"GOD
LOVES ME"
Years
before anyone had heard of Phil Ivey or
Paul Darden, most experts would have picked
John McIntosh as the best Black American
tournament player. Yet, although he had
some nice wins John still didn't have
a WSOP Final Table until today.
There
were 340 entrants in the $1,500 Pot-Limit
Hold'em for a total prize pool of $479,400.
Three tables were paid, a total of 27
players.
When Doyle Brunson was knocked out of
this event by the pocket Aces of Scotty
Lundberg, Doyle promised to come back
soon and bring his friends Chip Reese
and Bobby Baldwin with him. That will
be a great day for the WSOP.
To
setup the Final Table Thursday afternoon,
Bruce Van Horn was desperate for some
checks and went all-in from the small
blind for his last $6k with K J. Tommy
Vinus picked up pocket 8's in the big
blind and called. First, a Jack windowed
on the flop�then an Ace and lastly�an
8. Bruce Van Horn pounded the table in
11th. The other 10 were allowed to go
to the next table to pound on that one.
THE
FINAL TABLE:
72 mins left of 75
The blinds were $1,500/$3,000
Player
Hometown Chip
Count
Seat
1 Johan Storaakers Stockholm, Sweden $84,000
Seat 2 Ian Dobson Aldridge, UK $40,000
Seat 3 John McIntosh Baltimore MD $33,000
Seat 4 Mel Weiner Calabasas CA $61,500
Seat 5 Tommy Vinus Houston TX $70,000
Seat 6 Ivo Donev Bregenz, Austria $27,000
Seat 7 Chris Tsiprailidis Syracuse NY
$25,500
Seat 8 Dennis Waterman Myrtle Point OR
$50,500
Seat 9 Roger McDow Foothill Ranch CA $31,500
Seat 10 Antonio Turrisi Munich, Germany
$77,500
After 14 hours of play Wednesday, the
Pot-Limit Hold'em crew quit for the night.
There were still 17 players left. At the
time Ivo Donev was the clear chip leader
with $88,500 $30k more than Johan Storaakers.
In a span of the two hours it took to
get down to the last ten and the Final
Table, Ivo Donev imploded and was 10th
in chips out of ten. Since this is a Final
Table report, it doesn't cover what happened
to Ivo. Hopefully someone on the net is
telling the story. It was obvious that
Donev was depressed by his change of fortune,
as Ivo's body language couldn't have been
clearer. After less than an hour of play
in which his luck didn't change, Ivo raised
all-in under the gun with pocket 9's.
Tommy Vinus found pocket Jacks in the
big blind and ended Donev's misery about
$170,000 short of his dream when he woke
up this morning.
'Syracuse'
Chris Tsiprailidis has made a nice living
betting the ranch on premium pocket pairs
in the blinds. It's almost his trademark.
In fact, players are so used to this bet
that they usually lay their hand down.
Maybe Chris doesn't always have to have
a premium pair. On occasion someone is
going to reraise Chris with a better hand.
That's what John McIntosh did with pocket
Kings to Chris' pocket Jacks in the big
blind. With his stack decimated, Chris
went all-in on the next hand from the
small blind with his last $5.5k and the
A 8 of Hearts. Sitting next to him in
the big blind 'Swami' Dennis might have
said, come on in Chris the water's fine.
Dennis Waterman called Chris with the
A 3 of Spades and turned the nut flush.
There
is nothing sweeter than being reraised
when you have pocket Aces. Ask Mel Weiner.
Since this was pot-limit, Mel's maximum
bet at this level was $14k, so a bet of
$8k may have appeared a little weak to
Roger McDow in the small blind with A
Q. Roger reraised and Weiner got McDow
all-in heads up drawing real thin. Acting
more like the McNasdaq than the McDow,
Roger crashed into 8th.
This
is when poker writers should get 'torture
pay.' It took an hour and a half to eliminate
another player. The table got so tight
only an enema or Layne Flack could have
loosened it up. Poor Andy Glazer reporting
hand for hand, must have had over 50 'bet-and-take-its.'
(Meanwhile, I spent this dead time losing
$50 in a $4/$8 Omaha Hi-Lo game downstairs.)
These stretches should be bottled as cures
for insomnia. The only thing that can
break these logjams is a rise in the blinds.
