re: World Series of Poker- 2010

quote:

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9th -Senti

8th - Nguyen

7th - Candio

6th - Jarvis

5th - Mizrachi

4th - Cheong

3rd - Duhammel

2nd - Dolan

Champ - Racener

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quote:

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My first weekend in Biloxi, I witnessed one of the sickest hands I’ve ever seen. I was sitting at a 2/5 table taking advantage of the generous poker room comps offered by the Beau Rivage, when a big commotion started brewing in the center of the room. I walked over with the flow of the crowd to see Dolan all-in, with his opponent in the tank on a J23AA board. I do not know what the action was leading up to now, but all my eyes could stay fixated on was the money in the middle of the pot. In Biloxi, cash plays. I did not need to know how this hand went down to know that this was maybe the biggest pot of the night, especially considering this was at the 10/25 table which likely played bigger with straddles.


After a few minutes in the tank, it felt like action at every other table had froze. I thought about running back to the table to play my button and grab my drink, but I just couldn’t will myself to look away from the table. All eyes were on Dolan at this point. He found a way to make a stoic’s face look more like a statue. He let out absolutely no tells or hints of emotion...for several minutes. The room started to grow uneasy, people all around started to whisper “what do you think they have?”, “seems like a crazy cooler”, “do you think he’s bluffing?”.

Bluffing? on a J23AA board? Give me a break, who is going to bluff here and with what? In my mind I had chalked this hand up to a crazy cooler, but remained silent instead of joining the crowd of murmurs. After another few minutes of long deliberation, his opponent folded. The room went silent for less that a split second, until our eyes could adjust to see the cards Dolan had turned over; K9 for a missed flush draw and complete air. The room went crazy.

I couldn’t believe what I had just seen. I kept asking myself who bluffs there, while all of the old degenerates rambled on about how Dolan was the best. He was king of the poker room for the rest of the night, though the game did break shortly after that hand. I wish I could find a way to put into words how much respect John Dolan has earned from those that have experienced his play in a live setting. He has an aura (not quite Ivey’esque) at the table, and just seeing him in his element, you know he is the real deal.

After the games died down that night, Dolan invited me to his condo to grind some Sunday tournaments vs. the $300 freezeout at the Beau Rivage. I had carpooled with several people to Biloxi in a car that wasn’t mine, so driving to his place was out of the question. Dolan was nice enough to arrange for one of his horses to pick me up from my hotel in the morning.

I walked into his condo and it was decorated with pizza boxes, oversized monitors, and bodies everywhere. It looked like your typical grindhouse which put me in the mood for Sunday poker. Dolan was still asleep when I got there, but I got setup and grinded some satellites as everyone slowly started waking up. I thought I recognized one of the guys, but I wasn’t sure. He looked eerily similar to the guy Dolan had bluffed out of the huge pot the night before. Did he feel so bad for taking this guys money that he gave him a place to crash? I didn’t know what to think, but it was certainly strange to confirm that it was the same person. It was even more surreal to find out that person was his roommate and close personal friend. The guy told me he folded a boat (pocket 3s to be exact).

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