[thehun69]

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Michael Binger was the guy that finished in third place.

Anyways, you are right, in that Paul Wasica got pushed off of the hand by Jaime Gold in the one that sealed Binger's fate. However, I would have to look at it from the other side as well. First, you want to be playing for first place, but here you have the 2nd best stack at the table. The third stack went all in and the huge chip leader pushes all in. At that point, what do you think you are up against. My guess would be that my hand is dominated. I might not be, but I would venture to think that at least one of them had a huge hand and my fold reasoning would be, hey, I want to guarantee myself second place money if the chip leader wins the hand. I think that was the decision that ultimately he made. Whether Wasica's fold was correct or not, have you ever been put to a decision like that where if you lose the hand to the chip leader, you win 4 million. If you win, you have a good chance at 12 million. If you fold and the CL wins, you are guaranteed 7 million. Not sure about you, but I think I'll take that guaranteed 7 mill.

If he would have stayed in the hand, he would have won, knocked out Binger and took a huge pot putting him and Gold at about the same number of chips. I think though with the raise and reraise in front of him, he made the correct decision though that I would have made and figured that someone had me dominated.

I do agree with the Nobles comment though. Nobles took his big stack and donked it off to everyone. I love listening to his phone call to his buddy during that "man, I just spread 400k of my chips to the table" or something to that extent. Great times.

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Binger, right, thanks. Getting to that hand...it all boils down to personal philosophy concerning the end game. I play to win it all, especially for something as big as Main Event Champ. Here, it is not a matter of simply risking three mil to win five mil, because being champion brings in a ton of extra things, fame, endorsemtents, paid appearances, magazine articles...book deals, so financially there is a lot more at stake. I simply go for it. There are a lot of IFS in the argument FOR folding. IF the CL wins then you blew your guaranteed 7 mil.. IF! Well, what happens if CL loses. Shorty just tripled up, has as many chips as you do and in a few hands you can get taken out of the tournament. So in my mind it is either that, or push on a monster draw. But again, it is all personal preferences.

Other than that, I agree...I loved watching Noble just donk it away.

THE HUN.

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You guys have the action in Wasicka's 78s hand all wrong. Gold pushed with his SD, then Wasicka folded, then Binger CALLED AI. If I'm Wasicka, I think I still probably call but its not as clear-cut as you are all making it because Binger insta-mucks anything but the nuts with Wasicka all-in ahead of him. Wasicka knows this and knows that Binger is on the short stack and will go out ahead of him if he folds, which means something like $2.5 million extra in Wasicka's pocket.

FWIW, I've been a Gold basher in the past. I think from what they showed on TV he was obviously on a rush of cards and made some hands in some big spots that allowed him to accumulate so many chips. Nothing wrong with that... same with Moneymaker, Raymer and Hachem before him. You have to get lucky not to be unlucky to win a tournament.

The difference between Gold and the other players I mentioned is they aren't angle shooting d-bags who collude with players next to them ("I said top top").

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That's right, that's how the hand went. But even still, I still would have called. This is a monster spot to do it in and make a big hand.

As for Jamie, again, I'm not saying he is good or horrific, but it all comes down to the take responsibility arguement. When I saw the infamous "top top" clip, I went nuts. If I was sitting at that table, I would have lost my mind, called over a tournament director let him know what happened and have them assess what to do. Everyone simply sat there (at least from what the broadcast was showing) and did SQUADOUCHE. They have only themselves to blame for sitting there and saying nothing while Jamie was violating tournament rules. In the final table when Jamie flips over the Jack, I would have gotten up, if I was either Binger or Wasicka, and bring that to the tournament director's attention, and have him assess a penalty. I would do something. All these mopes did nothing but watch. Again, Jamie got away with all that stuff because the other players let him get away; they have only themselves to blame.

THE HUN.