Angel Flies in BPO Opener
Angel
Juarez, a landscape gardener originally
from Mexico, literally flew away with
the opening event of Big Poker Oktober
2003, $50 limit hold’em. He started
the final table with $19,000, tied with
George Elias for the third-fewest number
of chips, then quickly took to the sky
as he ran over the field. Within 40 minutes
he had more than $150,000 of the $404,000
in chips on the table. At that point,
with limits at a backbreaking $10,000-$20,000,
only five players were left, and his four
opponents threw in the towel, made a deal
and ceded him the lion’s share of
the prize money.
Tonight’s
event drew a mob of 504 players. It was
the largest number of entrants for the
first event of Big Poker Oktober in the
past three or four years, and possibly
a record for any BPO. There were several
players arriving with several times the
chips that Juarez had: Miguel Gutierrez
with $67,000; Jim Gu with $55,000; Moshi
Farid with $54,000; and Joe Thomas Jr.
with $48,000.
The
final table started at 12:30 a.m. with
limits of $4,000-$8,000 and 10:15 remaining.
Elias, author of an early book on poker,
was first to go all in, but he got to
stick around a while when his pocket fours
held up against Ks-Qs. After limits went
to $6,000-$12,000 on hand 10, Konnie Kim
went out on the first deal. She was under
the gun and went all in with Ks-10s against
Juarez, who had pocket queens. Nobody
helped when the board came 4-2-2-9-5,
and Kim cashed out in 10th place for $315.
Three
hands later, Juarez continued his assault.
With the board showing A-Q-9, Elias bet,
Juarez raised to 12k and after Elias prudently
folded, Juarez showed he had flopped a
set of nines. One hand later, Juarez,
holding J-10, made a straight on a flop
of Q-9-8 and took Gutierrez down a few
notches. “What a run!” Phil
Jones exclaimed in awe as Juarez began
stacking up roughly $100,000 in chips.
Terri
Rathbone was next to commit all her chips,
but her K-9 outran Farid’s pocket
eights when a king flopped. On hand 16,
Charlie Wang went up against Jim Son Gu.
When
the board showed 9-5-5-Q, Gu bet and Wang
called all in. Gu turned up pocket queens
for a full house, and Wang, mucking his
cards and departing without bothering
to see the river, cashed in ninth for
$380. Two hands later, Elias held A-J
and looked to be in decent shape when
the flop brought A-9-3. But Farid had
A-K. He put Elias all in and busted him
when a 10 and eight changed nothing. Elias
picked up $505 for finishing eighth.
Four
hands later the limits rose to $10,000-$20,000,
and four hands after that Thomas had to
post his last $4,000 in the big blind
with only a sickly 6-2 to defend it. Jones
was in the small blind with Q-3, and queen-high
was enough to do the job when the board
came K-K-5-5-10. Thomas collected $630
for his seventh-place finish.
A
deal was now discussed, but Wang cast
his veto, and play continued. For one
hand, anyway. That was hand 25. Jones
was on the button with As-10s, and Juarez,
holding A-J offsuit, raised and put Jones
all in. The flop came J-J-8, and Jones
was pretty close to dead. A 10 and a nine
came, and Jones was left in sixth place
for an $880 cash-out.
The
time was now 1:10. Juarez had over 150k,
and there wasn’t any huge chip difference
among the other four. This time a deal
was struck. Juarez collected an official
$9,455 for first, and the chip count decided
that Gu was second for $4,790; Gutierrrez
third for $2,395; Farid fourth for $1,640
and Rathbone fifth for $1,135.
BIOGRAPHY
Angel Juarez is a resident of Santa Ana
who came here from Mexico 24 years ago.
He has operated a landscape contracting
business since 1986. He’s been playing
poker only three years, and this was only
about his 10th tournament. He’s played
some small ones previously at Pechanga,
came close “but no cigar.” Hold’em
is his best game, his only game in fact,
and he plans to try his luck in another
four or five events at Big Poker Oktober.
In side-game action, he plays $8-$16,
$15-$30 or no-limit hold’em at Hawaiian
Gardens.
In
this event, he said he had to struggle
a couple of times, but managed to come
back strongly. He describes his style
of play as aggressive - “Providing
I have pocket aces.” Otherwise he
is selective. Online poker is one thing
that doesn’t interest him. “I
don’t like to be alone,” he
said. “I like to be around other
people.”
Max Shapiro
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