SURVIVOR:
OMAHA
In
a new wrinkle of the survivor series,
forget trying to stay on the island, we
couldn't get anyone OFF.
There
were 89 entrants in the $500 Buy-In, Omaha
Hi-Lo Split for a total prize pool of
$40,890. Nine players were paid.
To
setup the Final Table, bar-owner Bobby
Kirkwood and tournament veteran P K Verhoeven
were all-in against former World Champion
Huck Seed. Kirkwood found two Aces in
his small blind. P K was on the nut low
draw. Huck shucked them both when he flopped
trip Jacks and no low came. Now we were
ten, but only nine would be paid. Someone
was going to get a Hall of Fame jacket
and be the first on out.
THE FINAL TABLE:
30 mins. left of 45.
The blinds were $200/$300
Player
Hometown Chip
Count
Seat 1 Mark Gregorich Las Vegas NV $2,200
Seat 2 Ngoc 'Jimmy' Tran Houston TX $2,900
Seat 3 Gene Collins Las Vegas NV $3,800
Seat 4 Frank Henderson Las Vegas NV $2,300
Seat 5 Dave Crunkleton Las Vegas NV $3,300
Seat 6 Huck Seed Las Vegas NV $5,300
Seat 7 Erik Seidel Las Vegas NV $7,500
Seat 8 Stan Schreier Omaha NB $5,100
Seat 9 Hoang Ta Westminster CA $8,900
Seat 10 James Hoeppner Lincoln NB $2,300
Showing
again what a tenacious short stack players
he is, Mark Gregorich survived multiple
all-ins with ridiculous chip counts like
four and two. Sometimes he'd scoop and
get all the way up to eight chips. Then
he'd get quartered and go back down to
four or two chips. No one wanted to make
a Final Table and not get paid. The players
made it a matter of honor, understandably.
But someone had to go, eventually, and
in the end it was Mark. After an hour
of textbook bubble play, Gregorich finally
had to surrender when his one chip all-in
with A A K 7--suited Ace--lost to Erik
Seidel's dumb end 6 5 straight and live
five low.
Never
in the player's memories has anyone seen
so many all-in scoops or splits. It's
always hard to eliminate people in Omaha
Hi-Lo, but this was unbelievable. Over
and over, miracle cards would come on
the river to keep the last nine intact.
The difference between 9th and 8th place
was only $200, so 'Fearless' Frank Henderson
quipped, "Never have so many played
so long for so little." It was like
the 'Perils of Pauline' out there and
created the most fan interest we've had
in the tournament so far. Lots of whooping
and hollering, moans and groans for their
favorites. Great Fun.
But
the event had to end sometime. James Hoeppner
may be from Nebraska but he's not from
Omaha. Like everyone else, James beat
several all-ins but finally couldn't beat
a flopped set in 9th and could concentrate
on the Husker's game Saturday.
Was
the damn now broken and a rush of players
would be heading for the door? NO! Yet
another hour of incredible daring-do followed.
This was a survivor table for the ages.
Space just doesn't allow for a complete
recap of all that happened.
Stan
Schreier IS from Omaha and that didn't
help him either. Stan raised all-in for
his last $1,000 and A K 9 2. Hoang Ta
gave Stan some protection with a reraise.
Some protection! Hoang had A A, of course,
and scooped Stan out in 8th when Schreier's
deuce got counterfeited. Don't cry for
Schreier, however. All the Final Table
players were entered in a drawing. Each
had one ticket. There were thousands of
stubs in the drum. Much to the chagrin
of all the slot players with multiple
chances, the $2,000 prize went to Stan
Schrier in the poker tournament. Oddly,
if Stan hadn't survived so many all-ins
he probably wouldn't have been around
when Bonnie Damiano heard his name.
At
last the blinds did their work. When they
went up to $500/$1,000 few could stand
the heat. Only a couple of players had
more than five times the big blind. "I
hope y'all play to dawn," Frank Henderson
said acidly as he left in 7th. Frank's
all-in K Q J 3 lost to Jimmy Tran's A
A.
Now
the escape hatch was stuffed full of bodies.
A one thousand dollar big blind was no
respecter of reputations. The ever-aggressive
Huck Seed saw his chips evaporate in three
hands. He left in 6th when his all-in
K J 10 5 was cracked by Dave Crunkleton
two Queens.
Then
the ever-careful Eric Seidel's A 2 8 7
didn't catch a low and had worse Diamonds
to Hoang Ta's K 4 of the suit. The biggest
names never got it rolling tonight, what
with all the miracle river cards saving
the short stacks repeatedly.
With four players left, a deal was agreed
to that chopped up almost all the cash
on a chip count basis. Hoang Ta got the
lion's share of the cash, with the other
three fairly even.
With
only some chump change at stake, the real
war was for the title and the Hall of
Fame watch. Dave Crunkleton flopped a
set and river a flush, but he didn’t
need or want the flush because Gene ‘The
Machine’ Collins rivered a higher
flush. On a night when everyone had an
extraordinary amount of luck to still
be here, Dave bemoaned his on his way
out in 4th.
Ngoc
'Jimmy' Tran had his first name misspelled
in an earlier report (apologies). With
any spelling, the departing Tran took
a bad beat to finish 3rd. Runner runner
low Diamonds gave Gene Collins a scoop
with the 5 3 of Diamonds when Jimmy flopped
three Aces.
Heads
up, Hoang Ta had a better than 3-1 chip
lead on Gene Collins and he immediately
blasted Gene down to about four chips.
Then, as we'd seen all night, the short
stack couldn't be taken out. This was
Survivor: Omaha. You can't get booted
off. Collins went on an amazing run where
he scooped or split the next ten hands
and took a 2-1 chip lead. But then the
momentum swung back just as violently
to Hoang Ta's side. The final crushing
hand for Collins was when Ta flopped set
over set. Gene 'The Machine' needed to
be retooled and it didn't happen. He was
back down to six chips. Several no look
hands later Hoang Ta finally won a well-deserved
title as the ultimate survivor of Survivor:
Omaha.
Mike Paulle
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