ALIVE
AND WELL, THANK YOU
With
anything as successful as the World Series
of Poker has been over the years, there
will always be people who'll want to tear
it down. They'll say that the best is
in the past. That it can never be again
what it was. That this or that new tournament
will be even bigger and better. Well,
those naysayers were silenced today as
the big news Monday wasn't the Ace To
Five Final Table, it was the attendance
for the $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em Event
#19. An extraordinary 528 players showed
up on a Monday at noon. "If you schedule
it, they will come." This was, it's obvious
now, what the players wanted as nearly
400 of them were 'walk-ups.' That is to
say, they didn't pre-register for the
event or win a satellite to get in. Here
was a chance, for $1,500, to win over
$200,000 for 1st place and the coveted
Gold Bracelet. That is the kind of multiple
of one's buy-in and prestige award that
has made the World Series of Poker so
unique in tournament history.
There
were 111 entrants in the $1,500 Buy-In,
Ace To Five Draw Lowball for a total prize
pool of $156,510. Two tables were paid,
a total of 16 players.
Layne Flack offered Tommy Reynoso some
of his beer then put Tommy out of the
tournament, one out of the money. If it
hadn't of been Layne, it probably would
have been someone else as Reynoso was
the only short stack left. Tommy was drawing
one card to an 8 all-in and caught a King.
Flack's one card draw was a Jack.
The
Final Table was setup Sunday night when
David Hockstra rapped pat with 8 5. The
ever-aggressive Ram Vaswani, who'd made
his move with about $6,000, mucked his
hand in 9th without showing it. Tom Moore
with only $3,000 in chips could now breathe
again.
THE
FINAL TABLE:
68 mins left of 75
The blinds are $1,000/$1,500
Player
Hometown Chip
Count
Seat
1 Tom Moore Orange CA $ 3,000
Seat 2 David Hockstra San Pedro CA $25,500
Seat 3 Cary Moomjian Dallas TX $17,000
Seat 4 Thor Hansen Oslo, Norway $36,000
Seat 5 Norm Ketchum Rockford IL $17,500
Seat 6 Ken Coplon Malibu CA $ 8,000
Seat 7 Brian Nadell Las Vegas NV $38,500
Seat 8 Tony Grand Chatsworth CA $21,500
The
problem with reporting on Ace To Five
Draw Lowball is that one seldom sees any
cards. Few hands go to a showdown, as
whoever pairs or catches paint on their
draw throws their hand away when there
is a post-draw bet. Therefore, representing
a made hand is often sufficient to win
the blinds and any called raises.' Stealing
is Mandatory in Lowball' for survival
and for victory. Nobody catches enough
hands to win the tournament; they have
to take whatever there is available. An
air of confidence when betting a stone-cold
bluff, where you catch an 8 for a pair
on an 8 draw for example, is worth many
wheels over the course of a seven hour
Final Table. In Lowball, bluffs and steals
can make up the majority of the chips
won by the end of a tournament.
None
of these sophisticated plays were available
to Tom Moore, however. Tom was only going
to get one hand to play, with only $3,000
in chips. If he didn't win that one hand,
he was history. Well, Tom waited and waited
then waited some Moore. Tom didn't bet
through either of his first two blinds.
He only had one $500 chip left. Ken Coplon
held up one chip and showed it to Moore.
"This is the key chip," Ken said. It was
that extra chip that would get Coplon
through his blinds and force Moore all-in
on his next big blind. A casual observer
might wonder what all this posturing is
about. The difference between 7th place
and 8th was only $1,560. That casual observer
probably wasn't around for the agonizing
hours it took to get to the Final Table.
Not being the first one to leave is a
big pride issue for most players.
But
as soon as Ken Coplon quit chortling about
his extra chip, he looked down at his
big blind hand. Now came one of the most
dramatic moments in a Lowball tournament.
Ken Coplon picked up 6 perfect (6-4-3-2-A),
the second best hand possible. What to
do? It seemed impossible he would lose
this hand, yet if he did, he would be
8th and Tom Moore's one remaining chip
would be key. Ken Coplon raised his extra
chip all-in. Norm Ketchum in the small
blind called and drew two cards. They
don't call Norm, Ketchum for nothing.
He did catch 'em. Starting with Joker
3 4. Norm caught 'em, the 2 and the 5
for a wheel, which was probably about
a 500 to 1 shot. Unbelievable! A stunned
Ken Coplon staggered over to the pay window
in 8th.
