦-4♥-K♥-5♠ sends Gardner to the rail.
Gus Hansen’s luck also runs out when he’s eliminated in 61st position ($154,194). He’d been short-stacked for a while and moving all-in on every hand so it was inevitable he was going to get caught. The chip leader at the start of the day – Dag Martin Mikkelsen – is also eliminated, before the close of play brings us down to 36 players and one day from the final table. Jon Kalmar is the sole British player left in.
DAY 6
Each of the remaining 36 players is now guaranteed a $285,678 payout. Jon Kalmar is on the feature table and picks up a huge pot when his Kings hit a third on the flop early on, doubling him up through Daniel Alaei. Scotty Nguyen slips to a short stack before doubling up when his A-Q hits on the flop to bust his opponent’s Tens.
Kalmar and Nguyen continue to pick up pots and towards the end of the day both are sitting at the top of the pile, Kalmar with over 20 million chips and Nguyen in third place with just over 17 million in chips. He’s looking like a lock for the final table but he somehow manages to throw it all away and finish 11th.
Playing to win he loses his chips in three key hands all in the space of 25 minutes, first when he re-raises Tuan Lam with 4-5 only to run into pocket Tens and lose a pot worth 11.46 million. He’s then unlucky to run A-Q into a Queen-high flop and lose to a set of Fives, and finally goes to the rail when his flush draw fails to hit. And, after the next player busts out, we’ve got our final table, including the Great British hope, John ‘Skalie’ Kalmar.
For the final table Andreas Hoivold provided us with the following key hand analysis. Hoivold was last year’s Poker Million runner-up, won the 2007 Dortmund EPT and cashed twice in this year’s WSOP.
HAND #15 BLINDS 120K/240K
Philip Hilm eliminated in 9th ($525,934)
Jerry Yang raises from late position to 1m. He has played a lot of hands, which will make the other players think he could be raising with almost any two cards. Philip Hilm, in the small blind, calls. On a flop of K♦-J♦-5♣, Hilm checks and Yang bets out 2m. Hilm calls and the turn card is the 2♥. Again Hilm checks and Yang bets 4m. Hilm then moves all-in for 16m and Yang thinks for about 30 seconds before making the call. Hilm has 8♦-5♦ and Yang shows A♦-K♠. Hilm needs help on the river but the 6♣ doesn’t help him and he’s the first player eliminated. This hand was very important for Yang. The pot is huge – almost a third of the chips in play – and Yang now has 44.5m after starting the final table as second short-stack with 8.45m. He can now try to dominate the proceedings. Hilm should never have been in the pot.
HAND #21 BLINDS 120K/240K
Lee Watkinson eliminated in 8th ($585,699)
Everyone folds to the button and Jerry Yang continues his aggression by raising to 1m. Lee Watkinson moves all-in on the big blind and, predictably, Yang calls. Lee Watkinson shows A♣-7♥ and Jerry Yang shows A♠-9♦. It was a tough move by Watkinson and a very good call by Yang. The flop comes 6-4-2 rainbow and Watkinson is in trouble. The turn is K♦, the river the J♠ and Watkinson is out. The pot takes Yang closer to victory – with 55m he now has almost three times as many as Tuan Lam in second.
HAND #60 BLINDS 150K/300K
Jon Kalmar eliminated in 5th ($1,255,069)
On Jerry Yang’s button Raymond Rahme makes a very big raise to 2.7m. Most of the pre-flop raises on the final table have been high and it suggests the players aren’t comfortable about playing poker on the flop. Jon Kalmar, in the big blind, moves all-in for 13.245m. After a count Raymond Rahme calls, reluctantly, showing J♠-J♦ to Kalmar’s A♠-K♥. It’s a race but Kalmar misses and his World Series of Poker ends in fifth. Kalmar had been fairly quiet and it looks like this was the moment he decided he had to make a stand. Both players played this pot as they should – coin-flips like this are very common and very important on a final table.
