YEUNG
GETS TITLE, SPIRES THE TROPHY; CALL IT
A TIE
Essentially
dead even after 21 hands of heads-up play,
Ted Spires made Philip Yeung an unusual
offer. Yeung could have the title if Spires
could take home the trophy. A bit taken
aback, Yeung said, "You're a good
player and I'd like to beat you, but…"
and accepted. That made him the official
winner of event 10 of 2003 Four Queens
Poker Classic, $300 Omaha hi-lo.
Spires
is a computer programmer from Aurora,
Colorado. Yeung is a Fresno, California
attorney recently relocated to Las Vegas.
He's been playing poker eight years and
this is his first major tournament win.
He prefers live action, his game of choice
being $40-$80 Omaha hi-lo at the Bellagio.
The
other remarkable feature of this event
was the performance of R.W. Miller. Harder
to kill than the proverbial cockroach,
he went all in a dozen times, three times
with one chip, before finishing third.
"Just call me one-chip Wayne,"
he said.
The
final table began with $200-$400 blinds
and $400-$800 limits, 11:59 remaining.
Rebekah Emmons had the chip lead with
$17,000, while Texas state worker Judy
Coover and Zien Chan were perilously low
with $1,100 and $900 respectively.
Also
present was Ram Vaswani, the fourth and
final member of Britain's "Hendon
Mob" to make a final table. On the
third hand Vaswani raised and was called
by Coover and then by Chan, who went all
in holding A-Q-J-8. The flop came 9-7-5
and Coover bet, holding K-K-3-2. A deuce
turned to counterfeit her low, but she
still had kings and bet all in. Vaswani
was holding A-2-4-Q, and then a trey came
on the river to give him a wheel and bust
both players.
Four
hands later, with limits at $300-$600,
a wheel ran over a third player. Frankie
O'Dell, who won a bracelet in Omaha/8
this year, raised holding A-3-5-6, and
Kent Ervin called with 2-4-5-6. The flop
was A-7-3, giving O'Dell aces-up and a
straight draw. Ervin had a nut low and
huge wraparound straight draw along with
a flush draw. A five on fourth street
gave Ervin a wheel and O'Dell retired
in eighth place.
Returning
from a 7 p.m. break, limits were $500-$1,000,
with three players now sharing the lead.
Philip Leung had 16.5k while Emmons and
Vaswani were tied with 16k each. When
limits had gone up two more notches, to
$1,500-$3000, seven players still were
left, though three players, Emmons, Miller
and Bolton, were very low-chipped, with
each of them already all in several times.
On
hand 47, all three went all in. Miller
had his last $500 posted in the small
blind. Then Emmons called all in for $1,500,
along with Tony Bolton, Spires and Vaswani,
who was in the big blind. The flop was
5h-5c-2s. Bolton bet all in for $1,500
and got two calls. Then a 7-4 was dealt
and the hands were turned up. Bolton,
with A-2-3-K, had a wheel; Miller, with
3-4-5-Q had a full house, and both survived.
Vaswani took the side pot with a straight
six. Emmons mucked her hand without showing
and left.
A
few hands later, Bolton was all in with
a great starting hand: A-2-3-5. Only two
low cards came, and Spires won with pocket
aces. As play continued, Vaswani dropped
down to $4,000. He got away with a couple
of all-ins, then went all in again on
hand 51 holding Ad-3d-Jh-Kh. Spires had
all low cards, 2-4-6-7, and then made
a surprise full house with a 7-6-3-10-6
board.
Four-handed,
the chip count was: Leung, 30k; Spires,
25k; Miller, 16.5k; and Ervin, 3.5k.
The
limits went to $2,000-$4,000 on the next
deal. Four hands later, Spires raised
with K-K-Q-3 and Ervin, a retiree, re-raised
all in, better than a 3-1 favorite with
A-A-3-7 and a suited ace. But Omaha, as
anyone who has played it knows, can be
a cruel game, and Spires ended up with
a Broadway straight, cutting the field
to three. The approximate count now was:
Spires, 35k Yeung, 26k, and Milleer, 14k.
Folding
on the river in a hand where he couldn't
beat ace-high, Miller was down to one
chip. Again and again, Spires and Leung
took turns trying to bust him, but he
always managed to escape. Finally, with
a board of 4c-4d-3c, Miller went in for
the last time with 5-6-7-10 and two clubs.
A deuce and a 9c gave him a six-high straight
and a flush, but Leung, with Ac-2-5c-K,
had a wheel and a bigger flush.
Heads-up,
Leung led about 4-3 in chips. When they
got close to even they chopped the prize
money, played another 16 hands, then made
the final title/trophy deal.
Max Shapiro
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