Now
Tom had Moore money in 7th. The patience
that seemed foolish had paid off. With
J 9 8 7 5 in the big blind, Moore had
"no where to go." So he rapped pat, hoping
that Thor Hansen would miss his one card
draw. Thor Hansen wouldn't miss many draws
today. Hansen turned over 8 7 to turn
over Tom Moore.
At
every Final Table it seems there is someone
with chips who doesn't win a hand. That
someone today was Tony 'Not So' Grand.
Before we knew it, Tony had raised all-in
with his last $3k. Norm Ketchum was there
in the big blind to Ketchum and throw
'em out. It was a Norm that Ketchum would
turn over a 10 9 in the blinds. And it
was inevitable that Tony would pair up
on his draw to leave in a less than Grand
6th.
An
experienced all-around SoCal tournament
player, David (Never In) Hockstra might
be seen at any Final Table for any game
in the LA area. He's that solid. But David's
one card draw 8 6 was no match for the
one card 6 5 shown him by Thor Hansen
in the big blind.
Now
there were three big stacks and Cary Moomjian.
Cary is one of a rare breed in America,
a "Wildcatter," an oil well driller. Used
to boom and bust cycles with sudden 'gushers,'
Cary would get none of that except the
bust. Cary wouldn't be granted his wish
for a big all-in hand in the big blind.
Moomjian made a two card draw 10. Thor
Hansen was playing a Norse God at the
time and pulled a one card 6 5 to gush
Cary out in 4th.
For
a while it was competitive three-handed.
The chips were close to even at one point
and Norm was still catchin' 'em. Then,
inexplicably, Norm stopped catching. The
magic cards that had been coming, disappeared.
On an elevator stuck on 'Down,' Norm left
in 3rd when his pat Jack lost to Thor
Hansen's one card 8 6.
If
you don't see many cards eight-handed
in Lowball, you REALLY don't see cards
heads up. 90% of the hands are "bet and
take it." Over the next two hours, the
heads up contestants went through three
major swings. Whoever caught the third
swing would win the tournament and the
Holy Grail--the gold bracelet.
Thor
Hansen had $90,000 in chips and Brian
Nadell had $78,000 when they made a deal
for most of the money. What motivated
these two poker professionals was the
bracelet. Thor had one already. Brian
was desperate for his first. "I promised
the bracelet, if I won, to my daughter
Melodie," Brian said. Nadell kept a picture
of his daughter in his breast shirt pocket,
"Close to my heart" and kissed the picture
a few times for increased motivation.
"Actually,
I should be happy I even got here," Nadell
would say afterward. "I was down to $200
at the $400/$800 level." Once you do get
there, though, it's hard to take the loss.
Maybe Brian wants it too much. At first
it appeared that Nadell had no chance.
Never has a player seemed so dead as Brian
was. Coughing lint after only an hour
of heads up play, Brian won his all-in
hand against Thor Hansen and went on one
of the most amazing reversals imaginable.
Now it was Nadell who couldn't lose a
hand. "How do you make EVERY hand," Hansen
asked incredulously. Thor could have asked
himself. That's what Hansen had been doing
only minutes before.
Over
the next 90 minutes, Nadell fought all
the way back and actually took a 2-1 chip
lead at one point. When the $3k/$6k level
started, though, there were only 14 big
bets on the table. It was over quickly.
"He (Hansen) surprised me. He'd been taking
two cards on the button all day. I thought
he'd take two as he usually did so I that
my Jack was a favorite." In a multi-raised
pot that would decide the victor, Nadell
rapped pat with his Jack. To Brian's chagrin,
Thor Hansen only took one card and turned
over an 8 5. Melodie is going to have
to wait for her bracelet.
Some
of the recent Super Satellite winners
were: Tony Grand, Osman Mustanoglu, Paul
Rowe, Douglas Booth, Kevin Lewis, Jan
Sjavik (9th), Barney Boatman, Dallas Flowers,
Tom McKeone, Ron McMillan, Majid Vafamanesh,
Scott Brayer, Surinder Sunar (2nd), Gerson
Mosbacher, Asher Derei, Ted Forrest, Quoc
Vinh (3rd)
David
Lamb, Super Satellite Director, said how
pleased he's been with the deportment
of all the players in the Supers. "I haven't
given one penalty." There hasn't been
one card thrown off the table, no dealer
or player/player abuse. David attributes
this new attitude to the post 9/11 civility
we've seen in the society at large.
Mike Paulle
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