WSOP Update #7

To be honest, there wasn't a whole lot of interesting news yesterday from the World Series of Poker. Easily the most notable happenings came from the finale of the $3000 No-Limit Hold'em tournament, where John Phan defeated Johnny Neckar to claim his first WSOP bracelet and $434,789 in winnings. Other than David Singer, who finished 5th, Phan was the only big name at this final table, but his experience paid off, much to the delight of all those in attendance, well, except for Neckar, of course.

They battled heads-up for well in excess of 6 hours (no, that's not a typo), and as the players grew tired, the game got a lot more interesting for the spectators.

First, with Phan continually fighting from the short stack, he decided to buy a round of beers (apparently he's a Corona fan) for his cheering section. Then, Phan grabbed one for himself, looked over at Neckar and said "Gonna have to beat you drunk. Not working good sober". Shortly after this, Phan would double up to take over the chip lead.

A while later, and presumably after the beers set in, Phan and Neckar agree to try something new, and play 2 hands in a row completely blind. Not only that, but thy were all-in blind. Sounds more like something that would happen at my home game, but I guess this is what happens when you play the same person heads-up for so long, you just look for an excuse to finish it. After the river, each player would reveal their hands, one card at a time to build suspense. Phan would win the first hand with a 7-high, and then Neckar won the 2nd round, this time with a monstrous pair of 4s on the river, where he would have otherwise lost the tournament to Phan's King-high.

Very reminiscent of a game of poker I saw from the 2004 WSOP, where a group of well-known players players competed in a hilarious game of Blind Man's Bluff. I don't believe they gave out a bracelet for the event, but I know there was a lot of money involved. Here's a clip from it on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0pvcWx7DRw, you have to fast forward to the 40 second mark.