Editor's note: Here are Days 6 and 7 of Andy Beal's latest adventure in Las Vegas. Check back each week as we post a new day of action. Day 1 | Day 2 | Days 3-5
Day 6 -- Sunday (the next Sunday)
Jennifer Bets
Jennifer Harman would play Andy Beal first on Sunday. The cards were in the air at 11:29 a.m. Harman, to an even greater degree than in her previous game with Andy, pushed the limits of aggressive play.
She raised nine of her first 12 hands on the button (and folded the other three). In every instance but one, she bet or raised on the flop. Although she varied her play during the day, it was unusual for her to merely call or offer Beal the opportunity to take the betting lead. She was also very active on Beal's button in trying to take over the betting after the flop.
Beal started by checking, calling and folding. He was behind by nearly a million dollars in 13 minutes. To his credit, he quickly adjusted and his counter-strategy proved successful throughout the afternoon. After those opening hands, he started playing back, raising or check-raising after the flop or turn, winning $1.2 million in an early four-hand sequence after Harman's fast start. The $800,000 pot he won on the last hand of this sequence gave him the lead for the day and he never gave it up.
This sequence started the pattern of play for the session. Harman would start as the aggressor. After the flop, Beal would either fold or play back.
Jennifer would make a lot of laydowns to Andy's aggressive responses, and she would call down a lot of hands where Andy was betting with genuine strength.
Without a doubt, Harman had some periods in which she was card dead. During an entire hour, nearly 60 hands, Beal won seven pots of $300,000 or more; Harman won just one. At one point, Andy won 15 straight hands.
But this is the danger of playing with maximum aggression. By building bigger pots, the best hand is disproportionately rewarded, and the second-best hand is disproportionately punished.
On the previous trip, Beal demonstrated that he had matured as a player. He no longer needed to scare the pros with the size of the game to have a chance to win. Like the pros, he could mix up his play and adjust to their shifts and feints. I thought, as a result, Beal had made himself a better -- but less-feared -- player. Jennifer's style pushed him back toward the wildly aggressive style he had played in 2001, 2003 and 2004.
Could the pros withstand the bigger swings? Did Beal's improvement include adjusting to this kind of game? Would his concerns about self-control and fatigue become magnified in a bigger, faster, wilder game?
Time Bomb
Andy told me he was going to play only four hours on Sunday, quitting at approximately 3:30 p.m. By 1 p.m., he had built his lead to $2.5 million -- this was during Jennifer's hour without playable cards -- and pointed out to me how well he played when rested. "Talk is cheap, but the reason I lose is because I play tired." He was fresh, playing well, and he wasn't going to let himself play when he was at less than his best.
Harman finally caught the cards to make her aggressive style pay off. Just before the 1:30 p.m. dealer change, she won back $1.2 million in six hands, and Andy's lead, once more than $3 million, was just $1.7 million.
But then Andy caught some cards and built the lead to $4.5 million by 2:25 p.m. In less than three hours, he had won nearly half of the group's bankroll.
Jennifer kept trying to come back. After betting and raising all the way, Beal's flush draw failed to come in. With three hearts on the board, and Andy winning nearly all the big pots, Jennifer thought long and hard before calling with her pocket queens, winning the $1 million pot. A few hands later, she won an $800,000 pot with top pair, against Beal's second pair. She had cut his lead to $2.7 million by 3 p.m.
At the break, Andy told me, "I'm only going to play another hour or so."
That sounded smart. He seemed to be drifting, slowing down his own play and frequently folding after calling several of Harman's bets. Then, instead of playing back, he would show down weak cards, sure losers unless Harman was making an outright bluff. Did he convince himself that he was tired and was losing his edge? As 4 p.m. neared, Beal seemed listless and passive. Harman had cut the margin to $1.5 million.
Once again, some good cards fueled strong play in a few big pots, restoring his lead. He won a $1 million pot with Ah-Kh and a flop of three hearts, pulling in the chips before Harman even had time to muck. Two hands later, he won another $1 million pot with two pair after Harman's bluff backfired.
As we neared the 4 p.m. break with Andy's lead back to $3.8 million, I was surprised when he did not call an end to the session. His margin swung between $3 million and $4.5 million. At the break for the 5 p.m. deck and dealer change, he admitted, "I know I'm going long. I just want to end up ahead by $5 million."
This was dangerous thinking. He had set a limit based on his stamina and, even though the physical signs suggested that it was a proper limit, he was ignoring it.
By 5:45 p.m., he was ahead by only $2 million, and that goal of $5 million seemed impossibly far away. I would bet that the next $2 million swing would bring Jennifer back to even.
But Andy got the best of Harman in a very dangerous hand, and the momentum shifted to him. Jennifer raised on her button and Andy made it three bets. After a flop of 8s-2h-Th, Andy bet and Jennifer raised. After the turn brought an ace of diamonds, Andy check-raised. The ace of hearts -- making three hearts on the board -- came on the river, and Beal bet it.
Jennifer thought for a long time, looking worried. She held a cup of coffee in both hands and sipped. She set it down and stacked, counted and collected rows of chips. With $1 million in the pot, I thought she would call, but for her to think about it this long, she couldn't have a flush or an ace.
