WSOP Recap Part Five: The Master

Jason DeWitt aka TheMasterJ33 is the best tournament player I converse with on a regular basis. No offense to the rest of y'all - the Master finds crazy, creative ways to add chips to his stack that no one else attempts. He is completely fearless and could show up with any two cards at any moment. He loves messing with big stacks. He's relentless on and off the table, passionate about the game.

TheMasterJ33 is a known online player, but his true talent blooms while playing live. He watches the players like a hawk, obsessing over physical tells. During the 10k PLHE event at the WSOP, J picked up a tell on one veteran tournament superstar and then exploited him the rest of the day. He's always telling me crazy hands he played based on some physical read and he's almost always right when he gets a strong sniff of weakness.

The Master takes a lot of time to make decisions at the table. He's a naturally deliberate thinker and wants to consider all the angles before deciding on the right play. He also makes a lot of moves, and spends time Hollywooding when a move goes bad and he wants it to appear like he had some sort of hand. This endless deliberation, combined with his relentless annoying playing style, tends to rankle his opponents. They get frustrated and desperately try to outplay him. During the second day of the $1500 6-handed event, I told Jason that one older player at his table who I had played with the night before was tight, conservative, and not interested in making moves. Half an hour into the day the older fellow exploded and four-bet all-in with queen-eight offsuit against the Master's pocket queens.

During the months leading up to the World Series of Poker, J and I had a lot of discussions about the upcoming events and what we needed to do in order to play our best every day for six weeks. We both had extremely high expectations for the Series. For both of us, it was going to be the Breakthrough Summer.

We got off to similar promising/frustrating starts. The Master bubbled the 10k PLHE, then narrowly missed the 5k mixed hold em final table, then got unlucky late in the 1.5k 6-handed and finished 16th. He then went ice cold and didn't cash the rest of the WSOP, though he was able to snag a solid online score in there. I was deeply disappointed in my own results (more on this in the next blog) but when I thought about Jason I was really heartbroken. I could blame my own failures on a couple key mistakes and generally undistinguished play, but I was really shocked that J never broke through for a monster score. I know poker talent when I see it and the Master has it. I couldn't believe it didn't happen for him this summer. It really made me sad.

A couple weeks after leaving Vegas, it finally happened for the Master. He finished second in a Heartland Poker Tour event in Gary, Indiana for $103k. This was not the Megascore that the Master seeks and will one day hit, but it was enough to make up for a crappy WSOP and pay for a few more big buy-ins on the circuit. It was also enough to restore some of my faith in tournament poker - that the good guys, the ones who play well, want it, and deserve it, will eventually get it.