This week, the ESPN.com poker news program “Inside Deal” welcomed North American Poker Tour (NAPT) Mohegan Sun Main Event champ Vanessa Selbst. The newly minted PokerStars pro made the November Nine of the Partouche Poker Tour.
Discussion first turned to the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event money bubble, which popped this week as part of ESPN’s continuing coverage of the $10,000 buy-in live poker tournament. “Inside Deal” co-host Bernard Lee, who survived this year’s bubble, told viewers, “The tension is pretty thick. These players realize that if they make it through today, they’re going to make the money, at least $19,000. The players who feel it the most are the ones who satellited in. They could be profiting almost all of the $19,000.”
ESPN.com Poker Editor Andrew Feldman gave his take on who the real “Bubble Boy” is: “Once that bubble bursts, everyone in the room is happy. The floor staff is happy they’re almost done and the players are happy they’re in the money, except for Tim McDonald. He’s the Bubble Boy and goes home with absolutely nothing. However, he doesn’t. He gets a $10,000 seat into next year’s World Series. Who we really need to feel bad about is Angel Guillen, the 749th place finisher, who gets nothing.” McDonald took 748th place, with the top 747 making the money.
Selbst then joined the program in studio and described the transition from attending law school to traveling around the world for poker: “It’s obviously a crazy switch and it’s a completely different life right now. I went back to law school and saw my friends and they’re all doing their studying. It’s fun to be on the road, but it’s a little bit exhausting already… I was away for two years playing poker, so it’s just fun to be back.” Selbst added that she turned down sponsorship offers from major online poker sites in 2008, when she won a bracelet.
Selbst reached the November Nine of the Partouche Poker Tour, which, like the WSOP Main Event, resumes its final table on November 6th. Selbst described the field that turned out to the tournament in Cannes: “I think in previous years it had been a little softer. There were a lot of qualifiers. The value was good, I decided to go at the last minute, and I’m still excited about poker. I’m just really lucky and really happy to be at that final table.”
Selbst picked up three-quarters of a million dollars for her NAPT Mohegan Sun win, adding to a war chest that already includes two titles during the Foxwoods World Poker Finals and five WSOP final tables. She described her style: “I’m coming from cash games, so I’m really comfortable when I have a lot of chips. I know how to make moves and put pressure on people. Every single tournament I seem to do well in, I had the chip lead pretty much from the start of the tournament and never really lost it.”
Also joining this week’s episode of ESPN “Inside Deal” was World Poker Tour (WPT) Executive Tour Director Matt Savage, who called in to discuss the controversial countdown hand between Allied Network Solutions CEO Ted Bort and poker pro/rapper Prahlad Friedman during this year’s Main Event.
Savage speculated as to why WSOP floor officials didn’t ask the dealer whether Friedman called before the clock ran out: “There was a lot going on. In addition to the barking and the action, he might have been confused or didn’t hear that Prahlad said call… In the end, you want the player who says call to be able to call that hand, so I think he should have definitely checked with the dealer first and then the players.” The dealer clearly said, “He calls” in the hand, yet it was called dead.
Savage added, “I don’t ever call a hand dead until the last possible chance, which to me is when I say, ‘Your hand is…’ and then ‘dead.’ So if he says call when I say, ‘Your hand is…’ I’m going to allow him to call. Calling a clock is basically a way to get the game moving. That minute is a way to make that happen. [Prahlad] should have definitely been allowed to call in that spot.” Bort turned over top two pair when the clock reached zero and Friedman, allegedly holding a weaker two pair, mucked his cards.
Catch new episodes of “Inside Deal” weekly on ESPN.com.