Critiquiing Lee Watkinson's play

[bweiser8311962]

These seemed like obvious mistakes to me. What does the board think?

He gets Q/6 ... flop is 7/6/2or3... He checks. Lawson bets. He raises. Lawson goes over the top. I fold.

He gets 3/9 i think ... flop is 3/4/7. Doyle has the nut flush. Eventually winds up all-in. Watkinson calls with low pair.

He gets Q/5ish. ... Board is A/9/9/3/3 ... There is 230,000 in the pot and Doyle pushes in 400000 with his pocket 10s ... a risky play. Watkinson calls 400 to 115, thinking the pot is split. To me, that risk isn't worth the reward even if it is a split pot. Too many hands beat him though. Any Ace, 9 or 3 is most likely. I fold.

Thoughts?

[Spladle Master]

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He gets Q/6 ... flop is 7/6/2or3... He checks. Lawson bets. He raises. Lawson goes over the top. I fold.

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Lee was getting 2:1 odds to make the call, so he doesn't need to be ahead very often to make this call correct.

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He gets 3/9 i think ... flop is 3/4/7. Doyle has the nut flush. Eventually winds up all-in. Watkinson calls with low pair.

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Lee raised on the button with 53. Doyle called with 65. Doyle flopped a straight on the board you mentioned and checked. Lee bet. The turn was a ten. Doyle checked, Lee bet, and Doyle raised. Lee moved all-in. He didn't call, he bluffed.

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He gets Q/5ish. ... Board is A/9/9/3/3 ... There is 230,000 in the pot and Doyle pushes in 400000 with his pocket 10s ... a risky play. Watkinson calls 400 to 115, thinking the pot is split. To me, that risk isn't worth the reward even if it is a split pot. Too many hands beat him though. Any Ace, 9 or 3 is most likely. I fold.

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The reason Lee was so sure the pot would be split was that Doyle had checked on both the flop and turn, then overbet the pot by a significant amount on the river. He played it very well. However, in this case I think you're right. In order for the call to be right, Lee needs to be about 80% sure that the pot will be split.

[Rianna]

With ALL due respest to Lee, a fine, fine player and a true gentleman, I couldnt help but feel he was intimidated by one of the worlds truly great players in Doyle.

When Lee lost 500,000 on the CALL with bottom pair, that about did it IMHO. Bottom pair, NO reason to get involved with that hand.

IMHO I feel Doyle simply outclassed him as he has so many players over the years. THIS time Doyle came to win it, unlike the last time he made the final table.

I thought Brunson played brilliantly, one of the best WPT 'clinics' we have had the honor of watching....amazing to watch this 71 year old man beat over 600 entries.

I used to watch him destroy players in the 70's, 80's at the Dunes etc, he's a remarkable man IMO.

Wish we had more posts on that tourney, i loved it.

Best, Rianna

[I.Rowboat]

I agree. I watched it again on yesterday's re-broadcast, and Doyle just played Lee like a fish. Lee bet when Doyle wanted a bet, called when Doyle wanted a call, and folded when Doyle wanted him to fold. He TOTALLY owned Lee, who is still a very fine player.

The absolute best line of the show, maybe of the series, is Doyle's dry, delayed response to Lee's all-in bet when Doyle flopped the nuy straight: "I call, by the way." (VVP's remark about Dolye having "played more hands of poker than Pete Lawson has eaten hot meals" was also pretty damn funny.)

The rest of the show was all cat, no mouse.

And I agree -- he came to win, and he patiently avoided playing BS hands until he was heads up, even though he had enough chips that he could have gambled earlier if he had wanted to. A clinic, indeed.

Very good stuff!

[thedude4life]

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THIS time Doyle came to win it, unlike the last time he made the final table.


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yes, it is well known that some players, after having played for 3 days straight, DO NOT try to win the tournament and over 1 million when they make the final table.

[Rianna]

I thought it was one of the best Card Playing Clinics WPT has had yet, no BS, Pure poker.

What I meant @ Doyle came to play was I had spoken with him after his last appearance at the last table and he wasn't well and he told me he wasn't playing well, he needed to get some rest and frankly was not bothered to exit the final table. Of course he would have liked to win that one but he wasn't up to putting in a good performance.

This time it was different as we all had the honor of seeing. At 71 the man can still play brilliantly IMHO. He is a poker legend and I thought it showed.

[Scooterdoo]

I agree that he played well. But of course he needed both things to go right with the cards (he has pretty good hands against Lee's a bit less than pretty good hands) and he also had the forture of Lee deciding to bluff big with nothing when he flopped the nuts. He basically got back in the tournament with a very lucky situation -- not only did he flop the nuts, but he had a player who was willing to put all his chips in the middle with little to nothing.

On the last hand he had top pair with only a moderate kicker and came over the top of Lee's strong bet by pushing all-in. He had the good fortune that Lee had an even worse kicker and was willing to risk his tournament life on the hand. Doyle's play could have easily been heavily criticized if Lee had one of many possible likely holdings. Perhaps one can argue that Doyle had a great read on Lee and knew that he didn't have a strong hand, which is a fair argument too!

[Rianna]

I respectfully disagree. Having both played against and watched Doyle play for a number of years, even being considerably outchipped, I personally felt it was just a matter of time.

Roughly 50 years of playing no limit, often for a living, if the cards broke close to even, with ALL due respect to Lee, he was simply outclassed. Nothing to be ashamed of Doyle still is one of the best in the world even at 71.

The hand with Q9- Q3...even if Lee won that hand, it was still only a matter of time.

I respect your opinion and yes, feel Lee IS a fine player with a great future but in this case, it was a mismatch.

[PokerSlut]

Or maybe the argument in favor of pushing with Q9 has something to do with the fact that heads-up, your opponent is much more likely to have a worse hand than a better one than yours.

[mojorisin24]

I agree. I thought that the was the best episode of the WPT I have seen so far.