Final Table

[Talking Poker]

I didn't read all of the above yet, so I apologize if this has been addressed, but the thing that tilted me the most was Moon's lie to his wife.

It's like a 234 board or something and there is > $40 million in the pot. It's $6 million more for him to call (with his horribly played KQ) and he folds. He then tells his wife:

-He folded QQ....
-BECAUSE he though his opponent had AK with a flush draw....
-and he thought he'd get there and didn't want to give him $6 million more.

WHAT
THE
FUCK???

Being embarrassed about your horrible play is one thing, but to make up a lie that makes you sound 10 times worse than saying "I got caught bluffing" is just ridiculous. I mean, the fact that that line could even make any amount of sense to him in his brain is just ridiculous.

As for the rest of the play, keep in mind, we were seeing a very small sample of the hands played. That may not make up for all of it, but it certainly could explain some of it. Like I don't have a problem with Ivey folding the JJ there at all. If it turned out he was up against QQ+/AK 90% of the time (could very well have been his read), it's a good fold. Only because people saw he was up against 77 are they being results oriented. If he was up against AA, people would say it was a great fold, and had he been up against AA and 4 bet shoved, people would say it was awful. I'm willing to give Phil Ivey a little bit of credit and say I'm sure he had a good reason for making the read he did and it was fine.

Schulman's comment about the A8 call on the other hand... wow. Just goes to show how huge of a nit he is. He and his Helmuth style gave him no chance to win, basically blinding down until it was 5 handed. Nice job moving up a few spots.

[Zybomb]

The Moon line was even funnier bc his wife hears and replies something along the lines of YEA thats the kinda player he is he gets lucky. Or something. HAHAHAHA oh god.

As for the Ivey Cada A8 44 hand, Im kinda in the same boat as Windbreaker. While I don't agree with Schulman's take of him being a sick puppy by calling, i don't think it's as easy of a call as you guys think. I think the call represented over 1/3 of Ivey's Chips and would've left him with 9 Million or something. And with a hand as bad as A8 your gunna be dominated mostly, and flipping vs two paint cards or smaller pairs the rest of the time. The odds are tempting, but it's not quite 2:1 and this isn't a cash game. I think its a lot closer than people are giving it credit for.

On the subject of Schulman, I dont think his strategy was that bad. Play tight and let the idiots donk themselves out, hopefully picking up a pot or two along the way, then open up when it gets 5 or 6 handed. If he wins his 80/20 race vs Cada we would've gotten to see if that indeed would've been the case (opening up and going for the win now)

As far as Buchman's AQ play we didn't see the whole hand (dunno why???) but I believe it's in a different boat than the Moon/Begs hand, bc there were multiple raises. Like when Begs opens for 1.5 and Moon shoves 22 Mill in the middle like wtf? Does he ever have AA or KK here? I think not. In the Buchman hand he was bluffing by representing a bigger hand hoping to get JJ to fold or something and since it was multiple raises it actually could make sense.

Overall though I have played with Buchman a few times in AC and also watched him play pretty closely in the last 2-3 tables of the 2007 Harrah's WSOP Circuit Event that he finished 2nd in (the same once that Adrian final tabled hence why I was watching so close). His play never really impressed me too much and he seemed to overvalue hands in some spots and bet strange amounts in others. He has a good tournament resume so I can't knock the guy, but thats just my opinions on what I saw from him.

[JDMcNugent7]

I think both Cada and Moon were both horrible people to win as far as attracting a new influx of players are concerned, and I think Cada was even worse. With Moon, people prob get turned off from poker b/c they're like wow this guys terrible and just won, but at same time that might attract players, and older players. Cada winning, ofc it's some online kid that plays constantly so all the older newer players feel like they have no chance, and he just seemed annoying to me, saying he would be "crushed" if he didn't win the ME when going into the FT of the biggest tourny of the year, and first year you're ever playing it and have Ivey sitting there, just annoyed me. Really really wish the french dude would have won, and he seemed to play the best and just got unlucky.

[Robbie Robb]

I think we can all agree had the French dude made it to the final table he would have just surrendered.

[Windbreaker]

Here is Buchman's AQ hand - I believe Sauot has about 44 mill to begin the hand with blinds 500k/1M and 150k ante.

Hand #264 - The Largest Pot of the Tournament
Eric Buchman has the button, and Darvin Moon is sitting out this hand. Buchman makes it 2.5 million to stay in, and Antoine Saout announces a re-raise from the big blind. He puts out a three-bet totaling 9 million, and Buchman wastes no time moving all in over the top of that.

The shove sends Saout spiraling into the think tank, and he spends a long, quality session in there. Several minutes of gear-turning pondering follow, and Saout looks a bit unsure of his decision. Finally, and quietly, he says, "I call." Buchman has the covering stack, and so it's Saout now all in and at risk. The news is good though.

Showdown
Buchman:
Saout:

The flop comes out , drawing a big reaction from the crowd for the first time in what seems like hours. The turn pairs the board with the , changing nothing, and the awakened crowd again grows loud. The fills out the board, and that too is a blank for Buchman.

In the biggest pot of the 2009 Main Event, Antoine Saout has picked up the monstrous double. He's skyrocketed all the way up to 89,200,000, while Buchman is left with just 9,800,000 chips to work with.

[Zybomb]

See this I don't believe is close to the same category as the Moon hand.

For starters I think we were 4 handed at this time, increasing the value of AQ tremendously and increasing the likelihood that his button raise (particularly with a player sitting out) would be played back at lightly. Also the final 4 bet is a total of 43-44 BBs but the pot is 14-15 BBs already and everyones M is lower than in the Moon case bc its short handed

In the Moon hand I believe the blinds were 500k, and he shoved in 22Mill plus which is the same 44ish BBs but this time the pot is only 5 BBs, 1/3 the size and everyones M is higher. In addition this was 6 handed i believe and Moon was facing a UTG raise into 5 others.