She folded.
Beal then went on a rush, picking up A-A and K-K in the space of four hands and winning several other big pots. At 6:31 p.m., seven hours after starting the match, he won a $700,000 pot with K-8, flopping a king, and said, "Let's call it a day."
Beal ended the day winning $4.925 million. If he had used his prematch estimate of his stamina, confirmed by his fatigue and the swings in the game, he would have quit more than two hours earlier, ahead by approximately $3 million. Even though Harman temporarily cut his margin to just $1.5 million, he profited in the end, despite ignoring his warning signs.
It was a day of achievement, but one fraught with danger and lingering questions about how the match would proceed.
Monday, Day 7 : Two Men, Too Tired
Five hours after Todd Brunson and Beal started play on Monday morning, Brunson held a lead of just $300,000. Each man had the other stuck at one time by $1.5 million, though it had been close for most of the day.
During the 2 p.m. deck change, Beal said, "It's a tough battle, Todd."
Todd gestured toward his chips. "You didn't think we were going to just give these to you, did you?"
"You know, they say you're supposed to stop when it's not fun." Andy paused a moment, quiet. "Well, it's not fun."
They played three more hours.
The game had been a roller coaster ride all day, with Brunson setting the pace. He started the day with a more aggressive style than he had shown in the previous two February matches, but had also seamlessly changed gears. He could bet Beal out of pot after pot, yet have a good enough hand to prevail when Andy looked him up.
The next move was Todd's. By 3:30 p.m., he had moved ahead by $2.5 million. It was a 40-bet swing in 2½ half hours, and he demonstrated how he earned the reputation as a great short-handed hold 'em player. All day long, he had been agitating to build bigger pots. He had
walked the high wire perfectly, conceding pots where he was overplaying or bluffing, but somehow managing to get maximum action on his good hands. He bet all the way on a garbage board with pocket 9s and won an $800,000 pot. With A-10, he picked up two 10s on the flop and took another half million from Beal. He got in a rare fourth bet before the flop with pocket kings and won that pot, too.
Then, Brunson sat on his lead, calling on his button, checking with the betting lead. Beal followed, and during one stretch of 19 hands, there wasn't a single called bet of $100,000.
Beal was hanging by a thread. At 3:55 p.m., Brunson called on his button and Beal, out of position, raised. Andy bet the flop of 6c-3s-5d. When Brunson raised, Andy reraised. Todd made it four bets and Andy called. After the queen of spades hit on the turn, Todd bet and Andy just called. They both checked to the jack of hearts on the river.
Beal turned over A-6. He had top pair, top kicker on the flop, but was vulnerable to straights, two pairs, and the overcards on the turn and river. Todd looked at his hole cards, almost turning them over -- I knew at this moment that Andy had won because Brunson would never slow roll -- before throwing them in the muck. (Todd had K-6.)
It was an $800,000 pot for Andy, and I think he needed it to keep his equilibrium.
Beal had a card propped up to the right of his pocket watch. He had written very neatly on the card: "statue," "robot," "slow-pre," and "A-A." In the heat of the moment, it is easy to ignore such prompts. Beal and his opponents had been playing approximately 30 hands per dealer. In the previous half-hour, they had played 41.
On the last hand before the 4 p.m. deck change, Beal called Brunson's button raise with J-6 and got a dream flop of 6-7-J. Todd, with A-K, naturally faced a check-raise, and called. But he was truly stuck on the hand after an ace hit on the turn. Andy won the $1 million pot.
That hand probably kept Beal from quitting at 4 p.m. In the first series of hands after the break, he won back-to-back pots of $1.1 million and $800,000 to pull close to even. Todd kept chipping away at the small pots, but Beal was winning the showdowns.
They played one of the biggest pots of the afternoon at 4:20 p.m. Neither side raised Brunson's button. After a flop of 5-7-9, all spades, Beal check-raised. He bet out after the three of hearts came on the turn. Todd raised and Andy reraised. Following the six of clubs on the end, Beal bet and was called. Andy turned over 4-6 of spades for a flush, taking the $1.1 million pot and the lead.
For the next 20 minutes, the match remained knotted, the tension building as both players downshifted their betting. Beal took over the lead for good when Brunson bluffed at a pot after an ace fell on the turn, but Beal called him down -- he had A-K -- to win a $700,000 pot.
At 5:02 p.m., after building his margin through small pots, Beal won another $700,000 when his open-ended straight draw hit on the river.
Andy said, "Let's call it a day, Todd. I'm dying."
Brunson had Beal on the ropes, but somehow, he escaped. The match was close most of the day and was close at the end, but Andy finished ahead $1.2 million, extending his lead to $6.2 million after two days.
Ted Forrest would be his opponent on Wednesday, Valentine's Day. In the spirit of the occasion, Ted came by in the afternoon to give Andy a pair of gifts from his girlfriend: a homeopathic sleep aid and a philosophy book, Krishnamurti's "Freedom from the Known."
Andy thanked Ted and promised to try it. "What's the book for?"
"She said, 'If the treatment doesn't put you to sleep, the book will.'"
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