CHRIS
KARAGULLEYAN GUNS
DOWN FIELD IN SHOOT-OUT
Professional
player Chris Karagulleyan, winner of the
World Poker Tour championship event at
last year's Legends of Poker, played fast
and loose to capture the limit hold'em
shoot-out competition, the 10th event
of Hustler Casino's Poker Challenge Cup.
Asked if his fast action was the result
of the relatively small amount of money
involved after most of the money had been
chopped at the outset, he said the real
reason was simply because "I'm the best
and I can push everybody around." Chris
recently picked up the new nickname of
"Coach" after he had tutored three of
his friends to victory at last month's
L.A. Poker Classic at Commerce Casino.
The mathematics for this event were very
clean: 90 starters equaled nine tables
equaled one final table of 9 players,
each starting afresh with $1,000 in chips.
But there was a long wait for the final
table because three hours elapsed between
the time the first table played down to
one winner and the time that the last
one did. An irritated Mike Krescanko said
it was mostly due to the extreme deliberation
of Hung Phi Nguyen, who eventually won
his table, the last to be completed.
When the finalists finally did sit down,
they immediately agreed to take $2,500
each, which accounted for $22,500 of the
$27,000 prize pool, and then play for
the remaining $4,500. Tournament coordinator
Warren Karp thereupon announced that the
limit increases would be doubled and the
time shortened from 45 to 30 minutes after
the first round for the completely understandable
reason that, with only chump change involved,
he did not care to stick around like a
chump for the next five hours.
The tournament eventually came to an abrupt
end at the relatively civilized hour of
3 a.m. when the four remaining players
agreed to a split.
Karagulleyan, acting as if he was double-parked,
started off playing virtually every hand,
the consequence being that he was down
to $250 after 11 hands and soon went all
in. After 20 more hands, though, he had
gotten his chips back with interest. "I
guess my car has been towed by now," he
sighed.
The
other players also were fairly action-oriented,
because of the 72 hands that were eventually
dealt, only one (hand 66) did not see
a flop. An onlooker wandering by might
have thought it was a $1-$2 Omaha game.
The limits began with two $25 blinds and
stakes of $25 and $50, 43 minutes remaining.
First player to be thrown off the bus
was Vince Casey, "currently" a poker player.
On hand 39, with limits at $50 and $100,
he was all in holding 7-5 against Dan
Torla's pocket jacks. He flopped a 7 and
picked up a straight draw, but the jacks
prevailed.
Eugene Tito checked out seven hands later
and again Torla, who has a WSOP bracelet
for a 7-stud event last year, did the
honors. Torla had A-4 to Tito's A-3, and
Eugene, who has the interesting dual occupations
of both financial analyst and a nurse,
was pretty close to drawing dead on a
flop of J-J-4. The next cards did not
resuscitate him. A few hands later the
limits went to $100 and $200, and that
was as far as Ray Bonavida, a designer,
got. He was all in before the flop with
A-K against Scottsdale poker player Krescanco's
K-Q. A flop of 9-10-J gave Mike a nut
straight, while only one of the three
remaining queens could save Ray with an
ace-high straight. Instead, two jacks
came, and the field was narrowed to six.
Two hands later, poker player Arash Ghaneian
went up against the rushing Karagulleyan
with 8c, 8s. On a three-club flop of A-6-5,
he check-raised all in. Another club gave
him a flush, but Chris, with pocket queens,
had a bigger one.
Hand
57 was by far the biggest one of the night.
In three-way action with Chris, Dan and
Hung, it was three-bet before and on the
flop, which was Q-5-4 with two clubs.
"Flush draw, huh?" Hung asked after Torla
took the third bet. On an offsuit 10,
Dan, who is in marketing, bet all in.
Chris raised and Hung gave it up. Torla
had A-Q while Karagulleyan, winning with
pocket aces, now had more than $3,000.
"No respect," Chris smiled, as the table
got down to four. "No wonder," Mike Krescanko
replied, reminding Chris of how many hands
he had been playing.
Two
hands later Chris had a temporary setback.
Making queens and jacks, he was betting
all the way, but Hung, hanging on with
pocket 7s, made a set on the river. He
was a bit less aggressive than Chris because,
after hitting his two-outer, he simply
called Chris' last bet without raising.
Krescanko,
meanwhile, still figured that Chris had
to be weak once in a while. So, on the
final hand to be played, he bet into a
board of A-4-3-K-4 holding nothing but
a 6-2, and Chris picked off his bluff
with a K-9.
After
some discussion, the players finally decided
to end it right there. A chip count showed
that Karagulleyan led with an even $3,000,
trailed by Hung with $2,300, Krescanko
with $2,000 and Sam Pyo with $1,700.
They
shook hands, event number 10 had come
to an abrupt end and Chris "The Coach"
Karagulleyan collected his prize money
and then went outside to see if his car
was still on the street.
Max Shapiro
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