The Steinhorn Stare

WSOP Main Event, Day 4

We’re a couple hours from the start of Day 4 of the 2007 $10,000 World Series of Poker Main Event, and Jason Heidema is still doing great. As I’ve been doing the past couple days, I’ll continue providing real-time updates of his progress (at least as real-time as he’ll give them to me).

While the tournament starts up again at noon, here are some updated statistics (based on my calculations) to catch you up:

The tournament started with a total of 6358 players one week ago, and is now down to 337 players
Every remaining player is now guaranteed $39,445, with the winner getting $8.25M
The average chip stack for the remaining players is a bit above $374,000, median stack is about $321,000, and the chip leader is Dario Minieri, with about $2.4M in chips (Dario has about $900K more chips than the next nearest competitor)
With $205,000 in chips, Jason is 231st out of the 337 remaining players, putting him above about one-third of the field

For those who don’t play a lot of poker, let me put something into perspective. While Jason has below average chips right now, things change very quickly at this point in the tournament. Not only could someone with over a $1M in chips get knocked out in one or two hands, someone with a chip stack like Jason’s could easily win a couple big hands in a row and quickly move up among the chip leaders. Not to mention that one of Jason’s great strengths is playing this part of the tournament and in this situation; he has an amazing ability to get selectively aggressive and to put together a good run of strong plays to put himself right back in contention with the big stacks. I’ve seen him do it a number of times, and am looking forward to seeing him do it again today.

That said, I just took a look at Jason’s table for today, and he’s up against some amazing poker talent. While many of these people may not be household names, I recognize and/or know most of these guys, and to make a long story short, the total tournament winnings among Jason’s eight table-mates is over $6.4M.

Here’s the specific lineup, including chip counts (and links to each player’s previous tournament success):

I’ll continue to post updates right here as I get them…

Update (11:57am): Things are about to get underway and cards should be in the air shortly. I spoke with Jason for a while this morning, and after briefing him on his table and letting him scream “F***!!!” a few times, we held a strategy session and realized that there are some bright sides to this tough table. If he can pick up a couple hands in the first hour of play, hopefully it will be another long day. If not, he’ll have to rely on aggressive play and good reads to get him past the next couple levels. Regardless, it sounds like he’s ready.

Update (12:55pm): Just sent Heidema a text letting him know that eliminations were going very quickly early in the day (I probably get better info from the WSOP blog than he gets by being there, unfortunately). He texted me back letting me know he’s at $255,000 in chips. No more info than that, but at least he’s moving in the right direction.

Update (1:05pm): End of Level 15, and players are on a 20 minute break. Jason is getting a good feel for his table, and is pretty comfortable. He’s at $240,000 in chips, and has the button to begin the next round. Level 16 has blinds of 4000/8000/1000. Don’t know for sure, but I believe enough players have been eliminated that the payouts have increased to $45,422.

Update (1:50pm): As reported on the WSOP blog, this hand occured just before the last break at Jason’s table (Jason wasn’t involved):

David Levi Rivers a One Outer
David Levi was all in with K-K against Kevin Howatt’s A-K. Howatt flopped a Ace and was ahead until Levi rivered a case King. He won the pot with a set. His stack increased to 350,000.

Unfortunately, David Levi isn’t the guy at the table you want getting lucky and accumulating chips.

Update (2:25pm): Just got a quick text from Jason. Still in the $235,000 range. He also mentioned that Seat 6 (Thomas Barnard) just lost all his chips to Seat 7 (Allan King) on a huge bluff, and now Allan King has over $1M in chips. I guess if anyone at your table has to have a huge stack, you want it to be a guy on your right (chips tend to flow around the table clockwise) who doesn’t seem to have a lot of experience. Hopefully Jason can take advantage.

Update (3:15pm): Folks - I’m very sad to report that Jason’s run at the World Championship is over. After the chip-leader on his right came in for a pre-flop raise, Jason looked down at pocket tens, and had to seize the opportunity. He pushed all-in, his opponent thought for a minute and called with AKs. A king came on the flop, and unfortunately, Jason didn’t improve on the turn or river. He went out in 226th place, earning $45,422.

From the WSOP Blog:

Jason Heidema Eliminated
Jason Heidema moved all in for 150,000 with 10-10. Allan King called with As-Ks. The flop was Kh 6d 2d and King took the lead. The turn was the 3c and the river was the Ac. King’s hand held up as Jason Heidema headed to the rail.

CONGRATULATIONS HEIDI ON AN AWESOME RUN!

