AN
INSTANT CLASSIC
With
the few words available in this report
it would be impossible to fully describe
one of the great Final Tables of WSOP
history. It is highly recommended to anyone
who loves poker, that they watch the video
of this instant classic on the Binion's
website: www.binions.com.
There
were 449 entrants in the $2,000 Buy-In,
No-Limit Hold'em for a total prize pool
of $844,120. Four tables were paid, a
total of 36 players.
Having
pocket Aces cracked only a few players
out of the money doesn't help the cause.
Mike Sexton went out 37th, a little later,
to Martine Oules when his A K lost to
her J 10.
The
Final Table was setup Tuesday afternoon
when the famous A 9 beat the famous A
Q, again. Instead of Chris Ferguson and
T J Cloutier for the Championship, it
was Mark Gregorich who spiked a 9 to put
Patri Friedman out in 11th. It took 16
hours over two days to get this far. And
we'd only just begun.
THE
FINAL TABLE:
11
mins left of 75.
The blinds are $1,500/$3,000 with a $500
ante.
Player
Hometown Chip
Count
Seat
1 Percy Regimbal Welland, Ontario $ 56,500
Seat 2 Harry Demetriou London, UK $109,000
Seat 3 Mark Gregorich Las Vegas NV $125,000
Seat 4 Bernard Damron St Cloud, France
$ 67,000
Seat 5 Al Korson Albuquerque NM $ 12,000
Seat 6 Tom Jacobs Las Vegas NV $105,000
Seat 7 Joanne Bortner Palo Alto CA $169,500
Seat 8 Sirous Baghchehsaraie Los Angeles
CA $ 67,000
Seat 9 Layne Flack Las Vegas NV $165,000
Seat 10 Doug Kim Cedar Park TX $ 22,000
Finishing
last or 9th wasn't Doug Kim's concern,
he needed chips. So Doug went all-in under
the gun with his $18,5k. Percy Regimbal
called. Then Sirous B (no one wants to
repeat that last name) came over the top
all-in to get heads up against Kim. Doug
had A 10 and Sirous A K, which cruised.
Last it was for Doug Kim.
There
is a club of poker players in Canada,
near Niagara Falls, who sent the six winners
of their local tournaments to Vegas for
this event. Percy Regimbal did the club
proud by making the Final Table. When
Percy made his move all-in for $35k with
pocket 6's, he had a caller. Layne Flack
had limped in with K Q right in front
of Percy and didn't hesitate to call.
With a King on the flop, Regimbal's story
to the guys back home was complete.
Sirous
B can get down on himself for mistakes.
But he has a sunny disposition and will
bounce right back. When Harry Demetriou
slow-played his pocket Aces, it was intended
to trap someone. Sometimes the trap backfires
on the trapper, but not this time. With
a flop of K 9 4, Sirous B went all-in
for about $85k and K 7 in the big blind.
Harry sprung the trap by calling and turning
over his Aces. Sirous grabbed his head
in anguish. Another dream deferred.
Having
Joanne (J.J.) Bortner as your big blind
can be a harrowing experience. J.J. has
one of the quickest trigger fingers in
the business. When Al Korson went all-in
with pocket 9's on the button with about
$45k, it took less than a second for Bortner
to call. Joanne had her pocket Jacks turned
over before her words evaporated in the
air. Korson, who'd played so well on a
short stack, hit the bricks in 7th.
Now
Joanne was Bernard Damron's big blind.
Bernard failed to learn from Al Korson.
No one can intimidate J.J. Bortner. She
came over the top all-in and had her Q's
turned over before the crowd had realized
that Damron went all-in from the second
button with his $48k and the Jack and
10 of Spades. No pair. No spades. No contest.
At
times Joanne Bortner can appear to be
a force of nature. She's that strong a
player. But the confidence she always
has in her hands can also be misplaced
as well. When play began Tuesday afternoon
with 24 players left, J.J. had a better
than 2-1 chip lead on the field. Starting
the Final Table, that lead had shrunk
to $4,500. Two hands ended J.J.'s day.
