Barch v Black Play at WSOP - final table bubble question?

[Poker Jon]

Hi all,

Have done a quick search but can't seem to find any discussion on it - if there is please direct me for discussion, if not please read on.

I live in the UK where the WSOP 2005 ME is being shown and I wanted to post this hand from last nights show and see what you made of it?

Situation:

Last 10 players out of 5600+ - they are all at 1 table. Final 9 get to the 'final' table and become millionaires.

OK here we go:

Relative stacks are:
Andy Black is chip leader with about $10 million I think.
Tex Barch is 3 or 4th in chips with about $5million and can 'coast' to final 9 if he wishes.

Blinds are about 50k/100k. There are 3 limpers into the pot including Andy Black (has KJo) who is a highly aggressive and tricky European pro. Barch looks down at pocket Jacks and decided to raise to $1m.

All fold back to Black who looks back at Barch, eyes him up and down. There is a bit banter between them and Black moves all in.

Barch thinks for about 30 secs and then calls.

Even if he puts Black on AK, or a smaller pocket pair, would you risk your place at the final table after 6 days of poker on a coin flip? Maybe, maybe not.

I can't work out if this is a stupid or brilliant call??

Any discussion on it?

Cheers,

Jon

[tshort]

1) I think he is there to make the most money possible.

2) He wants to win the tournament, not simply make it to the final table.

[Poker Jon]

1) If this is the case why shove all your chips in on a 50:50 when you have 50x BB?

2) If this is the case why shove all your chips in on a 50:50 when you have 50x BB?

We are all in it for both of those reasons, does this mean that it is the correct play?

Jon

[raptor517]

tex makes a great play imo. he knows that black is shoving light because of the final table bubble, and makes a solid call with JJ to drag a nice pot and put himself in contention to win. the prize differnece from 10th to 6th isnt a whole heck of a lot. holla

[billyjex]

Here's the deal; Whatever Black cold calls a raise and a call at this stage of the tournament does not have JJ beat. In fact, whatever plays Black is making with this hand, are signfigant underdogs to Tex's JJ. Throw in the overlayh from all the dead money in the pot, and this is an easy (when you dont think about the money involved) call.

Just so you know, you listed the action wrong. Matusow raised in EP, someone cold called, then Black cold called. And then Barch reraised a signifigant amount in the SB or BB. I think this move is only done by JJ+, AK.

[ansky451]

No offense, but you clearly are lacking some understanding of tournament poker. The way Barch is going to maximize his EV is to "play to win." He won't make the most money, even if he coasts into 9th, and makes a cool million. You realize he has already locked up 600k, so its not like its a satellite situation. 1st is 7.5m and the title of WSOP champion, something with inherent EV. Given the action there are 0 hands Black could have had that beat Barch. If i was barch I'd INSTA call and expect to be shown a smaller pair.

[BPA234]

One point here is that Black took a long time and Barch grew tired of the wait and said something along the lines of, " cmon you know you're not gonna call, you know you're dominated." I believe that Blach then thought Barch had a small PP and was willing to gamble. Barch, I believe, thought he was way ahead of what he thought was Blachs medPP and appeared to make a fairly easy and clearly correct call.