I'm pulling for Andy Black - a true sportsman

[Rock27]

In an earlier round there was some confusion for a player (for whom English was not his first language) about the length of meal break. He thought it was 1 hour and in actuality it was only a 1/2 hour. Apparently there had been some confusing PA announcments which may have contributed to this. Black asked staff to go look for this player and/or wait a few minutes and he would go look. They said no. So Black slow-played every hand, asking for time, and generally delaying until the guy came back. He could have just sat back and watch this guy get blinded + anteed out of the tourney which obviously would have benefitted himself. I think that was really classy and I am hoping he wins!

Rock27 /images/graemlins/spade.gif

[MonkeeMan]

I read the same report and felt the same. This guy has me in his corner too.

Plus, he's Irish /images/graemlins/grin.gif

[Gordon Scott]

I agree.

Class act.

[JackWhite]

Agreed. Can you imagine Matusow doing that? He'd be dancing while that guy got blinded off. Classy move by Black.

[RacersEdge]

Was that when the dinner break was shortened and the other guy didn't know about it? Either way, class act.

[Kevmath]

It's when what the break that was expected to be the dinner break turned out to be a regular break. A dinner break was announced in the other event they were holding at the same time in the room.

[Jordan Olsommer]

Once again, agreed. Noble civil disobedience at the poker table /images/graemlins/smile.gif

G'wan Andy. We're all behind you back home. I think they might finally mention the poker on the tv here now.

[liquid]

Ditto. I am pulling hard for Andy and his posse of nuns.

http://www.gutshot.com/wsop/wsop2005dev/video/andyblack.jpg

[TomHimself]

I hope he loses 9th, guy looks like a total tool.

[ QUOTE ]
I hope he loses 9th, guy looks like a total tool.

[/ QUOTE ]

Excellent criteria.

[-Skeme-]

I really don't get how that's such a great act. Doesn't that screw the other players? More important the shorter stacks. Don't they all get screwed by missing hands?

[TomHimself]

[ QUOTE ]
I really don't get how that's such a great act. Doesn't that screw the other players? More important the shorter stacks. Don't they all get screwed by missing hands?

[/ QUOTE ]

[B Dids]

I gotta respect that too. I've kinda got an over developed sense of fair play though.

Especially when you learn that it's ESPN messing with the schedule and changing around breaks.

[BS Yee]

Based on what I've read about him - he's the one I'll be pulling for - someone had posted a Cardplayer article on him about how Stu Unger took him out in 1997 - he was 14th in that tournament. He also made a bold play last night which took him out of the chip lead.

[gumpzilla]

[ QUOTE ]
I really don't get how that's such a great act. Doesn't that screw the other players? More important the shorter stacks. Don't they all get screwed by missing hands?

[/ QUOTE ]

I think you're on the right track but have the specifics ass backwards. Typically smaller stacks are the ones with an incentive to stall and hope that people bust out elsewhere so they can creep up in the money. Big stacks who are still in strong contention to win want to be applying the pressure and accumulating many chips here so that they aren't falling behind big stacks at other tables. So it does screw other people at the table. Regardless, I think his heart was in the right place, and that's what people are admiring.

[Coleman]

Personally, he may be as appealing as Daniel Negreanu, but the cynic in me suggests that he is ignoring a poker basic:

It's a Zero-Sum game.

Will he overcome this violation?

[Rock27]

[ QUOTE ]
It's a Zero-Sum game.

Will he overcome this violation?

[/ QUOTE ]

You're forgetting the role of karma! /images/graemlins/wink.gif

[Coleman]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
It's a Zero-Sum game.

Will he overcome this violation?

[/ QUOTE ]

You're forgetting the role of karma! /images/graemlins/wink.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

Karma's not the dealer- Karma's the cocktail waitress.

[fyodor]

[ QUOTE ]
He also made a bold play last night which took him out of the chip lead.

