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Big Hand Blunder: Greg Raymer vs Aran Kanter WSOP 2005
Well its not often I get to critique a pros blunder, but this one stood out as a whopper, which turned the tables at the 2005 WSOP and propelled a young internet player to the final table in place of Greg Raymer who was on a miraculous path to challenge for the WSOP main title for the second consecutive year.
 Down to 26 players, Raymer is one of the chip leaders with around 4 million. With the blinds a very comfortable 20 and 40 thousand, he picks up KK in middle position and puts in a raise to 100 thousand. Does that seem small to you? It does to me, even though it is a well concealed 2 and a half times the blind, it literally invites a draw out. Raising that small, compared to your stack in an internet tournament is tantamount to limping in. What it also negates is being able to judge what your opponent may have later in the hand when it could become crucial, as it did in this case.
With a small raise you are inviting low pairs, low connecters, weak suited aces, weak suited kings, and unpaired big cards. With such a variety of possibilities, you are essentially playing blind, and hoping your kings hold up. Kanter calls in the cutoff followed by Ivey and Hechem folding the blinds. The pot is around 300 thousand including the antes. The flop comes 6c, 3h, 5d. Raymer could look at this as a good flop, assuming Kanter called with big cards. Myself, I see straight chemistry, and definitely something that could jive with a call of ace, 4 suited or 8, 7 suited. When there is chemistry on the board you need to get your opponent out. If he calls a big bet, or re-raises, I am apt to let the hand go if I am playing another big stack. If my opponent is significantly shorter, I will put him all in without fear of jeopardizing my tournament.
Raymer follows up his wimpy preflop bet with an even more pathetic flop bet of 150 thousand. When assessing this flop, you need to bet big, and cut your losses with that. With an over bet here, you either eliminate the danger, or you determine that you are beat, or on way to being beat. But this is also your stop-loss bet. Once a reaction is taken by your opponent, you will know to fold, or check it down, save for other intelligence factors. Curiously, Raymer moves rather quickly through this hand, failing to assess this game critical intersect properly. Clearly, at this point Raymer failed to realized he was not the favorite in this hand anymore. Turn card is 7h. This is a great card for Kanter as it gives him his heart draw, and puts a scare card out there him to take it at the river. Raymer simply seems not to notice.
The odd thing about this hand is that Raymer was in fact, ahead all the way. Kanter played this hand like an internet rookie calling the flop bet with only a back door flush draw, and over cards. He could have been planning to take this pot from Raymer with a bluff on the river, but that doesnt explain his rash all in call after reraising Raymers 300 thousand turn bet. But when Raymer does make his turn bet and gets reraised, in that spot, with my tourney on the line, and that board, I am out of the hand, even if I still feel I am ahead. It is simply too risky, and too probably that your kings are beat. You think I am over analyzing? I have laid down aces in this spot, several times in money play in online tournaments. Maybe just a couple thousand was on the line, not millions!
I take this situation to reiterate several things here. Play back the hand, and figure your opponents possible hole cards. Investigate the flop by knowing what the nuts are at all times. Do not go up against another stack in marginal situations while moving up the pay scale. Raymers actions here would have been perfectly fine if he were up against someones last 700 thousand chips, but as it turned out, and I quote Chad from ESPN, Kanter makes an horrendous play and puts a big hurt on Raymer. The heart came for Kanter who should have really never been in the hand, but his awful play was surpassed by Raymer in that particular exchange.
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The Main Event for the 2005 World Series of Poker
The Main Event for the World Series of Poker is what defines the ultimate challenge in Texas No Limit Hold'Em. In 2005, 5,619 players sat down to compete for 9 days in order to get a chance at the $7,500,000 first prize. Everyone who was lucky enough to reach the final table became an instant millionaire. And the total prize pool was also impressive, reaching $52,818,610 dollars! But to even have a shot at the great amounts of cash, players had to survive the elimination rounds of the tournament.
