July 16, 2005
Andrew Black at the 2005 WSOP
Posted at July 16, 2005 1:43 PM
************************WSOP SPOILERS BELOW************************
************************WSOP SPOILERS BELOW************************
************************WSOP SPOILERS BELOW************************
************************WSOP SPOILERS BELOW************************
************************WSOP SPOILERS BELOW************************
Although Australian Joe Hachem walked away with first place, many including myself will remember Irishman Andrew Black as the class of the field, in every sense of the word.
Andrew is best known as the star of the 1998 poker documentary, "Million Dollar Deal," in which he is seen losing that year's WSOP against the legendary Stu Ungar. After that beat Black disappeared from the poker world and joined a buddhist monastery for 5 years, then finally returning to the cards two years ago an working his way back up the ranks.
Throughout this year's tournament he not only played masterfully but showed lots of personality while maintaining the class and graciousness you'd expect in a man fromthe monastery. At one point when he felt anothrr player was being unfairly penalized, he protested by stalling on all his turns the table until that player was allowed to return, even as all the other players were berating him to continue.. reportedly Black was actually moved to tears during this incident, he cared so much about standing up for this guy he felt was getting treated unjustly.
When he got to the final 8 it was clear (as heralded by Phil Hellmuth in cardplayer.com's live audio coverage) that Andrew Black was the best player left by far, with Mike Matusow gone. But a series of excuciating bad beats (he got his money in with the better cards each time and kept getting sucked out) eventually knocked him out in 5th.
I really hope ESPN gives Andrew Black lots of screen time, including the incident above, and he'll get to join the ranks of big name poker celebrities. I'd love to see a lot more of him.
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