LOWBALL
VET LARRY CLEMENTS
BEATS $30-$60 FOE MARLIN HUFF
Two
friendly competitors who regularly play
against each other in the Commerce Casino’s
$30-$60 lowball cash game ended up facing
each other again heads-up in tonight’s
$300 lowball tournament, the third event
of the 2004 California State Poker Championship.
Larry Clements started with a 4-1 chip
advantage, but Marlin Huff, soon down
to four chips, hung on for about 30 hands
before finally bowing out.
Both
lowball veterans are retirees (surprise,
surprise). Clements owned an auto glass
shop until two years ago, and now plays
in the Commerce’s lowball with a kill
side game two or three times a week. He’s
been playing lowball for 40 years. Huff,
the older of the two at 76, had been a
circulation manager at the old Los Angeles
Herald-Express (later Herald-Examiner)
newspaper. It is the first tournament
win for Clements, though Huff won two
in Gardena “a long, long time ago.”
Huff’s
undoing came when he tried a bluff bet
after pairing and Clements picked him
off with an 8. “Not very nice,” Clements
chided his opponent. Two hands later it
was over.
Finishing third was Chris “The Armenian
Express” Grigorian, who’s been playing
the game for some 20 years and has a whole
clutch of lowball tournament wins to his
credit.
Asked
the secret to playing this venerable game,
all three finalists agreed it was getting
lucky and catching cards.
Admittedly
not the most exciting game in the world
to watch or play, this lowball event drew
only a small handful of spectators. The
final table got underway at the early
hour of 9:15, so that the players wouldn’t
have to stay up past their bedtimes. Fortunately,
it didn’t rain on tournament day. Otherwise
there might have been a flare-up of arthritis
among the seniors, cutting down the number
of entrants drastically.
The
final table started with limits of $1,000-$2,000
and 11:29 left in the round. Houston pro
Vinny Vinh started lowest-chipped with
$4,000 and was down to $1,000 when limits
went to $1,500-$3,000. On the first hand
he was all in from the big blind. In three-way
action, he drew two cards to three babies
and paired his deuce, losing to Ron Torgerson’s
8-6-5.
A hand later another pro, Gioi Luong,
got in trouble when he drew a card to
joker-A-3-4 and caught a paint. Left with
$1,500, he put it all in on the next hand.
He drew one to a 7-6-4-3 and paired his
7. Joshua Biedak broke him after standing
pat on a 7-6-5-3-2.
In
12 hands, two of the three pros at the
final table were gone. Just five hands
after that, Grigorian drew two and made
a 10 while an all-in Alex Salazar also
drew two and made two 10s. In this game,
two 10s are not twice as good as one 10,
and suddenly three were gone.
The chip count now was: Marlin Huff, 24k;
Larry Clements, 20k; Chris Grigorian,
18k; Joshua Biedak, 18k; and Ron Torgerson,
8k.
Clements
then made an embarrassing blunder that
probably cost him a bet or two. He drew
to a 7, made it, but misread his hand
and thought he caught a brick. Huff then
bet his higher 7. In this game you must
bet a 7, so Clements, unable to raise,
could only call. “I don’t make too many
mistakes,” he said contritely.
Biedak,
a business student from Canada studying
enterprise development, was perhaps the
most aggressive player at the table, and
his chip count the most volatile. He had
wanted to play in yesterday’s limit hold’em
event, but overslept. Lowball evidently
was not his best game because he repeatedly
second-guessed himself, saying “I should
have,” or “I shouldn’t have,” much to
the annoyance of Grigorian.
With
limits now at $2,000-$4,000, both he and
Torgerson, an engineer from San Diego,
were very low-chipped. Both went all in
a few times but managed to stick around...for
a time. Finally, Biedak was all in for
1k from the small blind, while Torgerson
posted his last 2k in the big. There was
four-way action. Biedak drew two and made
a 9-8. Torgerson also took two and caught
a jack. They were both drawing dead because
Huff drew one and hit a wheel. The extra
chip gave Torgerson fourth place to Bieak’s
fifth.
Huff
now had the lead with 38k to 30k for Grigorian
and 20k for Clements.
Now
Clements went on a rush, winning hand
after hand and climbing to 40k and then
nearly 60k. He did it largely at the expense
of Grigorian, who suddenly experienced
a drought. When his girlfriend stopped
by, he even asked if she could play a
couple of hands for him, describing her
as the best lowball player in the world.
Two
levels later, right after limits went
to $4,000-$8,000, Grigorian posted his
last 3k in the big blind. He drew two
to a 7 and paired his 7, losing to Clements’
two-draw jack.
Heads-up,
Clements had about 70k to Huff’s 18k.
Huff dropped down to 4k after losing to
Clements’ king, but hung on. “I want to
go home,” he complained, noting that the
days when he could play three or four
days without sleep were long gone. “Give
up, then,” Clements advised him. “I never
give up,” Huff replied.
Huff
rebounded, then was back down to 4k when
his bluff with a pair failed. On the final
hand, he was all in for 2k in the small
blind, drew two to A-4-6 and caught a
K-J, while Clements ended it by also taking
two and making an 8.
-- by Max Shapiro
|
