BEWARE
A WOLF IN SHEEP'S CLOTHING
What
better training ground for poker than
a career in the make-believe world of
television.
There
were 193 entrants in the $1,500 Limit
Hold'em Shootout for a total prize pool
of $272,130. Two tables were paid, a total
of 20 players.
To get into the money in this Shootout,
you had to beat everyone at your original
table. There were 20 original tables.
If
you did win your table, you were then
on a freeroll for the $96,400 first prize.
The 20 original table winners drew for
seats at one of two 'second' tables and
they started over again with $1,500 in
chips.
Five
survivors out of those ten at each of
the second tables then became the 10-handed
Final Table carrying their second table
chip counts with them. Clear? Ya had to
be there.
Below
are listed the twenty names of winners
of their original tables and some of the
'names' they had to beat to get into the
money.
The
first five names at each table were the
survivors that made the Final Table. The
second five names at each table failed
to move on.
Table
70
Melissa Hayden: Casey Kastle, Harry Thomas,
Tommy Grimes, Lonnie Heimowitz
John
Juanda: J J Bortner, Terry Fleischer,
Barry Greenstein, Paul Kroh
Daniel
Negreanu: Sam Arzoin, Ivo Donev, Alan
Goehring, David Plastik, Skip Wilson
Joel
Chaseman: John Bonetti, Steve Kaufman,
Kathy Liebert, Ram Vaswani
Rocco
DiPomazio: Mickey Appleman, Layne Flack,
Chris Grigorian, David Pham
Table
75
Matt Lefkowitz: Sirous B. Mike Majerus,
Mike Marzouq
Marcel
Luske: Jim Meehan, Arturo Diaz, Michael
Ross
Chris
Pikula: James Hoeppner, David Levi, Rafael
Perry, Stan Schrier, Erik Seidel
Gene
Timberlake: Andre Boyer, Antonio Turrisi,
Amir Vahedi, Bruce Yamron
Scotty
Nguyen: John Biebel, Randy Holland, Steve
Meyerson, Pascal Perrault
Jesse
Jones: Phil Ivey, Bert Boutin, Men Nguyen,
Diego Cordovez, Paul Darden
Jac
Arama: Carlos Mortonsen, Mohamed Ibraham,
Russ Salzer, Ben Tang, An Tran
Harry
Demetriou: Dan Alspach, Alex Brenes, Jim
Bucci, Howard Lederer, John Pires
Joseph
Grew: Jim Allen, John Cernuto, Mel Judah,
Iain Patterson, Syracuse Chris
Don
Moseley: Chris Ferguson, Hassen Kamoei,
Paul Ladanyi, Tom McEvoy
To
setup the Final Table Sunday night, Gene
Timberlake took all but a few of Jesse
Jones' chips with a flush on the river.
On the other table, Mickey Seagle flopped
a pair of Aces. Daniel Negreanu took the
chip lead when he flopped a set with a
pocket pair of 8's.
THE
FINAL TABLE:
60 mins left of 60
The blinds were $75/$150
Player
Hometown Chip
Count
Seat
1 Chris Pikula New York NY $ 525
Seat 2 Daniel Negreanu Las Vegas NV $5,625
Seat 3 Melissa Hayden Las Vegas NV $1,650
Seat 4 Joel Chaseman Potomac MD $2,225
Seat 5 Gene Timberlake Houston TX $5,000
Seat 6 John Juanda Alhambra CA $2,800
Seat 7 Scotty Nguyen Las Vegas NV $5,100
Seat 8 Marcel Luske Almere, Holland $3,100
Seat 9 Matt Lefkowitz Inverness CA $3,925
Seat 10 Rocco DiPomazio Gallup NM $2,775
If it's true, this is a great story. Chris
Pikula claims that this is his first poker
tournament ever. Imagine making a WSOP
Final Table in your first tournament?
Chris mucked his hand for 10th when Rocco
DiPomazio showed him a runner runner flush.
Now if Chris never makes another WSOP
Final Table, he'll always wonder how he
made the first one.
Marcel
Luske is a dominating player on the European
tour. At this table, they didn't know
his reputation and treated him like he
was a local yokel. Unable to win a hand
with all his foreign moves, Luske had
to go all-in short stacked with K 10.
Gene Timberlake flopped trip 9's to send
the European hotshot out on his European
reputation in 9th.
Unable
to win a hand of any kind, the starting
chip leader tanked into 8th. Daniel Negreanu
had the worst Final Table of his brief
but spectacular career. Stunned and in
shock, Daniel couldn't believe what was
happening to him. He must have missed
on a couple hundred outs in the hands
he played. All-in with yet another A K,
Daniel was called by John Juanda with
K 10. No worries. The 10 ripped right
off the deck and held up. Daniel is now
learning how the rest of us live in poker.
It
was surprising how many quality players
bummed out today. Another top player who
had a horrible time was Matt Lefkowitz.
With 13 big bets at the start, Matt had
time to do something but he didn't get
any cards. Besides, Scotty Nguyen was
on fire at the time and Scotty was putting
the table on tilt with his arrogant attitude
toward his opponents. Matt went all-in
drawing dead to John Juanda's flopped
two pair.
If
Melissa Hayden didn�t have pocket Aces,
she didn�t win the hand. She didn�t draw
bullets often enough to get higher than
6th. All-in from the big blind, her friend
and spanking buddy Scotty Nguyen spanked
Melissa with trip Kings.
The John Juanda Fan Club is still waiting
for John to get his first bracelet. It
didn't come today as Juanda was especially
perplexed by Scotty Nguyen. With the board
Q 2 3 4, John check raised and was reraised
by Nguyen. Juanda then folded. Not long
after, John went all-in on the button
with the K 2 of Diamonds. It was Scotty
who disappointed the Fan Club with Q 10
and a 10 on the flop.
How
do you explain the complete and total
collapse by a former World Champion? Overconfidence
probably describes it most politely. Arrogance
is probably a more accurate word. With
four players left Scotty Nguyen had half
the chips on the table and finished 4th.
How? He never changed gears when the three
rocks he was playing with changed theirs.
In the opinion of a hack poker writer
who couldn't carry Scotty's seat card
as a player, I think he continued to try
to run over the three rocks even after
they started standing up to him. It was
obvious to everyone that Nguyen was bluffing
most of the time, but nobody would call
him down. When Joel Chaseman showed Scotty
a bluff with the worthless 3 2 of Diamonds
on a huge pot, the invincibility Nguyen
had so successfully portrayed for so long
was shattered. There were $30,000 in chips
on the table. Prior to that hand, Scotty
had $15,000 of them. In an hour he was
gone. Scotty walked on $79,100 he should
have had.
The three remaining players made a save
that guaranteed them their respective
spots and played on. And on, and on, and
on. At 7 am the next morning, Joel Chaseman
finally hit the card on the river that
allowed several insanely groggy people
to go home. The only thing that made this
marathon worth watching was the finesse
with which Joel Chaseman bamboozled all
of us. At 3 am when the money deal was
made, Joel Chaseman, a career television
producer, said all he wanted to do was
go home. This was going to be a laydown
for Gene Timberlake. Gene had made good
money, now all he had to do was pick up
the bracelet. Right! Funny how Joel, who
acted so tired and bored, would never
actually give up. Didn't he want to go
home? Didn't Chaseman profess to have
no interest in the title?
Beware
a wolf in sheep's clothing. Gene Timberlake
didn't and it cost him a bracelet.
Mike Paulle
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