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Peltons Perspective
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Nine times, Joe Pelton made his way to WPT events, putting up his $10,000 in order to face the best competition in the world in the field he'd chosen to be passionate about. For some players it would be too many, for Joe it was just enough. In the first eight, he failed to achieve the kind of success he was looking for; in the ninth, he'd reach the zenith.
"The money hasn't really changed anything for me. It just secured my financial future." Just another day at the poker table. No big deal.
It didn't start that way. Joe had nerves just like any mortal would. He'd had a strong tournament, sitting amongst the chip leaders for most of the final day, but he'd stayed under the radar. There's no flashy BS to Joe. He's a straight shooter who speaks when he has something meaningful to say. When he doesn't, he'll just sit quietly at the table and raise.
Entering the finale, Pelton was fifth in chips and an afterthought. He held the second smallest stack at a table that included a lot of star power. "I wasn't too nervous about the TV guys" Joe recalled, "I'd played with so many great players already, so that wasn't a big deal." Still, this was a tough lineup. WPT winners Hoyt Corkins and Scotty Nguyen were joined by solid professionals Kevin O'Donnell and Randy Holland. Topping them all off was massive chip leader Frankie O'Dell.
The first hand of play set the tone for the day. Pelton's pocket threes warranted a raise. Joe only found out after the show aired that Hoyt held pocket nines when he made the call behind him. When the flop brought a queen and a ten, Pelton tossed out a fistful of chips, getting Corkins to fold the better hand. It was a reality check.
"That was the most important hand for me" Pelton remembered, "because it showed me this was just another game of poker and I could play my game. I had heard from various interviews, most memorably Barry Greenstein, that people play too tight at final tables and the proper strategy is to play aggressive early."
Just a few hands later Joe kept up his aggressive style. As Pelton recalls "Kevin opened with a raise on the button for 100k. I had AJ and I felt like moving in was a bit reckless so I made it 400k, leaving between 600k and 700k behind. Frankie folded and Kevin called. I hadn't even considered that to be an option really, I was planning to call his re-raise unless I could pick up a strength vibe but when he called I wasn't sure what to do."
The flop came down A 7 7 and Joe was just as confused as ever. "Well now I still didn't know what to do, jamming didn't make sense, checking only would have worked if he would bet for me which at that point I had no idea about, so I decided to make a bet that looked like I would fold to a raise." Pelton then bet 300k and Kevin quickly mucked his K9. Joe recalls thinking he really wanted to see what Kevin held in that hand. "I thought at the time it had to be a big mistake to flat call my re-raise pre-flop."
Surviving as long as he did in order to get heads up with O'Dell was a feat in itself considering that Pelton felt he made a big mistake in the hand that ultimately knocked Hoyt Corkins out in 3rd place. "I did not know how short Hoyt had gotten when I opened for 250k with JT. This was a mistake because I should have made it 500k to clearly commit myself." After Joe raised, Hoyt moved all-in for $1 million more which put Pelton to the test. "I was getting about 1.6:1 and I felt Hoyt's range was pretty wide and once I saw how short he was I knew he had to be a bit desperate." Not wanting to look stupid on national television made the decision even tougher, but Joe credits his instincts for helping him make the call. "Sometimes being a natural gambler pays off. I felt I needed to gamble here, I called and was so happy to see two non-paint non-ace cards flip over." Joe won the race and avoided nation-wide humiliation. "That one was actually fun to watch on TV."
Once Hoyt was out, Joe had a heads up match with the big man who he'd wanted from the start. "Frankie wasn't playing his big stack well. He was playing a very passive, conservative game." There's no question though, that Pelton outplayed his man in the final hands. Joe describes the first big hand he had heads up. "Frankie button raised to 340k which was a big bet, I had KT and decided to call. The flop comes down K A K and I decided to lead out 500k thinking that he would almost have to make a play on that flop as the pre-flop raiser, but he mumbled something about how I would've flat called with an Ace and folded."
Flopping trips one time may have earned him a small pot but it was the second time he flopped three-of-a-kind that paved the way for the win. "Frankie limps, I have Q8 and check. The flop came a heavenly Q Q 4. I lead out again and this time he raises me 250k more. I tried to think of what would make me think someone doesn't have a Queen and made it 500k more. He played with his chips awhile and I thought he was going to fold but he went all-in. Of course I insta-called, he looked crestfallen and showed the Jh4h." The turn and river didn't help Frankie and he had let Joe back into the match in an impetuous moment that showed the better player was winning.
After that, the victory was a formality. It took just seven more hands to finish the job, and of those, only two saw flops. When he was dealt the Ac7c, he only had one more decision to make. "When I saw the Ac7c I decided to raise and call an all-in if needed. I knew that he probably felt like he was getting pushed around." And that is exactly what happened. Pelton raised and Frankie pushed all-in with 66. It was another coin flip situation "I certainly don't enjoy getting all my money in with A7 but I had no doubt it was the right play in this situation."
Joe was never in danger again after he flopped a bullet. "I was super super anxious waiting for the flop which happily killed the suspense by bringing an Ace. I tried to take a drink of my diet coke but my hands were shaking so bad."
The turn and river didn't bring any bad news and now it was time for Joe to celebrate. "I shook Frankie's hand, hugged my girlfriend, got back stage and asked "What do we do now?"
The next day, Pelton was back at work, where he stayed for a few months before getting downsized. The one guy who chooses to stick with real life got squeezed into professional poker-dom. Ask him about his accomplishment and Pelton remains humble. "I got into two crucial coin flips and won them both. Then I got lucky again; when I flopped three queens, Frankie's hand paired. That's when I got the majority of my chips." Joe doesn't do himself justice in his accounts.
It's an easy game sometimes. It only took Joe Pelton nine tries to figure that out.
