| NO HUCKLEBERRY
Long before there were terrifying players on the scene like Gus Hansen and Phil Ivey, the scariest was Huck Seed. For years Huck was the favorite to win the WSOP each year. Then Seed started to get passed by all the new young lions. Maybe this win signals a comeback to 'scary' status for the former World Champion.
FINAL TABLE
Seat/Player/Hometown/Chip Count
Seat 1 Mark Dickstein New York NY 25,500
Seat 2 Phillip Luong Los Angeles CA 93,000
Seat 3 Michael Bernat Chicago IL 33,500
Seat 4 Billy Baxter Las Vegas NV 103,500
Seat 5 Huck Seed Las Vegas NV 148,500
Seat 6 Brian Nadell Las Vegas NV 31,500
Seat 7 Allen Cunningham Marina del Rey CA 27,000
Seat 8 Jennifer Harman Las Vegas NV 71,000
Seat 9 Shahram Sheikham Las Vegas NV 84,500
Ante 500 Blinds 1,500/3,000 46 minutes left in this level.
After two sprints in a row, this Final Table felt like a marathon. Hours of tedium interspersed with minutes of sheer terror, to paraphrase one of Tom McEvoy's poker sayings about No Limit Hold’em. Over four hours and 150 hands after starting, former World Champion Huck Seed took the title, trophy and the $25,000 entry into the WPT Championship event next April. On the surface, it looks like Huck went wire-to-wire as the starting chip leader. But looks are deceiving. This was a struggle throughout for Seed as we'll see.
First let's shuck the hulls to get to the Seed.
It looked like we were going to have another speedball table as two of our number were dearly departed in the first ten hands. It was the 'Vagans' versus the 'Others' as five of the nine live is Sin City. Las Vegas is home for four of the five starting chip leaders.
What happens here stays here, meaning the money stays here.
Unlike the first two days there are no classic short stacks today. The shortest has nearly 20 times the big blind.
Omaha and Lowball specialist Brian Nadell is one of the five Vagans and he doesn't stay after hand eight. As we'll see repeatedly today, this wasn't the table for high unpaired hands. Brian comes over the top of Huck Seed's 9k raise with a reraise all-in of his last 14k. The ever-intense Nadell didn't win a hand in the 15 minutes he played today after having won lots of hands in the 13 hours he played yesterday. Brian has A Q offsuit. Huck calls the tiny reraise with pocket 10’s. Pairs trump overcards all day, all night MaryAnn. Brian is 9th.
Two hands later, New Yorker Mark Dickstein makes the mistake of taking the best hand up against the worst. Remember that pairs are usually trumps today. W,ell Mark’s pair is the exception that proves the rule. Allen Cunningham raises all-in from early position for every chip he has, 31,500. Mark has the dreaded Ace magnets, pocket Kings. He also has 22,500 he’s willing to call Allen all-in with. Most times the Ace magnets work on the flop, so the pain is immediate. To maximize the punishment, however, the Ace didn’t come to the river. Bye, Mark in 8th. We hardly knew ya.
This was such an unusually tight table, called hands preflop are often checked down to the river. And frequently the big blind get a walk on his or her bet. Both of these occurrences would have been unheard of the first two days. The table is so dull for long stretches of time that even the normally patient gallery can’t stay awake. Toby Maguire at the next table couldn’t even keep their interest.
On hand 24 there is some action. Michael Bernat goes all-in from the big blind for his case 16k and the A K of Spades. Phillip Luong is nice enough to double Michael up with A 8 offsuit in the small blind.
I mentioned this wasn’t a cakewalk for Huck Seed. On hand 30 Huck takes at least five minutes to call a 48,500 all-in bet from Jennifer Harman after the flop of 6 5 3. Huck had raised first to 9k and should have smelled a rat when Jen reraised to 29k preflop. Huck Seed is an action player. And at a table this tight, he wants to try to bet rocks off hands. For her fans, Harman looks healthy again after her recent surgery. She’s back to being ‘The Jen,’ tough as they come. Anyway, as Huck had feared, Harman has pocket Queens to Seed’s seedy pocket 7’s. Huck’s big starting chip lead has evaporated. Worse he doubles up one of the best players at the table who’s right behind him.
The ante is now 1,000 and the blinds are 2,000/4,000.
Michael Bernat is from Chicago and he plays better than the Cubs. Bernat picks the right time to go all-in again. This time he gets lucky with K J in the small blind against pocket Q’s in the big for Billy Baxter. Michael only has 25k so only Billy’s feelings are hurt when a King flops.
In the nine seat, Shahram Sheikhan is playing a strange game. He keeps betting out and folding to any action behind him. This is killing his once decent sized stack. Down to 16k, Shahram finds a hand he can defend, pocket Queens. Huck Seed is donating to everyone at this point and Seed calls Sheikhan with A 9 off. Thank you very much. The
Sheik can ride a little longer.
