Here is a trivia question: what do the following holdem hands have in common? A5; 88; Q9; 73.
Ten points if you answered that, over the past four years, these are the hands that won the World Series of Poker (WSoP). Bonus question: why did I not include the hand that won five years ago?
Twenty points if you answered that I did! Pocket eights was the final WSoP hand for both Jerry Yang in 2007 and Greg Raymer in 2004.
Here is another curious statistic: in three out of the past four years, the WSoP has finished with a straight. Yang's 88 was in front, then behind, then in front, to Tuan Lam's AQ on a cruel board of 5-Q-9-7-6. Joe Hachem clinched victory with the old 73 against unlucky Steve Dannenmann's A3 on a board of 4-5-6-A-4. And Peter Eastgate won the 2008 tournament, last week, after his A5 beat Ivan Demidov's 24 on a 2-3-K-4-7 board.
On all these occasions, both players had huge hands when the last chip went in. The exception was Jamie Gold in 2006, who got rather lucky after shoving it in pre-flop with Q9 against Paul Wasicka's pair of tens, and hitting top pair.
Poor old Gold. People tease him for his luck in that tournament. But let us not forget that when Doyle Brunson went all in with the most famous ever WSoP-winning hand (10 2, back in 1976), the board was A-J-10 and Jesse Alto was light years in front with AJ. Then it came 2 10, and a legend was born.
Those starting hands will remain totemic for those players for ever: If you ever play Eastgate (as I will next week): when in doubt, put him on A5. But ignore this advice if you play Dewey Tomko - the only man ever to take the title with AA.
