NO
FEAR
"Look,
honey, just like in the movie 'Rounders.'
There's Johnny Chan in the One Seat and
Erik Seidel in the Six Seat. Oh, and Eskimo
Clark's at the table and John Juanda along
with An Tran and Barney Boatman from England.
Boy, those other guys at the table, that
we've never heard of, must be TERRIFIED."
There
were 216 entrants in the $2,000 Pot-Limit
Omaha for a total prize pool of $406,080.
Three tables were paid, a total of 27
players.
Top
English player Surinder Sunar got everyone
in the money when he called an all-in
who had an A 8 with a K 9. No worries,
a 9 flopped right off the deck and 27
were golden.
To
set up the Final Table, it was early Monday
morning with eleven players left. The
short stacked Mel Weiner was forced to
make a move with the K 6 of Spades. Johnny
Chan flopped trip Deuces on Mel and made
Deuces full of Jacks for a slight overkill.
Sadly, the ever-lovely Kathy Kohlberg
barely missed making the Final Table a
more beautiful place in 12th.
THE
FINAL TABLE:
25 mins left of 75
The blinds were $1,000/$2,000
Playing $2,000/$4,000
Player
Hometown Chip
Count
Seat
1 Johnny Chan Las Vegas NV $52,000
Seat 2 An Tran Las Vegas NV $60,000
Seat 3 Aaron Katz Los Angeles CA $15,000
Seat 4 Barney Boatman London, UK $80,000
Seat 5 Eskimo Clark Bell CA $28,000
Seat 6 Erik Seidel Las Vegas NV $66,000
Seat 7 Jay Sipelstein Narberth PA $46,000
Seat 8 Phil Gordon Las Vegas NV $39,500
Seat 9 John Juanda Alhambra CA $26,500
Seat 10 Robert Miller Las Vegas NV $25,500
10th
in chips, it didn't take Aaron Katz long
to exit the premises. (He left so fast
I was still getting a sandwich and had
to ask Andy Glazer what happened.) For
a second, Aaron thought he liked the Jack
on the river. Aaron had A J. Johnny Chan,
with Q 10, really liked the Jack on the
river. It gave him the nut straight.
"Slow
and steady," John Bonetti said sarcastically
to Eskimo Clark as he left in 9th place
after only 15 minutes in. Evidently that
had been Bonetti's advice to Eskimo before
the table began. But Eskimo Clark doesn't
have that gear. If Clark thinks he may
have the best hand or he thinks you think
he may have the best hand, he pushing
in chips. Already running low, The Eskimo
raised all-in with a K Q from early position.
An Tran didn't hesitate to call with A
10 and flopped an Ace. Eskimo was slow
and steady heading for Bonnie Damiano,
the paymaster.
It
was an odd hand for John Juanda to go
out on in 8th after a long and valiant
struggle to grow his stack. Jay Sipelstein
had hardly played a hand and it seemed
obvious that Jay was a very tight player.
When Sipelstein raised from the button,
John, in the big blind, must have known
Jay had a real hand. Anyway, Juanda reraised
all-in with the J 8 of Diamonds and missed
the board completely. Jay had an A 9 that
was plenty.
Like
the surprise winner of Event #2, Mike
Majerus, Robert Miller makes his living
dealing poker. Unlike Majerus who also
was up against a world-class field, Miller
didn't win today. But 7th isn't bad on
one of the toughest Final Tables imaginable.
The premium hand K Q of Hearts joined
a couple other K Q's in the dumpster today.
The hand just couldn't get there. Miller
bet out and called Jay Sipelstein's reraise
from the big blind all-in with his K Q
but it wasn't Miller Time. Robert entirely
missed the board as well. Sipelstein had
A K.
Phil
Gordon may have known the players he saw
across from him well enough to be intimidated,
but Phil Hellmuth introduced Gordon at
the start as "�someone who couldn't be
run over." To his credit, Phil Gordon
wasn't run over, but neither could he
run over anyone else with the cards he
held. With the blinds rising, Phil tried
to run over Johnny Chan with an A 6 under
the gun. Johnny bet the flop and Phil
was stuck calling all-in with an Ace on
board. Chan's King kicker ran over Gordon's
6 kicker to give Phil a creditable 6th.
