POKER
UNIVERSITY
Florida
State University is known as one of the
Top 10 party schools in the country. Nothing
that happened at this Final Table is likely
to change that perception.
There
were 130 entrants in the $1,500 Buy-In,
Limit Omaha for a total prize pool of
$183,300. Two tables were paid, a total
of 18 players.
Rene
Oliveras is a lucky man. Not because he
finished 13th today or that his full house
put everyone in the money. Rene is lucky
because he's received that rarest of poker
blessings. Oliveras has a wife that listens
sympathetically to his good and bad beat
stories, sharing his enthusiasm for the
game, sweating his every move.
The
Final Table was setup Wednesday night
when Jimmy "The Greek" Karambinis flopped
top pair with A K J and knocked out two
short stacks, David Colclough and Mark
Mitchell on the same hand.
THE
FINAL TABLE:
66 mins left of 75.
The blind were $1,000/$1,500
Playing $1,500/$3,000
Player
Hometown Chip
Count
Seat
1 Jim Karambinis Park Ridge IL $28,500
Seat 2 'Miami' John Cernuto Las Vegas
NV $43,000
Seat 3 Williard Wellnitz Rushville NE
$ 9,000
Seat 4 Haviv Bahar Las Vegas NV $18,500
Seat 5 Jim Grimes Houston TX $ 1,500
Seat 6 Randy Holland Orange CA $27,500
Seat 7 Barry Shulman Las Vegas NV $20,000
Seat 8 Phil Hellmuth, Jr Palo Alto CA
$31,500
Seat 9 Mickey Appleman Fort Lee NJ $ 4,500
Seat 10 Dave Russell Redford MI $11,000
For
a change, this Final Table didn't have
a clear favorite going in. No one had
more than 14 big bets. There were 15 WSOP
bracelets at the table, so no one was
going to be outplayed. The short stacks
were in trouble as always, but anyone
of seven players had a logical shot at
the title. A good rush by any of several
players would probably determine the winner.
The
second generation of poker nobility was
represented by Jim Grimes, son of the
famous Tommy Grimes. Jim didn't learn
from his father that you should always
bring lots of chips to a Final Table.
With only $1,500 Jim didn't even have
time for a cup of coffee. John Cernuto
picked Grimes off with a flopped set of
3's to Jim's top two pair. A fine player
himself, 'Miami' John's son was sitting
in the gallery watching his dad play.
It would be no surprise to see both sons
at a WSOP Final Table in the future.
It's
safe to say that no poker player likes
to lose. But few who do lose, do so with
less grace than Phil Hellmuth. Even after
seven gold bracelets, 32 Final Tables
and many millions of dollars in earnings,
the fire to win still burns very high
in Phil's gut. What doesn't burn at all
is his desire to be civil to his fellow
players. When the cards were turned over
in an early hand, Phil loudly complained
to Barry Shulman about Phil's being check-raised
on the flop when Barry only had top pair.
They are funny later, these childish tantrums,
but not at the time. Phil has become a
physical presence at the table as he's
filled out. Always tall at 6'6", Phil
isn't skinny anymore. He looks like he
could play tight end in the NFL. Standing
up, yelling like a mad man and waving
his arms around, while everyone else is
sitting down, could actually be frightening
to someone who'd never seen this act before.
Maybe that's what's intended.
"I'm
not done, yet, boys." Phil said after
he calmed down a little. But he was done
soon enough. When Hellmuth picked up two
suited 8's and 6's and an 8 flopped, Phil
check-raised nearly all-in from the small
blind with top set. Randy Holland and
Williard Wellnitz both had overpairs to
the board and called. Randy had Queens,
Williard had 10's. Wellnitz was all-in
on the Hellmuth call. When a Queen turned,
Randy Holland bet out and Phil went all-in
with his last $3k. Randy said, "Top set."
Which predictably started another bout
of yelling before Phil quietly said "Nice
Hand" to Holland. Lost in the furor, Williard
Wellnitz a quiet man from Nebraska finishing
9th said stoically "I won three hands
in a row I didn't play and lost the one
I did play." The difference in attitude
was striking, Wellnitz blamed himself,
Hellmuth blamed everyone else. Phil got
8th place money for starting the last
hand with more chips. He needed 5th or
better to recatch T J Cloutier for 1st
in all-time money winnings.
