Day 2 of the main event, Jonathan Duhamel was in seat 9, I was in seat 2… Since I had position on him all day, I put a lot of pressure on him all day long…
Late in the day 2, I had more chips than him, I was on the button, everyone folded to Jonathan in the high jack position and he opened with a raise… I reraised on the button with J9 off, blinds folded, Jonathan called with TT spade/club.
flop came J92, two diamonds… giving me top 2.
He bet, I raised, he called.
turn came 4 of diamond, I have 9 of diamond in my hand for top 2 plus flush draw… He checked, I over bet the pot by going all-in.
He went in the tank for nearly 5 minutes. He then elected to call with pocket 10’s, both black… I turned my cards over, and he almost mucked since he saw he was drawing dead to 10 of heart, cause 10 of diamond would give me the flush… As dealer announced all-in and a call, Jonathan gathered his stuff and started walking out of the amazon… He was several table away, walking walking walking…
Well…. can you guess what the river was… lol
Poker's 2010 world champ, Jonathan Duhamel. (Photo: Rob Gracie / GreasieWheels)
Last year I had the pleasure of talking with two-time WPT and three-time WSOP final tablist Soheil Shamseddin for a feature I wrote about him in Bluff Magazine. (You can check out that article here.) Since that time I’ve occasionally received emails from Soheil imparting some piece of interesting information or another. On Monday evening, just hours before Jonathan Duhamel sat down across from John Racener to play out the final phase of his world championship run, I got this email from Soheil with the subject line “Is it destiny? :-)”:
Day 2 of the main event, Jonathan Duhamel was in seat 9, I was in seat 2… Since I had position on him all day, I put a lot of pressure on him all day long…
Late in the day 2, I had more chips than him, I was on the button, everyone folded to Jonathan in the high jack position and he opened with a raise… I reraised on the button with J9 off, blinds folded, Jonathan called with TT spade/club.
flop came J92, two diamonds… giving me top 2.
He bet, I raised, he called.
turn came 4 of diamond, I have 9 of diamond in my hand for top 2 plus flush draw… He checked, I over bet the pot by going all-in.
He went in the tank for nearly 5 minutes. He then elected to call with pocket 10’s, both black… I turned my cards over, and he almost mucked since he saw he was drawing dead to 10 of heart, cause 10 of diamond would give me the flush… As dealer announced all-in and a call, Jonathan gathered his stuff and started walking out of the amazon… He was several table away, walking walking walking…
Well…. can you guess what the river was… lol
I’ve never considered myself the sort of person who believes in the concept of destiny. There have been times in poker tournaments, though – Jamie Gold’s 2006 WSOP Main Event run in particular comes to mind – when I’ve watched somebody run over the field with abandon and paused for at least a moment to wonder how they’re able to do it. Anyone who watched Duhamel’s WSOP run this year on ESPN had to wonder the same thing as he spiked one-, two- and three-outers galore to keep his hopes of a world championship alive. And as Soheil’s story shows, Duhamel enjoyed incredible good fortune even when the cameras weren’t watching. It’s not enough to make me believe in destiny, but it’s definitely interesting to think about on a lazy Friday.
When I transfered to Austin Peay State University in 1998 one of my first orders of business was to select a major, since my former pursuit of a radio-TV-film degree wasn’t an option there. With the exception of history, nothing sounded interesting – so history it was. My current work in poker touches on that background a bit, at least in terms of knowing who’s won what tournament, but for the most part I don’t get too much opportunity to talk history these days. It was a pleasant task, then, to interview Nashville journalist E. Thomas Wood about his new site, Old News, which takes a look back at Nashville news from days gone by through the lens of long-gone journalistic sources. You can check out my interview with Wood here.
It seems like there’s been an uproar over who wins the WSOP Player of the Year award every year since Harrah’s first introduced it in 2004. This year was no different, with Michael Mizrachi’s big performances convincing a lot of people that he should have won the award outright instead of merely having a chance, if he can win the Main Event this weekend, to tie Frank Kassela.
AlCantHang invited me to do a little point-counterpoint exercise on this debate with my old friend and fellow southerner, Tuscaloosa Johnny Kampis. Johnny took the “make it a media ballot” point, while I took the “keep the system and maybe tweak it” counterpoint. You can check out the full piece over at the Full Tilt Poker From The Rail blog.
“Ladies and gentlemen, I’m sorry to inform you, but Grace Potter and The Nocturnals will not be performing tonight.”
