PPM III

Day 1 Commentary

It’s a good thing records are made to be broken, because otherwise those of us in the poker world would have nothing to look forward to except winning millions of dollars, and we just couldn’t have that now, could we?

The ms Ryndam embarked from San Diego on Saturday, March 13, 2004 with 546 players (463 online qualifiers and 83 direct buy-ins) each contributing $7,000 to the prize pool. The gala tournament at sea set two poker records: it was, to date, the largest prize pool ever assembled for the World Poker Tour, and it was also the largest limit Hold'em tournament ever held.

Many players who won cruise packages for as little as a $25 investment already feel like winners. Probably the most famous player to attend was award-winning actor/director James Woods.

Day 2 Commentary

March 15 is normally a day to beware. This particular March 15—Monday, in 2004—there were 177 folks at sea who don’t mind being among the leaders. The PartyPoker.com Million III’s 546 starting players have now, after the second of two "starting days," been reduced by almost exactly two-thirds.

The 14 leaders on this day all won their seats in online qualifying, but the direct buy-ins were still alive and well. A total of 30 remained from the starting 83 including the Champions from the first two PartyPoker.com Million Events, Kathy Liebert and Howard Lederer (who had $35,000 and $33,500, respectively).

Day 4 Commentary

Wednesday, March 17, 2004 was a day for winners. After the PartyPoker.com Million III’s first two split days, we had completed a day’s play, with 177 still alive. Although all but 30 of these were already winners, with a cruise package and a shot at glory in the bank, we were halfway through the real Day 2 before people started winning actual money, and when the dust had settled, players 28-90 had some cash to go with their cruise.

There were some interesting moments in the early and middle going, not the least of which was a run by 1998 World Champ Scotty Nguyen from $20,000 up to about $300,000 in just a few minutes.

I got a chance to speak with a few of the players before the night was over, and in covering literally hundreds of big money tournaments, rarely have I encountered a group that was as generally happy with everything that had transpired as this one was. Eighth place finisher Jason Adkins, who could easily have been bitterly disappointed, was thrilled.

"Hey, the big thing for me was winning the cruise and having a great time with my wife here," Adkins said. "All this money in the tournament, that’s just gravy, and pretty nice gravy, since I only bought in once for one $25 tournament and made it right through qualifying with that."

Curiously, Chris 'Superman' Hinchcliffe’s story was similar. The Olympia, Washington construction worker had only signed up at PartyPoker.com a few days before qualifying ended, and also invested just one $25 buy-in. Now, of course, he gets to go for a lot more, and it isn’t just gravy for him.

"This is life-changing money for me," Hinchcliffe said. "I owed my Mom $8,000 she’d advanced me, and I’ve been paying her back a little at a time, but now she’s getting the rest of it all at once, and she’s getting a new car, too. I’m going to take the rest of the year off (remember, it’s March) and reassess a lot of things in my life."

Heading into the final table, it was Steve Zolotow, Scotty Nguyen, Chris Hinchcliffe, Barry Greenstein, Erick Lindgren, and Daniel Negreanu.

Day 5 Commentary

In order to leave some play at the final table, tournament officials first rolled the blinds back a level, with play beginning at the $10,000-20,000 blinds, playing $20,000-40,000 level. We had finished the final scramble the night before at the $40,000-80,000 level as the competitors played cautiously, in some cases no doubt trying to ensure they made 'the show'. At that level, even one hand played aggressively to conclusion could turn a leader into a trailer, or vice versa.

Indeed, of the final six, only Internet star Erick 'Edawg' Lindgren didn’t experience a major roller coaster ride in the final 90 minutes the previous night. Daniel Negreanu and Barry Greenstein each had moments when their stacks had exceeded a million, and eighth place finisher Jason Adkins—an Internet qualifier who had just been happy to win the cruise and have a fun trip with his wife, never mind the $77,905 he won—had been over $800,000 at one point.

Although Lindgren was an online qualifier, he was certainly no amateur; he had already notched one World Poker Tour win this year and another final table. That left, as MC put it, Hinchcliffe as the sole true amateur swimming in a sea of sharks.

