James Van Alstyne

[Talking Poker]

I don't know if anyone saw this week's WPT - the WPT Championship - but James Van Alstyne had one of the worst final tables I have ever seen. He said himself that it was the "worst ever," and I don't think he was exaggerating. His timing was terrible, his luck was terrible, and everything that could go wrong did.

I played with James for many hours in Aruba, and take my word for it when I tell you he's good. Here's what I said about him in .

BTW - James finished on the TV bubble in Aruba after Josh sucked out on him big time, knocking him out 7th.

So... back to the WPT Championship. How about this hand, early on (the 4th hand of the day)... James is chip leader (> 8 million chips to start the day). Joe Bartholdi is second in chips:

James raised preflop with KT and Joe called from one of the blinds with 88. Joe bet $600,000 on the 4 4 3 flop and was raised to $1.6 million by James. The turn comes the A - Joe checks and James bets $1.4 million (semibluff - flush draw plus 2 overs). Joe CALLS! The river is a black 6 and Joe checks instantly. James thinks about bluffing and then finally gives up and checks, and Joe takes down a 7 million chip pot! WOW.

After being card dead and getting all his moves picked off (everything that could go wrong did), Van Alstyne got short stacked and moved in UTG with Ks6s. Who calls him? The guy holding KK! Ugh. Adding insult to injury, he flopped a gutshot and of course missed and was left with exactly ONE CHIP (one half of an ANTE) at the end of the hand. So naturally, he is dealt AK on the next hand...... and loses to JT instead of quintupling up.

Ugh.

His exit interview had to be the single most painful I have ever seen on the WPT.