The Nick Binger Saga

For the past three days, I have been working Event #41: $1,500 Mixed Hold'em. This is a half-and-half event of limit and no-limit hold'em, and it was honestly a pretty boring event to cover. Surprisingly, the limit halves of the levels were playing much bigger than the no-limit halves, but we were still there until ungodly-o'clock on Day 2. Nick Binger was controlling the field late in the evening, much to the delight of his brother. Michael Binger was the runner-up in 2006 when Jamie Gold took down the Main Event. It's obvious that both Binger brothers are great players, but Michael told us that Nick is the blessed one. At one point late in the night, Nick was really beginning to flex his muscles and Michael came to us to find out his chip count. When we told him he had a massive 390,000, he told us, "I wish I were that good. He crushes peoples' souls."

Nick's dominance continued on into the final table, where he clearly came in with a game plan. Of the first 44 hands dealt, Nick Binger had raised preflop in 22 of them. He was also responsible for the first six eliminations of the final table, including knocking off Chris Rentes in 4th place with the monstrous [7][2] offsuit. At that point, Binger had 1.427 million in chips, while the remaining two opponents had 762K combined.

Binger had amassed quite a nice little cheering section in the final table area. His brother, Clonie Gowen, Layne Flack, Gavin Smith, and a number of other notable names were gathered together waiting for their guy to rack up the last two eliminations and claim the bracelet. I'm not sure if it was confidence or celebration, but with three players left, the Binger contingent ordered two nice bottles of champagne.

That's when the party ended.

By the time the bubbly was delivered a half hour later, Binger had fallen from massive chip leader all the way down to third place and a marginally short stack. What earned him his chips also cost him the lead: aggression. Any successful poker player will tell you that you have to be aggressive to win at poker. Taking it one step further, the most aggressive player at the table usually wins the most chips, the most pots, and the most tournaments. And Binger certainly had no shortage of aggression or chips in the early going. But you have to temper that aggression with a dose of common sense. At some point, one of your opponents is going to pick up a hand, and if you can't switch yourself out of aggro mode, you're going to give up a hunk of your stack.

Nick Binger learned that lesson the hard way, and before the fizz had worn off the open champagne bottles, he was eliminated in third place. In an ironic twist, it was quiet guy Frank Gary -- the tightest player at the final table -- who outlasted the field and captured the bracelet. Nice work, Frank!