Greenstein survived one all-in, and soon pulled ahead of Nguyen, who was rarely aggressive at any point in the match. At one point, as the 1998 World Champion pondered a call with some of his last few chips, one enthusiastic audience member shouted "the sooner you lose, the sooner you booze, Scotty," and drew laughs from everyone, Nguyen included.

Nguyen’s exit marked the end of the first round, and the blinds moved up to $15,000-30,000, playing $30,000-60,000. Eight hands into the new round, Hinchcliffe and Negreanu hooked up in another of the duels that Negreanu had been looking for.

Hinchcliffe made it 60k from mid position, but Negreanu made it 90k from the button, and Hinchcliffe called. The flop came 3h-2h-2c, and Hinchcliffe led out, with Negreanu calling. The 6d hit the turn, and once again it went bet-call, this time for 60k. On the river, the 9d hit, and Hinchcliffe checked. Negreanu bet. Hinchcliffe thought a long time and finally tossed 60k more into the pot. Negreanu showed J-J, and Hinchcliffe showed Kh-9h, a flush draw that had missed, but had provided Hinchcliffe with just enough reason to lose another 60k on the end. $240,000 shifted stacks on the hand, and the out-of-sight lead was no longer out-of-sight.

A couple of hands later, the relatively quiet (literally and figuratively) Zolotow raised it to 60k from his button, and Hinchcliffe decided to deposit the required 45k to call from the small blind. Hinchcliffe led out at the 2s-8c-7h flop and got called. He led out again when the 2h hit the turn, but this time Zolotow made it 120k. Hinchcliffe called, and check-called another 60k on the river when the Jc hit.

Zolotow turned over his pocket kings, and Hinchcliffe was another 255k poorer. He’d lost half a million in half four blinks of an eye, and his chip lead was so far gone, it wasn’t even history; it was more like mythology. When we reached hand #67, and Greenstein opened from mid position for a raise to 100k, only to get immediately 3-bet by Negreanu to 150k. Greenstein called, took a look at an As-Kd-6d flop, and checked and immediately surrendered to Negreanu’s bet.

Negreanu’s crowd image had been a well-earned mover of chips, and he flipped up pocket kings, as if to remind everyone that an aggressive player is allowed to have a real hand too. We lost the now-short Greenstein four hands later, when he moved the last of his 60k all-in and Lindgren completed the raise. The hand made for great poker theatre ("ooohhh…aahhh…") because Greenstein turned over Kd-9s against Ah-Qc, and the flop came 3h-9c-3c. Greenstein lived...for a moment, because the Qh hit the turn.

Eight hands later (#81 overall), Lindgren whammed Negreanu again, A-Q again failing to come through for Negreanu when they could never improve and Lindgren’s pocket sevens held up.

Two hands later, the increasingly aggressive Lindgren raised it from the small blind, and Zolotow decided to call all-in from the big blind, and no one in the house was rooting harder for Lindgren than Hinchcliffe, I assure you—even Lindgren. Lindgren’s Kh-2h held up against Zolotow’s Jh-4c, we were three-handed, and with one of the broadest grins you’ve ever seen, Hinchcliffe asked rhetorically "Do you know what I can do with $450,000?"

The grin stayed even when Hinchcliff’s tiny stack went away four hands later, when Negreanu made it 100k from the button, Lindgren called from the small blind, and Hinchcliffe called all-in from the big blind. Negreanu and Lindgren each checked rather rapidly as the board came down J-3-2-2-4, and with small wonder: Negreanu had K-6, and Lindgren Q-9. Hinchcliffe offered a rueful smile and flipped up his Q-8, and left to a standing ovation slightly more thunderous than the other players had received.

Now after 87 hands, the game was up to Lindgren and Negreanu, and the chips were almost exactly even: Lindgren held a meaningless 20k lead. I started renumbering the hands at #1. Heads-up, the small blind goes on the button (SBB) and acts first before the flop but second after the flop.

Negreanu won two quick small pots, but then Lindgren won a big one that went to the river. For the first time since Negreanu had overhauled Hinchcliffe, someone else had a significant lead on Negreanu, about 2.2 million to 1.6 million.

