THE
POWER OF TILT
Normally
players who lose their composure are endangered
species at a poker table. Tonight, though,
our winner's anger translated into victory.
There
were 36 entrants and 50 rebuys in the
$1,500 Buy-In, Pot-Limit Omaha for a total
prize pool of $125,760. Five players were
paid.
To
setup the Final Table, eleventh and twelfth
went out on the same hand at the two different
tables. Last night's winner Daniel Negreanu
had his all-in pocket Aces cracked by
Chris Bjorin's flopped two pair then a
flush. Tony Cousineau, at the other table
with a high wrap, lost to trip 10's held
by Hertzel Zalewski.
THE FINAL TABLE:
7 mins. left of 60.
The blinds were $100/$200
Player
Hometown Chip
Count
Seat 1 Ron Rose Dayton OH $12,000
Seat 2 Hertzel Zalewski Houston TX $22,400
Seat 3 Steve Zolotow Las Vegas NV $23,300
Seat 4 Humberto Brenes San Jose, Costa
Rica $13,600
Seat 5 Peter Vilandos Houston TX $10,800
Seat 6 Scotty Nguyen Henderson NV $18,900
Seat 7 Chris Bjorin London, UK $ 7,700
Seat 8 Jake Naumer DuQuoin IL $ 8,700
Seat 9 Erik Seidel Las Vegas NV $ 8,500
Seat 10 Charlie Shoten Glendale CA $ 2,900
Think
there are no soft spots at the above table?
Here are another ten starting players
that didn't get near it. Alan Betson,
Eskimo Clark, T J Cloutier, Peter Costa,
Ken Flaton, Phil Ivey, John Juanda, O'Neil
Longson, Rafael Perry, David Ulliott.
As
we see often in Omaha, the big cards cancel
each other out and it's left to the small
cards to decide the winner. You'd think
the Peter Vilandos would split with Ron
Rose on a hand where Peter had A K J 6
and Ron A K J 4. BUT NO! Peter 'Absorba
the Greek' Vilandos took yet another vicious
hit in 10th when Rose made J's and 4's
on him.
Steve
Zolotow is among a handful of the best
Pot-Limit Omaha players in the world.
For him to start with the chip lead and
finish 9th is a shock. To lose $23,300
in the first half-hour is unprecedented.
Maybe that's why Steve called Scotty Nguyen
all-in on the flop from the small blind
with A Q J 2 and no flush draw. The board
came Q 9 3. Scotty had raised under the
gun. Nguyen could very well have had Aces.
Anyway, the famous Steve Z went all-in.
Scotty did have Aces.
The
ten seat has been good to the shortest
stack two nights in a row. Last night
Danny Negreanu went from worst to first
in the ten seat. Tonight Charlie Shoten,
a.k.a.Scotty Warbuck, was the shortest
and got out of the hole quickly. Charlie
sent Chris Bjorin out 8th with 7 7 6 6
making an 8 high straight on the turn,
and a flush on the river. Incidentally,
Chris Bjorin is Swedish by birth not Norwegian
as previously reported. Sorry! Evidently
to a Swede, being called a Norwegian is
a great insult. Chris was threatening
to sue.
It
was a difficult night for Humberto Brenes,
two-time winner in this year's Hall of
Fame. He'd gotten used to imposing his
will on these Final Tables. But the cards
weren't cooperating and Brenes failed
to cash for once. Typical of his frustration
was Humberto's last hand. Brenes went
all-in from his big blind with A J 9 6
and the A J of Hearts. He had about 100
outs on the turn with the nut straight
and flush draw. But since he had no chips,
Humberto couldn't bet on the come to try
and get Hertzel Zalewski off his flopped
trip 10's.as if that would have been possible.
Zalewski
has been destroying the live Pot-Limit
game for weeks, so the tournament was
like a busman's holiday. Hertzel has been
known to bet more than the total prize
pool on the turn of one card. Erik Seidel
on the other hand couldn't find a card
worth betting anything on for hours. You
know how tough a table is when Erik Seidel
is your bubble boy. Erik finally had no
choice but to commit to one of the pieces
of garbage he'd been dealt all night.
