Should’ve had a long dinner
Tournament poker’s old age is “a chip and a chair,” meaning as long as you still have chips, you still have a chance to win. You may be down to your final chip, but anything can happen in poker. Strange things happen every day.
So what’s the opposite of “a chip and a chair”? Whatever it is, it happened Thursday on Day 5 of the World Series of Poker Main Event.
The bubble had already burst the day before and while the payouts weren’t yet life-changing for most people, the field was in “this is starting to get serious” territory. The big, big numbers were in sight.
Michael Hawker was the chip leader with 6.09 million chips, or 152 big blinds, heading into the dinner break Thursday. According to PokerNews, he was overheard saying that he had chicken teriyaki. We hope he enjoyed it, because he probably won’t want to touch that dish for a long time.
And like that…he’s gone
On the second hand after the break, Hawker got involved in a big pot against Sebastian Schulze. The early stages of the hand shall remain a mystery, but PokerNews reported that by the river, the board read 4♥-4♠-A♠-9♠-5♠ and the pot was sitting at about a million chips.
Schulze bet and Hawker moved all-in, putting Schulze to the test for the rest of his chips. Schulze was clearly comfortable with that test, as he quickly made the call. Hawker knew what that meant, asking Schultze if he had Aces. Sure enough, that’s what he had, as he flipped over his rockets, giving him a full house. Hawker’s over-the-top all-in wasn’t necessarily bad, but it was terrible timing, as he had Nines for a lesser boat.
It was a tough hand for Hawker to swallow, but he still had 3.5 million and was in great shape. Not for long.
On the very next hand, the two got into it again. Schulze raised to 85,000 pre-flop and Hawker called. On the monochrome flop of 7♣-8♣-5♣, Hawker checked, Schulze bet 90,000, and Hawker called. Hawker didn’t wait when the 9♦ was dealt on the turn, firing 210,000 chips. Schulze raised to 700,000 and Hawker immediately called.
Again, although he was very definitive in his decision-making, Hawker suspected the worse, asking Schulze if he flopped a flush as he himself revealed K♥-6♠ for a turned straight. His hunch was correct. Schulze flipped over J♣-9♣ and Hawker was drawing dead on the river.
“Oh my god, I can’t believe it,” Hawker said as he stood up, going from visions of the World Series of Poker Main Event final table to out of the tournament in the blink of an eye.
If it’s any consolation, which it probably isn’t right now, Michael Hawker did win $45,000.
Image credit: PokerGO.com
The post WSOP Main Event Chip Leader Learns How Quickly Tides Can Shift appeared first on Poker News Daily.
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