WELCOME
BACK, KOTTER
About
eight hours into this Pot-Limit Hold'em
Final Table an entertaining card game
broke out, until then there was Gabe Kaplan.
There
were 175 entrants in the $3,000 Pot-Limit
Hold'em for a total prize pool of $493,500.
Two tables were paid, a total of 18 players.
The
then incendiary Brian McCann put the last
18 players in the money when he flopped
the second nut straight with J 7 to a
short stack's Q 10, top pair and gutshot
straight.
The
Final Table was setup Saturday night when
Dennis Waterman's pocket 6's held up.
The all-in Jose Stawski flashed half a
'presto' (5) on his way out the door.
THE
FINAL TABLE:
7 mins left of 75
The blinds were $1,000/$2,000
Player
Hometown Chip
Count
Seat
1 Chris Ferguson Pacific Palisades CA
$ 43,500
Seat 2 Dennis Waterman Myrtle Point OR
$ 35,500
Seat 3 Ken Flaton Las Vegas NV $ 7,000
Seat 4 An Tran Las Vegas NV $ 68,000
Seat 5 Tom Schneider Phoenix AZ $ 57,500
Seat 6 Danny Qutami So. San Francisco
CA $ 55,000
Seat 7 Tony Cousineau Daytona Beach FL
$ 40,000
Seat 8 Fred Berger Slidell LA $ 15,000
Seat 9 Brian McCann La Mirada CA $158,500
Seat 10 Hylton Socher Winnewood PA $ 45,000
Have
you ever heard of a 'Ground Hawk?' Well
that would have been Ken 'Skyhawk' Flaton.
With 31 money finishes and one bracelet
since 1981, Ken's WSOP resume is unimpeachable.
He just showed up defenseless today in
10th. $7,000 wasn't going to get Ken very
far. You needed the lofty sum of $15,000
to have a chance. Ken went all-in for
his last $2.5k with A 4 and turned a 4.
Danny Qutami in the big blind got two
free cards and rivered a 7 with his 6
7.
"Africa"
is the intriguing nickname of Hylton Socher.
He didn�t stay around long enough for
us to find out its derivation. Obviously
disgusted with his inability to win a
hand, Socher stormed out of the Final
Table area in 9th when the massive chip
leader Brian McCann's K J crushed Hylton's
all-in A 6 of Diamonds. Two Jacks came
on board and the Final Table was 'Out
of Africa.'
The
question is: How big a bet would Dennis
'Swami' Waterman have had to make to get
Tony Cousineau off the flop? The question
is moot because at the time Dennis was
under water, man. Pocket Aces are nice
to get usually, but in this case K J or
Q J would have been better. Waterman went
all-in with the rockets and $9k from the
small blind. That wasn't enough to scare
Cousineau off the hand. Tony said to Dennis,
"I hope you don't have a big Ace" and
called. The flop came K Q J. Tony had
A J. Dennis had the biggest Ace, but for
the second straight expulsion two Jacks
hit the board to drown Waterman in 8th.
Bad beat.
It
might have been possible to tell that
this was going to become a strange night
when some of the bigger stacks started
exiting early. Socher had started 5th
in chips. Gone in 9th. Danny Qutami started
4th in chips. Gone in 7th.
After
taking out Ken Flaton, it was all down
hill for Danny Qutami. Danny found one
of the most bizarre ways to lose in recent
memory. Gabe Kaplan of 'Welcome Back,
Kotter' fame and a serious poker player
was doing the guest announcing when Qutami
raised Brian McCann to go all-in with
A J. We need a quick backstory to understand
why what happened next it so bizarre.
Gabe Kaplan is a comedian by profession.
He noticed that the hand 5 8 kept coming
up and used the hand for some shtick.
Well, Brian McCann had half the chips
at that time so he was bullying the table
with bluff raises. Probably because of
the running joke, when Brian picked up
5 8 he couldn't resist raising with it.
Now, McCann was stuck calling Danny Qutami's
extra $20k all-in with Brian's bluff 5
8. Brian could have laid the bluff down,
but the call barely dented his stack.
You know what happens next. The flop comes
Q J 7. Brian is drawing dead to a runner
runner straight. It's Qutami who's dead
as the 6 and the 4 peel right off the
deck. The joke was on Danny Qutami.
The
runner runners weren't over over. Tony
Cousineau, who benefited from Dennis Waterman's
chip deficit now had one of his own. He,
also, might have been able to get Tom
Schneider off the hand with more chips.
That's the danger of being light on ammunition.
Tony had A K all-in, Schneider had the
Q 10 of Hearts. Tony caught an Ace of
the flop and he would have pounded Tom
if he could have. Instead Cousineau could
only watch helplessly as Schneider got
the two free cards he needed to dump Tony
into 6th, heart heart on the turn and
river.
Outside
of An Tran's win with pocket Jacks against
former champion Chris Ferguson and the
famous A 9, 'The Boss' had a miserable
Final Table. Few of his raises walked.
