button in SafariHan Feng Blames Poker Announcer’s Curse for Brutal WSOP Main Event Bad Beat
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Mere moments after having his aces brutally cracked to exit the WSOP Main Event in fifth place, interviewer Jeff Platt asked the charismatic and composed Han Feng what was next. His response was simple: “Barcelona. It’s already booked.”
Three weeks on, and true to his word, the American is here grinding away at the EPT in the Catalan capital, and after a very successful festival so far, it looks like a decision well made.
If Feng is harboring any resentment about finding himself on the sharp end of one of the baddest of bad beats imaginable (in the circumstances, at least), he’s doing an exceptional job of hiding it. Perhaps that’s because he knows the reason it happened, though.
If you’re reading this, Jeff Platt, you may want to look away now. Your influence may be even greater than we realized...
Getting "Jeff Platt Cursed"
Getting your aces cracked at any point in any tournament is pretty nasty, but perhaps there should be a special place in poker hell reserved for when it happens five-handed at the WSOP Main Event final table.
After all, while Feng banked $2.25 million for his remarkable Main Event run (not bad for ten days' work), Greg Mueller, the beneficiary of the fortunate runout, used his newly acquired chips to make a run to third place and an additional $1.5 million.
Still, there is no bitterness from Feng, who reflected on the hand three weeks later, saying, “I actually don't think about it too much at all. It's a very simple spot. You just lose aces to nines 20% of the time, so it doesn't bother me.”
"I was the only guy he interviewed before Day 2 started for like two minutes, and then I got cooked."
“What bothers me was me not holding ace-jack to Lauri [Saaskilahti] when he had kings. That's what bothers me. Not the bad beat. Bad beats don't bother me.”
While he knows the math, and it's undeniable, there is an impish grin on Feng's face as he offers a rather more unconventional theory for what happened.
“I definitely got Jeff Platt cursed 100% because he didn't interview me the first day and I smashed them all. And then... I was the only guy he interviewed before Day 2 started for like two minutes, and then I got cooked.”
Enjoying EPT Barcelona
In the great game of Chutes & Ladders that is being a poker player, Feng, now also a content partner for GTO Wizard, was well on his way before his recent Main Event run, but there's no doubt a $2.25 million score helps.
Success breeds more success (just ask Jamie Dwan), and Feng's sixth-place run in the PokerStars Open Main Event banked him €148,610, the second-largest prize of his career to date.
Asked if he'd noticed any difference since playing a starring role on ESPN, Feng replied, “I still think like half the people don't even know I final tabled the Main. They just think I'm some random dude, so that's good also.”
“I still think like half the people don't even know I final tabled the Main. They just think I'm some random dude."
And he's running pretty well, too, which helps, adding, “I mean, I just won all my flips, to be honest, today. Even yesterday I didn't lose any flips... but I was ahead all of them, to be fair.”
Will we see his newfound wealth used for higher buy-ins and more trips? No, it's not how Feng approaches his poker. The American is nothing if not methodical, and his plans don't appear to have changed much despite the life-changing scores in Vegas and here in Barcelona.
“I was already coming here before I made the Main. I just had to postpone the flight a little bit... I wasn't gonna cancel, I just rescheduled it.”
And as for spending the money? “Nope. No, it's locked up. It's going into Bitcoin.”
With thanks to WSOP for imagery.
