WPT Borgata Poker Open – Day 2 Carries Bad Beat Alert
Tuesday, 16 September 2008
The first day of the WPT Borgata Poker Open had a distinctly leisurely feel about it. Whether that was due to the increased starting stack – a monster 40,000 chips – or the fact it was a Sunday is unclear, but the 310 players who came back to resume play soon found out why Bob Geldoff once claimed not to like Mondays, with over 230 players hitting the rail by the end of Day 2.
The day was certainly one which David Pham would rather forget. ‘The Dragon’ is one of the most successful tournament players in the world, constantly cashing tournaments as if it were simply a matter of how wondering how much he would earn by doing so. Pham was gearing himself up to another good run at the Borgata before a bad beat sent him spiralling out of the tournament. Getting all of his 135,000 chips on a flop of Kh-Qc-6s with pocket Aces against the Kd-Js of Bobby Shasta, he was disgusted when the Jd appeared on the turn, ending his tournament when the river offered no reprise.
If David Pham had to drown his sorrows at the bar, we do hope Dan Shak went to console him after he suffered an even tougher bad beat against Brandon Cantu. Check this out for painful:
Dan Shak – 3c-3s, Brandon Cantu – Ah-6h.
Flop: Jh-6d-3h. All of the money goes in, with Cantu’s pair and a flush draw up against the bottom set of Shak.
Now, in the style of the British television institution that is ‘A Question of Sport’, guess what happens next. Those of a squeamish nature should look away now. [Pause to think about the possible carnage…]
Turn: the Shak-friendly Js, meaning Cantu’s flush outs were no longer alive against Shak’s threes-full. Shak thinks he’s won the pot, Cantu almost mucks…
River: Jd. Shak’s boat gets counterfeited as Cantu is left to pick up the 150,000 chip pot with his JJJ66 full house against the JJJ33 of Dan Shak. That has got to hurt.
Another player who wound up with 837,700 got most of those via a clerical error. After a player came in for an opening bet of 20,000, Ryan Young reraised to 65,000. The other player moved in, leaving Young with a critical decision. As he thought, he remarked. "I knew I should have just called you," chastising himself for not calling the initial 20,000 bet. However, it was all going to get a bit surreal from here, after both the dealer and the opponent both heard Young say “call”, and the cards ended up on their backs. When seeing his opponent had tabled Ace-King off, Young didn’t argue too strongly against the ruling as his pocket nines were in a race. He won, and ended up taking in a 687,000 pot.
The remaining players return to Day 3, with 54 of them making the money. The fourteen who don’t make it will at least have a couple of stories about bad beats and clerical errors to talk about, I guess…
Chip leaders from Day 2 at the WPT Borgata Poker Open:
1. Thayer Rasmussen - 904,500
2. Ryan Young - 837,700
3. Andrew Knee - 697,900
4. Adam Gerber - 610,000
5. Sang Kim - 570,800
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