Former WSOP champ Bechtel happy to go unnoticed

One of the assumptions made in modern tournament poker is that older players can’t adapt to the aggressive style used by many young professionals to accumulate chips.

Jim Bechtel is prepared, though. After all, he played against three-time Main Event winner Stu Ungar back in the day.

“Stuey had a mind that ran at warp speed,” Bechtel said. “His dynamics were at the level these young guys are playing at today in aggressiveness, and maybe even higher. And that’s why he was such a dynamo. He could go right through them because of his aggression.”

There were five former winners of the World Series of Poker’s $10,000 buy-in No-limit Texas Hold ’em World Championship still in the field when Day 4 started Saturday at the Rio Convention Center. Most eyes were on Phil Hellmuth, the 1989 champ who was eventually KO’d in 417th place by well-known pro Daniel Negreanu at ESPN’s featured table.

Meanwhile, the guy in the black leather jacket and Del Mar Thoroughbred Club cap went relatively unnoticed. Not that Bechtel minds one bit.

“I was here three days before anybody knew I was here,” Bechtel said. “They finally figured it out, but I think I had to get in about the top 10 in chips before they figured out I was here. But sometimes under the radar is pretty good at a poker table.

“That’s why I just don’t say anything. I just play, and if they think I’m just an old guy that come off the street to play, that’s fine with me. I don’t need to brag about my former success.”

Bechtel was unofficially in the top 50 with approximately 950,000 chips at the 10:30 p.m. break with one level of play remaining. Daniel Fuhs of San Diego was the overall leader with approximately 2.6 million chips as 286 players remained at the break.

The Main Event continues at noon today with Day 5 and runs through Tuesday.

Bechtel, a cotton and alfalfa farmer who resides in Gilbert, Ariz., won the 1993 Main Event against a field of 220 players; there were three times that many players remaining when play started Saturday afternoon.

Bechtel famously trapped John Bonetti in a confrontation between the overwhelming chip leaders during three-handed play and then eliminated Glenn Cozen on the third hand of heads-up play to claim the $1 million first prize.

“It just felt very confident when I was at the final table,” Bechtel said. “If you’ve been a world champion at anything, whether you’re a bull rider or a roper or an Olympic champion or whatever, there’s some respect that goes along with it, and you’re never going to forget it. It’s going to be some part of your life.”

Bechtel, 63, fondly recalled the days when the tournament was held at Binion’s Horseshoe before moving to the Rio in 2005. He said the Main Event in those days was populated by a diverse set of gamblers who loved a good gag.

“Binion’s in the early years was very small, and the phone calls came into the casino,” Bechtel said. “Every time a guy died, there was guys, they’d call. The gambler would be dead for six months or a year, and there’d be people calling him. And the operator would say, ‘Phone call for so and so.’ This would go on all day long because nobody ever told the operator that these people are dead.”

Bechtel said he doesn’t play much these days, as Arizona does not allow no-limit poker. He was going to play in the $50,000 buy-in Poker Players Championship event, but talked himself out of it, and drove up Tuesday morning at the last minute to play on Day 1C of the Main Event.

This is Bechtel’s first cash in a WSOP event since 2006 and his third career in-the-money finish in the Main Event. Bechtel was 23rd in 2001.

Bechtel was seated to the left of professional poker player Salvatore DiCarlo for much of the evening session Friday and remained anonymous for several hours. At one point during their casual table banter, DiCarlo asked Bechtel if he’d ever won a poker tournament, and Bechtel said he had one WSOP bracelet.

“About two hours later (DiCarlo) came back,” Bechtel noted. “He said, ‘God damn, you didn’t tell me it was this tournament!’ ”

Bechtel admitted the long hours at the table are difficult since he’s used to waking up at 4 a.m. each day on his farm. But he’s brimming with confidence, even as the leaderboard continues to be populated by players more than half his age.

“It is hard to put expectations on it, but you just play it a hand at a time and you’ve got to get through three or four days,” Bechtel said. “In this tournament, one hand changes a lot of things. I could go to a million dollars in one hand or I can go broke. Those type of hands come up. But I feel very comfortable. I’ll make a good run.”

Contact reporter David Schoen at dschoen@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5203. Follow him on Twitter: @DavidSchoenLVRJ.