Headhunter
in 7-Way Chop
This
was yet another night of wham-bam, let’s
all scram poker. Only nine players made
it to the $50 headhunter hold’em
final table when Mike Duran and Daniel
Retzner were knocked out simultaneously
at the second tables. Then, after two
players were eliminated in 19 hands at
the final table, the seven left agreed
to a chip count deal. Tournament assistant
Robyn Shepard did some quick calculations
based on chip counts, everyone said “OK”
and the seven survivors lined up at the
payout podium.
Manolito
Navarro, who started the final table with
a chip lead of $60,000, still had a noticeable
advantage at the end and became the winner.
Rocky Enciso was short-chipped and the
other five were grouped fairly closely.
Navarro,
who plays all games, both cash action
and tournaments, has a number of prior
tournament wins here and in Vegas. It
doesn’t matter to him what the side
game is, so long as it offers the lure
of a big jackpot.
In
any event, the scarcity of useable material
in this contest would sorely test the
ingenuity of any tournament writer. The
options might include using large type,
increasing the spacing between lines,
employing very big words or perhaps just
making things up. Hopefully, none of these
shameful devices will need to be employed,
so let’s give it a go.
First,
a count of the headhunter disks. These
provide evidence of how many competitors
each player personally knocked out, with
each headhunter disk worth ten bucks on
top of the prize money. Eric Hamilton
arrived as the head headhunter with 10
heads on his stick. Philip Penn had nine;
Navarro had eight; John Canawiti, a finance
manager only playing his third tournament,
had six; Van Mahesh and Enciso both had
five; Chris Straghalis had four; and Cheo
Ngo and Sung Yi had three.
The
final table, which lasted less than 30
minutes, started with limits of $4,000-$8,000.
After seven and a half minutes, with not
much happening, the limits jumped to $6,000-$12,000.
Enciso, who started with a piddling $8,000,
raised all in for $12,000 on hand number
nine holding Ac-6c. Yi called from the
big blind with Q-9. Yi had an open-end
straight draw when the flop came J-10-5,
but two following rags enabled Enciso’s
ace-high to stand up.
Three
hands later, Ngo was under the gun with
$10,000 left of her starting $18,000,
and she raised all in. Straghalis, who
has wins at the privately organized Barge
and Escargot tournaments, called. Ngo
had Kc-10c and Straghalis had Ad-10c.
The flop came J-J-2-8-6, and once again
an ace-high took the pot as Ngo cashed
out in ninth place for $265.
Next
to go all in, on the following hand, was
Mahesh. When the flop came A-10-5, Penn
bet holding A-3 and Mahesh raised all
in for $6,000 more with A-J. A six and
a four came, the jack kicker played and
Mahesh got to play some more.
Hand
17 was a big pot. It was raised by Canawati
and re-raised by Straghalis. The flop
was K-10-6. Canawati bet all in and the
hands were turned up. Surprise! They both
had A-J offsuit, and the pot was split.
Two
hands later it was all over. Penn had
to post his last $6,000 in the big blind
with 5s-4s, and Yi came in with pocket
kings. A board of 9-8-3-9-9 gave Yi a
full house as Penn collected $265 for
eighth place.
A
deal was proposed and accepted. Based
on chip counts, Navarro got an official
$6,580 for first place; Straghalis $3,335
for second; Mahesh $1,665 for third; Yi
$1,140 for fourth; Hamilton $790 for fifth;
Canawati $595 for sixth; and Enciso $445
for seventh. And this writer filled his
quota of words.
BIOGRAPHY
Manolito Navarro is a native of the Philippines
who’s been in this country 15 years.
He lives in National City, in San Diego
County. His poker action is split between
tournaments and live games. A jackpot
specialist, he searches the casinos for
the biggest payouts around and that, rather
than the game itself, determines where
he takes a seat. He’s hit several
jackpots for his efforts. Playing tournaments,
he’s won events at the Normandie
and Viejas in stud, Omaha and hold’em.
He also lived in Las Vegas for two years
and won an event at the Orleans.
In
tonight’s event, Navarro said he
was never short-chipped, and was lucky
to keep hitting the flop. Describing himself
as a player, he said he’s a combination
of tight and aggressive.
Max Shapiro
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