How to Run Great by Dan Harrington

[Ulysses]

Maybe he'll have a chapter on that in his new book!

from PokerPages:

1:00 AM
Marcel Luske eliminated in 10th by Dan Harrington.
Dan Harrington made it $150,000 to go, and Marcel Luske called. The flop came 6c 8c Qc. Harrington checked, and Luske moved all in for $700,000. Harrington thought, checked his hole cards, and called. Luske showed 4c 4s, Harrington had Ac Jd. The turn came Jh, the river came 8s. Harrington won with a pair of jacks.
After the hand, Harrington admitted that when he checked on the flop, he thought he had the ace of spades in his hand. He was about to muck, when he checked his cards, and realized he had the ace of clubs. Had he not misread his hand, he would have bet out, and Luske would have been forced to fold.

When you run bad, you call here and lose. With about $500k you're the small stack of the final 10.

When you run good, you bet out and take down this pot. You have $1.5M and still playing for the final table.

When you run great, you misread your hand and end up calling here and making the best hand, ending up with $2.2M and a seat at the final table.

When a guy like Dan Harrington forgets whether he has the As or Ac, that tells you something about the pressure and exhaustion that must be taking place at this stage.

Good luck to Dan at the final table!

[iceblink]

It is increbible that Harrington initially misread his hand there. But I'm not sure I understand what you mean by the run good/run bad comment. I mean, Harrington IS a favorite in this situation, altho it is close. I get 53.3% for the AcJd after the flop, using Cardplayer.com's TXHE calculator.

[drewjustdrew]

That's why it would be running bad. These are all hypotheticals. He would be a small favorite and hypothetically lose. That's running bad. Running good would be playing the hand the way he probably should have played it, had he realized what his hand was.

[teemu_69]

I seem to remember someone at the final table, or close to it, last year mentining to a railbird that he was really tired? Anyone have it on tape and can confirm if this was Harrington? That would give a lot of credibility to the fact that he forgot because he was tired... and also an interesting flaw in his game.

[Easy E]

I'm pretty sure that WAS Dan H last year... and you have a good point

[TheBull]

Yeah, last year Harrington went to the rail and said "I just hit the wall".

[turnipmonster]

apparently dan used to play NL years ago in nyc, and everyone around here really respects his play and still talks about him.

--turnipmonster

[La Brujita]

Really good post. The running good and bad comment really hit home to me. It is not a point about probabilities, it is (for me ) more metaphysical and gets to the ups and downs of playing a lot of tournaments.

In my mind when I am playing I feel like a donkey who can't do anything right when losing and a true star when winning, all playing the same poker.

Finally, I don't know him but I wish Dan all the best of luck. I am rooting for Greg but Dan is one of my two favorite players (other is Lederer). He seems like a classy guy and is an incredibly classy player.

This may be an odd comment but with all the super aggressive players who do well it is nice to see a slightly tighter player assert himself as one of the alltime greats.

Regards

[Stoneii]

Oh to have such a flaw that I consistently tire when I get to final table of WSOP [img]/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]

That's some staying power exhibited to wade through 2600 players

stoneii

[Philuva]

I will say I was exhausted after playing for a day and a half. You try and concentrate so hard on every single hand. I can only imagine how tired these guys are after playing for 5 days straight and for that much money now. I would imagine they are having serious troubles sleeping at night too. I know I did before Day 2, and that was just Day 2.