Atom-RSSBad Beats in Poker: We all get them handed to us, and not only do we lose the money, but everyone goes on tilt for at least a hand or two so we can lose more of our poker bankroll!
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July 15, 2005
Lodi's Aaron Kanter can almost taste it. So can his father, Mitch, as well as several other friends and family members who are frantically searching for flights to Las Vegas to join the poker stud's growing entourage.
With two days left in the world's largest-ever poker tournament, Kanter is sitting very pretty. With 27 players out of the 5,619 who entered the World Series of Poker's main event still remaining, Kanter is in 11th place with $2.2 million in chips.
He currently trails the ninth-place Daniel Bergsdorf by a mere $300,000 in chips. He has already guaranteed himself $304,600 in winnings, and if he can move up two spots by the end of the night, he will guarantee himself $1 million of the purse and a spot at the final table on Friday.
Kanter began Day 5 in 29th place out of the 58 remaining players, holding $778,000 in chips.
According to pokerlistings.com, Kanter knocked out Terry Burt in 38th place, besting his pocket 6s with pocket 8s, as the community cards didn't improve either players' hand. That gave him a nice pot and some momentum, boosting him back into contention.
Two of the biggest names, Phil Ivey and Mike "The Mouth" Matusow, held the top two spots on the leaderboard after the fifth round finished Wednesday night.
Tim Phan lost his grip on first place after Matusow ripped several players, including making a brave bet with a bottom pair against Farzad Bonyadi. After the flop and turn, Matusow moved all-in. Bonyadi then folded, and Matusow revealed a pair of 2s, one of which he caught on the flop.
After the bold move, Matusow screamed: "Kneel."
Bonyadi, who started Wednesday in third place, busted out along with John Juanda.
Matusow later ran his total to $5.1 million, giving him a tenuous hold on first place. Not far behind was Ivey, with $4.6 million after quietly dominating a table.
Defending champion Greg Raymer, who fell out of the top 30 after leading early Tuesday, charged back into contention, taking the fifth spot.
On one dramatic hand, he doubled through Tiffany Williamson, the lone woman left in the event.
Raymer pushed all-in before the flop and Williamson called unwisely in what was the most intense moment of the night. Raymer, facing elimination, showed pocket kings and Williamson turned over ace-jack. The flop, turn and river didn't help Williamson, and she lost more than $1 million to the unflappable Raymer.
Raymer increased his chip total to $3.8 million in his bid to reach the final table Friday at Binion's Gambling Hall and Hotel.
"Tuesday was crazy and lot of things didn't go my way," Raymer said after play ended. "Wednesday, things went my way."
The emerging story after six days of grueling play was the dominance of the pros and their ability to build large stacks and outlast thousands of other gamblers.
"If they play true to form, they will continue to try to avoid confrontations with other big stacks and look for opportunities to attack smaller stacks," said John Vorhaus, author of the "Killer Poker" book series and an analyst with ultimatebet.com.