TOILING
IN THE FIELDS OF THE POKER GODS
It's
wonderful to be young, rich and a great
player. But it's perfect to be loved by
the poker gods.
There
were 40 entrants in the $2,500 Buy-In,
No-Limit Hold'em for a total prize pool
of $94,000. Five players were paid.
To
setup the Final Table, two guys busted
out on the two last tables so it didn't
matter that Don Barton had a few more
chips than R A Head. They tied for 10th
and most importantly they both got swell
Hall of Fame jackets. So, there were only
nine to start.
THE FINAL TABLE:
14 mins. left of 60.
The blinds were $150/$300
Player
Hometown Chip
Count
Seat 1 Mike Davis Harker Heights TX $
1,550
Seat 2 Julian Gardner Manchester, UK $15,625
Seat 3 Chris Bjorin London, UK $ 7,200
Seat 4 Tony Hartman Minneapolis MN $ 4,900
Seat 5 Tony Cousineau Daytona Beach CA
$ 4,900
Seat 6 Kathy Liebert Las Vegas NV $10,600
Seat 7 Ron Rose Dayton OH $30,800
Seat 8 Scotty Nguyen Henderson NV $ 8,750
Seat 9 T J Cloutier Richardson TX $12,425
Think
the crew listed above is pretty tough.
You might have even more respect for their
play when you see just some of the group
they had to beat to get there.
Alan
Betson, Humberto Brenes, Layne Flack,
Ken Flaton, Phil Ivey, John Juanda, O'Neil
Longson, Daniel Negreanu, Erik Seidel,
David Ulliott.
Both
the 10th place gentlemen, who went out
on the same hand before the Final Table
formed, had more chips when they went
all-in than Mike 'Pizza Man' Davis had
when he got to sit down. That tells you
how much trouble Davis was in against
this star-studded lineup. Mike pushed
in his whole stack of $1,500 as second
button in hopes of getting one caller
who thought he was trying to steal. Instead
both the small and big blinds called and
checked to the river. Both blinds beat
Mike. Chris Bjorin had pocket 7's and
Tony Hartman caught a gut-shot straight
on the river with his A J.
Either
a few more hands or a little more luck
and perennial Final Table player Tony
Cousineau will have some nice paydays.
"One of these days," Tony says
philosophically. Like Mike Davis before
him, Tony tried an A 3 but with improvements.
His was suited in Clubs and he was on
the button. Ron Rose started this table
with almost one-third of the chips so
the $3,100 all-in from Cousineau caused
him only momentary contemplation on the
button. In 8th, was Tony Cousineau when
Ron's 8 played.
Asking
that there be no references to 'Mary Hartman,
Mary Hartman' Tony Hartman was the short
stack and went all-in with K 10. Julian
Gardner, who just happened to make a cool
1.1 million dollars from 2nd at the WSOP
Championship in May, called the bet from
his giant mound of chips with A 10. It
was nice to be able to honor Tony's request
not to mention 'Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman'
because he felt bad enough about finishing
7th.
As
rare as a blue moon? How about as rare
as a 'gotcha' move by Kathy Liebert. 'Colorado
Kate', the first woman to win $1 million
in a poker tournament, was down to $4,600.
She moved all-in from middle position
with the J 9 of Clubs. Behind her Scotty
Nguyen woke up with pocket Queens. Kathy
was the last one out of the money. "And
she made her move with my signature hand,"
T J Cloutier said. "It was just at
the wrong time."
"I'm
just tired of waiting. It's been three
hours since I was dealt a hand."
T J Cloutier pushed all his chips into
the pot, about $12,000 from the small
blind with A 10. Julian Gardner took about
five seconds to call with A K. "When's
the last time you saw me draw out on somebody,"
T J lamented in 5th.
At
the color up four-handed, Julian Gardner
had taken over the chip lead with more
than $30k largely due to a hand with Ron
Rose where Julian checkraised Ron all-in
from the small blind when the flop came
10 10 3. Ron couldn't call and it really
bothered him that he couldn't.
But
Ron Rose got his revenge. It wasn't against
Julian, though. It was against Scotty
Nguyen. Ron went all-in from the small
blind with $17,400 on a stone-cold bluff.
Rose had K 5 with the flop Q 8 7. Scotty
took forever to decide to fold. But only
after Ron promised to show his hand. Nguyen
pounded the nearby furniture when he saw
the bluff. Nguyen had A 7.
Another
day, another money finish for Chris Bjorin.
Julian Gardner was in the small blind
and called Chris's all-in of $13,100 with
only an A 8. Bjorin was in the lead on
the turn with pocket 7's, but Gardner
had tons of outs as the flop came 6 3
2 of Spades and Julian had the Ace of
Spades. The fourth Spade on the river
sent the Norwegian pro out in 4th.
Now
three-handed as the blinds went up Julian
Gardner, the Harry Potter of poker, had
almost half the chips. He'd soon get a
lot more.
Ron
Rose has come out of obscurity to poker
prominence recently with some big money
finishes. He's not likely to run into
tougher company than Scotty and Julian.
On the button, Ron found out what the
World Series Final Table and all of Europe
knew from experience. Julian Gardner in
his early 20's is already on the top echelon
of players in the world. It doesn't hurt
that he's running real good also. Even
if he didn't win, Ron would have liked
to beat Scotty Nguyen who had been riding
him for hours. It wasn't to be.
Ron
picked up the A 10 of Hearts on the button
three-handed. It was going to be difficult
to get off this hand. Ron rose up with
a bet of $3k. Julian, in the big blind,
reraised to $10k. Ron went all-in for
another $6k. Gardner, the snake, had an
A Q in the big blind and flopped a Queen.
Rose left smelling like 3rd place.
"He
trapped checked me on the flop and I went
all-in with the worst hand," Julian
Gardner said candidly. Scotty Nguyen got
exactly what he wanted. He had an A 8
with the flop A J 9. Julian had a J 10.
It's
wonderful to be young, rich and a great
poker player. It's also wonderful to catch
a runner runner double gutshot nut straight.
The turn was a Queen and the river came
a King. Scotty was so stunned he couldn't
move as Julian came over to shake his
hand. After $1.1 million for 2nd in May.
Julian Gardner won his first U. S. tournament.
If
any of us had this kid's future, we could
throw ours away.
That's
what comes from being a Gardner in the
fields of the poker gods.
Mike Paulle
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