Even
with the doldrums, this table had lots
of memorable hands. An early one involved
Tommy Vinus and Mel Weiner. Vinus, a high-stakes
player, proved why those kinds of players
are often successful in tournaments. They
can smoothly make the following type of
play. There had been some early betting
between the two and a check on the turn
when the board read J 9 9 A. When another
Jack came on the river, Mel Weiner bet
$40k. Without a flinch, Tommy Vinus raised
all-in. Mel was tempted to call because
he's usually the loosest player at any
table he's at. But Weiner seemed to have
made a promise to himself to be good today.
He's never played so tight in his life.
Mel folded and showed A 10. "He showed
me his hand, so I showed him my hand,"
Vinus said later. "I'm a limelighter,
turn on the lights and I will dance."
Tommy showed Mel the 3 4 of Hearts for
a stone-cold bluff and Vinus took over
the chip lead. Perhaps the poker deities
weren't amused by Tommy's dance because
within an hour Vinus was low stack. When
the blinds went up to $3k/$6k, Tommy went
all-in with A J and danced out in 5th
to Ian Dobson's pocket Kings. That's also
why high-stakes players aren't always
successful in tournaments by the way.
They can get called more often as it is
assumed they can bluff.
In fairly quick succession for this timid
table, the insanely unlucky Antonio Turrisi
left in 6th and Dennis Waterman was out
in 5th. Turrisi started 2nd in chips and
never had a chance. Antonio got so few
playable hands, he couldn't have done
much worse by not showing up at all. Blinded
off from $77k, Turrisi would probably
get 6th.
Dennis
'Swami' Waterman on the other hand was
a factor and could have won this thing
if a few wishes had come true. Dennis
is called 'Swami' because he looks like
he should be wearing a turban on the 'Tonight
Show with Johnny Carson.' But unable to
guess what card was coming next, Waterman
finally sank below the waves when the
blinds increased. This wasn't WaterWorld.
The smokers nailed Dennis in his coffin
with a series of better flops. Still as
a 7-1 favorite on his last hand, Dennis
deserved a less watery grave. Waterman
had the good/bad hand of the night, J
J. Johan Storaakers put Dennis all-in
with A Q. One of Johan's six outs came
on the turn, a Queen.
Johan
Storaakers. Remember that name. You will
be reading much more about this young
man in the future. Johan seems to be the
prot�g� of the great Chris Bjorin who
is also from Sweden. Johan might have
run away with this event, (and would have
never looked Bach) except for the small
fact that people kept making a better
hand on him. Starting with the chip lead,
Storaakers was nearly out in 10th when,
first, he flopped a set and John McIntosh
flopped a higher set followed by quads.
Then Johan bet his pocket Aces and was
run down by an all-in Chris Tsiprailidis
with a second pair on the river. This
kid's got guts, though, he fought all
the way back and retook the chip lead
from only $14k. When the higher blinds
had induced a novel concept at this table:
gambling, Johan raised John McIntosh all-in
with an overpair to the flop, pocket 9's.
Big Mac called with 6 8 and an open-ended
straight draw. No waiting! The McIntosh
8-out straightener came on the turn and
sent Storaakers straight out in 4th.
As
mentioned before, J J had cut both ways.
Ian Dobson had the Yaks and lost with
them when John McIntosh called Ian's raise
all-in with an earlier open-ended straight
draw. You can be sure God loves you, if
you make two of these for huge pots in
one night. This time John only had six
outs with his 9 8, because Ian had two
of John's Jack outs. No worries, a Jack
came on the river to drive Dobson nearly
crazy. Now three-handed, Dobson would
finish 3rd by losing to the infernal pocket
Jacks. Ian went all-in for about $110k
with A J and had to be disgusted when
John McIntosh turned over the knaves.
Oddly, the case Jack came on the river
to torment Dobson even more.
Heads
up, McIntosh had about a 3-2 chip lead
on Mel Weiner. Mel was never that close
again. When John raised on the flop and
Weiner reraised all-in John called with
A 7. The flop had come 7 5 4. Weiner had
4 3. With a 2 on the turn, Mel picked
up the draw that made John McIntosh today's
champion: an open-ended straight draw.
No speculation about God's love here.
We are all lucky to be alive. But Mel
didn't get any of his 8 outs on the river.
John McIntosh toured the Final Table area
giving high fives.
"God
loves me," John McIntosh had said glowingly
after knocking out Ian Dobson. Phil Ivey
and Paul Darden were the first ones out
of the stands to give the big guy some
human love.
Mike Paulle
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