YEAR
OF THE ROOKIE
So
you always thought it would be take years
of dedication and many tries to win a
gold bracelet. WRONG!!! This year at the
WSOP we've had players come in for the
first time and walk off with a gold bracelet.
Sometimes, like yesterday as an example
with Jay Sipelstein and Pot-Limit Hold'em,
the player is not only new to the Series
but new also to the tournament game they
are playing. Amazing.
There
were 123 entrants in the $2,500 Buy-In,
Stud for a total prize pool of $289,050.
Two tables were paid, a total of 16 players.
Want
a real challenge? Just in case you are
thinking of coming to the Series and think
you can play Seven Card Stud, he's a partial
list of the 'name' players who started
today's event and didn't get into the
money: Mickey Appleman, Eli Balas, Don
Barton, Brent Carter, John Cernuto, David
Chiu, TJ Cloutier, Chris Ferguson, Ken
Flaton, Chau Giang, Phil Hellmuth, Randy
Holland, Phil Ivey, Mel Judah, Daniel
Negreanu, Men Nguyen, Max Stern, David
Ulliott and Cyndy Violette. But then if
you do beat these people, like our rookie
did today, you know you've beaten the
best.
The
Final Table was setup Monday night when
Bill Gibbs reraised Hassan 'Sam' Chehab
after Sam raised with a Queen up. Gibbs
had two split Aces that walked. Chehab
could have waited until Jennifer Harmon,
with fewer chips, was forced to make a
move with only $2,900. Instead Sam pushed
his Queen high straight draw all-in then
missed.
THE
FINAL TABLE:
52 mins left of 75
The ante is $300, bring-in $600
playing $2,000/$4,000
Player
Hometown Chip
Count
Seat
1 Tom McCormick Fargo ND $ 40,000
Seat 2 Walter Davis Las Vegas NV $ 40,500
Seat 3 Alan Boston Las Vegas NV $ 14,100
Seat 4 Jennifer Harmon Las Vegas NV $
2,900
Seat 5 Rosie Feldman Floral Park NY $
15,200
Seat 6 Dan Torla Huntington Beach CA $
59,800
Seat 7 Chris Sandrock Boise ID $ 21,900
Seat 8 Bill Gibbs Tipton IN $113,100
We
might have guessed that the pretty and
petite Jennifer Harmon wasn't fully committed
to this Final Table. How? She was entered
into Tuesday's $3,000 Limit Hold'em and
came to this table while on a lunch break
from that game. Jen started to get antsy
when she was still around when the other
event resumed. Either she had to catch
fire in the Stud event or get back to
the Hold'em before she was blinded out
of that tournament as well.
Harmon's
problem was solved when Tom McCormick
caught a third Jack that put both Jennifer
and Chris Sandrock out on the same hand.
Harmon got 8th place money because she
started the hand with fewer chips than
did Sandrock. Jennifer, who has a bracelet
in one of the most unlikely situations,
was a rookie to the game Deuce To Seven
Lowball two years ago. She had to ask
advice on how to play the game and she
won the event against a world-class field.
Today neither her four-flush or straight
draw got there against McCormick and Jen
could go back to her Hold'em tournament.
Chris
Sandrock's motivation was unquestionable,
but his luck was pretty bad. Twice Chris
got himself heads up against Alan Boston's
all-in hands. In both cases Sandrock started
with the best hand and lost. Now it was
Chris' turn to go all-in with Jennifer
Harmon against Tom McCormick. Chris was
leading for a minute with Queens, but
McCormick spiked a third Jack and The
Rock turned to sand.
Millions
of Black Americans play poker, but until
recently a very low percentage came to
the World Series. That seems to be changing
finally. With the phenomenal success of
Phillip Ivey and the win by Paul Darden
two years ago in this event, a few more
players and spectators have participated
in the greatest show in poker. It's great
to see increased ethnic diversity in our
sport. Walter Davis started third in chips
and seemed determined to play conservatively,
but his best starting hands just wouldn't
hold up. Simply put, it wasn't Walter
Davis's day. A crushing hand came when
Walter couldn't call a multi-bet hand
against Dan Torla on the river. Playing
$3k/$6k on a short stack isn't a good
idea. Davis went all-in against his mimesis
Dan Torla only to lose to a pair of 9's
when all of Walter's draws failed.
Rosalie
(Rosie) Feldman is a New York character
with that accent and attitude. A lady
of advanced age is a delicate way of putting
it. Rosie played so few hands she finished
5th by default. When she finally found
a hand to go all-in on it was only a split
pair of 10's. Still, she led against Al
Boston until the river when Boston mercilessly
caught a gut shot straight card. No curse
of the Bambino here.
"The
Shamrock Kid" Tom McCormick tells us in
his pre-game bio his nickname is. You
couldn't tell it by how Tom's day turned
out. There was little that was lucky about
it. He started fourth in chips and ended
in 4th place. Tom was fighting back almost
from the first hand. He lost half his
stack when Dan Torla had wired 5's and
made a full house on 5th St. McCormick
had so many Hearts he had to call to the
river. That put Tom behind the eight ball
for the rest of the day. Thinking he might
stay alive when he had a pair of 7's and
Bill Gibbs started pounding him with a
7 as a door card, Tom was way wrong. Gibbs
made a straight on 6th St while McCormick's
7's never improved. 'Shamrock,' indeed.
Playing $4k/$8k later Tom couldn't beat
Bill Gibbs with 5's and 2's.
A
'Miracle' would best describe Alan Boston's
survival. All-in three hands in a row
early, the first with only $1,600, Boston
won them all and started accumulating
chips. There was a time that Alan actually
had a shot at the title, but he came from
so far back it wasn't possible for him
to catch all the way up. Besides Bill
Gibbs had caught fire and was building
a pyramid of chips. Boston and Torla looked
like they were playing for 2nd each with
around $50,000. In a last attempt to get
enough chips to challenge Gibbs, Boston
decided in a hand with Dan Torla to go
for it. Alan chose to ignore Dan pairing
his door card and opted to believe he
still had a chance all-in. There was no
chance. Boston's Jacks were no match for
Dan's 4's full of Queens. It was quite
a marathon for Boston, though.
Few
believed that the Rookie had a chance
against Bill Gibbs even though Dan Torla
was only a 2-1 chip dog when heads up
play began. Bill Gibbs was on a mission.
He had a big chip lead two years ago in
this event when Jerri Thomas caught some
improbable cards to beat him. Last week
Bill was also one off the Final Table.
It's safe to say that Bill Gibbs is an
expert WSOP Stud player. Then there is
Dan Torla. In the 'Year of the Rookie'
first time WSOP players have some unknown
karma on their side. Gibbs had Torla down
to his last $30,000 when that karma kicked
in. Three huge hands helped wipe out a
9-1 chip deficit for Dan. He made a flush
against Gibbs' trips. Then Torla made
10's full to Bill Gibbs' club flush. And
finally, for the title, the Rookie made
yet another 10's full to win a bracelet
in his first year and only third event
at the World Series of Poker. Is there's
something in the air?
Mike Paulle
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