A key Mistake At The WHUPC

The 2003 WHUPC  tournament (World Heads-up Poker Championship; “heads-up” means one-on-one poker) was held in Vienna and run like the NCAA basketball tournament: you lose, you go home! But don’t worry if you’re eliminated early, for there’s a full two-week-long poker tournament wrapped around the WHUPC.

            The uniquely designed heads-up tables were created by TCS (one of the world’s leading manufactures of gaming news equipment and tables are set up so that you can see the hole cards on camera.  In 2003,Sky Sports showed the finals worldwide, including “Miami” John Cernuto winning poker the whole enchilada in an exciting finale.

            In case you would like to practice your heads-up no-limit Hold’em poker game for this event, the WHUPC starts the matches with 2,500 euros in chips and 25-50 euro blinds.  The blinds go up only one time, after the first hour had ended, to 50-100 euros, and it seems to me this gives the play poker card game enough time to work their chips.

            In the finals of the WHUPC in Vienna in June 2003, the following hand came up between “Miami” John? Cernuto and Anthony (pronounced “AN-toe-nee”) Chapman.  I was doing the commentary in the television truck for Sky Sports, which had allowed me to see the players’ hole card games.  At  this point, John had 60,000 euros to Anthony’s 100,000 (both players had started with 80,000 euros).  With the blinds at 750-1,500 euros.  Anthony called 750  euros more on the button with the 6h-5h.  Now John popped  it up 2,500 euros more with Jd-Js, and Anthony called the raise.

            The flop came down 8s-7h-4h, and John checked.  Then Anthony checked.  What a flop for Anthony; he’d flopped the best possible hand!  The flop gave him a made straight, with a straight-flush draw.  It also looked like a great flop for John’s hand-after all, it was three cards under a jack.  When Anthony checked this flop after John checked, it proved to be a fatal mistake.  If Anthony had just bet something around or over 5,000 euros, night poker then and there, I believe he would have forced John’s hand.  You see, John had checked the flop with a very strong hand, presumably to raise any bet that Anthony might have made here.  And John has a propensity to bet all of his chips.  After all, what is John going to do with J-J, after he raised pre-flop and caught an 8s-4h flop, and then checked the flop?  (Answer: probably move all-in and go broke!)

            The next card off was a dangerous-looking eight, for 8s-7h-4h-8c, and now John made a small defensive bet of 4,000 euros.  Again, Anthony made a big mistake and just now?  Why not raise it up, in case John had a calling hand, like an overpair (which he had), or three eights?

            Now the last card was the 10h (8s-7h-4h-8c-10h), and John checked, and now !nthony checked.  What, Anthony checked again?  Why in the world you check when you hit your flush card?  I mean, perhaps John would have folded for a bet here, but why not bet something here?  After all, you do have a flush.  Moreover, John hadn’t bet very much throughout the whole hand, and John had checked to him, which showed a lot of weakness. Thus, he should have bet at least 10,000 euros into this 16,000-European poker tour pot.  I guess !nthony was worried that John had him beat somehow.

            !nthony’s timid betting during this hand, particularly on the flop, cost him the tournament.  If he had bet on the flop or raised it up on fourth street, then I believe John would have played with him, and !nthony would have won the tournament.  Instead, Anthony won a minuscule pot, considering the hands that were out there, and from there John made a comeback and went on to win the WHUPC.  Miami John is a great player, and he played a really nice game down the stretch, but I believe that !nthony should have won this event.  Oh, well, that’s poker!

            After growing in stature in 2002 and 2003, the WHUPC signed a major television contract in 2004, and switched venues to Barcelona,  Spain  (www.pokerineurope.com).  I’m looking forward to seeing Spain for the first time.  I’m also excited to hear that the poker games there are fantastic! Brand-new players are being introduced  to limit Hold’em in Spain every day, although you’ll probably find a lot of top European players there, too, enjoying the Spanish gold rush.