HAND #78 BLINDS 200K/400K
Kravchenko doubles up
Jerry Yang raises from under the gun to 1.5m and in the next position Alex Kravchenko goes all-in for 9.05m. Yang has called every time someone’s moved in on him and he does the same thing now with K♠-Q♥. I don’t like this call – at best Yang is going to be in a coin-flip and he could be horribly dominated. Kravchenko shows 3♠-3♣ but when the flop comes 8♣-3♥-2♠, Yang is already drawing dead. Kravchenko doubles up to around 18.5m and Yang is left with about 66m.
This pot was the most important ‘non-elimination’ pot so far. Alex Kravchenko is, in my opinion, the best player left at the final table and with a stack of almost 20m he should be a force. I don’t like his play in this hand though. His pocket Threes are at best a coin-flip and he knows that Yang doesn’t fold hands easily.
HAND #167 BLINDS 250K/500K
Kravchenko eliminated in 4th ($1,852,721)
Alex Kravchenko raises from the small blind to 2.1m and Jerry Yang moves all-in from the big blind. This is another crazy raise – Kravchenko still has almost 20m in chips. Kravchenko calls instantly with his A♠-K♦ and runs into 8♥-8♣, and this time the flop brings the set for Yang. Kravchenko is eliminated in fourth position. Now Yang has eliminated his hardest opponent. The players left are not as good as Kravchenko, and Yang really should be able to bring this home. Raymond Rahme has played weakly and only Tuan Lam is a danger.
HAND #169 BLINDS 300K/600K
Rahme eliminated in 3rd ($3,048,025)
Jerry Yang raises from the button to 2.6m, Raymond Rahme re-raises from the big blind to 8.6m and Yang calls. The flop comes A♦-J♥-8♥ and Rahme checks. Yang bets 10m and Rahme moves all-in. Yang really dislikes the check-raise and uses almost five minutes to think before he reluctantly calls. Rahme shows K♠-K♥ and Yang is jumping in his chair with his rather weak Ace – A♣-5♠. The hand holds up and Yang has eliminated yet another player.
HEADS-UP
Yang has a 4-1 chip lead and Tuan Lam has been way too passive, something that continues heads-up with Yang leading the aggression (he’s now the first person in WSOP history to hold 100m chips) and Tuan Lam folding. In fact, after 21 hands of heads-up play, Yang has won 17 hands and is up to 117m compared to Lam’s 10m. Suddenly Lam seems to snap out of it and starts pushing his chips around. He moves all-in with 4U-3U and is called by Yang’s A:-10; but survives when a Four arrives on the flop. It’s only a temporary stay of execution though, and at close to 4am the final hand of the 2007 WSOP plays out.
HAND #205 BLINDS 400K/800K
Lam eliminated in 2nd ($4,840,981); Yang wins Main Event ($8,250,000)
Jerry Yang raises on the button to 2.3m, Tuan Lam moves all-in and seems delighted when Yang makes the call. Lam flips A♦-Q♦ and Yang shows 8-8, which needs a lot of help on the flop of Q♣-9♣-5♠. The turn is the 7♦, which gives Yang more outs with a Six to complete his straight. Amazingly it is the 6♥ which falls on the river to give Yang a runner-runner straight and confirm him as the 2007 World Champion with a first prize of $8.25m.
Overall analysis – Andreas Hoivold: The table looked like it was going to be over very quickly with four rapid bust- outs. Then it tightened up and no player fell for over seven hours. The pattern was big pre-flop raising and a lot of all-ins – averaging out to almost one every five hands.
This really points to a lack of experience. With big chip stacks and slow, relatively small blinds, there was a huge amount of play on the table, but no one wanted to use it. Irrespective though, this was the Jerry Yang show, from start to finish! He didn’t play perfect poker, not even close, but he ran over the table from the start with a lot of aggression and some luck, and after taking an early chip lead he never looked back. That is very strong play, especially as he started as a short stack with only 8m in chips. Three of the players had 20m or more, so he really had to work to get the chip lead.
A couple of players didn’t play as well as they should have. Philip Hilm was eliminated first on the final table despite being the chip leader from the start. With his stack he should have played more carefully from the start and should not even have been in the pot when he was eliminated. The same could be said about Lee Watkinson. He was the most experienced player at the final table and should not have taken too many chances from the start.
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