Amir
Vahedi Dominates Table and
Wins Challenge Cup Championship
Amir
Vahedi arrived at the final table of the
Hustler Casino's Challenge Cup championship
event with about twice as many chips as
anyone else. Managing his chips carefully
and moving in only one time ("Going all
in is for weak players," he said) he was
never in any trouble and scored an easy
wire-to-wire victory in the $2,000 buy-in,
no-limit hold'em event. Amir, just coming
off a $1,000 limit hold'em win at Tunica,
was Card Player magazine's no-limit player
of the year in 2001 and has won numerous
events in his six-year professional career.
He also already has two other no-limit
money finishes this year.
The second-day final table of the championship
event was scheduled to start at 6:30 p.m.
But action was halted at 3:30 a.m. on
the first day when there were still 45
players left, and the final table didn't
get going until 11 p.m. With hour-long
rounds, it took nearly four hours to complete.
While the no-limit championship event
was playing out, the $125,000 buy-in 7-card
stud special event, no doubt the biggest
buy-in poker tournament in the history
of the world, entered its first day. It
was held in the same tournament area at
an adjacent table. The day's action ended
with Barry Greenstein as the chip leader
with $350,000, followed by Larry Flynt
with $184,300; Johnny Chan with $182,900
Steven Wolfe with $128,300; Doyle Brunson
with $88,900; and Ted Forrest with $65,300.
Flynt and Brunson both had been down to
the cloth in early going and made comebacks.
Phillip Ivey and Dr. Jerry Buss were the
two entrants who failed to make the second-day
finals.
The delayed final table of the championship
event got started after Young Phan was
brutalized, losing about $90,000 in three
quick hands. First he lost with pocket
aces. Then his pocket jacks lost to Tony
Ma's pocket aces. Finally, holding pocket
kings, he again lost to pocket aces, this
time held by Joe Grew.
The last table started with $500 antes
and blinds of $1,500 and $3,000, 6:21
remaining. On the first hand, "Fisherman
Greg," a fisherman/poker player, set the
bait with a $7,000 raise. David Chiu,
winner of the first Tournament of Champions
in 1999, took the bait by moving in for
$29,500 with two 9s. The Fisherman then
reeled him in by turning over two kings
and flopping a set. Earlier, the players
had agreed to pay 10th place $3,000. On
hand 25 the Fisherman became the fish.
This time Amir had pocket aces, and when
he raised 12K, Greg moved in for 10K more
with Kh, 9h. Two hearts flopped, but the
flush didn't come and Greg collected $3,720
for finishing ninth.
Pocket aces also kept Jack Boghossian
alive on hand 26. Boghossian, who has
a $200 limit hold'em win at the L.A. Poker
Classic to his credit, got three-way action
and ran his $19,500 up to $69,000. Then,
Mark Ausley, a controller, lost control
on hand 35 after blinds went to $3,000-$6,000
with $1,000 antes. Ma raised 9k with A-J
and Ausley moved in for $40,000 with A-6
of spades, losing when the board showed
J-9-7-7-10. His pay-off was $4,575
On hand 53, Stan Schwartz blew off about
$30,000 when he bet into a flop that had
given Boghossian a nut straight. Left
with about $25,000, Schwartz, who had
until then hardly played a hand, banged
his chips on the table and declared all
in on the next hand holding A-J. Vahedi
gambled by calling with 7-5 of spades
while Miller, with pocket kings, slow-played
and also just called. The flop was J-9-6
with two spades. Miller moved in for about
$40,000. Amir called with his flush draw
and hit it on the river. Two players were
gone and suddenly Amir had about $370K,
a bit more than half the chips on the
table. Miller, a shift manager and tournament
director at the Hustler, whose victories
include an Omha win at the WPO, collected
$8,235. Schwartz, an investor, pocketed
$6,405.
Lindsay Jones, a CPA, was left with just
$4,000 after his Ad, 9d was beaten by
Boghossian's A-K. He survived about four
all-in encounters, making a sraight one
time with 9-7 and a full house another
with 10-8, before finally running out
of luck. He was all in again with A-10
of hearts. Amir had pocket 7s and finally
put him away, decisively, by making a
set on the turn. Fifth place paid $10,065.
Shortly after blinds went to $6,000-$12,000
with $1,000 antes, Joe Grew went broke.
Grew, who won a no-limit hold'em, $100k
guarantee event at the Bicycle Casino
last year, had pocket 9s and put himself
all in with a button raise of about $33,000.
Ma saw him with K-Q. A flop of J-10-3
gave him an open-end straight. He missed
the straight but won instead when a queen
came on the river. For finishing fourth,
Joe collected $12,810.
The three finalists counted down their
chips. Vahedi still had most of them with
$494,000, followed by Tony the Tiger with
$265,000 and Boghossian with $171,000.
It took a rather long time and a lot of
wrangling to hammer out a deal, but the
deal was finally done and Amir Vahedi
was the undisputed champion of the first
Challenge Cup event at the Hustler Casino.
For finishing third, Boghossian's official
payout was $12,810. Second place was worth
$42,090 to Tony Ma. And Vahedi's first-place
reward was $73,200.
Max Shapiro
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