Poker: The Gordon Supremacy

It's no secret that Phil Gordon is my absolute favorite poker player in the known world. Wednesday night, as he earned his first World Poker Tour title, the rest of the world learned why: because he's just damn good at what he does.

San Jose is home to Bay 101's Shooting Stars of Poker, which has to be the most fun event in all of poker. In addition to playing like a normal tournament, top poker pros (like Kathy Liebert and James Woods) are "shooting stars" -- eliminate them and you get an extra $5,000 "bounty," not to mention a neat T-shirt so you can prove it to all your friends. It's the kind of event I'd love to play at. (Meanwhile, everyone else would be confused by the short 12-year-old-looking chick in the suit with the Adam Eaton Death Glare.)

Phil wasn't a shooting star himself, but there was one left at the final table, and it was a big one: 2003 World Champion of Poker Chris Moneymaker. I adore Phil and my money was on him, but you just don't ever count out somebody like Chris Moneymaker.

Here's how it all started at Bay 101:

1. Phil Gordon - $1,238,000 2. Masoud Shojaei - $416,000 3. Chris Moneymaker - $215,000 4. Scott Wilson - $203,000 5. Mark Mache - $175,000 6. Susan Kim - $172,000

Before I give out this week's Kevin Walker Award, I have a confession: I have no notes for this tournament. None. I intended to watch a late re-air and take notes, but ended up watching most of it through the rain delay of the Padres-Red Sox game at Fenway Park ... so I apologize if this is a little less incisive than usual. I do not, however, apologize for my usual admiration of Phil Gordon, because this time he does rule the world. Nyah.

Ahem.

This week's Kevin Walker Award actually goes to two participants, close friends Mark Mache and Scott Wilson, who just the week before decided to play this tournament together. Couldn't you just see that phone conversation?

Scott: Hey, Mark, you wanna go down and play at Bay 101? Mark: Yeah, sure, whatever. Scott: Okay then. Mark: Cool. *pause* You see the game last night?

No matter how they made up their minds, Scott and Mark were both good players and very funny guys. I wouldn't mind playing a table against them, and I enjoyed seeing them hang around -- if only to see which one of them would win the side bet between them.

Mark was soon crippled after losing a big hand to Suzie, and had barely enough to make it through the blinds. Masoud was tempted to show mercy, but he had a king in his hand, and Mark was pretty much forced to gamble. When the flop came up K-8-2 and Masoud made a pair of kings versus Mark's lowly pair of 2's, Mark's day was over. Looks like Scott won himself a side pot...

Suzie was feeling lucky after crippling Mark, so when she held a pair of 6's against Phil's pair of 9's, she took a chance. The board, however, didn't favor her this time, going 3-3-2-3-8, giving Phil 3's full of 9's and sending the local favorite home. Hey, at least maybe she'd have Mark to talk to.

(This also gave rise to another Phil Gordon prop gag, as he whipped out a pair of binoculars and used them to examine her across the table. I swear, this man was an improv comedian in a past life.)

People have said Chris Moneymaker is just lucky, but I have seen the 2003 WSOP, and the dude has skills. I would not want to play against him, and I expected him to be a serious threat. Scott Wilson found that out the hard way: he matched his Q-J against Moneymaker's Q-Q. The board went J-9-5, and Scott, quickly on the short stack, took a gamble, but it didn't pay off after K-2 on the turn and river. Now it was down to the serious heavies.

I wasn't breathing easy yet. Phil had lost something like half his stack in the early going, but he was gunning with steady and aggressive play and now had a commanding chip lead, back to over a million dollars. Still, we were talking about the current World Champion of Poker.

The next hand was completely bizarre, as I knew time was running out and something had to happen, but I never expected what happened next.

Masoud, the shortest stack, held J-6 and hoped nobody would call him as he went all-in. Unfortunately for him, Phil held A-7 and decided to go for it. Chris Moneymaker, with a pair of jacks, had a choice to make. He and Masoud were about even in chips. "If I call, what happens?" he asked, and everybody hung on the answer, which was that since he had slightly more chips, he would take second place. Two jacks are a great hand, and Moneymaker called.

Phil now had the chance to end the night by knocking out two players on the same hand. Myself, as well as the apparent cluster of Phil Gordon groupies in the audience, crossed our fingers and cheered him on...

The flop came A-J-2!

I was reaching for more peanut M&M's and yelled in disbelief. Phil, meanwhile, threw his arms up, feeling victorious. 8-5 only cemented his victory. This, ladies and gentlemen - class combined with power poker -- is why Phil Gordon is the best poker player I've ever seen. And on Wednesday night, he proved his talent to the world.

The final standings:

1. Phil Gordon - $360,000 2. Chris Moneymaker - $200,000 3. Masoud Shojaei - $103,000 4. Scott Wilson - $79,800 5. Susan Kim - $68,400 6. Mark Mache - $57,000

With that win, of course, Phil earns himself a seat in the WPT Championship alongside Erick Lindgren, Antonio Esfandiari, Paul Phillips, Gus Hansen, Phil Laak and Hoyt Corkins, among others. I swear, if Danny Negreanu wins next week at the PartyPoker Million, this is going to be a WPT Championship to seriously remember. But does anyone have any doubt who my favorite is going to be?