UNRELENTING
PRESSURE
Remember
that dream you had once, where everyone
called you to the river then folded on
your last bet so you never had to show
your cards?
There
were 253 entrants in the $1,500 Buy-In,
Seven-Card Stud for a total prize pool
of $356,730. 3 tables were paid, a total
of 24 players.
Ron
Durante had enough chips to call a short
stack's all-in bet even though Ron was
on a flush draw and was up and obvious
set of sixes on 4th street. The flush
arrived and the 25th player left. Everyone
was in the money.
Bill
Gibes is a Seven-Card Stud specialist.
He's been to Stud Final Tables before.
He probably should have known better than
to try to run over Peter Moore with nine
players left and two short stacks still
worrying. Bill took a pair of 9's with
an Ace and pushed the pot against a flush
draw for Moore. When the third suited
up card came for Moore, Gibes had Aces
up and was stuck. Dan Torla and Gene Frank
were appreciative of Bill Gibes' largess
and quit worrying.
THE
FINAL TABLE:
28
mins left of 75.
The ante is $300, bring-in $600
playing $2,000/$4,000
Player
Hometown Chip
Count
Seat
1 Dan Torla Huntington Beach CA $ 8,700
Seat 2 Ron Durante Sicklerville NJ $ 29,500
Seat 3 Toto Leonidas Los Angeles CA $
67,780
Seat 4 Gene Frank Evansville IN $ 14,700
Seat 5 Peter Moore Norcross GA $ 34,300
Seat 6 Steve Flicker Los Angeles CA $
25,200
Seat 7 Phil Ivey Atlantic City NJ $142,100
Seat 8 John Hennigan Las Vegas $ 44,500
From
the deal of the first hand it seemed inevitable
that seven players were vying for 2nd.
Phil Ivey had that many chips. But it
wasn't just chip count that proclaimed
the winner before the fight began. Ivey
was dominating his fellow players like
few have before. Stu Unger comes to mind,
Phil Hellmuth, Huck Seed, Johnny Chan.
You know the neighborhood. It's the poker
greatness neighborhood.
Is
Phil Ivey going to be an 'immortal' like
those other guys? At 25 it's too early
to tell for sure about Ivey. But the great
ones were winning early. And dominating
early. What's interesting about Phil Ivey
is that he's an African-American. The
first black poker superstar. In a game
as dominated by white males as golf used
to be, poker may be seeing the emergence
of its Tiger Woods.
Hanging
on by his finger and toenails, Dan Torla
briefly had hopes for 7th place when John
Hennigan went all-in. John won his hand
and Torla had to settle for 8th. Dan was
being anted out so he made a move on the
antes by going all-in with his last $4,000
and a pair of 7's. The table 'Terminator'
Phil Ivey had to search his mountain of
chips for a stack as small as $4,000 to
call Torla. Since Dan was all-in we got
to see Phil's cards for one of the few
times all day. Phil didn't need a hand
to call Torla, with all those chips, and
he didn't have one. Phil was just doing
his job as chip leader of trying to eliminate
players. Ivey turned over Q 8 2. The next
four cards for each player were a precursor
of what must have happened to everyone
who faced Phil Ivey today. Dan Torla didn't
improve his 7's at all to the river. Phil
Ivey caught an 8 on 4th St for an overpair
then a running pair of sixes.
Ivey
usually won hands by betting until all
his remaining opponents folded. Those
few who went beyond 4th St with Phil,
knew they would have to pay dearly for
their draws and might still lose. John
Hennigan was a little bolder against Phil
than the others so he went out 7th. John
had the temerity to start with the best
hand, split Kings, against Ivey's flush
draw. John made what would normally be
a pretty good hand in Stud�Kings over
Jacks. But Hennigan made this nice hand
on the wrong day. This was 'Phil Ivey
Day.' Ivey had his King high flush on
6th St. John Hennigan has a delivery business
in Las Vegas called "Everything Goes."
Phil shipped the company CEO to the rail,
C.O.D.
Steve
Flicker is one of the bonafide characters
in poker. Think Robert Mitchum in a fright
wig. One of the greatest living lowball
players, Steve can and does play all poker
games well. With chips running low, Robert�er�Steve
decided to send it all in on a pretty
Heart straight flush draw. He knew he
was trailing Peter Moore's Kings, but
what the heck. He didn't have enough chips
to stay competitive anyway. Mitchum�darn�Flicker
may or may not have dated Marilyn Monroe
also, but still finished 6th.
Phil
Ivey was playing exactly the correct way
against short stacks when you have an
Everest of chips. Phil put unrelenting
pressure on them. He maxed every bet on
every card. The little guys knew they
had to win any hand they entered or they
were gone. Ron Durante was the next publican
to put his head on the Ivey guillotine.
Durante called the $2k bring-in then went
all-in with his last $4,200 and not much,
a pair of 8's on 4th St. As usual, the
victim squirmed and pleaded for mercy
but to no avail. Ron's 8's were good until
6th St when Ivey made a running two pair
with a trey and a 10. The man was Invincible!
The
pounding continued until Gene Frank had
had enough. He stepped up to the plate
only to be belted out of the park by Ivey.
Gene had never played a Stud tournament
before and he may never again after seeing
Phil Ivey in action. Frank had pocket
10's and two pair on 5th St. Ivey had
tons of chips and a desire to wipe out
the table by himself. Forget about it!
As they say in Phil's hometown of Atlantic
City. Phil caught a gutshot 10 on the
river for a straight to put an entry into
the diary of Gene Frank.
It
was such a hopeless battle that even Peter
Moore finally gave up. Peter kept looking
to his left at the Himalayas that Phil
Ivey had built and saying, "Awesome!"
Peter had made a brief rush at 2nd only
to fall back. He threw in his last chips
just to get off the table. His straight
draw had failed and he wanted to go home.
Toto Leonidas had 7's full anyway.
At
the start of heads up play, Phil Ivey
had a 4-1 chip lead and it immediately
fell to 3-1. Might there really be a battle
for first? No, there wouldn't. After what
seemed like hours of ante taking, Toto
did the same thing everyone else did today
against Phil Ivey. He called to the river
and folded to Phil's river bet. No one
could make a hand against Ivey. It was
amazing. This never happens to mere mortals.
Maybe Phil Ivey WILL become one of the
great ones.
Now
with no hope of winning, Toto went all-in
with split 3's and found Phil with split
Aces which held up. The unrelenting pressure
of the Ivey Inquisition was over. All
were found guilty of offending Phil Ivey
by their presence at his table and were
burned at the stake.
More
Super Satellite winners are: Ron Aberman,
Matt Heintschel, Dan Stephenson, Gerson
Mosbacher, J.J. Bortner, Paul Darden,
Jr. Gary "Hog" Haubelt, Louis J. Asmo,
Travis Jonas (2), George Bartlett, Chris
Tsiprailidis, Mickey Seagal, Ken Jacobs,
Joseph Brandenberg, Raymond Greenwell,
Nicholas Dileo, Satish Vitha
Mike Paulle
|