Both involved pocket 10's. She lost with
them and she lost to them. Bortner was
near the chip lead (but J.J. would never
play it safe) when she went all-in on
the button with pocket 10's. Harry Demetriou
held pocket Kings in the big blind and
was happy to call. Joanne lost half her
stack on that hand. Like a wounded tigress,
Joanne fought to regain her strength.
She could have hid for a while licking
her wounds, making more money, but that's
not how Bortner plays. She took the first
opportunity to go all-in again. This time
she was in the small blind with pocket
3's. If there is anyone with an even quicker
trigger finger than J.J. Bortner it's
Layne Flack. Layne called in a nanosecond
with pocket 10's in the big blind. Conservative
play at this Final Table might have gotten
Bortner another $100,000 in prize money.
But then she wouldn�t be J.J.
The
polar opposite of J.J. Bortner's is the
play of Mark Gregorich. For the first
five hours of this Final Table, Mark never
once played back at someone who raised
his bet. It's a miracle, really, that
he lasted to 4th. That was mainly because
of the respect he usually got for any
of the rare bets he made. But four handed,
it was costing Mark $2,500 a hand to play
so he had to come out of his shell. Gregorich
raised all-in for about $60k under the
gun with J 10 offsuit. $60k was coffee
money for the chip leader Layne Flack
in the small blind. Layne called with
K J for a dominant hand over Mark's. The
never-flustered Gregorich calmly took
his leave in 4th.
Now
there were two vastly experienced pros
in Layne Flack and Tom Jacobs with an
almost complete novice in Harry Demetriou.
It wasn't a fair fight. Sitting right
behind Layne Flack on most hands, Harry
would repeatedly agonize over how to play
his cards as Flack would so often raise
in front of him. For someone who had only
been playing No-Limit for three months,
Harry had done fabulously well. He even
had the chip lead a couple of times. Now
down to his last $200k, Demetriou was
in a tough spot. He flopped top pair with
Queens heads up against Layne Flack, but
he had a lousy kicker. Harry felt he may
have the best hand, anyway, and went all-in
with Q 6. Layne had Q J and turned two
pair when a Jack came to make the precocious
novice draw dead in 3rd.
There
was only one WSOP bracelet at this table
and Layne Flack had it. Tom Jacobs had
been close several times over the years,
but his 2nd place a few years back was
still his best finish. It still is. You'll
have to watch the video to appreciate
the titanic struggle between these two
warriors. It would take thousands of words
to begin to do their battle justice. No
one has the space for thousands of words.
The
truncated version of this instant classic
is that both Flack and Jacobs took commanding
chip leads over each other and lost those
leads back, not once but several times.
It was a hyper Shutes and Ladders. Whoever
had the lowest stack won the hand, no
matter what the cards were. To his credit,
Layne Flack would never discuss a deal
even when he could have locked up an extra
$100,000 over 2nd place money with a simple
"yes." Tom Jacobs played brilliantly.
At one point Tom was down to $40,000 facing
mountainous stacks all around him. Now
guaranteed $156,160, Jacobs wanted that
which had slipped from his grasp so many
times before�that gold bracelet. Oh, and
$303,880.
It
was not meant to be for Tom Jacobs again
this day. Here was a case where both players
deserved to win, neither deserved to lose.
When the two started heads up play, they
were almost even in chips with Flack having
a very slight lead. It was that way again
when the final hand that ended a 25 hour,
two day poker marathon came down. Layne
Flack got exactly what he was praying
for. The flop came with a King. Flack
needed Jacobs to have a King and go all-in
for his entire $440k. Jacobs did have
a King and he did go all-in. Layne Flack
called within a second and flipped over
K Q for the top two pair on the flop.
Tom Jacobs know he'd been had and disgustedly
showed his K 10. Layne Flack now has two
well-deserved WSOP gold bracelets, Tom
Jacobs still has an undeserved none.
Mike Paulle
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