Window
Cleaner Cleans Up!
Robert Cranshaw, who owns his own
window cleaning business, cleaned up to
the tune of $9,985 as he won the 13th
event of Winnin' o' the Green, 7-card
stud hi-lo, his first major win. He credited
his success to simply playing a lot tighter
than he did in his prior WOG tries. It
took 37 deals for the first six players
to be eliminated at the final table, but
the heads-up match lasted 45 more hands.
Cranshaw's final opponent, Tim Fu, seriously
short-chipped but stubbornly refusing
to surrender or accept a deal, went all
in 10 times and even took the lead briefly
before Cranshaw could finally put him
away. Fu, who only plays stud, made a
final table at last month's Poker Challenger
Cup at the Hustler Casino.
The final table was set after Rocky Enciso
couldn't improve his buried aces and lost
to Tony Brenner's kings and queens while
Don Halpern took the low end with a 7-6.
Limits started at $1,000-$2,000, with
$200 antes and a $300 low-card bring-in,
12:42 left. As is typically the case with
stud hi-lo, players quickly began going
all in and surviving. Leading in this
category was Brenner, who soon went all
in four times but couldn't be killed,
thus earning the table nickname of "cockroach."
Chesda Ly, short-chipped after folding
against Fu on sixth street, went out in
four-way action on hand six. Limits were
now $2,000-$4,000, with $300 antes and
a $500 bring-in. Starting with 7-8/2,
Ly made an 8-low but lost to Stan Zdanowich's
7. Real estate developer George Boyce,
also all in, took half the main pot with
a flush. Eighth place paid $715.
Brenner, perilously low after his 7s and
6s were beaten by Boyce's 10s up, went
all in a couple more times and finally
was sent home on hand 15. All in for $800,
he had a club flush draw that didn't get
there and lost to Fu's pocket aces. His
payday was $955.
On hand 22, with $3,000-$6,000 limits,
$500 antes and a $1,000 bring-in, Nash
Rizk started with split 6s and caught
a third one on sixth street. He bet and
was raised all in by Fu, who showed 3-K-9-10,
then turned up two more kings for higher
trips. Nash, who won the earlier stud
hi-lo event, earned $1,200 for finishing
sixth. A couple of hands later it was
the turn of Don Halpern. He started with
A-2/8 but couldn't do better than two
8s. Cranshaw creamed him with kings and
aces while Boyer, also all in, made a
6-low. Fifth place paid $1,445.
Zdanowich, a retiree with several tournament
wins, also found himself all in a lot,
being saved twice by flushes and twice
by full houses. On hand 27, he started
with a promising A-3/A and went all in
on sixth street with aces-up. But Cranshaw,
starting with split 6s, caught a third
one and Stan pocketed $1,690 for fourth
place.
Another 10 hands went by and then Boyce
went broke. All in on fourth street, he
had the lead with jacks-up until Fu hit
a third 9 on the river. Third place paid
$2,665.
A rough chip count showed that Cranshaw
now had about $65,000 to Fu's $45,000.
With antes of $500, bring-in of $1,500,
playing for 4-8k, Tim, now down to about
$14,000, went all in on hand 46 for the
first time that evening, though certainly
not the last. As they played on, Tim put
three scoop hands together to briefly
take the lead. Robert took it back a few
hands later when Tim folded on sixth street
showing 7-6-K-J. Finally, on hand 92,
with 6-12k limits,Tim started with Q-3/A,
couldn't do anything with it and lost
his last chips to Robert's pair of 9s.
BIOGRAPHY
Robert Cranshaw is 54, lives in Canyon
Country, owns B&B Window Cleaning and
has been playing poker since he was 18.
He plays low-limit hold'em side games,
but most of his poker action is devoted
to tournaments. Though he's won some small
events, this is his first major victory.
He said he had played pretty much all
the prior WOG events without much success,
and then, before the stud hi-lo event
started, decided to tighten up and not
get in trouble by playing too loose. In
fact, at one point he sat for two hours
without playing a hand. The strategy apparently
paid off, because he was in good shape
throughout.
When he got heads-up, though, his strategy
changed. "You've just got to go boom at
that point," he said. "I was raising him
a lot, and basically just putting the
pressure on when I felt Ie had the better
hand."
Max Shapiro
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