My friend Mike Paulle has given me permission to post his daily reports for each event of the World Series of Poker this year to the ChipBoard! Below is his report on Event #30. Andy - Las Vegas

WORLD SERIES OF POKER 2002

EVENT #30 NO-LIMIT HOLD'EM
Thursday, May 16, 2002
$3,000 BUY-IN
$3,000 in chips

DERAILING "THE ORIENT EXPRESS"

Yesterday we found out what happened to 'Famous Last Words.' Today we found out
what happened to a 'Foregone Conclusion.'

There were 352 entrants in the $3,000 No-Limit Hold'em for a total prize pool
of $992,640. Three tables were paid, a total of 27 players.

To setup the Final Table Thursday afternoon, Harley Hall was the shortest stack
and went all-in for $5k and a 10 9. The small blind called with K 6. When a
King flopped, Harley didn't need a Hall pass to leave the building.

THE FINAL TABLE: 22 mins left of 75. The blinds were $2,000/$4,000

Player Hometown Chip Count

Seat 1 Jon Hoellein Lakewood OH $ 55,500
Seat 2 Simon Trumper London, UK $ 77,000
Seat 3 Sherman Burry Inglewood CO $ 84,000
Seat 4 Johnny Chan Las Vegas NV $307,000
Seat 5 Randal Heeb Paris, France $ 97,500
Seat 6 Sid Miller Wyncote PA $ 99,500
Seat 7 Huck Seed Las Vegas NV $138,500
Seat 8 Pierre Peretti Luzarches, France $64,500
Seat 9 Alan Betson Dublin, Ireland $30,500
Seat 10 Kathy Liebert Las Vegas NV $102,500

Too bad for Huck Seed that he doesn't smoke. Taking a cigarette break at the
start of this Final Table might have made him $355,320. That's the difference
in payout between 1st place and 10th. In a hand that will be talked about for
years, Huck Seed sailed all his chips into the pot against the only guy at the
table who could bust him--Johnny Chan.

In one of the first hands of the match, Huck was second in chips when he
decided that either Johnny wouldn't call his all-in bet, or that he'd hit his
open-ended straight draw. Seed was wrong on both counts. Chan had bet $20k on
the Q 3 2 flop (one Diamond) with the Q 10 of Diamonds. Huck had a 4 5 and a
dream that all his chips would return to him. Oddly if the turn card had been a
6 or Ace of Diamonds instead of the 9 of Diamonds that came, Huck would have
led for only one card. The 8 of Diamonds that did river would have beaten Huck,
anyway. In the shock of the WSOP this year, Chan planted Seed in 10th. Wow!

Surely everyone was playing for 2nd, now. (You know Surely. Nice girl.) This
was a classic 'Foregone Conclusion.' Johnny Chan could walk to pick up his 7th
bracelet. Chan had almost half the chips on the table and over a 4-1 chip lead
on 2nd. If this race were to be priced, it would be off-the-board. No less an
authority than TJ Cloutier sitting nearby said to the audience, "This is the
greatest No-Limit Hold'em player in the world." "Thanks, TJ," Chan replied.
Small problem. There were still eight players to be eliminated.

Five left quickly. Jon Hoellein led the Conga Line out the door. Hoellein
reraised Pierre Perretti all-in with his last $25k and J J on the button.
Sherman Burry crashed over the top of them both all-in with A K. With an Ace on
the turn, Jon was no more in 9th.

Sid Miller may never play pocket Kings again. He ate them twice in the first
hour. The second meal of Kings was Sid's last. Johnny Chan became the first
player in WSOP history to make $3,000,000 in earnings when his A 8 went full
over Miller's end in 8th.

They weren't leaving fast enough for Randal Heeb, so he dumped two at once.
Alan Betson had no shot all-in for only 2k in the big blind. But Kathy Liebert
was another matter. When the flop came 9 4 4, Johnny Chan whispered to a friend
that Heeb had a 4. Kathy Liebert didn't think so. She liked her pocket Jacks.
Randal let Kathy get all-in for $45k on the turn. Heeb had just enough to cover
her with $47k. Then Randal turned over A 4. Liebert was drawing dead to a Jack
on the river that didn't arrive. The first 'Million Dollar Woman' was 6th.

There was one more member of our Conga Line out the door--Pierre Perretti in
5th. He'd made about $25k in real money by not playing a hand, but Perretti was
too short to last. Pierre called all-in for an extra two grand over his small
blind with the Q 4 of Hearts. Randal Heeb had J 9 and ended up with trip 9's.