Poker players show bluffs for any number of reasons. But if Phillip Luong wanted to put veteran Billy Baxter on tilt by showing him the 6 4 of Clubs after forcing Billy to fold with a 70k reraise, the gambit didn’t work. The last time the multi-bracelet winning Baxter went on tilt may have been before Luong was born. Hours later Billy would get even.
One hand 51, Michael Bernat picks up a duke again. This time it’s pocket Queens. The princess at the table, Jennifer Harman is in the small blind and calls Michael’s 23k all-in with A K off. No good.
Huck Seed is running so bad now that he’s calling the cards that will beat him. Huck calls Shahram Sheikhan’s A 9 all-in 21k bet with only an 8 5 off. Huck flops a 5 and is leading to the river. Seed points to where the river card will be placed and says “Ace.” Ace it is. The Sheik lives.
Everyone gets to take a nap until hand 73. Meanwhile here is an approximate chip count.
Luong 200k, Bernat 50k, Baxter 60k, Seed 80k, Cunningham 60k, Harman 75k and Sheikhan 50k.
It took almost two hours to eliminate a player. As it often happens three exit in only six hands. Birds of a feather flock together to the rail.
Slowplaying Kings can get them murdered. Shahram Sheikhan only checked in the big blind when Huck Seed limped in. The flop comes J 10 8. Now Sheikhan goes all-in over Seed’s 12k bet out for another 40k. Too late, Huck has J 10 and calls. Sad as Valentino’s funeral, the Sheik rides into the sunset in 7th.
On the very next hand after hours of tedium we have another hand of sheer terror. Jennifer Harman is feeling great, thank God. She told me she’ll win three bracelets in next year’s WSOP. But today she’ll win 6th place money. Jen makes a move on the blinds in late position with the Q 9 of Clubs. Phillip Luong has pocket 7’s in the small blind that walk Harman to the door when her four flush on the turn and two overcards can’t hit on the river. This table just got extremely less good looking.
Count ‘em, four hands later the last of the three amigos is history. Michael Bernat played really well in 5th. He tried to beat himself up afterward about his all-in move, but he shouldn’t feel badly. Lots of players with his stack would have been gone long ago. Like the Cubs, it’s ‘maybe next year’ for Bernat when his 40k A Q of Diamonds draws an all-in cover from Billy Baxter’s A K offsuit.
With the devoted Melissa Hayden sitting with me next to the table, her paramour Allen Cunningham is bleeding chips slowly. Finally, the inevitable. Allen is all-in for 16k with the Q 6 of Clubs. There’s a raise and reraise as first Phillip Luong then Billy Baxter try to isolate the mini-stack. Phillip folds and shows his pocket 8’s in a nice laydown. Baxter has A J and an Ace flops. Cunningham is a rather marvelous 4th lasting 84 hands with no chips all day.
Three handed it’s anyone’s title to take. All three players, Luong, Baxter and Seed, have around 200k.
For the next 20 hands it looks for all the world that the former World Champ and former scary player would finish third. Nothing was coming and chips were going. But on hand 109, Seed’s luck started to sprout. He picks up pocket 8’s and goes all-in for his meager 53k. Phillip Luong has A K and that’s a loser.
A few minutes later a runner runner gutshot straight wiped out hours of excellent work for Phillip Luong. Billy Baxter is all-in for 118k with the A 10 of Hearts. Phillip has pocket 7’s. No Ace 10 or hearts come, but here’s the board. Q 7 8 6 9. Four of the cards are meaningless diamonds. Luong is never to recover from this cold decking.
For the first time in the tournament we get to the 2k ante, 5k/10k blinds. Baxter has about half the chips on the table and he is driving the bus.
It takes a miscalculation by Phillip Luong, however, to get him off the bus. This was a tenacious threesome.
It isn’t until hand 141 that Phillip tries to run over the blinds all-in for 110k with Dolly Parton, 9 5 offsuit. It’s payback time, finally, for Billy Baxter. Remember the 6 4 of Clubs on a bluff Phillip showed Billy hours before? Well, Baxter shows Phillip Q Q in the small blind to shove him off the bluff into 3rd.
Heads up Baxter has about a 2-1 chip lead and he and Seed take a walk. A few minutes after they return an unhappy Huck Seed wins three big pots to claim the title. The first two hands Billy Baxter can’t call large reraises by Seed.
And on the marathon ending hand 156, four hours after we began, Baxter is all-in for 140k with the A 8 of Diamonds. It’s the return of the formerly scary Huck Seed. The champ has pocket Kings.
No Huckleberry this Seed.
Mike Paulle
MikePaulle@PokerPages.com | 
