Jesse Sylvia opened to 13,000 in early position and Katie Lindsay three-bet to 30,000 in middle position. Sylvia called.
The dealer spread the flop and Sylvia check-called for 30,000. The landed on the turn and Sylvia check-folded to a bet of 70,000, as Lindsay picked up the chips.
Thirteen years ago, the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event went on just its second-ever November Nine hiatus. When they did, Steve Begleiter sat third in chips behind Darvin Moon and Eric Buchman, but ahead of other players like Jeff Shulman, Phil Ivey, and eventual champ Joe Cada.
Begleiter, who was in action today here on Day 3 of the 2022 Wynn Millions, wound up finishing in sixth place for $1,587,160, which was his first-ever documented tournament cash on the Hendon Mob. Since then, he’s only added two other scores, one in August 2009 and the other in June 2016 when he finished 428th for $3,862 in the WSOP Event #41: $1,500 Monster Stack.
So, whatever happened to the former head of corporate strategy at Bear Stearns and married father of three?
“I’m not a professional. I started maybe in 2007. I played the Main Event in 2008, and between 2008-09 I put a lot of time into the game,” Begleiter recently told PokerNews. “Obviously in 2009, I caught lightning in a bottle. Very little bad stuff had happened to me. I hadn’t had that many two outers, or four hours with no cards. I probably played the Main Event the next five or six years, and I busted myself once or twice, but basically, all those bad things I thought only happened to other people happened to me.”
He continued: “There were no results to show for it. Then life sort of got in the way – aging parents, work, stuff like that. I stopped going for a few years and really just limited my poker to friends in the community that I live in. This year I turn 60 and the present my wife is giving me is I can play as many poker tournaments as I can fit into my schedule.”
Few players had as big a rail as Begleiter did back in 2009. Not only was his wife, Karen, in attendance, and his three children – Joshua, Caroline, and Aaron – waiting in the hall (they weren’t old enough at the time to enter the gaming area), but he also had over a hundred friends and family in the crowd.
“It was one of the thrills of a lifetime,” he recalled fondly. “If you remember, I had won my stake in a local tournament, so I had 20 partners. I had a 100 friends and family out there. It was just a great shared experience and I’m still friends with many of those people today. Looking back, it was a really, really fun time.”
Unfortunately Begleiter's return to poker did not result in another big final table appearance as he was eliminated from the 2022 Wynn Millions before the money.
On a flop, Sylvain Loosli was in the big blind and check-called a bet of 37,000 against Ali Imsirovic on the button.
The landed on the turn and Loosli check-called again, this time for 75,000.
The completed the board and after a check, Imsirovic bet 180,000. Loosli thought about it and moved in his chips, causing Imsirovic to muck his hand, and Loosli raked in the pot.
The day before attempting to defend his title in the 2022 Wynn Millions, Andrew Moreno, who is in today's field, made an interesting post on social media talking about why he didn’t chip a big tournament he had won just over a week earlier.
The tournament was the Venetian Event #27: $2,500 Ultimate Stack, which attracted 542 runners and offered up a $1,233,050 prize pool. Moreno, who won the 2021 Wynn Millions for $1,460,106, went on to win the tournament for $242,293.
Moreno explained the situation in his post: “The word ‘chop’ got thrown around a few times. First, when we were 4-handed, I politely declined. Then again, when we were 3-handed. Once again, I respectfully declined. When I got heads up, the gentlemen proposed a chop and even offered to give me slightly more money despite having me out chipped 12 million to my 8 million. He was puzzled as to why I would decline a deal. I did so for two reasons.”
Moreno then explained the first reason was that he thought he had an edge, while the second was because he wanted to “seize the opportunity for invaluable final table experience.” Moreno went on to elaborate on “playing for it all” in the post, but PokerNews also took the opportunity to ask him about it during Day 1b of the 2022 Wynn Millions.
“A lot of times in lower stakes buy-ins, dailies, and those sorts of things, people want to chop. A lot of those people tend to take shots in bigger tournaments, and I just recognized a lot of the people that get to the end, I’ve played with a few of them in these bigger events, they just lack the experience because they’re always chopping. It can really cost you because the final three or four places, that’s where all the money is, so if you have no experience between you always chop these dailies, I think it can come back to hurt you a lot more later. I don’t think people really think about that when they chop because they’re so focused on securing some cash.”
Venetian Event #27: $2,500 Ultimate Stack Final Table Results
Place
Player
Hometown
Prize
1
Andrew Moreno
Las Vegas, NV
$242,293
2
Brent Hart
Inglewood, CA
$166,462
3
Bret Wigal
Las Vegas, NV
$117,140
4
Christina Gollins
Henderson, NV
$83,847
5
Guillermo Sanchez Otero
United Kingdom
$63,502
6
Timothy Pai
San Jose, CA
$47,472
7
Barry Hutter
Hollywood, FL
$35,142
8
Leonardo Valenzuela
Shepherd, MT
$27,127
9
Noam Muallem
Las Vegas, NV
$21,578
Ironically, Moreno did do a three-handed deal at last year’s Wynn Millions final table, but to be fair, he was the short stack at the time and there were literally millions on the line. As for what it was like to be back where he had his seven-figure life-changing victory just months before welcoming his first child into the world with wife Kristy Moreno (formerly PokerNews hostess Kristy Arnett)?
“It’s really surreal. It feels like a dream,” he admitted. “I started my poker career here at the Wynn. They used to have the $3 chips for the $1-$3 no-limit game like 15 or 20 years ago. It’s just kind of nice to have it come full circle all these years later.”
As for his defense strategy, Moreno added: “I just take everything hand-by-hand. Anytime my hand goes too far in the future it doesn’t serve me, so I just bring it right back to what’s happening right in front of me. As the tournament progresses there’s more noise with those sorts of things, like pay jumps or bubbles, but I really try to focus on every single hand.”
For more on Moreno, check out the post-victory interview he did with PokerNews:
With the bubble looming, Ugur Secilmis fired a 35,000 bet at the big stacked Katie Lindsay on the river. The board read and there was already about 50,000 in the pot. Lindsay pondered her decision for a minute before electing to fold, and Secilmis took down a much needed pot.
On a flop, Nick Schulman was in early position and check-called a 26,000 bet by Ian Matakis in middle position.
The landed on the turn and Schulman check-called for 69,000. The completed the board and Schulman checked. Matakis thought for a bit before checking as well.
Schulman revealed but it was no good against the of Matakis.