THE NINTH TIME'S
A CHARM
Only
a handful of players have made as many
Final Tables in the last few years as
our winner today, but none of those elite
have had such difficulty winning a bracelet.
There
were 144 entrants in the $2,000 Buy-In,
Half Hold'em, Half Stud for a total prize
pool of $270,720. Two tables were paid,
a total of 16 players.
To setup the Final Table Friday night,
Jeff Pierce started with split 5's and
made 5's full. Jim Athanas started with
split A's and made Aces up. Eight half
awake--half asleep players got to go to
bed.
THE
FINAL TABLE:
38 mins left of 90
The game is Stud $300 ante,
$600 bring-in Playing $2k/$4k
Player
Hometown Chip
Count
Seat 1 Paul McKinney Princeton WV $31,600
Seat 2 Jeff Pierce Las Vegas NV $21,900
Seat 3 Ram Vaswani London, UK $43,400
Seat 4 Max Stern San Jose, Costa Rica
$13,700
Seat 5 Tony Criniti Southampton PA $65,500
Seat 6 Dan Heimiller Livonia MI $51,800
Seat 7 Alan Boston Las Vegas NV $47,300
Seat 8 Don Zewin Las Vegas NV $12,800
With the ever-present chomped, unlit cigar
in his mouth, Paul McKinney was first
to leave this one. He didn't have enough
chips to ignore split 9's even while seeing
a raise from a Queen door card. Paul was
all-in on 5th St and made 10's and 9's
on the river. No good. The Queen was a
pair and another pair came on the river
for Queens up.
Don
Zewin was 3rd in the Championship Final
several years ago. He doesn't play in
many events so his success ratio is still
high. But Don couldn't find a hand today
and went all-in from the big blind for
his last two chips without looking at
his hand. "I might chicken out, if I look."
The only equity Zewin would get was with
the big blind hand. Don turned over K
4, which was dominated in 7th place by
Alan Boston's K 9.
Dr.
Max Stern isn't having any trouble getting
to a Final Table, but reaching the big
bucks has proved difficult. The retired
Pediatrician still has a child's enthusiasm
for the game, even after repeated disappointments.
He is a prime example of the power of
perseverance. But Max does get frustrated,
just as we all do. Unlike most of us,
however, Dr. Stern's frustration is most
commonly displayed after he's 'in the
money.' Max pounded the table when Jeff
Pierce showed him pocket Aces. Stern had
gone all-in for his case money with A
J. Bye, Doc; we'll probably be seeing
you back here again soon.
'Boston'
is a poker name for Alan. He has so many
Final Table appearances; they had to be
added up from the three different names
he's cashed under. Generally regarded
as a Stud specialist, he's actually a
College Basketball handicapping specialist
with a book written about him called "The
Odds." Odds were that Alan wasn't going
any higher than 5th with the cards he
was getting. On fumes when the game changed
back to Stud, Boston couldn't do beans
with Ace high against Tony Criniti's pair
of 4's.
Another guy who couldn't Pierce the big
money was Jeff Pierce. Jeff was so hot
from the start; you had to wonder if he'd
peaked too early. That seemed to be the
case as Dan Heimiller and Ram Vaswani
chipped away at Jeff's stack on every
hand. Like Alan Boston, Jeff Pierce is
considered a Stud specialist. Maybe Jeff's
expertise got him into trouble in his
last hand. It's obvious to everyone watching,
so it must be doubly obvious to Pierce
that Ram Vaswani bluffs a lot. Pierce
went all-in for $15k with a pair of sevens
against Ram's Ace showing. Jeff was a
mutt on this hand as Ram really did have
Aces. Vaswani, the English golden boy
of the moment, made Aces up to Pierce
Jeff's dream of another bracelet in 4th.
The statisticians tell us that it is just
as likely for a starting chip leader to
finish 2nd or 3rd as it is to finish 1st.
That certainly seems to be the case at
most Final Tables, as it's uncommon to
have a wire-to-wire victor. Tony Criniti
was no exception to prove the rule. Chip
leaders often lose their aggressiveness.
The defensive posture is deadly when the
levels are increasing. Here, the aggressive
players were Ram Vaswani and Dan Heimiller.
Tony Criniti would get involved in a hand
and have to lay it down to surge betting
by either. All-in three-handed, Criniti
would have been back in the race if he'd
won this hand. Tony had J 7 on the button
and flopped second pair. He went all-in
when a Jack hit the turn. Ram Vaswani
flopped up and down with his 8 5. It was
all down for Tony Criniti in 3rd when
one of Ram's eight outs rivered to give
Vaswani an 8 high straight.
Heads
up, Dan Heimiller had a slight chip lead.
It didn't seem possible that Dan would
be able to stand up to the withering heat
that Ram Vaswani supplies. But in the
first few hands, Heimiller not only was
the aggressor, he showed Ram a bluff!
Normally that would be like showing a
bull a red flag, but not today. Vaswani
was never able to take the aggressive
stance away from Heimiller. In heads up
play, whoever bets the most often usually
wins. It's so hard to make a hand, bluffing
is mandatory. Heimiller closed Vaswani
out with a Jack on the turn with his J
7 for a pair to crack Ram's all-in A 8.
It was Final Table veteran Dan Heimiller
that played brilliantly. After chronic
bouts of frustration and self-doubt, a
player that had made an amazing nine Final
Tables in the last few years finally broke
through to get his well-deserved bracelet.
Dan Heimiller will never be the same player
again. He is now a champion and will probably
continue to play like one. His game is
that strong.
Mike Paulle
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