Very suddenly there were four. You had Johnny Chan with half the chips and
three guys with the rest. It was a joke, right? A 'Foregone Conclusion.' Even
Johnny thought it was over. Chan is a finalist in the long-delayed Gold
Bracelet Match Play event. When asked when he'd like to play Phil Hellmuth for
the title Johnny said, " I'll play him tonight. I want to be the first player
ever to win two bracelets on the same day." Uh, oh! Those sound like 'Famous
Last Words.' Karma Time! The poker gods don't like haughty, not even from 'the
world's greatest No-Limit player.'

A straggler in the Conga Line was Simon Trumper in 4th. He waited until the
others had left the parking lot before exiting. Simon caught a terrible card on
the turn, the 9 of Diamonds. It gave him trip 9's, so Simon said he'd bet his
last $40k. The 9 of Diamonds made Johnny Chan the nut flush. Simon needed the
board to pair. It didn't.

It was at this point that a exceedingly strange thing started to happen. The
indestructible 'Wall of China' started to crumble. Johnny Chan started losing
pot after pot. Randal Heeb won seven straight hands in one stretch. Several of
those wins came when he raised over the top of Chan's bets, and Johnny laid the
hand down. The audience couldn't believe their eyes. Johnny Chan was being
dominated by a 'nobody.' But a crushing loss wasn't to Heeb, it was to Sherman
Burry. Johnny was in the big blind when he flopped huge. Chan had the A 4 of
Diamonds. The flop was A J 3 with two diamonds. Chan put Burry all-in for
Sherman's last $146k. Burry cremated Chan with an A 3. Sherman had flopped two
pair. Amazingly, Chan still had a slight chip lead. It shows how far ahead he
once was.

But the momentum was reversed against Chan and he couldn't turn it back around.
Heeb continued to come over the top of Johnny and wouldn't be stopped. Finally
with only $80k left, Chan went all-in with A J.

So much for a 'Foregone Conclusion.' 'The Lock of the Century' had been
unlocked. Randal Heeb had A Q and the Queen played. Johnny Chan was a
startling, stunning, mind-blowing 3rd. The 'Orient Express' was derailed. It
couldn't happen, but it did. That's why we play the game.

Randal Heeb teaches 'Game Theory' to PhD candidates at a top business school in
Paris. When asked if he'd used his game theories against Chan, Randal replied
"not really." He continued, "I had good cards..." and he bet them fearing what
Chan would do in response. "I didn't know when he was bluffing." Heeb is
originally from Idaho and studied poker under the guidance of Tex Morgan of
TEARS fame. He specializes in no-limit tournaments.

It took only a few minutes for Randal to dispose of Sherman Burry in 2nd. Heeb
had pocket Queens, Burry had pocket 10's. Sherman Burry hadn't played in a
tournament in ten years. When asked if he'd play in the Big One, he said, "No
more, I can't take this." Evidently, 23 hours of intense pressure wasn't
pleasant even for $188,600.

The moral of this day is: Don't count your 8th bracelet before you secure your
7th. You might have to eat your 'Famous Last Words' and be the victim of a
'Foregone Conclusion.'

Official Money Winners
1. Randal Heeb $367,240
2. Sherman Burry $188,600
3. Johnny Chan $ 94,300
4. Simon Trumper $ 59,560
5. Pierre Peretti $ 44,660
6. Kathy Liebert $ 34,740
7. Alan Betson $ 24,820
8. Sid Miller $ 19,860
9. Jon Hoellein $ 15,880
10. Huck Seed $ 11,920

11th-12th received $11,920
Harley Hall, Mike Lowenstein

13th-15th received $9,920
Tuan Nguyen, David Kim, Fred Bonyadi

16th-18th received $7,940
Tony Cousineau, Greg Wynn, Matt Lefkowitz

19th-27th received $5,960
George Kamens, Perry Friedman, Michael Davis, Jan Boubli, Eric Holum, Greg
Alston, Paul Testud, Matt Heintschel, Butch Wade

The Super Satellites are cookin'. As of Friday afternoon, 170 seats have been
won. The final number is expected to be over 200 seats won to the 'Big Dance'
by Sunday night.

Some recent winners were: David Brewer, Don Thompson, Fred Brown, Samuel
Arzoin, Rafael Perry, Serafin Zahapopoulos (2nd), David Singer, Cruz Tijerina,
Dolph Arnold, Leo Boothe, Christer Johansson, Dimitrios Magdalinos, Andre Hidi,
Gus Echeverri (2nd) Ray Beck, Malki Marzoug, Nelson Lee, Rick Barabino, John
Dobbs, Flan Pilkington, Antonio Estandiari, Martine Oules, Marsha Waggoner
(2nd), Manuel Teixira (2nd).