'Jerry
T' Gets By in Limit Hold'em
With a Little Help from His Friend
"Jerry
T" is a Las Vegas club disc jockey and
pro player whose only tournament wins
until now have been in several of the
Mirage's "Poker Zone" daily events. Then,
playing in a regular $40-$80 game, he
came to admire the skills of Raymond Davis,
a local pro. "I want to be one of the
best," Davis recalls Jerry saying as he
asked for help and advice.
Davis,
seeing he was a bright and eager young
man, began tutoring him. "I also had to
keep him in the game because he was a
live one," he joked. In any event, his
protégé proved an apt student as he ran
off with the sixth event of Hustler Casino's
Challenge Cup, limit hold'em, which paid
$27,515 for first place. He got into it
by winning a satellite and then never
had to rebuy. Davis was there coaching
him all the way, reinforcing some of his
personal strategy tips such as: Avoid
getting into raising wars with big pairs
and just see the flop; don't play pairs
smaller than 9s; and avoid multi-way pots.
Jerry T had plenty of chips throughout
and was never in trouble. His big break
came at the third table when he pulled
in a big pot with kings-full.
The
final table for tonight's $60,000-guaranteed,
multi-rebuy event didn't start until 4
a.m., but then took only 47 minutes to
finish. It began with nine instead of
the usual 10 players when two got knocked
out simultaneously. At one of the second
tables, Frankie O'Dell eliminated Wayne
Chang by flopping a set of treys while
at the other, William Kim busted Qin Li
with pocket 9s. Both players pocketed
$1,085.
The final table started with $1,500 and
$3,000 blinds and limits of $3,000-$6,000,
a full 40 minutes remaining. There was
no lack of action from the beginning.
In the first round of play, four players
went broke in three consecutive hands.
On hand seven, Charles Khoury was very
short-chipped after folding on the river
the hand before. Now in the big blind,
he went all in with a respectable As,
Js against Sam Pyo's K-3. A flop of J-4-3
put Khoury in the lead, but then a king
on the river gave Pyo a winning two pair.
Ninth place was worth $1,265 for Khoury.
On the next hand, Pyo raised and Tony
Assali re-raised all in with Ac, 6s. "Mickey
Mouse," making his third final table appearance,
called, as did Pyo. The flop produced
a scary K-Q-10, all spades. Pyo bet, holding
Q-9. Mickey Mouse, with an ace of spades
and a 9, raised all in on his nut flush
draw. A 7c and 10c were dealt, and two
more players left the room. The mouse,
an attorney in charge of a real estate
investment trust, pocketed $2,170 for
finishing seventh. Assali, a restaurateur,
dealer and pro player, got $1,810 for
eighth.
Then, on the very next hand, Kim raised
$1,500 all in with K-9 and was called
by Vinnie Landrum with A-K and Patsy Vanada
with Q-J. Patsy bet out when a flop of
Q-5-5 paired her queen. Landrum called,
but then gave it up when Patsy bet fourth
street after an 8 was dealt. No king came
on the river to save him, and Kim finished
sixth, collecting $2,895.
Patsy
owns a restaurant in Jackson, California,
which is near Sacramento. The high point
in her poker life came when she won $10,300
for third place in a Bay 101 event five
years ago on her birthday. Today she showed
her guts by refusing to be bluffed. She
called a raise by Pyo with A-5, bet a
flop of J-6-2, then called his bets when
a 6 turned and a deuce rivered as her
ace-high beat his Q-5 bluff.
On
hand 14, Landrum again held the A-K he
had earlier folded. This time he went
with it, and it led him to the exit. Holding
Q-9, O'Dell put him all in for $5,600
when a Q-2-4 flopped. A 10 and a 5 were
no help, and Landrum finished fifth, which
paid $3,620.
"What a flop!" Jerry T exulted after a
pot where he cut down Patsy's stack of
chips. He had K-Q and made a nut straight
when a J-10-9 came. On the flop, he just
called Patsy's bet, then raised when a
5 turned. When a jack came on the river,
she gave it up.
A
few hands later, Jerry and Patsy both
called Pyo's raise. "Gamble," Tony said,
though he wasn't gambling that much with
pocket jacks. After the board came 8-3-2-3-7,
Patsy, holding just ace-high, was left
with under $5,000 in chips. That went
all in on the next hand. Jerry T had A-2,
Patsy had K-J, and when the board showed
9-8-3-7-6, the table was down to three
finalists.
Jerry
T had $108,900 in chips to $70,000 for
O'Dell and $49,200 for Pyo, who is in
the import-export business. After some
discussion, the three agreed to a tournament-ending
deal.
A
little wrangling did ensue over the question
of who got the trophy. Until this event,
whenever a Challenge Cup ended before
one player had all the chips, the trophy
had been decided by a hand of showdown.
Jerry T, as the chip leader, was anxious
to take possession of his first title
with the showdown, but O'Dell said he
didn't like giving up trophies. He finally
relented, and event number six was in
the books.
Afterwards,
O'Dell, a devout born-again Christian,
said he wanted it to be noted that he
was thanking his lord and savior for "blessing"
him. Jerry T's thanks, less spiritual
but just as heartfelt, went to Raymond
Davis.
Max Shapiro
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