That was the news the crowd got at Exit/In on Halloween night as the band was supposed to be coming out to play. The air in the room sank and a few people actually began to gather their things and head for the exits as the man on stage continued his speech. “We’ll be giving out refunds here tonight, or you can get them at your local TicketBastard outlet,” he said, “but we did find a suitable replacement act to play for you tonight. So please join me in welcoming the Nashville Country All-Stars!”
Anyone who was on the way out the door and didn’t bother to turn around missed out on the gag: Grace Potter and The Nocturnals in full Halloween costume as some of the most recognizable musicians in Nashville’s storied musical history. I hadn’t counted on seeing Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Patsy Cline and Billy Ray Cyrus on stage that night, much less to see the players keep character as solidly as The Nocturnals did. Potter maintained her Parton accent all night long and charmed the crowd with witty banter when she wasn’t belting out GPN tunes in her own unmistakable, soulful voice.
One of the best aspects of the show was the band’s departure from its own repertoire to honor the characters they played. “It’s time to play one of my old songs,” Grace remarked in her Dolly voice before launching into Parton’s classic “Jolene,” all her on the acoustic guitar for two minutes before the band joined her for a raucous finish. The band also played Cline’s classic “I’ve Loved and Lost Again,” and Cyrus’ “Achy Breaky Heart,” though thankfully they saved the latter for the encore.
The band plays Dolly Parton’s “Jolene” (video by YouTube user ssram331)
After a near-perfect rendition of Jennings’ outlaw country classic “Luckenbach, Texas,” though, came one of the night’s truly unforgettable moments. The band’s tour manager came out dressed as a security guard, looking for people who “hadn’t even bothered trying” to dress up for Halloween. He brought a couple up to the stage and asked them what they had to say for themselves; the man grabbed the mic and said, “Well, all I can say is that Jennifer, I love you -” and the rest of his speech was drowned out by the crowd’s approval as he went down on one knee, ring in hand, and asked for her hand in marriage. “She said yes!” he told us before heading backstage to watch as the band played Berlin’s “Take My Breath Away” – the only non-Nashville cover of the night – in their honor.
Of course, the night wasn’t all covers. Long-time fans had plenty to please them, from “Joey” and “Apologies” early in the set to “Ah Mary,” “Ragged Company” and “Big White Gate” in the middle, all the way through to the full band on drums at the end of “Nothin’ But The Water.” As the show drew to a close, the new fans got their taste of “Medicine” and “Paris (Ooh La La),” the latter of which will be getting a ton of airplay on VH1 throughout the month of November. All through the set I was impressed by how tight the band was – not everyone has it in them to play so well on the last night of a tour, but Grace & Co. didn’t miss a note all night.
For someone less than familiar with the band’s three studio discs, this was a great introduction. The choice of covers ingratiated the band with its Music City audience, and it was clear from watching them that they have an absolute blast doing what they do for a living. It’s doubtful they’ll play Halloween in Nashville again, but whenever they roll through town I’ll be looking forward to catching them again.
It’s said that all good things must come to an end. So it goes with my WSOP November Nine handicapping assignment for this year, now that we’ve reached the third installment over Full Tilt’s Poker From The Rail blog. I think AlCantHang would be happy to let me keep throwing darts at the board, but we’ve run out of players to profile now that we’ve looked at Michael Mizrachi, Soi Nguyen and Jason Senti. These guys will be getting down to business in just a few days, so go check out November Nine Handicapping Part 3 for a little knowledge courtesy of Kevmath and myself before you place any bets.
The second installment of this year’s November Nine handicapping is officially up at Full Tilt’s Poker From The Rail blog. My good friend AlCantHang asked me to join the inimitable Kevmath in guessing what’s going to happen at this year’s WSOP Main Event final table, and I couldn’t pass up the opportunity.
Our newest installment takes a look at the chances of John Racener, Matthew Jarvis and Filippo Candio. While it’s certainly true that anybody can win this thing, there’s at least one member this group whom I think doesn’t stand a chance of walking away as this year’s world champion. You can find out who that guy is, as well as what Kevmath and I think of the other two players’ chances, right here.
One of my favorite little writing projects I got to do last year was a bit of November Nine handicapping for Full Tilt’s Poker From The Rail blog. My good friend AlCantHang asked me to reprise my performance this year, and I agreed.
I’m joined in breaking down the WSOP Main Event final table this year by the unstoppable poker knowledge machine known to the world as Kevmath. Our look at this year’s World Series of Poker final nine is broken up into three parts, the first of which is up now. It looks at chip leader Jonathan Duhamel and online pros John Dolan and Joseph Cheong, and you can read it here.
November 12, 2010 
Posted in 2010 WSOP, Poker 
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