At
this point it looked like Johnny Chan
might win this event. He was chip leader
and seemed very confident, as he always
does. Then a couple of amazing hands later
the legendary Johnny Chan was out in 5th
place. The first hand might have been
called 'Rounders 3.' Here were the famous
movie antagonists, in real life, that
Matt Damon studied for clues on how to
induce a player to make a mistake. There
was no mistake here. Chan had an all-in
Erik Seidel covered easily when they both
turned over A K. But wait! Seidel's A
K was suited! Erik needed three diamonds
to come on board and they did. Seidel
was back in business.
Then
came the crusher. But first we need some
history between Johnny Chan and Barney
Boatman. Barney came into today as the
chip leader. But Johnny took the lead
away and almost busted Boatman early with
pocket 8's against Barney's A K. In a
later attempt to bust the dangerous Boatman,
Chan had Barney on the flop and Boatman
needed a runner runner straight to survive.
Miraculously, that's exactly what came.
'It's better to be lucky than good,' as
they say. Whoever 'they' are. Now, once
again, Chan had Boatman with the worst
of it. Johnny flopped trip 3's and Barney
Boatman called all-in with the nut flush
draw and an A 4 of Hearts. Of course,
the Heart came and Chan was almost broke.
Johnny sent the last $30k in on the flop
of 9 6 2. Chan had two overcards with
the J 10 of Clubs that missed.
'The
Boss' is An Tran's nickname. And although
he doesn't sing with the E Street Band,
'The Boss' can be very bossy at a card
table. Tran drew a tough seat between
Chan and Boatman and couldn't get it going
today with those guys pushing mega chips
all the time. An lost most of his stack
late with an A Q against Erik Seidel's
pocket Kings. All-in on a $12k raise,
Tran managed to muck his hand before anyone
could see it when Jay Sipelstein showed
two pair.
Erik
Seidel may have outlasted his movie nemesis
Johnny Chan, but he'll still be disappointed
with his 3rd place finish. While all three
remaining players were about even with
around $150,000 each, surprisingly it
was Seidel who left first. A key hand
was telling. Seidel checked the A K 3
flop. Jay Sipelstein bet $20. Erik check
raised another $50,000! Without hesitation,
Jay Sipelstein moved all-in for $118,000
more! Erik Seidel folded! Seidel never
fully recovered from that hand. A few
hands later, Barney Boatman raised $18k
to go. Seidel came over the top for $42k
more and Jay Sipelstein went all-in. Boatman
folded. Seidel called all-in with pocket
6's. Sipelstein had pocket Queens. In
the next movie maybe the immortal Jay
Sipelstein can be Seidel's nemesis. Who?
During
the introductions of the Final Table's
great names, Jay Sipelstein said to no
one in particular, "You don't know me"
when his turn came. We know him now.
Be
honest. If you were at this table with
so many players you'd read about, saw
videos about as they were making millions
of dollars playing poker. Saw movies about
being studied for technique. Wouldn't
you, if you'd never played in a WSOP event
before and had never even played a pot-limit
tournament before be TERRFIED of calling
a check raise by one of these players?
Jay Sipelstein was that person who was
in his first WSOP event, in his first
pot-limit tournament and Jay Sipelstein
showed NO FEAR in an as impressive a performance
as we've had so far this year. With a
2-1 chip lead heads up against Barney
Boatman, Boatman tried the same hand against
Sipelstein that Erik Seidel did with the
same results. Barney got it all in with
pocket 6's. Again without hesitation,
Jay Sipelstein called with A J and flopped
a Jack. Be honest. Would you have had
NO FEAR in that situation?
More
Super Satellite winners were: Christopher
Heintschel, Chip Jett, Mike Sexton (2nd),
Rameen Sai, Paul Kroh, Exxon Feyznia,
Warren Karp, Jessica Misiak, Jan Sjavik
(4th), Allen Cunningham, Fred Berger,
Jay Scoratow, Jay Heimowitz and Randy
Bly
Mike Paulle
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