ANYBODY HAVE ANY COMMENTS ON THIS SATURDAYS UBT ON CBS I WAS TOTALLY SURPRISED AT THE TOURNY BEING OVER IN 16 HANDS AND THE 3 BEST PLAYERS GOING OUT EARLY WOULD SOMEBODY PLEASE EXPLAIN THE LAST HAND (16) ON WHAT THE THINKING WAS FOR THE BETS THAT WERE MADE IT SEEMED TO ME THAT THE PLAYERS DID NOT REALLY CARE ABOUT THE TOURNY AND JUST WANTED TO GET OUT OF THERE FOR WHATEVER REASON SINCE WE DO NOT SEE ALL THE HANDS I HAVE TO ASSUME THAT THE CARDS WERE BAD FOR THE FIRST 8 HANDS OR SO-I DID EXPECT THE "PROS" TO LAST LONGER THAN THEY DID ANTHONY CURTIS MAKING A LARGE BET ON THE FIRST HAND WAS A TOTAL SURPRISE TO ME
answered my on questions Anthony Curtis is low bankroll with $48,000 and Joe Pane is second low with $62,000. The hand 8 EH is close, and Joe, betting first, realizes that Anthony's impending all-in will put him in a bind. When you're the second-low bankroll and the low bankroll moves all in with an EH around the corner, you have to either move all in with him or bet enough to cover his win. This is because if you bet small, whether he wins or loses, you will become the low bankroll (you'll be passed if he wins, and he'll be gone if he loses). Knowing this, Joe bets $35,000 to stay ahead of Anthony's all-in, $97,000 to $96,000. It's the right idea, but if both lose, Joe will have only $27,000. In this situation it would have been better for Joe to go all in to maximize the win if he got it. Joe knew it as soon as he bet, and got lucky when he pushed, but going all in is the move that has to be made in this spot. See Hand 6 Note Jennifer Tilly was eliminated on this hand, but only because Johnny Chan made a bet that made that happen. When you're considering the low, you can overbet your lead and surrender back, bet the gap, or bet the gap minus a chip. The case for the third option is made here in Johnny's bet. With his bet, in addition to advancing with a lose/lose, he also advances with a lose/push. Jennifer has the high and gets a 20, but the dealer turns a 15 into 20. Johnny loses while Jennifer pushes and Johnny's decision to save a chip for the pure low on Jennifer pays off big time. Jennifer is eliminated by a mere $500, $90,500 to $90,000. See Hand 8 Note What a hand. What a play. Poker powerhouse Annie Duke brings a dimension of her primary game to tournament blackjack that hasn't been seen before. This is complicated stuff, so we're gonna crib a bit from someone who's taken the time to work it all out. The following comes from an upcoming "House of Pane" article by Joe Pane for ALL IN magazine. Joe may have made a small error on hand 6, but he knows blackjack tournaments and is all over this play. Here's Joe's analysis. With so many players being lost early, the match's final hand will be hand 25. It's now heads-up between Annie Duke and Hollywood Dave. By now, everyone's seen Hollywood's act where he talks trash to his opponents, hoping to get them to make a mistake. But on this hand, Annie turns the table on the Bad Boy of Blackjack and it's not with trash talk. It's with a brilliant plan that screws with Hollywood's thinking. Annie is not only one of the top poker players in the country, but she has a brilliant mind to go along with her poker skills. She can now add having some awesome blackjack-tournament chops to her resume. Here's the scene. (See Hand 25) Annie has wisely saved her Secret Bet for this last hand and she wagers $22,000. Hollywood bets $39,000, which he has to do in the open after spending his SB earlier. The cards are dealt and neither is strong: Annie has a 13 and Hollywood has a soft 13. Buckle up, 'cause it gets a little complicated from here. Annie uses her Secret Action to double for $20,000, which is a good move that gives her the high if she converts the double ($175,000 to $164,000) and the low if the dealer beats their bad hands ($91,000 to $86,000)—that is, if Hollywood plays his hand by the book. This is where Annie really turns her brilliant mind toward bluffing Hollywood out of surrendering. When Annie comes out of the Secret-Bet booth after doubling, Hollywood says, "So what did you do?" At this point Hollywood has already gone into his usual banter about how he thinks the hand should be played and he seems to be leaning toward surrender. Annie—the only one with complete information at this point—doesn't want this, as his surrendering will give him the low if the dealer beats both players ($105,500 to $91,000), which looks be the way the hand is going. Annie says, "I won't tell you what I did, but I'll show you what I bet." This has never been done before as far as I know. In fact, the tournament director is asked if Annie can reveal her Secret Bet and he rules that she can if she wants to. Annie opens up her card and shows "$22,000." In doing this, she makes Hollywood consider the ramifications of the options she could have taken, making him conclude that he can't surrender. Think about it. If Hollywood surrenders, he can be locking himself out of any chance to win (if Annie has surrendered in front of him). Man, this is brilliant stuff, and it was all conceived within two minutes under the pressure of lights, TV cameras, and a screaming live audience. This lady is a top-notch professional no matter what card game she's playing. Hollywood takes the bait and hits his hand, allowing Annie to own the high and low as intended. Annie was still in a tough spot, having to convert the hard double, and she didn't. But her play was tremendous, earning the praise of all the blackjack pros, who don't give it up easily. See Hand 25
Snoopy to the Red Baron: Bleah! I'm sorry. It's my age, my attitude, or(Thrasht-A-Rafts-A-Man and Rookie, know) my cynicism, but today's, (Saturday Oct. 13. 2007) showing of the UBT with Helmuth, Deeb, Einenger, Jade and Mathews(personalities all) was just as the headline said, "BLEAH!" Packed with infomercials for UBT on line, the cuts and editing for suspenseful play was a waste of Max Rubin's time, effort and overlay commentary. Take those five exciting players and Rubin, mix em up and produce such a mundane TV showing, no wonder tournament BJ can't get off the square it's on. It's checkmated in the sucker mode. Let's stop begging, borrowing, and blueing about what can be and just show up at events and play. Reality bites. Especially on TV. Unless YOU like ultimate fighting. But then YOU have to be between the ages of 17 and 24, or pretend to be ala Cerritos.
Last hand bet by Einiger Looks like a better bet for Ken Einiger on the last hand would have been 61,000. That way instead of doubling a high pair like 10's or 9's (if he had been delt such) he could double his bet by splitting the pair rather than having to double hard 18 or hard 20. ......................BlueLight
Interesting fact... The local CBS station (Washington DC) has shown only one of these shows. This was a couple/three weeks ago. Instead, they have shown a variety of other sports oriented hour shows. I noticed that a few of the commercial spots, as is normal for an hour show, were local advertisers. I wonder if the poor ratings have dictated that the DC affiliate can't sell local spots and therefore is passing on tis show.
I agree that betting half his bankrool would have been better. Also, on hand 29, I wonder if Einiger was acting or if he was serious when he said that the hand was not important. Adrianna is leading by 2500 and she bet first with 3000. Einiger bet is 8000 to take the win but it does not cover a double win by Adrianna. Adrianna is dealt a hard 20 and Ken a hard 15. Then I thought she should split to take back the win and force Ken to double down. At this moment, Ken said to her "This hand, it does not matter what happens". Did he mean it or was he trying to distract her, hoping she would not split? Adrianna stands and kept the lead but if the dealer had busted, she could not correlate on hand 30. But then I don't know if the players know the exact chip count, they did not comment their bets.
