Mike
Carson Breaks a Slump With
Convincing Win in Grand Slam #7
Mike
Carson is an all-around gaming pro. He
has a World Series bracelet for pot limit
hold'em which earned him $250,000 in 2000,
and he has numerous other wins at local
casinos. He is one of the world's best
backgammon players. And he's also a top
bridge, hearts and Chinese poker player.
Despite
all his credentials, he'd been in what
he described as a "bad slump" lately.
But he rebounded tonight with a decisive
win in event #7 of Hustler Casino's Grand
Slam of Poker Tournament III, $300 no-limit
hold'em.
"Driving
in today," he said, "I had such a strong
feeling, I was so confident that I could
win."
The
tournament lasted only 14 hands, but in
that time Carson knocked out two players,
zoomed from $67,500 to a chip-leading
$223,000 and began cudgeling the other
players with his stacks until a six-way
deal was suggested and accepted.
Moreover,
he kept his cool and determination and
was able to rebound from a devastating
bad beat when there were 35 players left.
He had pocket aces against A-10, better
than a 91 percent favorite. Then his opponent
made trip 10s and Carson dropped down
from about $40,000 to $8,000. "It was
horrible, but I kept my head," Carson
said.
Carson
used to be a largely cash game player,
but now plays tournaments much more. "With
the explosion of interest in tournament
poker, it would be foolish not to," he
explained later. "All good players should
be playing more tournaments."
Carson
described himself as an aggressive player,
but also said that he liked to establish
a table presence and then take advantage
of that image and play the opposite of
what seemed to be expected of him. For
example, he explained, in early action
he had very few hands he could play, so
he got typed as a conservative player
and thus could get away with strongly
betting lesser hands.
"It's
important to be flexible," he added. I
might play aggressively, but if I were
at a table with Layne Flack, for example,
I'd have to play differently."
Action
started with $500 antes, blinds of $2,000-$4,000
and 24:34 left in the round. Action started
off explosively, with three players gone
in eight hands. On the second hand, "Bugsy"
Slagle (whose nickname apparently arises
from his occupation as an exterminator),
was in the big blind with 10-4. Carson
raised from the small blind with A-4 and
Slagle, left with only $2,500, said he
had to call. He couldn't help and bugged
out in 10th place.
Slagle
has a third-place finish to his credit
in a World Series tournament, and has
also had cash-outs at the World Poker
Open and at the Carnivale of Poker in
Omaha hi-lo.
On
the next hand, Carson collided with top
pro Kathy Liebert, who won her first World
Series bracelet this year and also has
a Party Poker Million victory on her extensive
resume.
Liebert
opened from the cutoff seat for $15,000
and Carson made it $50,000 to go from
the button. The flop came 7-7-5 and Liebert,
holding pocket 9s, bet her last $14,500.
Carson called and turned up A-Q. Liebert
was still in the lead when a jack turned,
but a queen on the end gave Carson a higher
pair, and she departed in ninth place.
"I
got lucky, of course, but I have to give
her credit for calling," Carson said later.
"I was trying to win the pot right there
with my raise, because there were a lot
of hands she might have had that she would
have had to lay down."
On
the next pot, Param Gill opened for $12,000,
and Shea raised $25,000. Carson moved
his massive stacks in. Gill quickly folded,
and Shea, after long deliberation, also
mucked and showed J-J. Carson said he
could beat the jacks, but did not reveal
his hand. Gill later said he laid down
pocket queens.
With
eight players left, Carson now held a
commanding lead with more than 200,000
chips out of the 568,000 in play.
Four
hands later, Vincent McBride, who is in
the telecom business, opened for $12,000,
and Arnold Spee moved in for $18,500 more.
McBride had pocket 7s, Spee, K-Q. Spee
couldn't help, while McBride improved
to a 7-high straight when the board showed
6-4-3-6-5, and Spee was out in eighth
place.
Using
his chips as a weapon, Carson check-raised
when McBride bet $8,000 into a pot of
A-Q-10, forcing his opponent to fold.
On
hand 13, the blinds went to $3,000-$6,000
with$1,000 antes, and one hand after that
it was all over. Param Gill had pocket
kings in the small blind, and Steven Shea
had 4-3 in the big. Gill, slow-playing,
just limped. On a flop of 7-6-4, he bet
$17,000. Shea, with a paired 4 and an
inside straight draw, called. A trey turned.
Gill moved in and Shea, now leading with
two pair called. A 7 came on the river,
and with a pair on board, Gill now had
kings and 7s to Shea's 4s and 3s and Shea,
a restaurant manager who plays mostly
live games, was out in seventh place on
a bad beat.
A
deal was now suggested, and the chips
were counted. Carson had $223,000; Gil
had $153,000; Michael Carroll had $71,000;
Ernie Sebastian had $53,000; McBride had
$52,000; and Thomas
"Nick the Greek" Joanides had $16,000.
That's
the order in which they finished, and
Carson, who finished fourth in this same
event last year, finally had a good cash-in
after a long dry spell.
Max Shapiro
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