AN
INCREDIBLE COMEBACK
Self-confidence
is a valuable commodity in a poker player.
Insane self-confidence is even better.
There
were 41 entrants in the $1,500 Buy-In,
Limit Hold'em for a total prize pool of
$57,810. Five players were paid.
To
setup the Final Table, when asked to give
his name our 11th place finisher declined.
Our mystery man was understandably frustrated,
since he hadn't been able to make a hand
while several short stacks stayed alive.
He stalked off when Humberto Brenes showed
him pocket Queens in the small blind as
an overpair to the board.
THE FINAL TABLE:
30 mins. left of 60.
The blinds were $200/$300
Player
Hometown Chip
Count
Seat 1 John Kapovich South Holland IL
$10,900
Seat 2 Scotty Nguyen Henderson NV $ 3,400
Seat 3 Andrei Herasimchuk Sunnyvale CA
$ 4,000
Seat 4 Phil Ivey Atlantic City NJ $ 1,900
Seat 5 Joanne Bortner Palo Alto CA $ 7,600
Seat 6 Bernie Grio San Jose CA $ 8,900
Seat 7 Jerry Howe Cashmere WA $ 2,400
Seat 8 Layne Flack Las Vegas NV $ 7,800
Seat 9 Humbereto Brenes San Jose, Costa
Rica $ 8,400
Seat 10 Huck Seed Las Vegas NV $ 8,900
"He
hesitated before he bet (on the flop),
so I thought he didn't have a pair,"
former World Champion Scotty Nguyen explained
to the table after Phil Ivey got up in
10th. The flop had come 8 7 5. Phil had
pocket Queens. Scotty had 5 4 in the big
blind. When Ivey did bet all-in, Nguyen
called and turned a second pair when a
4 came. In disgust, Phil Ivey spun his
Queens toward the dealer. Ivey's appearing
more human every day. Well, at least less
superhuman.
Starting
second in chip count, the other former
Champion at the table didn't win a hand
and crashed all the way down to 9th. Humanness
was catching on. When Huck Seed raised
all-in with his last $1,100, the betting
proceeded to Scotty Nguyen in the small
blind and Andrei Herasimchuk in the big.
Scotty asked Huck, "Do you want me
to call?" And without thinking, Andrei
said, "I'll call." Huck Seed,
understandably angered by this exchange,
replied "Why don't you two decide
between you who has the best hand and
that person call." It was a funny
and slightly tragic retort from a great
player who was having a bad night. Scotty
had the information he needed to fold
and did so. Andrei called with A Q. When
an Ace flopped, Huck Seed's J 10 was history.
Since the incident was obviously unintentional
by all parties, Seed let it go.
The
most unpredictable player at any table
she's at is surely Joanne (J J) Bortner.
What makes her so scary is that no one
knows what two cards she will turn over.
Unusual for JJ, she also couldn't make
a hand tonight. When she raised all-in
from the big blind with A J, she didn't
have enough to get the hot new chip leader
Humberto Brenes to lay down his A 7. One
seven on the flop would have been sufficient,
but Brenes was catching the kitchen sink
at the time and got another seven on the
river. These kind of things don't happen
to Joanne and a stunned Bortner left in
8th.
Since
Humberto Brenes was winning almost every
pot, and Layne Flack took most of the
others there weren't many available for
anyone else. This forced the roof to fall
in on the starting chip leader John Kapovich.
Whatever good things were happening to
John before he got to the Final Table,
they quit happening when he got here.
From first to seventh isn't a jolly experience.
Especially when only five are being paid.
The quiet man from Illinois never said
a word. He just took his jacket coupon
and left when his all-in big blind hand
of Q 5 didn't have a chance against Layne
Flack's A 10.
For
a while it looked as if Jerry Howe might
pull off a daily double. He drew the same
seat last night and finished fifth. Tonight,
he had enough chips for fifth until his
seat failed him for 6th this time. Anyone
who's ever played in tournament knows
that sickening feeling when your cards
go dead, the blinds are coming and you
are one out of the money. Rather than
wait for the inevitable, Jerry raised
in late position with the K 10 of Clubs
and bet until his chips were gone. Layne
Flack was on the button and didn't want
to reraise with an A 3 when an Ace flopped.
