AGE
AND GUILE
There's
a cute tee shirt expression "I'll Take
Age and Guile Over Youth and Talent Every
time." Maybe there's some wisdom in that
expression.
There
were 240 entrants in the $1,500 Buy-In,
Stud Hi-Lo for a total prize pool of $338,400.
Three tables were paid, a total of 24
players.
Kristy
Bidar had the bring-in and only a few
chips so she followed her money into the
pot trying to make a low for survival.
Frankie Hendrickson had two pair and put
Kristy all-in. No low, no Kristy. 18 were
in the money.
The
Final Table was setup Friday afternoon
when Randall Skaggs, a very experienced
tournament player, seemed to make a mistake.
It was so odd that Skaggs would go all-in
for about $6,000 with only Queens for
high and no low draw. Randall could see
Vince Oliver, sitting nearby, with only
$2,500 in chips. Oh well, Randall must
have had a good reason for playing the
hand. David Levi had a low made against
Skaggs on 6th St and spiked a second Ace
on the river to scoop the pot and elate
Vince Oliver.
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 David Levi Pacific Palisades CA $ 52,000
Seat 2 Thor Hansen Oslo, Norway $ 31,500
Seat 3 Frankie Hendrickson Kokomo IN $
9,500
Seat 4 Eskimo Clark Bell CA $ 77,500
Seat 5 George Shah Paramount CA $ 38,000
Seat 6 Andrew Prock Oakland CA $127,500
Seat 7 Vince Oliver Las Vegas NV $ 2,500
Seat 8 Matt Lefkowitz Inverness CA $ 21,500
Vince
Oliver not only made the Final Table with
his measly $2,500, he didn't finish last!
That dubious distinction went to a shocked
Matt Lefkowitz. Matt managed to get all
$20,000 of his chips into the pot on only
the second hand at the table. When George
Shah turned over trip 8's and an 8 6 low,
Matt Lefkowitz'd in 8th without showing
his hand. It all happened so fast that
Matt was able to muck his hand before
being told to turn the hand over as is
required of an all-in. It could be presumed
that Lefkowitz had at least two pair and
a failed low draw to call the last bet.
Matt is too good a player to make a big
mistake in that spot.
Now�Vince
Oliver could leave. Christmas had come
early for Oliver, but his last present
was a lump of coal. Vince had everything
going on his all-in hand: A wheel, a flush,
and the nut straight draws. What he got
was enough bricks to build an outhouse.
In the end, Oliver could have cried out
for "More" cards because he couldn't even
beat Eskimo Clark's pair of 4's.
This
table figured to be a match between the
young lions of poker represented by Matt
Lefkowitz, David Levi and Andrew Prock
against the doddering old guard of Eskimo
Clark and Thor Hansen. A funny thing happened
on the way to the forum. Lefkowitz and
Levi didn't show up for the fight. You
would have gotten a big price on a bet
that Frankie Hendrickson with $9,500 would
last longer than Stud specialist David
Levi with $52k. But that's why they play
the game. No one knows what's going to
happen in advance. David Levi didn't win
a hand and got a disappointing 6th. He
lost $20k when he had to fold to a raise
on the river by Andrew Prock. He lost
trying to put Frankie Hendrickson out.
And finally all-in, it was Andrew again
who played Prock-tologist on Levi when
David's low draw failed and his lower
two pair lost to Andrew's Jacks and 7's.
During
introductions Carolyn Gardner yelled out
from the crowd to Co-Tournament Director
Steve Morrow, "Say she's the only lady
at the table." Which Steve then did when
introducing Frankie Hendrickson. Carolyn
didn't ask Steve to say Frankie was the
only African-American woman. Hendrickson
played bravely with her short stack and
survived three all-ins before leaving
in 5th when she could only make a pair
5's against Eskimo Clark.
In
only 40 minutes, half the table was gone.
Now four-handed, it was Eskimo Time. Early
on Andrew Prock had a 2-1 chip lead on
the field, but as each player left Eskimo
Clark got more aggressive. By now he was
betting every card. This put enormous
pressure on the other three players to
find a callable hand on 3rd St. For Thor
Hansen, who knew quite well what Eskimo
was doing, each time he'd call Clark a
brick would appear on 4th St and Thor
would have to fold. Hansen's stack was
on a down escalator and Thor couldn't
stop it. It took over an hour because
Hansen is so patient, but inevitably Thor
was all-in against Clark with the classic
'too-many-outs-to-get-there hand.' With
a straight, flush and low draw, Hansen
said, "How did I miss this hand?" Thor
might be the name of a Norse god, but
Eskimo is the name of an ice cream dessert.
The dessert won with Aces and 9's.
To
make it easier to remember, George Shah
shortened his poker name from Shahrezay.
And George had a memorable event, getting
to third place. By the time Hansen left,
Shah was sitting between two chip mountains.
Yet again a player's low and straight
flush draw failed to convert all-in. With
a 9 8 7 5 of Clubs and a trey, George
paired the trey on the river and lost
to Clark's pair of 6's. Frustrating game.
Heads
up, Eskimo had fought (and bluffed) his
way into the chip lead $190,000 to $170,000
for young Andrew Prock. Although Clark
was heard to say on the break to make
a deal that the kid "had no shot," it
was Eskimo who wanted to move some cash
from 1st to 2nd place. "Like a machine,"
was how Eskimo Clark described his own
play between the two. Andrew Prock is
both Young and Talented. He will be back
to a Final Table in Stud Hi-Lo, but he
was no match for Age and Guile in the
person of Eskimo Clark. Eskimo never let
the kid breathe. If Clark's door card
was higher he'd raise Prock's bring-in.
If it was lower, Eskimo would bet 4th
St no matter what he had. It was basically
a wipeout and over quickly. In a bizarre
final hand, Andrew went all-in with pocket
Aces. Not only did Eskimo catch the other
two Aces but two Jacks as well, leaving
Prock in 2nd and wiser with Aces and spaces.
Mike Paulle
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