Not only was the difference in prize easy gaming money between ninth and eighth significant, but the ninth-place finisher’s name was’t published in Poker Europe magazine! Be that as it may, I would probably have been equally upset had I finished in second place, although at least then I would have been over $100,000 richer.  (The heck with the money, I just like to win!)

            I like the way this tournament was set up.  Again, we started with about poker 432 players on days one, two, and three, and 24 advanced each day to the final event.  Thus, a total of 72 players made the finals.  With three separate events set up to determine who advanced stud poker to the final, the prize pool grew at a terrific rate.  In fact, first place turned out to be about $210,000.

            As I mentioned before, at least 6 Americans made it to the finals field of 72: Marsha Waggoner, Johnny Chan, Ross Lichen, Skyhawk Flaton, Ted Forrest, and me.  Three of us made the final 18 players, including Forrest, Flaton, and me.  With 13 players left, the following hand came up between Englishman Paul Alterman and me.  The limit was 3,000-6,000 units, the ante was 800 units, and the low card brought in for 1,500 units card games.  There were 6 players at my table when this hand started.  The low card was a three, the next player to act folded a five, and Paul opened for 3,000 with the Qc up spooky hand.

            My up card was the 9c, with 9d-10c in the hole.  It was now my turn to act, so I looked behind me and saw that sky that Skyhawk and the remaining players to act had up cards lower then my 9c.  the fact that no one had an up card high low poker than mine behind me made my pair of nines that much stronger.  Immediately, I put Paul on a steal with a weak hand.  Thus, I very quickly raised to 9,000 units to go.  I asked how much money he had left, and he said he had 1,800 units more us poker 1999, or 10,800 total. Obviously, he wouldn’t reraise here without having me beat (or at least without a real hand, like J-Q-K), because he knows that I’m calling his last 5,800 units for sure.  So I just called, thinking that it he paired his up-card queen, then I might be able to fold and save 1,800 units.

            On the next card, he caught coty award a dangerous-looking Kc, to make his board Qc-Kc.  I caught noting in particular (a three) and called his 1,800-unit all-in bet.  Now we were forced to flip our cards faceup for the audience, which by now was pretty huge high limit action 1980. 

Paul showed me just what I expected him to have in the hole: the 5d-6h.  excuse me, what did you say?! Yes, you heard me correctly: his hole cards were 5d-6h! Why in the world hadn’t he just folded his hand when I made it 6,000 units to go, like the other 99 percent of the world would have done?  Again, he had to have known that there was a strong likelihood that I was going to call his last 5,800, since I’d had 34,000 units to start the hand.  I guess he thought I would fold for his last 5,800.  No problem, if he wanted to give me his chips with his (5-6) Q versus my (9-10)9, then fine.  I had to be at least a 3-to-1 or 4-to-1 favorite.

            I’m not kidding when I tell you that I was about to laugh out loud at the absurdity of his hand and play, but before I could recover from my shock, the dealer dealt out the fifth card.  (When someone is all-in at the Poker EM, the remaining cards are dealt very quickly, and the last card is dealt faceup.)

            Paul now caught a Qd, and suddenly it wasn’t so funny anymore.  Now his board read Qc-Kc-Qd with5d-6h in the exposed hole.  At this point, I still believed I was going to winning poker this had.  For one thing, I felt as if I deserved to win the hand.  For another, I’ve seen too many weird plays like the one Paul made die on the vine.  After Paul was delivered his last card faceup, I could see that he still had only one pair of queens.  I still had only one pair of nines, but with an open-ended straight draw (9-9-10-8-J-3).  Now I needed a queen or a seven for a straight or another pair to win this hand.  Any three, seven, eight, nine, ten, jack, or queen would win the pot for me.
            Meanwhile, the crowd was shouting very loudly and lustily, “England, England, England, England!” What was this, the World Cup?  I hadn’t heard any shouting to this point in the tournament (or in any other poker tournament, ever!), so I was surprised, and a bit taken aback.  The shouting, on top of the bad beat I was taking, annoyed me quite a bit, especially since the crowd was so loud.  There’s no crying in baseball, and there’s no shouting and chanting in poker! But I knew one thing: I couldn’t let anything affect me.  If I did, then I might play badly afterward. I was here for one reason: to win this thing.

            The last card turned out to be a king, and I lost the pot.  But I still had over 20,000 units in front of me.  If I had won that pot, then I would have had the chip lead in the tournament with roughly 45,000 units.  Eventually, I self-destructed a bit-I think I was still on tilt from the shock of losing that pot to Paul-and wound up finishing in ninth place

            Yes, that was a brutal pot to lose, but perhaps I would have won the Poker EM anyway if only I had continued to play great poker all the way to the end.  Then that pot would have been a long forgotten story.  But I admit it, I went on tilt.  We all go on tilt sometimes.

            After I was eliminated, I watched Ted Forrest play a brilliant game, only to fall short and finish in fourth place.  I believe Ted was more upset than I was, because he smelled the first-place title more than I had.  And Ted already has World Championship title (a WSOP bracelet) in seven card stud and has thus proved that he is capable of winning the big seven card stud tournaments.  At least Ted walked away with about $65,000 for fourth place to console himself with.  Paul Alterman took advantage of his good fortune-he did play very strong Stud the rest of the way-and went on to capture first place.