History of Poker on Broadway

As much as I enjoy watching masters run a few people off the table with a nice power move, every once in a while it’s equally as amusing to witness some poor schmo bluff his way into the gutter.

Such is the case with my commentary on a World Series of Poker mid-round from two years ago. At the time, it was on ESPN2.

When I picked up the viewing, there were three players left at the table. Farha, Moneymaker of PokerStars.com and Vahedi. And for as often as I dismiss Moneymaker as a fluke, he might have made the smartest decision of everyone and folded when he did on this one. But let me rewind a bit.

Vahedi has been betting moderately with 10, 8. Moneymaker holds 10, 9 and Farha has a pair of nines. The flop, of course, contains the final nine, along with a four and a six. The turn reveals another six, giving Farha a full-house, and an unbeatable hand.

So what happens? Vahedi thinks it’d be a good time to bluff. Awesomeness ensues.

Vahedi quickly (and transparently) dumps in 300K in an effort to get everyone else off the hand. It’s great watching this unfold from the perspective of someone who knows what everyone is holding. It’s like watching a horror movie where you know the murderer is on the other side of the door, but what can you do? Scream as loud as you want, the kids are still gonna go through and get their arms chopped off. In this case, though, I was keeping my mouth shut even if Vahedi could’ve heard my warning.

Farha, with beautiful patience, waits and plays with his chips, then simply calls. Moneymaker, with top two-pair mind you, throws in his cards. Smart, but probably a lucky guess.

The river, not that it matters, is a 3. Suit isn’t helping anyone anyway.

Vahedi checks and rubs his nose. Farha comes back with 300K of his own. Hard to tell at this point if Vahedi is putting on a show when he drops his head into his hands, of if he realizes he made a horrible decision. The latter proves to be true, as he wisely folds.

Honestly, I was hoping he’d go all-in. If you’re gonna make a major poker miscalculation, mine as well make it a huge one, right?