Jeff Shulman’s Bad Beats

In 2000, we had over 510 players at the World Series of Poker put up $10,000 each to play in the final event.  As Johnny Chan said, “I don’t know about poker the rest of the country, but there sure were a lot of people wandering around the Horseshoe with $10,000 in their pockets!”

            The worldwide press was out in full force.  It was amazing to watch the cameras going off when the WSOP’s 2000 winner, Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, was posing after the seven card stud ended.  (I personally was interviewed during the event by Geraldo Rivera of CNBC, E! Entertainment, the Discovery Channel, and many magazine writers as well.) I’m proud of #hris “Jesus” Ferguson and T.J.Cloutier for the way they play poker card game and handled themselves throughout the final two days.  In my opinion, they both deserved to win the World Championship in 2000.  these are just some of the reasons that I am proud of the 2000 World Series of Poker.

            There were also some great surprises at that WSOP, including Jim McManus and Jeff Shulman.  Jim is a novelist/poet/writer who was sent out to the WSOP to cover it for Harper’s magazine (and eventually wrote a 16-page article on it, which turned into his bestselling book, Positively Fifth Street).  Jim decided to play some satellites for the Big One and Whoosh-he ended up finishing fourth in the main event. 

Jeff Shulman played a fantastic game of poker cards throughout the WSOP that year.  Maybe because Jeff hadn’t been there before, he was moving $200,000 to $1,000,000 stacks around like they were cups of water.  What Jeff lacked in experience, he more than made up for with fearlessness and great reads on the rest of the field.

            Here is a hand that came up between Jeff and #hris with seven players left on poker’s biggest stage (WSOP 2000).  Remember, when the WSOP gets down to six players, they end play for the day and come back the next day to battle in front of the world for fame and fortune ($1.5 million for first place).  Jeff had been moving his chips around beautifully; he was raising and reraising (presumably when his opponents had nothing)  almost every hand.  The blinds were $15,000-$30,000, and the antes were $3,000 per player, when Jeff opened for $200,000 on the button with 7-7.  #hris Ferguson decided to move all-in from the big blind with 6-6 for about poker $860,000.  At this point, Jeff was the chip leader with over $1.5 million, and #hris was second with his $860,000.  After less than 20 seconds, Jeff decided to call #hris for all of his $860,000.

            Wow, Jeff would start day four with over $2,300,000 in chips, and T.J.Coutier would be in second place with only $900,000.  #hris would finish in seventh place.  But wait a minute, they hadn’t flopped the card games yet.  Jeff wasn’t home yet-he was, however, a 4.5-to-1 favorite to win this hand.  The flop was 3h-6h-10h, giving #hris the best hand, but giving Jeff a flush draw.  The next card was the 5c, which also gave Jeff a straight draw.  Now Jeff needed a heart (excepting the 5h), a seven, or a four to win the pot limit hold'em.

  #hris called for (out loud), and received, a ten on the river, to make the final board 3h-6h-10h-5c-10s and give #hris the winning hand (a full house 6-6-6-10-10). Too bad for Jeff, but he kept his composure  (much like I would have; yeah, night poker!) and still was in second chip position with roughly $700,000.

            The rest of the story is even more brutal for Jeff-as if losing this pot weren’t tough enough.  About one round later, Jeff picked up pocket kings in the small blind and moved all-in after T.J. opened for $300,000 with pocket jacks.  #hris picked up pocket aces in the big blind, and Jeff ended up finishing in seventh place.  So he went from $2.3 million and the chip lead going into the last day to being the next player out.  Seemed like Jeff deserved better than that, but that’s poker event.

            Anyway, back to the 7-7 versus 6-6 hand.  (The aces versus kings hand was pretty natural.)  I love the way Jeff played this hand.  He had been raising a lot of pots, so he opened for a huge over-raise of $200,000 to send message to #hris that he had something.  Then when #hris moved in, Jeff correctly deduced that his pocket sevens were the best hand.  As John Bonetti would say, “He had #hris by the throat.” It’s hard to be 4.5-to-1 favorite for all of the money, but Jeff put himself into this great position for the most important (and biggest pot) of his life.

How about the way #hris played the hand?  I don’t like his play very much, but it’s certainly not too bad.  On the one hand, I like the aggressiveness of the all-in move with the pocket sixes.  #hris was trying to stop Jeff from running over the table with this move.  On the other hand, Jeff did send a message with the size of his raise, and #hris was in the second chip position, so I could very easily see him fold his hand here and wait for a better spot to risk all of his chips no limit hold'em.  I probably would have folded the 6-6 in this situation, just because it was for all of his chips.  Had he done so, he would still have been in great chip position.  I mean, why risk all of your chips in second chip position with seven players left at the WSOP?