I could be 20-miles away, stealing apples, and I would hear my mother calling me from our doorstep.
There were no mobile phones.
The spectre of Peter Sutcliffe still hung in the Northern air, and although he didn’t kill children, you would have thought we would have been closer to the bosom.
Nope.
Off we went, gallivanting around town playing kiss-chase, spin the bottle, and stealing fruit from an angry man’s backyard.
One place I loved was the library. I fell in love with Asterisk and Obelisk, and later Herge’s Adventures of Tintin. Then one day, I found a book called Deathtrap Dungeon by Ian Livingstone.
It was one of the earliest choose your own adventure books. Become a wizard, dwarf or elf; roll dice to determine your magical powers, and then battle with all manner of mythical creatures with the aim of ending as the hero.
I went through the lot – The Citadel of Chaos, The Forest of Doom and The Firetop Mountain Series.
Mundane life had me on a leash, and I was tugging like a maniac. I was desperate to avoid the clocking in and out life. I wanted to be a millionaire like Del Boy. I wanted any experience, other than the one I was stuck inside.
I wonder if Ben Yu believes he is the hero of his choose your own adventure. Yu is not a name usually associated with the high roller community, but all that may change after what has been a quite stunning World Series of Poker (WSOP).
Yu plays Magic The Gathering competitively, so I am sure had he been as old as me, he too would have found the allure of Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone to compelling to ignore.
And here he is, creating a page-turner.
And a few pages ago, Yu was faced with this question:
“Should I play in the $50,000 No-Limit Hold’em High Roller? If you decide to turn the opportunity down, turn to page 68. If you invest your well-earned gold, then turn to page 69.”
The young wizard turned to Page 69.
Let’s see what happened next?
The Young Wizard Takes on the Bad Asses of the High Roller NLHE Scene
When Yu sat down to play in the highest stakes No-Limit Hold’em competition of his career, the poker universe’s top Warlocks, Elves and the occasional greedy Dwarf surrounded him.
128 of them, to be precise.
The narrative allowed for 14 levels.
31 players survived.
Ten of them owned at least one gold bracelet.
The Austrian pro, Matthias Eibinger, led the way with 2,120,000 chips. Jake Schindler joined him above the two million mark.
The $100k High Roller winner Nick Petrangelo finished with 1,500,000. Elio Fox, the man who finished runner-up to Petrangelo in that event, bagged up 1,875,000. The man who dominated the recent Triton Poker Series in Montenegro, Jason Koon, ended with 1,450,000 chips, and Yu managed to stuff 1,500,000 into a clear plastic bag.
Top Ten Chip Counts
- Matthias Eibinger – 2,120,000
- Jake Schindler – 2,050,000
- Isaac Haxton – 1,955,000
- Elio Fox – 1,875,000
- Daniel Merrilees – 1,865,000
- Juan Pardo Dominguez – 1,650,000
- Stefan Schillhabel – 1,570,000
- Nick Petrangelo – 1,500,000
- Ben Yu – 1,500,000
- Jason Koon – 1,450,000
Day 2: Winter’s Coming; Yu Meets it Head-On
With blinds at 20k/40k, the action fell to Ben Yu in the small blind. He looked across at the dangerous, but short-stacked, Nick Petrangelo in the big blind, before moving all-in holding J2o. Petrangelo looked down at 88, called, and doubled to 2m. Yu stumbled to 1.6m.
One level later, and an important moment for Yu.
John Andress moved all-in from midfield, Daniel Merrilees moved all-in from late position, and Yu, who had both beasts covered, made the call from the big blind.
Yu: KK
Merrilees: AQ
Andress: 55
Andress flopped a gut-shot, but Yu faded any potential turn or river booby trap to move up to 2,950,000.
With blinds at 30k/60k, Yu cast a spell on the in-form Chris Hunichen to send him to the rail drawing three streets of value on QT468 holding KQ with Big Huni holding AT. Yu moved up to 5.5m, good enough for the chip lead.
It’s always nice to peer down and see the rockets, and that’s what happened with blinds at 40k/80k. Yu had them. The former champion Ryan Riess had pocket eights, and the pair went for it. Yu rivered the third ace for good measure and moved up to 6.2m; Riess’s tournament was left in pieces.
