GREAT
CATCHES IN 7-STUD HI-LO
PROPEL DAVID LEVI TO VICTORY
This
was David "You play goooood" Levi's night.
With two tables left he made a case-card
catch to take a big lead, and when he
got to the final table he continued to
make miraculous hands. He quickly accumulated
about half the chips in play, later lost
nearly a third of them, but still was
in front when the four finalists did a
chip-count deal.
Four-
and five-way chops have been the norm
in the last three events.
Levi,
a one-time professional soccer player
from Israel, has an impressive number
of wins and cash-outs at various tournaments,
including a victory in $300 7-card stud
in last year's Cal State Poker Championship.
Stud is his preferred game in live action,
but in tournaments he's an all-around
player.
This
$500 7-card stud hi-lo event, the sixth
in Commerce Casino's 2004 California State
Poker Championship, was supposed to be
two-day event. But it went so fast, getting
down to the last eight by midnight, that
the finalists agreed to play right through.
Up
until the second table, Levi had been
in more or less average shape throughout.
Then a pot was three-bet in three-way
action and bet all the way down. On sixth
street, Levi had two pair and a draw to
a 3-4-5-6. With three deuces dead, he
hit the last one and scooped.
The
final table started with $200 antes, a
$300 low card bring-in and $1,000-$2,000
limits. On only the second hand, Levi
again got involved in a three-way pot.
Showing 8-8-6-10, he turned up two more
10s at the showdown, and his full house
pushed him into a big lead.
"Joe C., who lost most of his chips in
that hand, soon went all in but stayed
alive when he made a flush. Eventually,
he would climb back up and finish second.
Watching Levi start to run over the table,
one of the players recalled some pertinent
chatter earlier. One player had said that
if he ever needed a heart transplant,
Levi's heart would be the one he would
want. "Why?" someone else asked, "is it
very red?" "No, the first player explained,
"it's because it's never been used."
Phoenix
Poker pro Mike Krescanko was the first
to depart. He made 7s and 4s but lost
to the higher two pair made by "Joe C."
Levi
struck again a few hands later. Lance
Burkman had rolled-up aces, and on sixth
street, all Levi showed was 2-3-K-7. Surprise.
Levi turned up 4-5-6 for a 6-high straight
to knock Burkman out in seventh place.
"Holy moley!" one of the players exclaimed.
"I'm getting tired of winning," Levi sighed.
Not
that tired. On the very next hand, he
had 8-8-J-A on board and made 8s-full
against real estate developer Paul Fruchbom
to run his count to about $80,000.
Stakes
now moved up a notch to $1,500-$3,000,
with $200 antes and a $500 bring-in. Suddenly
Levi's luck began to falter. Fruchbom
got his chips back when he scooped Levi
with aces-up and an 8-6 low.
Then
"Doodle" took more chips away from him.
"Doodle," a New Yorker who described his
occupation as an "architect in special
materials," has a startlingly young appearance
and could pass for 16 with no trouble.
A big pot began developing between him
and Levi when each showed a door-card
6, and the pot was raised and re-raised.
At the end, Levi couldn't beat the kid's
jacks-up, and forked over some more chips.
The
pace speeded up when two players went
broke in the same hand. In three-way action,
Fruchbom put his last chips in showing
10-4. At the showdown, he had 10s and
4s. Next, Frank Mattarocci, a retiree,
went all in showing 5d-3d. He picked up
a wheel draw, but ended up with a busted
low.
Meanwhile,
Joe C. started with split aces, made aces
up and scooped away two players as he
began challenging Levi for the chip lead.
Fruchbom finished sixth, which paid $2,380,
while Mattarocci's fifth-place finish
earned $2,975.
At
that point, Levi had about $42,000 in
chips, while Joe C. had $36,000; "Doodle"
had $32,000; and Kolberg was down to $12,000.
After
a few more hands, the players began negotiating
a deal. The chip count was pretty much
the same, though Kolberg had moved up
a bit. Still, she wasn't too happy about
a straight chip-count payout, because
with her small stack she wouldn't get
much more than fourth place. So the other
players agreed to throw in something extra,
and this 7-stud hi-lo event ended very
quickly.
-- by Max Shapiro
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