All-in with A 10 8 6, Seidel never led
with his flopped 8's. Hertzel Zalewski
had pocket 9's that held up to deny the
great Erik Seidel payment for his ten
hours of labor.
In rebuy events, making the money can
still be a loser. It depends on how many
rebuys a player makes. A player as tight
as Charlie Shoten (who prefers to be called
'Scotty Warbuck,' but there would have
been a confusing two Scottys at the table)
probably managed to make a few bucks with
the $6,290 given for 5th. When Hertzel
Zalewski flopped top set with his pocket
Queens from his big blind, Charlie was
drawing dead to perfect perfect.
It
was now time for the hand of the night,
when the loser won and the winner lost.
When
the flop came 6 2 2, all heck broke loose.
Jake Naumer was in the big blind with
A Q 6 2. It's safe to say Jake liked the
flop. Ron Rose was under the gun with
A K 3 2. Fortunately for him, Ron liked
the flop as well because he would lose
the hand.
Huh?
When
the tournament rookie--Jake Naumer--bet
the pot with his second nut full house,
the Rose from Dayton took a flyer coming
over the top with trip Deuces and an Ace.
This was a no-brainer call all-in for
Naumer who, understandably, often agonized
over what to do in different situations.
He was a tournament baby playing with
the heaviest weight adults on the planet.
The loss of the hand busted Ron Rose down
to a paltry $1,800. Within an hour and
a half, Rose would have $80,000.
In
one of the most spectacular bull rushes
in memory, Ron Rose used his anger at
the loss of almost all his chips to fuel
a non-stop winning streak. "No one can
beat him," Jake Naumer lamented. If anyone
would have had an idea that this rush
was going to last, they could have put
a stop to it early when Rose was still
climbing out of the pit he dug for himself.
Instead the table let Ron go 'pot' on
every hand, obviously on severe tilt.
There is no question that Rose was bluffing
or semi-bluffing on several hands. But
the other three players were more afraid
of each other to contest the small battles.
Suddenly Ron had risen up to a respectful
$20,000 and was a player once again.
The
first casualty to Rose's guns was the
other two-time event winner at the starting
table, Scotty Nguyen. Scotty knew all
about fantastic comebacks. He fought back
from $500 three-handed to win an earlier
event. The former World Champion was all-in
from the big blind with his last $800.
Nguyen is so dangerous all the other three
players checked to the river. Something
they should have done with Ron Rose when
he was short-stacked. But who knew? Scotty
flopped a straight with his 4 4 3 2. But
a Spade on the river gave Hertzel Zalewski
a King high flush and Nguyen 4th place.
Now
three-handed at $600/$1,200 blinds, Jake
Naumer had $60k, Hertzel Zalewski $50k
and Ron Rose $20k.
But
Jake wasn't winning squat and was soon
passed by Rose as second chip leader to
Zalewski. It didn't take long for the
streaking Rose to get all his chips back
from Naumer. The 'Power of Tilt' was on
full display. Rose WILLED his chips to
return to him and they did. On a hand
that Naumer was a clear favorite, he bet
out from the small blind when he flopped
second set with pocket 9's. Rose went
all-in on a nut flush draw and nothing
else. Ron had A 2 4 5 with Ace-suited
Clubs. A great hand for Omaha.Hi-Lo. The
flop was K 9 7 with two Clubs. Jake's
Q 9 9 8 made him call all-in. The Trey
of Clubs on the turn ended Naumer's fabulous
two-night run of consecutive 3rd places.
Not bad for someone whose first live tournament
was yesterday.
Now
with an $80k/$50 chip lead, it was over
in minutes. The 'Power of Tilt' paid off
for Ron Rose as the players got it all-in
before the flop. Rose's A K 9 3 was a
winner over Hertzel Zalewski's A Q 6 2.
Mike Paulle
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