I have three tidbits from Day 5 of the 2012 WSOP Main Event to talk about today, and two of them have to do with actor Kevin Pollack whose improbable run in the 2012 Main Event came to one of the most improbable finishes late on Saturday night at the Rio. The third story could very well go down in poker history as one of the all-time blunders in the game’s long history of blunders.

Pollack busts Negreanu then suffers brutal beat himself

Daniel Negreanu’s WSOP Main Event came to an end on Day 5 for the second straight year, and this time it came at the hands of actor Kevin Pollack, who eliminated Kid Poker when his AQ held up against Negreanu’s KQ. Pollack managed to ride the wave a little longer on Day 5 until a very unfortunate bit of bad luck brought about his demise in 134th place. Pollack found himself all-in holding Pocket Queens and up against his opponent’s Pocket Queens! But two hearts on the flop, followed by running hearts on the turn and river ended Pollack’s 2012 WSOP run as his opponent made a flush.

Still, Pollack can hold his head high for a well-played Main Event.

Jarrett Nash does his best Walter Sobchak impression

In a story that had me thinking of the movie The Big Lebowski (where Walter Sobchak will not bowl on Saturdays to observe Shomer Shabbos), 24 year-old Jarrett Nash was sitting on a pretty sizable stack Friday night when he told tournament officials that he would be leaving to observe the Sabbath and would return at about 8 PM on Sunday.

Nash, true to his word simply blinded-off during Day 5 of the WSOP Main Event, finishing in 171st place for $44,655, but missing out on a once in a lifetime opportunity of making a really deep run in the WSOP Main Event.

The story quick picked-up steam when people started to wonder where the player was, and took an even stranger turn when Nash’s cousin told Cardplayer magazine, that his recently married cousin isn’t even Jewish, his wife is, and he was observing the Sabbath at her request!

It will be interesting to see if Nash planned for this event or if he perhaps won his way into the tournament through a satellite and figured he may as well play even if he can’t play the end of Day 4 and most of Day 5.

According to WSOP Director of Communications Palansky, Nash understood that he would likely bust while holed up in his hotel room during Sundown to Sundown, and even left his rewards card with tournament officials so they could take the necessary steps when he busted.

Tags: Actor Kevin, Aq, Bad Luck, Big Lebowski, Blunders, Daniel Negreanu, Demise, Kevin Pollack, Kq, Lifetime Opportunity, Nash, Sabbat, Sabbath, Saturdays, Sizable Stack, Tournament Officials, True To His Word, Two Hearts, Walter Sobchak, WSOP Main Event

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 15th, 2012 at 8:18 am and is filed under Poker News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.