Yu’s next victim was Jason Koon.
Yu put Koon all-in on a board of 6d6h7d3dKd after rivering a flush holding Qd9h, and Koon reluctantly called with As6c for a flopped set of sixes. And then we had the final table after Yu eliminated Ben Pollak in a blind on blind battle holding J5o v 88. Another flush hit on the river to hand Yu another scalp. The Poker Gods were treating Yu like Zeus and co once treated Perseus.
Final Table
- Ben Yu – 7,700,000
- Nick Petrangelo – 5,100,000
- Manig Loeser – 3,650,000
- Igor Kurganov – 3,400,000
- Jake Schindler – 3,400,000
- Elio Fox – 3,025,000
- Sean Winter – 2,850,000
- John Racener – 2,340,000
- Isaac Haxton – 1,200,000
Elio Fox was the first player to hit the rail when his pocket sixes bumped into the electrified fence of Sean Winter’s pocket jacks. Jake Schindler followed Fox to the door marked ‘exit’ when his A5o failed to beat the lowly looking 43c after Haxton flopped a pair.
And Haxton hadn’t finished swinging his fists.
The next player to feel his wrath was John Racener after he moved all-in holding KJo, and Haxton called with A3s, and once again turned a killer trey. We were down to six.
If there were a High Roller Breakout Award, it would surely go to Manig Loeser, and the German had another phenomenal run finishing sixth after his AK failed to beat the pocket treys of Winter in another sprint to the finishing line.
Winter then emerged as Yu’s primary threat when he eliminated Igor Kurganov. It was another race, this time pocket sixes dodging every ace and queen in the deck to send the Raising For Effective Giving (REG) founder to the rail.
Nick Petrangelo came into a league of his own, winning pot after pot to create a substantial chip lead. The $100k champ was running away with it, and then Yu eliminated Haxton AQ>A7 to bring him neck and neck with Petrangelo, with Winter looking up at them from the bottom of the cliff face,
Petrangelo – 13,100,000
Yu – 12,100,000
Winter – 6,900,000
Winter doubled through Petrangelo A5>T7s before putting in a string of consecutive winning hands to take a substantial lead. Yu slowed him down, doubling-up 99>A8, and then made the chip lead going into heads-up after sending Petrangelo home in third 44>ATo.
Heads-Up: Short and Sweet
Yu – 18,275,000
Winter – 13,725,000
And to the final battle.`
Yu v Winter.
Inexperienced high stakes No-Limit Hold’em combatant versus one of the most experienced.
Yu didn’t want this to turn into a battle.
It didn’t.
It was all over before you could type YU.
Winter limped into the pot from the small blind holding A9o. Yu moved all-in holding KQo; Winter called. The J73r flop was clean for Winter, but the Kh on the turn put Yu one card away from victory. The 6d finished the action and Yu was the only wizard left with chips.
So what would Yu’s next choose your own adventure be?
The One Drop?
“I think that’s too much for me,” Yu told PokerNews after his win. “I don’t think I’m one of the top 10 or maybe even 20 players in this hundred person field.”
It seems Yu also has a high humility score.
Yu first registered a live tournament ITM finish back in 2008 when he placed 69th in a $1,500 Limit Hold’em Shootout at the WSOP. It wasn’t until 2014 that Yu began competing in the $10k Championship events with increasing regularity, but 2018 has been a breakout year for the rising star.
In January, Yu finished 10/75 in the $25,500 No-Limit Hold’em High Roller at the World Poker Tour (WPT) Lucky Hearts Poker Open for $56,250. Then, during the WSOP, Yu finished runner-up to Shaun Deeb in the $25,000 Pot-Limit Omaha High Roller for $866,924 – a career high until his $50,000 performance.
Yu has won $5,250,029 playing live tournaments, with close to $3m of that bounty earned this year.
He has cashed 15 times at the WSOP, made four final tables, won a bracelet, and has earned more than $2.8m, thrusting him into the business end of the WSOP Player of the Year race, where he is on the trail of his old nemesis, Shaun Deeb.
Here is that up to date leaderboard.
- Shaun Deeb – 4,386,84
- Ben Yu – 3,746.04
- John Hennigan – 3,552.69
- Scott Bohlman – 3,155.88
- Paul Volpe – 2,859.76