I Have My Limits – Chin Chin to Chen

Image courtesy of the World Series of Poker (Alicia Skillman)

Skye Chen’s victory at $1,000 Ladies No Limit Hold’em event was too late to make it into my last column, so congrats to you, Skye! It was an impressive victory that began with the tough call to not enter the mahjong tournament at the Luxor that had prompted her visit to Vegas, and instead play with other Ladies at the WSOP.

Maybe sleeping at the Luxor under the power of the Pyramid sharpened her insights along with her razor blades, leading her to the Paris/Horseshoe, where she made another call, this one of the hero variety.

Only two players remained, Chen and Aubrey Williams, when Williams limped from the small blind/button holding Q♦9♦. Chen raised with A♣10♣ and Williams, in position with both chip and height advantage, called. The flop was J♥8♥3♠, giving Williams a gut-shot but it went check-check.

The 2♣ on the turn saw Chen check-call a bet from Williams. Amazingly, the 7♣ on the river saw the same action, only this time it was for all of Chen’s chips. Williams should have checked herself before she wrecked herself.  

Chen called with just ace high. Holding a ten, which blocked the one straight possibility, probably helped her figure she was ahead. Whether it was that, or disbelieving Williams’ over-bet shove, or some kind of Ladies’ Event intuition, Chen, the mahjong player, was tiled in.

Unfortunately, this fun story was overshadowed by controversy.  It began with a firestorm of very obnoxious posts about Chen’s heads-up opponent, Aubrey Williams, who is a trans woman. The posts in the comments section during the WSOP livestream were so out of line and basically mean that Joe Stapleton, on the call, announced that he was banning posters for misogynistic and transphobic remarks.

When the stream ended, the comments migrated to that decidedly not gender-neutral toilet formerly known as Twitter. Fortunately, Aubrey had even more defenders than she did detractors, most importantly from women who actually played in the tournament, like final tabler Caitlin Comeskey:

I’m not going to reprint any of the hateful comments here. I want to spare my reader (hi Mom), but I’m going to do what these intelligence non-conforming trolls did not do for Aubrey, and approach them with compassion rather than judgment (I know, the intelligence non-conforming joke was judge-y, but I’m only human).

Trans people appearing unapologetically in public is a relatively new phenomenon, and it makes some people uncomfortable or even scared. That’s how I felt when I first saw driverless cars, but now I’m riding all over LA in the back of Waymo, watching the steering wheel turn itself like I’m in an episode of the Twilight Zone.

My point is, as trans people become more visible, the gen pop will come to accept them, just like we did with mixed-race couples, gay couples, and Cheryl Hines marrying Bobby Kennedy. We eventually come to accept new realities.

In the meantime, trans people should at least be allowed to accept themselves without a chorus of hate. My old friend, a brilliant comedy writer named Harper Steele, transitioned a few years back and has made an amazing documentary following her and her friend Will Ferrell on a road trip across America and through her difficult past. It’s called Harper and Will, and I highly recommend it.    

What Fresh Hellmuth Is This?

From Chen’s superhero call to a superhero call for help… I give you Phil Hellmuth Jr.’s grand entrance on Day 1A of the WSOP Main Event.

The annual entrance for the returning chump was greatly anticipated by Phil and perhaps the other guys clad in tights who flanked him, including his son Nicholas and the legendary Dan “Jungleman” Cates.

Phil’s costume was billed as Superman, with some modifications per DC Comics. I imagine the franchise didn’t want there to be any association between their mild-mannered reporter, Clark Kent, and the wild-mannered Poker Brat. Toward this end, instead of the “S” famously sewn on Superman’s chest, Phil’s body suit read “PH,” standing for, I assume, PH balance and referring to Phil’s natural acidity #acidivity.

Besides that, the costume is yellow on black, Phil’s favorite colors that happily coincide with the colors of both his most prominent brand ambassadorship, BetRivers, and his latest startup investment, Valar Atomics.

Appearing on the WSOP Countdown show on Wednesday, Phil bragged about flying on a private jet to the opening of Valar’s newly built nuclear reactor. Stapes’ response, “I had the under on 45 seconds for Phil to mention a private plane,” was spot on.  

To Phil’s credit, he appeared to quickly realize how obnoxious he sounded and abruptly shifted to talking about poker. He’s so good at making reads at the table; for once, he read the room.

In Other News…

— Martin Kabhrel won his 6th bracelet at the WSOP in the $3,200 Online Hybrid No Limit Hold’em. This was appropriate because Kabrhel himself is a hybrid, half-man, half evil doll in a movie that plays every time you shut your eyes.  

— Shaun Deeb, Michael Mizrachi, and Daniel Negreanu all won bracelets this week. It was only a matter of time, and in the case of DNegs, a lot of money, before these titans won their respective 9th, 9th, and 8th bracelets. Congrats!