He usually had to eat them as someone
came over the top of him. In an interesting
betting sequence, An Tran may have been
trapped by a call from Tom Schneider.
When Schneider only called An Tran's raise
of $20k, Tran may have thought he had
the best hand with his pocket 6's. An
Tran went all-in on the flop for his last
$15k. Tom Schneider didn't hesitate to
call with his pocket Queens. Another big
stack (2nd at the start) An 'The Boss'
Tran was an underling in 5th.
As
the remaining four players hammered out
a deal, the next half hour gave Kaplan
ample material for a study stream of jokes
about Brian McCann's motley railbird financial
advisors. (BTW, look for most of these
lines to come from the mouth of Big Denny
in Max Shapiro's humor column as Max was
scribbling furiously. To comics, this
is called 'borrowing.') With most of the
money guaranteed, the dynamics of the
table changed radically as they usually
do. Suddenly, the formally omnipotent
McCann was having trouble winning hands.
This happens so frequently after a deal
it's almost a clich�.
But
first McCann had to make a curtain call
as chip leader by exiting Tom Schnieder
stage left. It was getting nearing 9 pm
and Tom had to get to the studio for his
late night talk show�or whatever. Oh,
that's Snyder. Tom Snyder. Anyway, for
some unclear reason, Schneider thought
that the 4 3 of Clubs would trap Brian
with two worthless overcards. So Tom bet
his last $15k on the flop. Schneider was
correct. McCann's overcards didn't pair.
They just flopped the nut flush. Bye,
Tom.
It's
not the policy of the Horseshoe to report
on Final Table deals, so I won't do it
except to say that the prohibitive chip
leader, Brian McCann, left a lot of money
on the table when the deal was made and
he got none of it. Maybe it turned out
for the best for Brian, though, because
McCann finished 3rd. We'll never know
for sure.
There
were a couple of key hands in McCann's
demise but the most shocking one was the
'Doyle Brunson.' Much of Brian's stack
was relocated in front of Chris Ferguson
when the flop came 10 10 2. Brian had
K 10 in the small blind and was cold decked
unbelievably when Chris Ferguson showed
him 10 2 in the big blind. Brian fought
back gamely, but was put away by two hands
from Fred Berger. Brian had A 9 and flopped
an Ace. Fred had the J 10 of Clubs and
called $175,000 all-in on a flush draw.
Bingo! The flush card appeared on the
river. Then the man who started the day
with almost $100k more than anyone else,
and greater then ten times more chips
than Fred Berger was sent home by that
same Fred Berger. Brian went all-in with
A K against Fred's pocket 10's. Berger
didn't need the 10 on the river, no Ace
or King appeared.
Heads
up, the guy who started with only $15,000
had a 4-1 chip lead on a former World
Champion. This would be amazing enough,
but it gets even more amazing. This is
Fred Berger's first WSOP event ever, and
the first time he has played Pot-Limit
Hold'em. "I wanted to try something new,"
the No-Limit player said. "and I wanted
to go up against the big boys." Well Fred
got his wish. Eventually Fred Berger was
to double up his stack five times on the
way to the title, but he had to give it
all away a couple of times to get there.
Chris
Ferguson could have been very intimidating
to Berger. Always the fashion plate, Chris
upped the ante on wearing apparel by putting
his three WSOP bracelets linked together
as his hatband on his black cowboy hat!
But Berger, the Louisiana bead manufactured
and the guy responsible for girls showing
their wares at the Mardi Gras, wasn't
in the least bit intimidated. In an all
out shootout, Berger went from an 8-1
chip lead to a 1-9 chip dog against Ferguson.
It looked like both would win in turn.
It's
hard to second guess a World Champion
from the rail, but it seemed that Chris
may have given this one away. Ferguson
had Berger down to $45k after Chris caught
the runner runner nuts all-in. The champ
had A K. Berger had pocket 3's. The flop
came Q 9 6. Then 10, then Jack. How Fred
survived is the story of the tournament.
Coming from 9th in chips to win is the
greatest performance of the year so far.
And this by yet another WSOP rookie playing
a new game for the first time. Astonishing!
First,
Fred said, "Last hand" and threw in his
chips with the J 2 of Clubs. Chris had
pocket 7's. With a Jack on the turn, Berger
still had a slim chance to become King.
Then came the equalizer. Fred had lost
all his money on pocket 3's. Maybe Chris
Ferguson waited one card too long to put
Fred all-in on the next key hand. Chris
had Aces on the flop with A 7. When a
3 came on the turn, Ferguson went all-in.
Berger had pocket 3's again! And a set
of 3's on the turn. Now Fred was in business.
Ferguson again may have waited too long
(he will have to tell the story from his
viewpoint) on the pivotal hand. Chris
had A K. Fred had A J. The flop came Q
J 6. Chris went all-in on the flop with
only a King and a 10 as outs. Now Ferguson
had only $25,000 left. The last hand Fred
Berger won with King high. He was the
Berger King. A match that looked like
its only entertainment would be Gabe Kaplan
turned into a barnburner.
Mike Paulle
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