DANNY
DANG STARTS LATE BUT
GETS POT-LIMIT HOLD'EM WIN
David Tran had three horses and a piece
of Danny Dang in tonight's $500 pot-limit
hold'em event. Horsing around himself,
Dang stayed in Tran's hotel room and said
he wouldn't play until Tran's three horses
got knocked out. After all the horses
phoned in lame, Dang finally took his
seat, an hour and a half late and $300
short. Despite the handicap, he went on
to gallop first across the finish line
after a heads-up, lead-changing race with
tournament player John McIntosh, who won
a World Series bracelet and $177,000 in
this event in 2002.
Dang,
a local pro, has titles from the LAPC,
4-Queens and Legends. But his most memorable
tournament moment came when he finished
second in a WSOP pot-limit event in 1994
after T.J. Cloutier cracked his pocket
aces with pocket jacks. Dang, who plays
all side games at limits from $80-$160
to $1,000-$2,000, hasn't been playing
tournaments lately and entered this one
on a whim.
It
turned out to be a grueling final table,
lasting 135 hands. With 34:36 left, the
table started with blinds of $800-$1,600,
which allowed the first player to raise
anywhere from $3,200 to $5,600. Starting
out nearly tied for the chip lead were
Dang with $58,300 and N.C. Scott with
$57,400.
By
the time blinds went to $1,000-$2,000,
Dang had increased his lead to about $80,000.
Four hands into that round, Luis Velador
raised the pot to $7,000 holding 7-7,
and McIntosh put him with A-J, then put
him out when an ace flopped. Three hands
later, Sam Chang raised to $7,000 with
Ah-7h, and Tony Elhasrouni moved him in.
Elhasrouni had pocket queens and blew
Chang away by flopping quads. Some 20
hands later an all-in N.C. Scott also
made quads when he hit a fourth jack on
the turn against Dang's pocket nines.
A
hand later, Canadian firefighter Allan
Ripplinger nearly went up in smoke. He
moved in with pocket 6s and was called
by ex-poker dealer Raymond White, who
held A-Q and snagged a queen on the river
to leave Ripplinger with a single $500
chip. White, who hadn't seen much action
to that point, suddenly came to life and
began raising pots. "Go back to sleep,
man," Dang told him.
Some
66 hands had gone by and eight players
were still left. Now three would go out
in the next 10 hands. Ripplinger was first.
He had managed to run up his $500 chip
to $5,500. Then he raised all in with
A-6 and got action from White and N.C.
Scott. Scott, with just 8-6, made trip
eights to hose the firefighter and leave
him eighth.
Those
chips lasted Scott two hands. He went
in with K-Q against Joo Pal's K-9 and
lost when a 9 flopped. Then, seven hands
after that, Joon Lee moved in with K-J
and McIntosh saw him with Ad-7d. McIntosh
missed his flush, but ace-high was all
he needed to leave Lee in sixth place.
With
limits at $2,000-$4,000, Dang still had
the lead with about 88k, followed by Pal,
70k; McIntosh, 68k; White, 41k; and Elhasrouni,
36k.
On
hand number 100, McIntosh raised to $16,000
and Joo Pal came over the top for 41k
more. "Got no choice," McIntosh sighed
as he called. He had the better hand:
A-Q suited to A-10, and when the flop
came 7-6-5-7-2, Joo Pal was down to $3,000.
He held onto it for a few hands before
matching his J-10 against Dang's pocket
8s. The 8s would have done it, but they
also turned into a club flush. Elhasrouni,
an engineer, was down to $12,000 after
losing a lot of chips to Dang. McIntosh
took them and left Elhasrouni in third
place when when the engineer's A-3 couldn't
catch McIntosh's pocket deuces.
When
the next level arrived, with $3,000-$6,000
blinds, Dang had moved up to about 150k,
followed by McIntosh with around 95k and
White with about 50k. Three hands into
the level, White was in the big blind
with pocket 9s when McIntosh put him all
in with A-2. The board came J-6-4, and
then a deuce turned. "No deuce! No deuce!"
White cried. The poker gods must have
misunderstood, because a deuce hit the
river and this tournament was now heads-up.
As the finalists discussed a deal, McIntosh
rattled off numbers. "You must have majored
in mathematics," Dang said. "I majored
in aces and kings," McIntosh replied.
With
4 a.m. approaching, Dang suddenly remembering
he wanted to play the next day's $1,500
stud event, urged McIntosh to play fast.
"Not too fast," he said when his opponent
began raising and took the lead.
Then,
when McIntosh began pushing in chips with
pocket 10s, Dang was about to fold until
McIntosh accidentally knocked some of
his chips down. Taking that as a sign
of bad luck, Dang called with K-Q, flopped
a queen and took back the lead.
The next hand ended it. On a K-8-4 flop,
McIntosh bet 12k with J-8, Dang bumped
it 44k with K-7 and McIntosh went all
in. The paired king won it, and Dang,
picking up $55,120 and a Remington trophy,
once again proved that the old adage,
"better late than never," still held true.
-- by Max Shapiro
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