Lindgren quickly kept his snowball rolling downhill, and in just a few hands had extended his lead to 2.6-1.2 million. Finally on heads-up hand #11, the boys went at it on a Kd-4d-Kc flop, with Lindgren check-raising the flop and Negreanu calling. Lindgren check-called the turn and river, and Negreanu turned over Broderick Crawford, 10-4, for tens full, while Lindgren showed he’d temporarily had Negreanu in big trouble with Q-4—same flopped pair, better kicker.

Heads-up #13 got the crowd into it as Negreanu raised from the SBB and Lindgren called. The flop came Jc-10s-8h, and the betting went 50-100-150-200. Unless you had Q-9, you couldn’t be too comfortable with that kind of action, but when the 3d hit the turn, Lindgren led out for 100k and Negreanu made it 200k. Lindgren finally pulled in the reigns and just called. Both players checked when the Ah hit the river, but Lindgren was happy enough to grab the million dollar pot with his J-10. We never saw Negreanu’s hand.

With Lindgren now at the 2.7 million mark, we hit the new limits: 40-80 blinds, playing $80,000-160,000. The very first hand was practically big enough to even the match or end it. Lindgren opened for a raise to 160k from the SBB, but Negreanu made it 240k. The flop came 3d-10h-10c, and Lindgren called Negreanu’s 80k bet. He called again when the 8s hit the turn, but when the 4c hit the river, Negreanu finally checked, and looked uncomfortable when Lindgren bet out. After significant hesitation he called, and Lindgren grabbed 550k from Negreanu (a $1,280,000 pot) by flopping trip tens with 10-7. Negreanu was in big trouble, with just under 400k left.

Negreanu’s star kept waning, and on heads-up hand #23, Lindgren decided to try to get things over and done with. Negreanu brought the hand in for a raise from the SBB to 160k, and Lindgren—inexplicably, I think—put Negreanu all-in with a raise. 5h-2h for Lindgren, Ks-5d for Negreanu. I understand why one would be tempted to get it all-in before the flop and finish a troubled foe, but with five-high? Why not just fold to the initial raise and put Negreanu in next hand?

If Negreanu were to win this pot, he’d have nearly half a million, and strange things can happen with a stack that big in a very short time. The board came 8-5-3-10-3, and Negreanu had doubled up.

Most of the wayward chips came home four hands later, when Lindgren’s A-J flopped an ace that held up, and Negreanu was all-in again two hands later, this time with 7c-10c against Ah-6c. The flop brought a roar with 5c-Js-2c, but Negreanu won the old fashioned way by spiking a 10 on the turn. Negreanu was still alive with his half million again, and seven hands later, from little acorns had a mighty oak of a million grown. The lead wasn’t even 3-1 anymore. It looked like the game was afoot, and two hands later, the gambling got bigger as the blinds went to 60-120, playing $120,000-240,000.

Lindgren won a couple of small hands, and then the 43rd heads-up hand proved decisive. Negreanu opened from the SBB for $24,000, and Lindgren called. The flop came 5h-7h-3c, Lindgren bet out for 120k, and Negreanu moved his last few chips in. He’d started better, A-4 to A-3, but Lindgren had flopped a pair. The Jc hit the turn, and Negreanu needed a four, six, or two to stay alive. The 5d, teasingly just in the right pip vicinity, hit instead, and we had a champion who’d just collected his second WPT title of the year.

Negreanu was generous in defeat, even more so than friendly pros often are. "I couldn’t have lost to a nicer guy or a better player," he told the crowd.

"I didn’t do it like a lot of these guys," Lindgren said. "I didn’t start in big games or big tournaments. I played a lot of low stakes, both online and in regular cardrooms, and played small tournaments. I worked my way up gradually. I think that both brick and mortar and Internet play contributed a lot to my game. The live play did what you’d expect, teach me about people, and the Internet play taught me a lot about the technical side, the betting patterns you need."

I can rarely remember a week when everyone was nicer to everyone. I guess that’s what happens when a boatful of people who’ve already won take to the high seas. For Erick 'Edawg' Lindgren, the seas were just a little higher. Maybe it was the greatest party in poker after all.