Barry
Shulman is having some year. The Card
Player Magazine owner has set up his life
so that playing tournament poker is a
legitimate business expense. How sweet
is that! Coming into the Series, Barry
was leading in points for 'Player of the
Year.' By the sixth event he's fallen
behind Huck Seed into second, but it wouldn't
surprise many if Shulman regains the lead
before the year is over. Low on chips,
Barry raised under the gun and went all-in
with his A J 9 8. Dave Russell had taken
over the chip lead by then and David called
with A K Q 9. Russell flopped a 'wrap'
when the board came J 10 5 3 and got there
with a Queen on the river. 7th place gave
Barry Shulman too few points to catch
Huck Seed.
Born
in Israel, Haviv Bahar now makes Las Vegas
his home. Hey a desert is a desert, right?
Haviv, called 'Avi' had done a good job
avoiding the perils but wasn't winning
enough chips. Bahar took his last chance
with pocket Kings by going all-in with
$4,500. John Cernuto called and flopped
Aces up to give Bahar the opportunity
to enjoy the desert sunset in 6th.
With
29 WSOP cashes and three bracelets, Mickey
Appleman is the stuff of legend. One thing
Mickey does better than almost anyone
is to hold on with few chips. Mickey's
problem, if he has any lately, is that
he's getting too much practice playing
with a short stack. He'd prefer not to
have the practice and win some big pots.
Again today, the big pots didn't come.
With the blinds growing, Appleman raised
all-in for $6,500 and an unusual all-in
hand�9 7 6 5. With the flop of 8 4 3,
however, it looked like the canny Appleman
knew something. He'd flopped a complete
wrap. He had every card from the 9 to
the 3. But he still didn't have a straight
with only two cards in his hand. When
the turn and river showed Kings, Mickey's
day was over in 5h, losing to Cernuto's
pocket Aces.
Now
it seemed to get personal, at least for
Jimmy "The Greek" Karambinis. Jimmy kept
glowering at John Cernuto sitting next
to him. Then he would give a look to the
dealer for a bad beat that would turn
a Greek god into stone. And all the time
he was obviously swearing a blue streak
in Greek. To someone who understood the
language, this performance was probably
fall-down funny. But no one at the table
understood what Jimmy was saying. It looked
for a second when Jimmy rivered top full
against Cernuto's flopped nut straight
that Karambinis could win this thing.
But the gods weren't smiling on Jimmy.
A crushing hand came when Cernuto reversed
the river suck out. This time it was Karambinis
who had a wheel on the turn. Cernuto had
8's and 2's. An 8 on the river sent Jimmy
on a probably unprintable Greek tirade.
He was out in 4th soon thereafter when
both Cernuto and Holland made straights
leaving Jimmy's pocket Aces high and dry.
Like
Rene Olivares last night, Dave Russell
had his wife Ann in the stands rooting
for him today. Lucky guys. It wasn't luck,
however, that got Russell to 3rd. He played
brilliantly against one of the best Final
Table lineups ever. Starting 7th in chips,
Dave took over the chip lead a couple
hours in and held it for some time. It
was still fairly even three-way between
he, John Cernuto and Randy Holland. Anyone
who went on a rush would win. That someone
turned out to be 'Miami' John Cernuto.
Almost instantly, it seemed, John was
winning all the hands. Both Randy and
Dave were short stacked and playing for
2nd. Randy won that battle with pocket
Queens that were good against the all-in
straight draw of Russell. Ann Russell,
who was sure her husband would win, was
justifiably proud of her man.
By
taking out the 3rd place finisher, Randy
Holland insured himself enough chips to
make a decent deal with Cernuto. But with
the money spoken for, John didn't cool
down. Cernuto blitzed Holland in a battle
of Florida State Seminoles. They could
'chop' the money but they couldn't chop
the bracelet. Both had two pieces of the
precious jewelry, one would now have three.
It was over quickly. What could have been
a showdown at a Frat house poker party
in the early '70's, was now a fight over
the $1,500 Limit Omaha championship. Poker
U. won and Poker U. lost. John Cernuto
completed his heater to the title with
a rivered straight on a wrap with 7 5
against Randy's flopped two pair, the
'dead man's' A's and 8's.
Mike Paulle
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