ESPN or Harrington

[Mikey]

in VOL 1. Harrington describes his squeeze play with the KK.
I think the action he describes is a little fuzzy compared to what I saw on ESPN, but maybe ESPN made an error.

From what it looked like on TV Harrington was in the BB and Lester in the SB, Farha opened on the button with 22, Lester called, Harrington but in the Squeeze with KK.

In the book it says that Farha opened from UTG and Lester called and Harrington made a reraise and then field folded. It didn't look like that on TV.

Also the flop on TV is different from the one in the book.

Is this the first time someone has picked up on this or am I posting about on old topic?

Thanks.

[stigmata]

Is this the same hand - didn't Lester call harrington's raise and then push on the rag flop with 77?

[Mikey]

yes

[sfer]

In the RGP archives there are a number of posts about that WSOP where various people claim that ESPN made mistakes about the action and about cards.

[stigmata]

Does nobody nowhere transcribe this [censored] and put it on the internet? And if not, why not?

[bolgenmod]

I believe there might be some confusion about two different hands. In one, Harrington puts the squeeze on Arieh opening with a raise, Raymer coldcalling, and Harrington reraising with junk. Both fold to Harrington. (I think Raymer even makes a remark -- not in the book -- about how he doesn't have aces and thus can't call! But if I remember the "Raymer commentary" final table correctly, Raymer didn't really remember the hand!)

The other hand has Farha with 22, Lester with 77, Harrington with KK (I think I've got the pocket pairs right, but I'm not going to go digging into HOH to verify!). Harrington says he was thinking squeeze play, but then he looks at his hand and wow, a good hand. So he overbet, thinking about a squeeze play, but also that Farha or Lester might call thinking that Harrington was squeezing with an inferior hand or perhaps AK/AQ. Farha did fold, but Lester called. When the flop came low, Lester pushed and doubled up Harrington.

Harrington writes something like to those who didn't know (read commentators) we looked like amateurs, me making an overbet that Lester would have to assume was a premium pair and would thus fold. But I knew that Lester (who knew Harrington's play) would think I was making a move. So both of us played correctly: I knew he would think I was on a steal, but I actually had a hand, so I trapped him.

Funny thing is that when I read HOH, I remembered seeing these hands on TV. The first really impressed me because I could see what he was doing: he clearly thought a reraise from him would fold the two aggressive players if they didn't have a great hand. The second I didn't understand (I thought the same thing: overbet!) until I read HOH. Not much of a compliment as I don't play much No-limit and few tournaments, but when I read stuff like this, I REALLY know how little I know!