Idan The One was seen lamenting not folding when he ran his K♣10♥ into his opponent's Q♥Q♦ but the king never saved him and The One will have to hope to have better luck on the next one.
Chad Caldwell had an upward trajectory until his three of a kind aces were outkicked for the maximum.
Earlier this year on an ordinary Monday afternoon, a bespectacled man walked into the Gold & Silver Pawn Shop on Las Vegas Blvd. Tucked under his arm was an uninteresting box that only he knew contained something rather interesting – a pair of gold watches dating back more than 40 years.
These were not your run-of-the-mill wristwear, but rather evidence of a unique and often overlooked time of poker history, a year when the World Series of Poker (WSOP) gold bracelet, now the game’s highest accolade, was replaced in favor of watches.
1982 WSOP watches
The man holding the box was David Sklansky, who in 1978 forever changed poker by advocating a mathematical approach to the game in his groundbreaking book The Theory of Poker. Nicknamed “The Mathematician,” he proved his prowess just four years later when he won two WSOP tournaments in five days.
First, he won the 1982 WSOP Event #7: $800 Mixed Doubles Limit Seven Card Stud, a tournament that paired one man with one woman, alongside Dani Kelly, and followed that up by taking down Event #12: $1,000 Limit 5-Card Draw High. A year later, the Binions reverted back to the beloved bracelets players know today, and Sklansky captured his third piece of WSOP hardware by winning Event #11: $1,000 Limit Omaha.
It was a remarkable accomplishment, and for more than four decades he’s kept safe the evidence of his victories, both of which still worked. So, why was Sklansky carrying his 1982 WSOP gold watches, two of only 15 ever awarded, into a pawn shop? Well, he was looking to sell them of course, but not to just any of the dozens of pawn shops spread across Las Vegas. Oh no, he was walking into arguably the most famous pawn shop in the world, the home to the wildly popular television show Pawn Stars, and he was there to do it with cameras rolling.
The player in early position raised to 5,500 and Fabio Franchini called from the big blind. The flop came out with 2♣4♦7♦ and the early position bet out 5,500 and Franchini called.
The turn Q♦ and the river A♥ were both checked through and the early position flipped over 9♦9♥ and Franchini showed the A♣5♥ for the pair of aces.
Just two hands after the table saw Benjamin Hu make quads against Nan Min’s queens-full, another clash of big hands was in store.
Christian Wolfe raised to 6,000 from under the gun and Jean-Daniel Champod made it 22,000 from the cutoff. Wolfe called.
The flop came 9♣8♠10♣ and Wolfe checked. After Champod bet, Wolfe jammed and got insta-called.
Christian Wolfe: K♣Q♣
Jean-Daniel Champod: J♥J♦
Wolfe had two over cards, a gutshot, and a flush draw, while Champod was ahead with a pair of jacks and had an open-ender to boot.
The turn was the 9♠, taking away one of Wolfe’s outs.
The dealer dealt out the most dramatic card possible on the river, the J♣, which made Champod a full house, but gave Wolfe a king-high straight flush to survive the all-in and double-up.