With a field so large the competitors were split up into 3 groups, each competing on one of 3 days: Day 1A, 1B & 1C, which were very long and brutal for some. The elimination goal was to play down to 500 to 600 for each daily round. The first day, Day 1A, lasted 15 hours and 25 minutes for the 1,885 players who competed in order to continue on with only 663 players surviving that round. Day 1B began with 1,857 players stopping at 593 contestants. And Day 1C started with 1,877 entrants and ended up with 608 after the dust settled. At this point the total field has dropped from 5,619 to 1,864. While a lot of players had their pocket A's cracked like eggs at the RIO's breakfast buffet over this 3 day period, numerous others had outstanding performances. Sam Farha, Lee Watkinson, Jim Meehan, Robert Mizrachi and Robert Mizrachi did well. Now at this point last year's champ Greg Raymer is holding at 469th, but you'll hear a lot more from him before this is over.
Day 2 saw the field whittled from 1,864 to 569 and it had a lot of activity. Within the first hour 2003 WSOP champ Chris Moneymaker, Gus Hansen, David Sklansky and Marcel Luske were among those leaving for good. Greg Raymer decided it was time to play poker as he began sending people home along with raising his standing to 9th from 469th the day before. WSOP champion Dan Harrington who made it to the Main Event final table for the past 2 years was eliminated. Layne Flack had an excellent day at the ESPN table making his stack grow, even cracking pocket A's held by other players in the process.
Day 3 was exciting because there were 569 players and the payouts began at position 560. It was good for almost everyone but Karl Ygborn who received no money period when he became the "bubble boy", finishing in position 561. However, Harrah's awarded him a free seat to the 2006 WSOP Main Event for next year! After the bubble burst, players were leaving the tables left and right to collect their money, evidence of the fact that many players were drained and very tired. Raymer continued to pound away with an effort that vaulted him to number one in the chip count for Day 3. Other notables were Farzad Bonyadi, Phil Ivey, Minh Ly, 1994 WSOP champ Russ Hamilton and Brad Kondracki who has also done very well so far. At the end of this day there were 185 players left.
Days 4 and 5 raised the bar and intensity of play with Greg Raymer continuing to bust out players left and right. Lots of upsets with names like Paul Darden, David Plastik, Howard Lederer, J. C. Tran, Nani Dollison, Mike Wattel and Webber Kang being eliminated. Incredible performances by players like Tiffany Williamson, Brad Kondracki and Aaron Kanter will be seen by all on ESPN. By the time Day 5 ends 11 1/2 hours later, there are 27 players left that will continue the Main Event at Binion's in downtown Las Vegas.
As Day 6 began at Binion's, the goal was to narrow the field from 27 to the 9 needed for the final table. Greg Raymer's bid to repeat a championship was ended with the titan leaving in 25th place. Everyone including the ESPN crew gave him a standing ovation as he left the tables. Others who went out on this day include Phil Ivey in 20th and Minh Ly in 19th. Tiffany Williamson left in 15th and also went out with a standing ovation. The eliminations continued until the 9 for the final table was reached. Those players were Mike Matusow, Aaron Kanter, Andrew Black, Joseph Hachem, Steven Dannenmann, John Barch, Daniel Bergsdorf, Scott Lazar and Brad Kondracki. When Day 7 began, no one knew it would be the longest final table in WSOP history. One by one, each new millionaire left the table after being busted out until only Steven Dannenmann and Joseph Hachem remained. At the final table when this heads up took place as is tradition at the WSOP, the prize money was brought to the table with an armed guard. The amount of $100 bills took up so much room to where it covered the entire poker table -- two feet high! Both players were tired as after 6 hands it was over and Joseph Hachem became the WSOP champion, taking home to Australia $7,500,000 and a beautiful diamond ring that only the Main Event champions can receive.
Tom Howze is a webmaster for 9 sites that relate to 2005 World Series of Poker and World Poker Tour events, updates, results along with online sport betting information.
Wikipedia: Greg Raymer was born in Minot, North Dakota. His family moved numerous times during Raymer's childhood, from Minot to Clearwater, Florida and ultimately to St. Louis, Missouri. After Raymer graduated from Parkway High School in St. Louis, he enrolled at the University of Missouri–Rolla, where he majored in chemistry and became a member of the Kappa Sigma fraternity. He graduated from the University of Minnesota Law School in 1992 and practiced as a patent attorney for more than a decade. However, he no longer works as a lawyer.
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