My $220,000 Pot At The World Series of Poker

In 2002, after remaining positive thought poker a bad World Series of Poker, I was ready to win the Championship Event and the accompanying $2 million first prize. Monday and Tuesday I played as well as I could play, and I caught a lot of big hands as well. I went smoothly (Cadillac smooth) from $10,000 night poker up to $127,000 without ever being low on chips or even close to all-in. I really thought that moving from 130 players down to 45 players on day three would be a walk in the park.

Hello, Meng La! Wow, I had never met Meng “Over the Top” La before, but he was seated just to my left on day three, and believe me, this guy makes Stu Ungar look like a slow play poker card games! On the first hand, I opened for $4,000 with the Ad-Qd, and Meng raised $10,000 more. Had I known how wild and crazy Meng La played, I would have stuffed his remaining $25,000 in the pot pronto! Instead, I made a very easy fold, and the game of cards was on. Meng proceeded to raise or reraise me 12 times that day, and he raised, reraised, or moved all-in almost 20 times in the first two hours. He never folded a hand once he put a chip in! How he survived that first two hours playing that fast is a mystery to me. Usually, when someone plays that fast against me I bust them by about poker the fifth move in or so. Be that as it may, I felt pretty certain that I would eventually bust Meng; all I needed was time. He was a thorn in my side, but eventually his chips would look pretty rosy in my stack

Despite meng’s onslaught, I still had $117,000 with 60 players left when the following hand came up. A player I had never seen before, named Robert Varkonyi, had come to our table. Immediately, I had a good read on him (reading people is my biggest strength in poker). With the blinds at $1,200-$2,400 and the antes at $400 a player, Robert raised the pot limit holdem to $8,000 to go, and I looked down at Ah-Kh. I felt that Robert was weak, so I raised it $17,000 more. Now Robert immediately announced, “I’m all-in.” I asked for a count, and it turned out that he had $81,400 more ($106,400 total).

With $56,000 already in the pot, I had a decision to make, but my mind kept screaming, “He has nothing, you have to call because you know you have the best hand.” It was almost as if I really did know that he had nothing, and one part of my mind said, “Now is the time, when you’re a 2.2-to-1 favorite.”

(I thought he had A-something). After less than a minute, I called, and he flipped up Qc-10c as if he were proud of his hand! For the $220,000 pot, I thought I was only a 2-to-1 favorite (actually, it turns out that I was only a 3-to-2 favorite here). What had I done? I had avoided all big pots for three days, and now I was only a 3-to-2 favorite for the money.

If I had kept that $81,000 (plus the $11,000 more that I still had left after Robert), then I believe I would have easily made the final 45 players, and probably without playing a big pot. In fact, I may have flopped a set against someone with top pair, and been a huge favorite in a big pot limit omaha, or perhaps I would have made a flush and had my opponent drawing dead.

So here’s the final analysis: I made a bad call, even though I was sure he was bluffing. But where do you draw the line? Do you fold when you feel you’re 2.5-to-1 favorite and the pot’s laying you 7 to 4? My call was bad because I could still have won the tourney handily losing the pot to Robert, I had made coming back from $11,000 very difficult.

I don’t like Robert’s play here at all. Why would he risk all of his money with no hand against someone who is known for reading players well? Why not wait a mere 10 minutes for a better hand or a better spot? To me, he had an easy fold, but moved all-in instead. Robert made some blunders along the way, but he made up for it with the beautiful way he played the final table, and he won the 2002 WSOP.

I love the fact that anyone can play in the WSOP. I love the fact that they keep the field open. But with open field come more obstacles to winning. In 2002, for the third year in a row, I was the last World Champion remaining in WSOP, but that doesn’t pay the rent. I do wish I had waited until I had someone drawing almost dead before I committed most of my stack to a pot. I wish the flop hadn’t come down A-Q-10 for Robert to beat my Ah-Kh with his Qc-10c and two pair. I just wish winning seven card the WSOP wasn’t so hard!

But then wouldn’t be the WSOP, would it?