He just called Howe all the way out the
door.
We'd
played less than three hours and Humberto
Brenes now had half the chips on the table.
He was that hot. "When you cards
are coming, it's an easy game," Humberto
said. He should know. They've been coming
for him all this year with wins totaling
over $600,000. He already has one victory
in this year's Hall of Fame and it looked
like another was locked up. Meanwhile,
Bernie Grio had been avoiding all confrontations
with the incendiary Brenes and he'd managed
to get into 5th for some cash. But it
was time for Humberto to send him home.
Bernie went all-in from the big blind
with Q 5. Brenes had K 8. Both flopped
their top cards. Enough said.
Remember
our mystery player who finished 11th?
Well, the person he was most upset about
losing to was Andrei Herasimchuk. Andrei
survived several all-ins with eleven players
left and was extremely fortunate to be
here. But once he arrived, he played very
well against an awesome field to finish
4th. "I knew Layne had a better kicker,
but I was committed to the hand,"
Herasimchuk said afterward. Andrei kept
calling his K 9 with a King on the flop
until he ran out of chips. Flack kept
betting with his K J until the cards were
turned over and the Jack played.
Three-handed
now, it should have been called a 'no
contest.' Brenes had 2/3's of the chips.
There was no doubt in anyone's mind that
Flack and Nguyen were battling for 2nd
place. Brenes had nine times the stack
of third place Scotty Nguyen and five
times the chips of Layne Flack. Only a
person with insane self-confidence would
do what Scotty did now. He tried to bet
$1,000 on himself with Huck Seed who was
watching from the crowd. The problem from
Huck's perspective was that Scotty wanted
the best of it. He wanted 20-1. If it
hadn't been $1,000, many in the crowd
might have taken the bet with Nguyen.
It looked THAT hopeless. But Huck Seed
is too smart to be trapped. Seed knew
the proper odds. And he knows how fast
things can turn around.
Soon it got more amazing. Scotty was busted
down to five chips. 'If I win this hand,
no more 2nd or 3rd," Nguyen bragged.
FIVE CHIPS. Humberto Brenes had 100 chips.
Insane! Scotty won the all-in hand.
Lost
in all the tumult was Layne Flack. He
couldn't beat Brenes, either, and it making
him crazy. "He can walk on water,"
Flack said bitterly as Humberto dragged
more of Layne's chips into his mountainous
stack. Brenes had just reraised Flack's
reraises twice representing the nut flush.
Finally, since that was what Layne wanted
Brenes to think he had, Flack gave up
and folded.
With
Scotty 'Nostradamus' Nguyen getting hot
as he predicted, it was Layne Flack left
to finish 3rd for the second day in a
row. He called Scotty's raise all-in with
his last two chips. Layne had K 3 in the
big blind. Scotty had Q 9 and flopped
a Queen.
Now
there were two. And the magic Nguyen had
somehow managed to climb out of the cellar
onto the first floor with almost 1/3 of
the chips. Unbelievable. This could no
longer be declared a 'no contest.' The
hyper-confident Scotty Nguyen kept asking
to play No-Limit or winner-take-all. What
he knew about this matchup was anybody's
guess.
From
then on, there was more bluffing and trapping
than real hands by both players. Each
player would call or raise the other's
representation and howl at the fold.
"You
can't bluff Scotty."
"You tried to trap me, oh!"
"You tried to bluff Humberto three
times in a row."
"In Costa Rica, you can only bluff
your wife not your friends."
On and on with the taunting and trash-talking.
The
chips flowed back and forth with increasing
speed as the blinds went to $1,000/$1,500.
"It’s
just a matter of time," Scotty said
when he'd taken his first 2-1 chip lead.
He was correct. While Nguyen survived
several all-ins from Brenes, Humberto
couldn't overcome his few all-in at the
hands of Scotty.
In
one of the most amazing comebacks of this
or any year, the insanely self-confident
Scotty Nguyen performed the miracle he
predicted he would. Humberto was all-in
with his last four chips and a 10 5. Scotty
had a 3 2. Being a big dog is nothing
new to the Champ. With a 3 on the river,
the comeback was complete.
Mike Paulle
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