Trip Report: Wpt Lapc W/ivey

[pocket_change 0]

Yesterday I was lucky enough to attend the final table of the World Poker Tour L.A. Poker Classic as a guest of Phil Ivey. One of my boys is good friends with Phil and so we went to support him in his quest to winning his first WPT title after making seven previous final tables.We showed up to Commerce and waited around a bit while the players did interviews and everything, then we headed into the filming room where they have the final table. The first two rows of seats behind the players were reserved for Phil Helmuth and Phil Ivey, so we had the choice of sitting in the first row or the second row and we went with the second because it's hard to see the table from the first row. So we were sitted next to Helmuth's crew, which seemed to consist of a bunch of Ultimate Bet reps and a couple friends (which included Layne Flack). Nam Le and Quinn Do seemed to share the same huge fan section of a mostly Asian contingent that included Tuan Le, Tim Pham and Liz Lieu, amongst others.The other two players had friends in another section, with general admission spectators mixed into the crowd of roughly 200 people.As soon as play got started Phil (Ivey) raised from the small blind. The big blind, an older guy named "Woody," moved all-in for $1.5 mil. Phil had raised to I believe $100k and had about $4 mil. He took a LONG time contemplating the call. I put him on a low-mid pocket pair or A-Q/A-J but we were all stunned when he made the call and showed A-9 off-suit, which was dominated by Woody's AK. The interesting thing about this hand is that it was pretty obvious that Phil was having a tough time deciding whether to fold or call. A lot of times when he is taking his time, you just see the glazed stare on his face and it's more of a "how am I going to get all of this guy's money?" look then a "Wtf is going on?" look. It just seemed like he really didn't want to lay the hand down to Woody's all-in. This time Woody won the hand and doubled up and it wasn't looking too good for the home team. To be honest we were baffled by the call and I'm sure it will look crazy on TV, but Phil said that the guy had made moves on him all day yesterday and raised him about ten times. This would later prove true as Woody's relentless raising would be his ultimate demise at the final table.By the way, the seating was as follows: Seat 1: Quinn Do, 2: Nam Le, 3:Helmuth, 4: Ivey, 5: Woody, 6: Scott Montgomery.On the second relevant hand of the night, Montgomery raised and Ivey called. Ivey checked the flop, Montgomery bet big and Ivey folded. At this point it really felt like Phil had lost some steam after the two big hands. Even though he was still like 3rd in chips, he had lost the dominant lead that he had just 20 minutes ago when the night started. At this point he sort of went into "neutral" and everyone else played a lot of pots, with Phil taking the blinds here and there.As guests of Phil, the staff at the WPT treated us pretty well. They consistently tried to get b-roll footage of his friends, although I don't think we were in much of it because we were in the second row and they did a lot of focusing on Paul Darden and Teddy "The Iceman," who are both long-time friends of Phil's. Layne Flack also seemed to be campaigning for TV time as he cheered loudly for Helmuth and made jokes back and forth to him for everyone to hear (like when Helmuth folded jacks and told Flack, Flack would yell back "I knew that's what you had! Great play, couldn't have played it better! Perfect play with the jacks!"). At a certain point, Helmuth would make such pointless rants to the cameras that specators would yell back stuff like "bullshit!" or "That was last week Phil!"As play resumed it kind of seemed like the "no-names" were controlling the table. Phil quieted down, Helmuth was stagnant, as was Nam. Then Nam and Helmuth got in a big hand. Nam called from the small blind. The flop came J-6-3 and Nam fired at the pot with Phil smooth calling. The turn was a king and Nam fired again and Phil went all-in. Nam insta-called with K-3 and doubled up against Helmuth's J-8. To me, this play was terrible. Phil told his friends that Nam had limped from his small blind every single time for the past two days and always fired at the pot. He said that he finally picked up a hand to trap him with (but obviously failed). He also gave the classic "I knew I had him on the flop" line. Too bad the money went in on the turn. Nam doubled up and Helmuth was now crippled. He ended up busting out first when his A-9 failed to improve against Woody's A-Q. Obviously, Helmuth didn't have much to complain about on that hand as he was dominated. He left in peace.At this point in the tournament Woody was pretty much dominating the table. He was constantly raising and taking down the blinds and won a couple small pots. He never showed a hand though. Montgomery's stack was going down steadily. He lost a couple showdowns and then a huge hand to Quinn Do. I'm pretty sure Montgomery was bluffing the whole way. Quinn turned a flush and then an jack hit the river. Montgomery went all-in on the river and Quinn insta-called and Montgomery was now crippled and looking like a broken man. I'm pretty sure that he was the target of everyone at the table. He lost all-in with like J-8 against K-J, again against Quinn. Now we're at four people.One interesting thing is that I never noticed Quinn and Nam play a raised pot together. I don't know if this was intentional but they were the only two players who did not play a pot together (maybe with the exception of Helmuth who was out early).Once Woody got a decent chip lead, it didn't take him long to follow in Montgomery's foot steps. He raised, Quinn called and the flop came 9-5-2 rainbow. I believe Quinn threw a value bet out there and Woody moved all-in. Quinn called with Kd9d, Woody showed Ad5d and lost. He wasn't quite crippled but he was back-pedaling.Basically Woody got toasted, Nam got toasted with his aces against Phil's pocket three's. Let me analyze this one for you because it's gonna look like a super suck-out on TV.Nam was severely short stacked with like 700 or 800k and I think the blinds were 80/160k. He had moved all-in on two of the previous three hands. Then he moves all-in on the button and Phil calls him with pocket three's and a $6 million stack. They turn up their hands and Nam's section goes crazy, obviously. This is a great spot to pick up aces.But if you play poker, you know how it is. It's too good to be true. It's like flopping the nut straight against a set and a flush draw. It looks good but your death is inevitable. Sure enough, the three hit the turn and we went crazy. It was unfortunate for Nam, who's a great player and nice guy, but with Phil at his eighth WPT final table and playing great poker, he had some luck coming to him.Now it's head's up and Phil has like $7 or 8 million and Quinn has like $2mil. Quinn was incredibly excited when Nam busted out, mostly because his paycheck just moved up a level to either $900k or 1.6 million. It looked like his main supporter was Liz Lieu. It took the TV crew a long time to set up the cash and trophy, etc. so we headed downstairs to get a burrito.We get back up and they're starting. The girls are bringing the cash out and everyone can smell Phil's first WPT title in the air. He raises the first two hands and Quinn folds. He raises the third and Quinn calls from the button. The flop comes out A-6-8 and the crowd is like "ooooooooooh." Phil bets out, Quinn takes his time and calls. The turn is the ace of clubs and the crowd is like "oooooooh" lol. Phil looks at the ace and says "I'm all-in." Quinn now tanks for a LONG time. He only has about $900k left at this point. We are discussing the hands and my boy is like "I don't think Phil has anything but Quinn can't call." I told him "I think he has a boat," and he's like "Nah! A boat?!" so I say "Ace, minimum." Quinn finally calls and Phil turns over A-8. Quinn is drawing dead. What a way to win it.Suprisingly, Phil was pretty excited to win (I only say this because have you ever really seen him excited?). Everyone in the crowd wanted to take a picture of him and Sexton interviewed him about the victory. We waited around while he took pictures and then it was time for him to get his money. You would think they would cut him a check. Nope. $1.6 million in Commerce Casino chips.We headed downstairs so that he could exchange the chips and it's funny because the whole casino was in awe as he walked by. No one really said a word but you heard the occassional "It's Ivey!" or "Phil Ivey!" Then, as soon as he disappeared into a V.I.P. room to cash his chips, everyone comes up and what do they say?"I heard Ivey sucked out with 33 against aces!" Yeah, he sucked out. For like 1/12 of his stack.I'm sure I forgot a TON of details, which I might think of later, but I have to say that Phil is a completely classy guy. He has a small circle of friends that he takes care of and they in turn are great friends to him. I have no idea at all how this final table will look on TV, but after Phil lost the first two big hands, he completely dominated the table. There were obviously big pots that he wasn't involved in, but he was force.Several pictures on my blog.