[/ QUOTE ]

I thought that 'bold' play was kind of dumb. I believe preflop there was a raise, a cold caller, Black cold calls with KJo, a blind reraises, original raiser mucks, cold caller mucks and Black goes all in. He has about 12mil at the time and the blind has 4 mil. The first 2 raises had made it less than 1 mil total. (I'm goihg from memory here so correct me with exact numbers if you like)

Anyhow Black has to be hoping the reraiser was on a complete bluff as if Black himself had a huge hand he would have raised rather than coldcalled in the first place. Obviously the reraiser thus puts Black on less than a premium hand and acts accordingly. He calls. End of chip lead.

I still like what I've read and seen of Black though. Just didn't care for his play in this particular hand.

[fyodor]

Date / Time: 2005-07-15 02:31:00
Title: Tex Barch Doubles Up Through Andrew Black
Log: Hand 41 - Andrew Black has the button in seat 2, Matusow raises to $260,000, Lazar calls, Black calls, Barch reraises to $1,000,000, and everyone folds to Black, who thinks long and hard. After a few minutes, Black reraises all in. Now the million-dollar pressure cooker is in full force on Tex Barch, who counts out his chips as he considers the call. Andrew Black looks relaxed as he takes a drink from his water bottle, and then watches Barch count his chips. Barch takes a good look at Black, who was looking down and shuffling his chips. When Black looks up, their eyes meet for a moment, and Black smiles at the surprise. About ten seconds later, Barch makes the call.


Andrew Black shows Kh-Js, while Barch has pocket jacks (Jh-Jc). This is the biggest pot of the tournament, and whoever wins this pot will be our chip leader. If Black wins, he'll take a commanding position headed to tomorrow's final table. If Barch wins, he'll put himself in great position as well.


The crowd is yelling for their favorites when Mike Matusow stands up and light-heartedly says, "Keep it down! I'm trying to concentrate!"


The flop comes Ah-4d-3c, and Barch is still in the lead with the jacks. Black needs to catch a king or a runner-runner straight to eliminate Barch. The turn card is the Qs, and the crowd lets out a huge reaction to the paint on the board. Black has picked up some more outs, and he can win with a ten or a king (7 outs).


The crowd goes quiet, with random exclamations from the crowd asking for specific cards. The river card is the 3h, and most of the crowd applauds as Tex Barch doubles up in chips.


After the hand, Andrew Black stands up, smiles, and waves to the crowd, as if to say, "That's alright. Let's play poker."

[cassette]

I'm pulling for Black, too. Seems like a class act.

[Jordan Olsommer]

[ QUOTE ]

I still like what I've read and seen of Black though. Just didn't care for his play in this particular hand.

[/ QUOTE ]

KJo? Clearly it was an homage to Bill Fillmaff.

[72off]

[ QUOTE ]
I really don't get how that's such a great act. Doesn't that screw the other players? More important the shorter stacks. Don't they all get screwed by missing hands?

[/ QUOTE ]

Seems to be what some of the guys at his table thought. Sounded like they were giving it to him for stalling.

I think the criticism of Black is a little over the top. Bing Wang (the MIA guy) was the shortstack (or at least one of the shortstacks), so I guess Black thought it was a little cruel to blind the guy off with this kind of money at stake. According to the Cardplayer timestamps, the whole incident took about 15 minutes (from when the reported the guy missing, to when he showed up), and the Bing Wang was the next guy out anyway, I believe.

And any amount of time he stalled still pales in comparison to HDOG.

[excession]

Ah - but he's a buddhist and it's also a zero karma game - I bet he was just hoovering it up from Mike and Shawn

Andy has an explanation for that hand here - http://www.antesup.com/wsop/wsopnews.php. Hes quite honest about it.

[Andy B]

I'm pulling for Andy Black because he has a cool name.

[Mason Hellmuth]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm pulling for Andy Black because he has a cool name.

[/ QUOTE ]

[ QUOTE ]
Excellent criteria.

[/ QUOTE ]