LONDON
CASH GAME PLAYER
ALI SARKESNILL IS PLO WINNER
Ali Sarkesnill, who shows up at tournaments
mainly to play in the big cash games,
tried his hand in tonight's $500 pot-limit
Omaha event, the ninth of LAPC XIII, and
overcame a very tough final table to take
home first-place money. Among the top-name
players at the table were Chris Bjorin,
Brent Carter and the legendary T.J. Cloutier,
the all-time leading tournament money
winner with 55 major ($500-$25,000) victories
to his credit as well as two Player of
the Year awards.
It
was a long and grueling final table that
took five hours and 174 hands to complete,
67 of them alone in combat among the three
finalists.
Sarkesnill,
who is retired from the real estate business
in England, normally plays a variety of
live games at $500-$1,000 limits, though
he also has a couple of second-place finishes
at the World Series. Tonight, he said
he was relaxed and never in trouble.
Finishing
second was Jay Moriarty, a TV writer and
the founder of "Aces & Eights," the oldest
established private poker tournament in
the world. Moriarty has also won tournaments
in every casino in the Los Angeles area.
The
final table started with $500-$1,000 blinds
and 13:30 left in the round. Moriarty,
who set the table by knocking out 11th-place
finisher Ron Rose with a straight, arrived
with a substantial chip lead of 59,800.
A
very short-chipped Bjorin went out on
hand four. In the big blind with K-Q-J-7,
he had a good flop of 10-9-2, giving him
a wraparound straight draw. Nothing came
of it, and Michael Jacobs, a printer,
won with just pocket 8s. Jacobs, who started
lowest chipped with $2,100, soon went
all in himself, but won all of the next
six pots he played, shooting up to more
than $50,000 by hand 16.
Cloutier,
meanwhile, couldn't pick up any cards
and by hand 10, with $800-$1,600 blinds,
found himself all in with 10-9-7-5. Sarkesnill
had pocket aces and won easily with a
third bullet on fourth street.
Young
Phan, with wins at the Rio, Commerce and
Legends and a second in $5,000 hold'em
at the WSOP, flopped top two holding A-K-9-9
with a board of A-K-Q. He bet and Houston
pro Vinnie Vinh promptly raised him all
in and out of action with a set of queens.
On
the next hand, poker player Mike Chul
raised all in when he flopped a straight
draw. He couldn't connect and lost to
James Smith, a computer network engineer
and part-time player, who paired a king.
Vinh,
meanwhile, began putting in pre-flop maximum
raises just about every other hand. Carter,
a retired harness race driver as well
as a poker player, called one of those
raises all in for about $5,000. He had
A-K-Q-4 to Vinh's A-J-10-6 and a board
gave Vinh a straight to knock Carter out
in sixth place. By the time blinds went
to $1,000-$2,000, Vinh's incessant raising
and picking up of blinds had brought him
the lead with about 58k. Trailing him
were Moriarty, 50.5k; Jacobs, 40.5k; Sarkesnill,
30k; and Smith, 19k. When the new blinds
kicked in, Vinh continued pushing in maximum
raises, now $7,000.
"It's
getting boring," Jacobs remarked after
the umpteenth 7k raise.
Five
players had been knocked out in 22 hands,
but it took another 54 to lose the next
one.
That
was Smith, a computer network engineer
and part-time player. He went all in for
3k more after Vinh, with a flush draw,
bet 7k into a flop of 5-3-2-7. Smith,
with 10-9-8-6, had a straight draw. He
and Vinh both missed, but Vinh's paired
trey was sufficient to leave Smith in
fifth place.
Later,
Vinh and Moriarty got into a discussion
of luck versus skill in poker. "Just play
good and you'll win," Vinh lectured him.
Moriarty, who hadn't been having much
luck, finally went all in with A-K-K-10
against Vinh, who had flopped two small
pair. Moriarty yelled for a king and got
it. "You tell me luck doesn't make a difference?"
he said.
With blinds at $2,000-$4,000, Jacobs the
printer ran out of ink when Vinh made
a straight on the river to eliminate him
and increase his lead to about $90,000.
The
three finalists now began their long duel.
Moriarty, the starting chip leader, had
dropped down and would eventually go all
in five times, catching full houses and
other big hands when he needed them.
Finally,
blinds were $3,000-$6,000, meaning the
first player in could raise from $12,000
to $21,000. After Sarkesnill beat Vinh's
straight with a flush, and Moriarty beat
him with two 10s, Vinh was down to 11k.
Two hands later he went all in from the
big blind and got knocked out when Sarkesnill
made kings-up.
Sarkesnill
now had 114k to Moriarty's 85k. Another
28 hands dragged by with Sarkesnill doing
most of the raising and Moriarty picking
his spots to call. On the final hand,
Moriarty couldn't do anything with his
A-6-2-2, while Sarkesnill, with A-J-5-5,
made an ace-high straight to lock up his
win and at last put an end to a very long
evening.
-- by Max Shapiro
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