RETIRED
PHONE LINEMAN
WINS FOUR QUEENS OPENER
Jay
Snyder, a retired telephone cable repairman
and recreational poker player, won his
first major tournament by capturing the
opening event of Four Queens Poker Classic
2003, $100 limit hold'em, despite being
"close to the velvet several times"
in early going. When he got heads up at
midnight with Florida poker dealer Paul
Bishop, he had a chip lead of 102k to
84k, and the two finalists chopped the
remaining money.
It
took only 54 hands to eliminate the first
seven players, then another 67 before
Gus Weiss, an 81-year-old retired accountant,
bowed out in third place. Weiss was lucky
to get anywhere near the final table because
he lost the first nine hands he played
and was down to three chips. But he arrived
with a huge chip lead of 56k and in early
final-table action looked like a runaway
winner as he knocked out five players
in a row and nearly doubled his chips.
Then,
when it got down to three, the chip lead
changed repeatedly. Bishop, surviving
three all-in encounters, was the most
aggressive, raising almost every hand,
while Weiss was the loosest and Snyder
the most selective, just "staying
out of the way" as Weiss and Bishop
repeatedly tangled.
The
10 finalists started with $500-$1,000
blinds and 1-2k limits, with eight minutes
left. Ben Santoli, arriving second-lowest
in chips, was gone in seven hands when
his pocket eights were crushed by Mindy
Dewey when she flopped an ace to her A-K.
With limits at $1,500-$3,000, another
of the four retirees at the table, Tom
McHugh, became the first of Weiss' victims
12 hands later. Holding 8-7, Weiss flopped
two more eights, slow-played his hand
and broke McHugh, who went all in with
A-10.
Two
hands later Weiss scored a double knockout.
First, Guy Vitale, the fourth retiree,
raised all in with pocket kings. On a
flop of J-9-8, Dewey bet and Weiss, with
10-9, raised to put her all in. Weiss
missed his open-end straight draw, but
a 10 turned to give him two pair, and
now four were gone. On hand 23, Weiss
took down his fourth player. He button-raised
with pocket deuces. Robert Tybursky added
his last $500 chip and couldn't help his
Q-10. Tybursky, who is a table games supervisor
at the Aladdin, was the winner of this
event last year.
Amazingly,
Weiss made it five straight on hand 33
when he nailed Mike Hodson. Hodson had
raised pre-flop with pocket eights. Weiss
called with K-3, flopped a king and put
Hodson all in and all out. Hand 44 saw
the biggest pot so far. Limits were now
2-4k, and the pot was capped in three-way
action. On fourth street the board showed
Ac-7c-5c-3c. Nobody had a club, and an
all-in Snyder out-kicked Weiss, A-Q to
A-9.
With
15 minutes left in the round, Weiss and
Bishop were about tied with a little over
70k each, while Snyder had around 35k
and Patricia Moynihan, an attorney who
started with the fewest chips, was just
hanging on with 5k. Shortly after, Weiss
tried a river bluff with nothing, ran
into Bishop's pocket aces and surrendered
the lead. Moynihan finally went broke
a couple of hands later. She had 8-7 and
flopped an eight, but Snyder rivered a
club flush.
Soon
after it got three-handed, Weiss flopped
a queen to his Q-10 against Bishop to
regain the lead. When the limits went
to 3-6k, he led, 88k to 59.5k for Bishop
and 38.5 to Snyder. But then the swings
began. After beating Bishop when he caught
a 10 to his K-10, and then beating Bishop
again with just 4-2 when a four flopped,
Snyder rocketed up to about 85k.
Then
Bishop found himself going all in, surviving
once with king-high, then with a set of
fives, but never slowed down. Relentlessly
raising, he was roughly tied with Snyder,
about 50k each, while Weiss still led
with around 80k, as limits went to 4-8.
As
chips went back and forth, Weiss warned
his opponents, "You're trying to
wear me down, but you don't know that
I play all night all the time." "We're
trying to wear each other down,"
Snyder corrected him.
As
the hands passed the 100 mark, Bishop
now led with about 90k while Weiss had
dipped down to only around 37k. Finally,
Snyder took the lead and left Weiss with
only $500 when Weiss couldn't beat Snyder's
paired 10. Two hands later, hand 121,
Weiss finally succumbed. All he had was
4-3 and lost when Bishop, with A-7, flopped
a seven. The two finalists quickly agreed
to a chop and event number one was over.
Max Shapiro
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