World Poker Tour

The World Poker Tournament has sparked a huge surge of interest in poker, a revolution that has catapulted Texas Hold’em into people’s living rooms.

            Steve Lipscomb, WPT’s  president, had a vision.  He saw that he could bring that same technology over from the U.K.’s Late Night Poker Show and create a huge poker tournament that would encompass several of the existing poker tournaments in the United States-like the Los Angeles Poker Classic, the World Poker Finals, and the World Poker Open.  Throw in a few new ones, like UltimateBet.com’s Poker Classic in Aruba, and Bellagio’s Five-Star World Poker Classic  $10,000 buy-in no-limit Hold’em event.  Then cap it all off with Belagio’s $25,000 buy in WPT Championship, and, presto! You have the World Poker Tournament! (Now showing on the Travel Channel.)

            Every good idea needs some money to make it happen, and here’s where we credit Lyle Berman for having the foresight to invest $3 million in an idea that had been laughed out of many studio executives’ houses in 2001.  (By the way, Lyle is also one of a couple of dozen or members of the Poker Hall of Fame.)

            The WPT has created new stars, like Gus Hansen (who has now won a whopping three WPT events) and Howard Lederer “the Professor” (two WPT wins), and has shown the world that anyone can play, and win, a Hold’em tournament.  More important, the WPT showed a grateful audience that Hold’em is an easy game to play.  Here, then, are some key hands that came up during the WPT’s first two years.

kassem “freddy” deeb’s laydown

In May 2002, the diversity of poker surfaced big-time at the final table of the first ever World Poker Tournament event: the Bellagio’s $10,000 buy-in no-limit Hold’em tournament.  In the spirit of soccer’s World Cup, here’s a quick summation of the action.  First Vietnam (Scotty Nguyen) was eliminated by Denmark (Gus Hansen).

  Then Switzerland (Chris Bigler) was eliminated by Denmark.  Then the United States (John “World” Hennigan) was eliminated by Indonesia (John Juanda).  Then Denmark took out Lebanon (Freddy Deeb) with the “magic” Q-10 against Lebanon’s A-K (the 2002 World Series of Poker had just ended, and Q-10 became famous for its pivotal role in Robert Varkonyi’s win there).  Finally, Denmark won the tournament (and the $560,000 first prize) when his K-K held up against Indonesia’s A-J.  congratulations to Gus Hansen for winning the first World Poker Tournament event!

            Somewhere along the way, with the blinds at $5,000-$10,000 and the antes at $2,000, the following hand came up between Freddy Deeb and John Hennigan.  World had just finished raising or reraising eight out of ten hands (I mentioned in my TV comments that “John is speeding down a highway going ninety miles an hour, and he will win the tournament if he doesn’t get a speeding ticket”) when he opened for $35,000 under the gun.  Freddy now raised it $100,000 more with 10-10, and when the action got back to John he immediately announced, “I’m all-in.” Freddy had only another $130,000 left at the time, so he called the $130,000 raise, getting laid 3.2 to 1, right?  No.  Freddy read John as having an overpair, and that he, Freddy, was a 4.5-to-1 underdog, so he folded his hand.

            What?! You don’t like his fold here?  Me neither, unless John has an overpair to Freddy’s 10-10. John may have A-K, A-Q or A-J (unlikely), or 9-9, 8-8, or possibly another lower pair.  And the fact that John was playing so fast made it more likely that he would reraise Freddy with a hand that Freddy could beat.  In other words, John had a loose and fast “table image,” and was expecting someone to reraise him soon.

            When John later confirmed that he did, indeed, have an overpair to Freddy’s 10-10, I was pretty impressed! It’s not easy to fold 10-10 when you have one-half of your money in the pot, and the antes and blinds are so big.  Freddy’s great laydown allowed him to move up from fifth place to third place, and pick up an additional $60,000.  It also kept him in the game and gave him a chance, for the moment, to win the tournament and the $560,000 first-place prize.  In fact, Freddy did come back from that $130,000 to over $500,000 in chips, and he eventually challenged Gus Hansen and John Juanda for the title.  This all because he made a world-class fold with his 10-10.