[CrookedLink 0]

Solid read Kev.

[NoSup4U 0]

brag post! And a good one. Nice read OP.Mark

[pocket_change 0]

brag post! And a good one. Nice read OP.Mark

Haha true. Since I'm a low-stakes grinder there's not much else to brag about!!

[AAsnake88 0]

Good write up, and nice pics on the blog too!

[quadaces 0]

"I heard Ivey sucked out with 33 against aces!" Yeah, he sucked out. For like 1/12 his stack.~ Best part

[Big Jono 0]

Good read!

[Tehtoe 3]

Good read. Sounds like fun.

[bigcoled 1]

very nice, I enjoyed reading your story, thanks for sharing...

[pokerprolific 0]

really good read, thanks, ill check your blog out too .

[gatortom64 1]

Fun times, eh? Good read. Thanks.

[MrJohn 0]

Haha true. Since I'm a low-stakes grinder there's not much else to brag about!!

Man what an experience that must've been for you. I'm sure you must've went home/casino and played a small session at least right? Seeing all that had to motivate you a little bit.

[Sheiky 0]

Dude you should get a job at Cardplayer, you report a lot better than most of their reporters, awesome read.I thought Phil's suckout was bigger than this, they mentioned it on pokerroad and made it sound like he was all in himself for the title.

[dt1313 0]

Awesome read, thanks for sharing. It must have been an incredible experience....What does 1.6 Million in Casino chips look like? (besides AMAZING) What denominations are used ? 50k Chip(s) ? (I don't know what the largest denom. is)-Dan

[pocket_change 0]

Thanks for the compliments.Dan - about four racks, not sure what the denominations were.. I'm sure we could figure it out with some math. Sheiky - it was a suckout for sure but it was an insta-call for him with 33 seeing that he was the huge stack and Nam was the short stack and that was the third hand out of four that Nam had pushed.MrJohn - I definitely was motivated and played this weekend.

[Light 0]

Great Read~

[silkyjonson 1]

Please expand on the burrito.