This entry was posted on Friday, July 13th, 2007 at 8:42 am and is filed under Poker. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

24 Responses to “WSOP Main Event, Day 4”

Erik Says:
July 13th, 2007 at 8:58 am
Any thoughts on Jason’s table draw for the start of day 4? Available on the WSOP blog, or here’s a copy:

1 Mark Weitzman 155,000 68 2 Randy Holland 400,000 68 3 Kevin Howatt 145,000 68 4 Jac Arama 366,000 68 5 David Levi 262,000 68 6 Thomas Barnard 596,000 68 7 Allan W. King 400,290 68 8 Mark Ellerbe 434,000 68 9 Jason Heidema 205,000
Andrew Says:
July 13th, 2007 at 9:01 am
Its sad when reading this blog is the highlight of my day. GO HEIDEMA
Jason Says:
July 13th, 2007 at 9:06 am
Thanks for the reminder, Erik! Just updated with the table information. Unfortunately, it’s a tremendously tough table, but I expect that Jason has played with a couple of these guys before, so hopefully he’ll have some history to draw.
Heidema Says:
July 13th, 2007 at 9:51 am
Yeah, I have a thought…..this table is terrible
Michael Says:
July 13th, 2007 at 9:58 am
GO HEIDI! We are cheering for you hear in San Jose.
Adam Nash Says:
July 13th, 2007 at 10:08 am
So, Steinhorn, what price would you sell 1% of your Heidema stake for now?

Adam
Jason Says:
July 13th, 2007 at 11:08 am
Well, when he wins the whole thing, I’ll be getting over $400K, so 1% of my stake would be worth ~$4K, assuming no discount.

Of course, you might argue that there’s a chance he won’t win the whole thing, but the chance of him not winning it is so remote that it’s not worth factoring into the calculations…
olson Says:
July 13th, 2007 at 11:14 am
Jason, can you please tell Heidema that his team in San Jose is very much looking forward to their new cars. I have mine already picked out on Motors…
Linda Says:
July 13th, 2007 at 11:49 am
I’m so confident that he’s going to win that I’m already picking out my diamonds =)
Jason Says:
July 13th, 2007 at 12:06 pm
I’m relaying all well-wishes to Jason, though I’m a bit hesitant to relay Linda’s…he doesn’t need that kind of pressure…
Joon-Soo Says:
July 13th, 2007 at 12:07 pm
Do you really mean “diamonds” plural . . . or “Diamond” with a capital “D” singular?
Ben Says:
July 13th, 2007 at 12:20 pm
Nice one, Joon-Soo.
Ben Says:
July 13th, 2007 at 12:28 pm
Check out this play by Gus Hansen. This is sick.
http://www.cardplayer.com/tournaments/hand_replays/7278/57
Erik Says:
July 13th, 2007 at 12:33 pm
According to the WSOP blog, Heidi has now outlasted Tobey Maguire.
Andrew Says:
July 13th, 2007 at 12:33 pm
Wow pocket deuces…you remember on poker superstars where he went all in 13 times in a row, that was crazy. I wonder if he did the fist pump after the big win?
Seema Says:
July 13th, 2007 at 12:48 pm
Heidi, you’re buying the next round at Do Re Mi!
Erik Says:
July 13th, 2007 at 2:20 pm
Congrats to Jason - a terrific run, and sorry to see it end.
Andrew Says:
July 13th, 2007 at 2:23 pm
Awesome run Jason, extremely impressive.
Ben Says:
July 13th, 2007 at 2:24 pm
It is actually probably a good thing that there are more chips at the table, assuming seat 6 was actually eliminated. I’ve ended up very short stacked at a final table even though I was chip leader at my table before the final table break. I think the 4 or 5 biggest stacks were all at the other table and there was literally nothing I could do to accumulate more chips before the table collapsed.

It’s higher risk - higher potential reward having more chips at the table, but given his chip position, greater variance isn’t necessarily a bad thing - particularly when those chips are to his right.
Ben Says:
July 13th, 2007 at 2:25 pm
ooops, didn’t see the update before the post. Great run, Jason. Congratulations on a very good tournament!
Bill Says:
July 13th, 2007 at 5:10 pm
Good job Heidi! Sad we didn’t get to come down and see you collect the $8M check.
kingjeff Says:
July 13th, 2007 at 9:24 pm
Go Heidema. Playing poker with buddies tonight and reading the updates aloud.thx steinhorn. Living vicariously. I’m up 12 bucks and feeling like I’m big time.
Bill Watt’s Blog » Blog Archive » Good job Heidema! Says:
July 14th, 2007 at 9:59 am
[…] My friend and fellow Wednesday night dinner regular did really well at this year’s World Series of Poker Main Event. He ended up in the money and if you want an account of how he did I suggest looking at Jason Steinhorn’s site. […]
Michael Says:
July 17th, 2007 at 2:04 pm
Heidi, great run man! congrats.

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WSOP Main Event, Day 4

24 Responses to “WSOP Main Event, Day 4”

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