Another day, another million dollar tournament. Regular readers may recall that yesterday’s post referred to the poker room at The Bellagio as ‘The Office’ and, like any workplace, it has plenty of tales of misery.
Picture the scenario: you’ve had a long day, it’s ten minutes until clocking off time and you’re thinking about home. In any other office, there are not too many things that could wrong. However, if you are playing in the WPT, those ten minutes could change your life, in a way only matched by your boss asking you ‘to step inside and close the door’.
Yesterday, Gus Hansen was minutes away from the exit after a hard day’s work. His chip stack was average and he spent the day going through the motions, the poker equivalent of checking his email. Suddenly, he was invited for a one-to-one.
His hole cards are AK. Tim Phan, under the gun, makes it 32,000 and is rewarded with a caller. It arrives on Hansen. He-raises. He has to. Phan calls; the other worker leaves the office, filing away the rest of his chips.
The cards are on the table: A-4-3.
Phan checks, Hansen bets half the pot. Phan pushes, in a way that suggests he has been on a positive thinking course. Hansen, presented with the kind of career defining moment that are so frequent during a high-stakes, multi-day poker tournament, takes a while to think about his goals.
‘I don’t think I can lay this down.’
He calls.
Phan shows AQ: Hansen reaps the benefits of his opponent’s inability to foresee negative outcomes.
His day at the office left him best placed to land the top $3,389,140 bonus payment. He has 2,246,000. Tim Phan is second last with 69,000.
Maybe he’ll call in sick.
Picture the scenario: you’ve had a long day, it’s ten minutes until clocking off time and you’re thinking about home. In any other office, there are not too many things that could wrong. However, if you are playing in the WPT, those ten minutes could change your life, in a way only matched by your boss asking you ‘to step inside and close the door’.
Yesterday, Gus Hansen was minutes away from the exit after a hard day’s work. His chip stack was average and he spent the day going through the motions, the poker equivalent of checking his email. Suddenly, he was invited for a one-to-one.
His hole cards are AK. Tim Phan, under the gun, makes it 32,000 and is rewarded with a caller. It arrives on Hansen. He-raises. He has to. Phan calls; the other worker leaves the office, filing away the rest of his chips.
The cards are on the table: A-4-3.
Phan checks, Hansen bets half the pot. Phan pushes, in a way that suggests he has been on a positive thinking course. Hansen, presented with the kind of career defining moment that are so frequent during a high-stakes, multi-day poker tournament, takes a while to think about his goals.
‘I don’t think I can lay this down.’
He calls.
Phan shows AQ: Hansen reaps the benefits of his opponent’s inability to foresee negative outcomes.
His day at the office left him best placed to land the top $3,389,140 bonus payment. He has 2,246,000. Tim Phan is second last with 69,000.
Maybe he’ll call in sick.
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