THE
CREAM RISES TO THE TOP
Our
Final Table today brought out a"
Who's Who of Poker" as some of the
best in the business showed their stuff.
There
were 66 entrants in the $1,000 Buy-In,
Limit Hold'em for a total prize pool of
$62,040. One table was paid, a total of
9 players.
To
setup the Final Table, Charles Fiori Jr
wasn’t paying too much attention.
He won his all-in bet with only two chips
and had enough to wait for Ron Radford
to go through his blinds. Instead, in
disgust, Fiori flipped in his one extra
chip from the small blind with 10 4. Raj
Sawant had 7 5 in the big blind and caught
a 7. At the other table, Ron Radford got
to ask for a rake to carry his three chips.
THE FINAL TABLE:
49 mins. left of 60.
The blinds were $300/$500
Player
Hometown Chip
Count
Seat 1 John Phan Long Beach CA $ 5,300
Seat 2 T J Cloutier Richardson TX $ 7,100
Seat 3 Humberto Brenes San Jose, Costa
Rica $ 4,700
Seat 4 Ron Radford Kennewick WA $ 300
Seat 5 Scotty Nguyen Henderson NV $ 6,900
Seat 6 Raj Sawant Topeka KS $ 3,600
Seat 7 Daniel Negreanu Las Vegas NV $17,500
Seat 8 Peter Costa Leicester, UK $10,400
Seat 9 George Weiss Yakima WA $ 8,100
Seat 10 K U Davis Plano TX $ 2,100
Ron
Radford was one of the eight players who
qualified in satellites from the Legends
Casino in Yakima Washington. George Weiss,
also at the Final Table was another. Not
bad representation in a field of 66.
Unfortunately
for Radford, making the Final Table with
$300 was only going to get him a Hall
of Fame jacket since nine places were
being paid. Actually, Ron had a decent
hand, going all-in with pocket 6’s.
Raj Sawant had K J and flopped a King
to mush the Washington husky out the door.
Now
comes the shocker. T J Cloutier is the
2nd highest money winner in WSOP history.
He’s won an astounding 51 major
titles. Yet Cloutier, starting 4th in
chips, didn’t win a hand at this
table. Danny Negreanu personally took
T J out on two hands. In the first, Cloutier
couldn’t call the river bet by Negreanu.
That crippled his stack. On the second,
T J raised from middle position with K
J and ran into Daniel's lion's den of
a hand: two Kings on the button. Since
Danny appears to be bluffing so often
with position, T J called him down with
two overcards to the board. The great
Cloutier was drawing to a gutshot on the
turn and finished 9th.
When
was the last time you saw pocket Aces
hold up in six-way action? Peter Costa
was the beneficiary of the pot of the
night. He kept raising and was reraised
until the pot was capped six-handed. Well,
almost. K U Davis ran out of chips on
the way. It was obvious that Costa had
Aces. What did everyone else have? We'll,
never know except for the all-in Davis
with A K in 8th, because everyone else
mucked their hand when the board came
6 3 2 5 8.
Like
Cloutier, former World Champion Scotty
Nguyen didn't win a hand at this tough
table either. That's not true, actually.
Scotty won his first all-in hand and tripled
up from one chip to three. But he was
already at the paymaster's desk by the
turn on his second all-in hand. His 10
7 of Diamonds was drawing dead in 7th
place to Humberto Brenes' flopped Kings
up.
So
many stacks were shortened by the capped
pot that Peter Costa won, half the table
was gone in the first 40 minutes. John
Phan was the last of this group in 6th.
Phan is a former dealer that has become
a successful pro. He raised all-in with
his last $1,000 and a K 8. Humberto Brenes
called with A 10 and didn't need the 10
that came on the turn. The Ace was enough.
In
desperation due to severe chip shortage,
Bombay-born Raj Sawant tried to bluff
the chip leader Negreanu out of Raj's
last pot. Sawant raised all-in from the
small blind after the flop with nothing.
Danny was in the big blind and had flopped
Aces, so he wasn't going anywhere. Sawant
had to show his 6 5 before being allowed
to leave in 5th. It was a scene from a
movie made in Bollywood.
With
the settled baseball strike still on sport's
fan's minds, a great baseball name showed
up at this Final Table. George Weiss is
a bartender from Yakima Washington. He's
part of the eight-man group who won their
entries in satellites to the Hall of Fame
tournament at Legends Casino in Yakima.
Weiss played very well at this star filled
table. But for a three out river card
caught by Humberto Brenes, George might
have gone farther than 4th. With only
$400 left, it was Brenes who put Weiss
away all-in with a better Queen.
The
six-way win with pocket Aces was the high
water mark for Peter Costa. He could never
get much else going. Negreanu and Brenes
were winning all the hands. After the
blinds went up to $600/$1,200, Peter 'The
Poet' Costa wrote his last verse in 3rd
with an all-in Q 6. He had Danny Negreanu
high carded, but Danny wasn't missing
any boards today. Danny's 10 9 flopped
a 10. The English pro left the stage in
iambic pentameter.
Heads
up, Negreanu had a $38,000 to $28,000
chip lead on Humberto Brenes. Both players
have had fabulous years in poker. Humberto
won more than $500,000 in a tournament
early this year. Danny has won three events
in the last month. This was their first
heads up meeting in an event. Danny remembered
a heads up satellite once. Humberto remembered
he won that match.
This
figured to be a titanic struggle between
two poker heavyweights. Both have been
known to battle for hours heads up. Not
tonight, though. This was over quickly
as Negreanu showed Brenes the world's
fair with pocket Kings twice along with
assorted draws and catches. The Costa
Rican was questioning the dealer's heritage
in Spanish, but nothing could save him
from the incendiary Canadian. On his all-in
hand for his last $4,000, Brenes had pocket
7's. Negreanu had yet another Ace and
flopped Aces of course.
On
a night when the cream of poker rose to
the top, the deck sang a rendition of
'Oh, Danny Boy.'
Mike Paulle
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