I spent the afternoon checking up on the “E”s (Fro and Dog) in the Poker Tent. Five hours into Round 1 of the $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em Shootout, both were sitting behind comfortable stacks in the eerily quiet room. There were only about eight tables left in the tent, each of which was populated by no more than three or four players.
Eric Froelich sat at the same table as Mel Judah and Dan O’Brien, and each of them had about the same amount of chips. It seemed destined to be a long drawn-out battle to the end for E-Fro when the following hand arose. Dan O’Brien, a young player who thought the Rio “too expensive” to stay in, choosing instead to “crash with buddies” during his time at the Series, raised to 3k from the button. Judah folded from the small blind before E-Fro moved all in from the big blind. O’Brien took his time deciding whether or not to call. He asked E-Fro how many chips he had. E-Fro casually threw out a figure, roughly 7k. Finally, O’Brien said something about having to gamble in order to advance past such a tough table. He called and showed A
10. As it turned out, he wasn’t gambling at all. E-Fro could only show K6, and with his diamond draw nullified he was drawing thin. When he couldn’t catch a king or a 6, he headed for the door.
One table over Erick Lindgren was in an equally tough battle with Chris McCormack, a strong tournament player who won $802,895 for his second-place finish at the 2006 Borgata Open. The lead went back and forth until McCormack raised before the flop with A-7. E-Dog called and the flop came A
J
8
. Slowplaying his ace, McCormack checked. E-Dog checked behind him. The turn was the 4. Again, it went check, check. The river was the 10. McCormack finally tried to extract some money out of his opponent, firing out a bet, but his trap had backfired. E-Dog raised him 7k. He had made a straight on the river with KQ and McCormack paid him off. The final hand would come shortly after. With K10 E-Dog had top pair after the flop came 26K and when he pushed in McCormack called and lost.
In a striking juxtaposition to E-Fro’s slow unpleasant walk out of the tent E-Dog was all happy manic energy. “I gotta go,” he told the floor man. “I got [the film crew from] ESPN waiting at my house.” And with that he tossed the man a $100 tip and hustled out the door.
