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PokerPages.com at the 2005 WSOP

Event # 17 - $2,500 Limit Hold'em - Final Table

The Mighty Quinn

Quinn Do

After a break with Quinn Do leading 700k-200k, the key hand that ended this match, for all intents and purposes, went down. Quinn pounded a board of Q 10 4 Q 6. Chi Chang called all the way to the river then mucked the river bet by Do. That hand left Chang a 15-1 dog. It was over a few hands later when Do put Chang all-in with the A 7 of Clubs. Quinn Do flopped the nuts, the Ace high flush.

2:15

Meanwhile back at the Limit Hold'em Final Table. YAWN. Pardon me. Quinn Do has increased his chip lead to 700k to 200k.

115

Mike Davis played it perfectly. He waited until Tony Nasr went out to guarantee himself third place money. Then Mike let the two big stacks hammer each other with Quinn Do taking half of Chi Chang's chips in a 250k. Now Mike made his move to get 2nd. He reraised on the button with A 9 off and got Chang to call with K Q off. Now he was a player. But when Davis checked an Ace on the turn, Chang bet out and Mike had to fold. Now he was back as the short stack.

Mike Davis finished third when he reraised Chi Chang all-in with A 4. Chang called with the hand that John Phan had on the cover of Card Player, 9 7. John was standing next to me and whispered that a 7 was coming. It did on the flop.

Heads up John Phan's friend Quinn Do has a 2-1 chip lead. 625k to 315k. John is urging Quinn to end it quickly, "I'm sleepy," John said.

A couple of hours ago Quinn Do was all-in. He then went on a monster rush to make this twosome inevitable when Captain Tom Franklin's barge sunk.

1:05

Tony Nasr folded three times when he could have had some equity in a three way pot. Instead he waited until he was all-in for the 10k small blind with K 4. Chi Chang had a 9 made trip 9's on the turn. Mike Davis was never going to play a hand until Nasr was out in 4th. Now he can try to double up against the two giant stacks.

12:35

Break between levels. Tony Nasr is holding on for a chance to finish 3rd instead of 4th.

12:35

It looked for a while that Chi Chang's mistake in not putting Tom Franklin all-in would come back to bite someone. But when Tom went all-in with A 4 suited and an Ace on the flop. Quinn Do called with pocket 10's and hit a set on the turn. 5th has to be a major disappointment to the former chip leader.

2 Quinn Do 460k
6 Mike Davis 60k
9 Chi Chang 380k
10 Tony Nasr 40k

12:15

Sammy Arzoin finally cashed out in 6th. After struggling mightily for hours short stacked, Arzoin went all-in from the big blind as a reraise of Quinn Do's small blind raise. Sammy had the best hand and it got better with a pair of Queens on the flop. But there were three clubs on the flop and Quinn had the only club. The four flush came on the turn for the even more mighty Quinn.

Chi Chang let Tom Franklin live when he didn't bet the turn or river with Aces up. Tom came back to win the next hand to get back in it.

2 Quinn Do 275k
6 Mike Davis 90k
8 Tom Franklin 60k
9 Chi Chang 260k
10 Tony Nasr 60k

12:05

Tom Franklin found someone he could beat. He raises with A J and Rodeen Talebi called the two extra chips all-in from the big blind with J 3. No they, no Rodeen in 7th.

11:35

This has been a nightmare table for Tom Franklin. After dinner he's not been able to win any big pots and he's built several for others. Amazingly Franklin is now the shortest stack from nearly 250k two hours ago. Quinn Do was the latest beneficiary in a Franklin donated 150k pot.

Spence Sun goes all-in for 20k on the turn. Sun goes supernova in 8th when he makes two pair, A's and 8's. Quinn Do had 10 9 and needed Spencer to make two pair with the 8 on the river for his 10 high straight. What a miracle card on the river.

Seven handed now.

2 Quinn Do 250k
3 Sam Arzoin 60k
4 Rodeen Talebi 50k
6 Mike Davis 90k
8 Tom Franklin 60k
9 Chi Chang 250k
10 Tony Nasr 140k

11:05

2 Quinn Do 205k
3 Sam Arzoin 70k
4 Rodeen Talebi 100k
6 Mike Davis 75k
7 Spencer Sun 150k
8 Tom Franklin 90k
9 Chi Chang 155k
10 Tony Nasr 100k

10:55

Next level in a few minutes, 5k/10k blinds playing 10k/20k. The average stack is about 100k so only ten big blinds. Still 8 handed.

10:35

Noah Boeken had to pay off Quinn Do's trip Aces to be left with felt cover. He won the first 'no look' all-in. But he couldn't win the second. Quinn Do caught an 8 on the flop with A 8 to send the Dutchman flying to the rail in 9th.

10:25

Tony Nasr was a big dog against Noah Boeken preflop with A K vs K K, but 'TNT' got his Ace on the flop and got paid off all-in when three diamonds came. Boeken had the King of Diamonds. Noah's down to 50k.

10:15

Sammy Arzoin has been playing in the WSOP since some of these guys were in diapers. He made some play a few minutes ago to stay alive. He hated the flop with, only 12k left, that came with three spades. He really hated the spade on the turn. Sam would have gotten 6-1 on his call from Noah Boeken, one of those diaper guys. But Arzoin didn't call all-in. He then doubled up a few hands later with A K.

10:05

It's slowed to a crawl again. The next level begins in 40 minutes. That should shake some chips loose.

9:55

Chip counts

1 Noah Boeken 69k
2 Quinn Do 125k
3 Sam Arzoin 55k
4 Rodeen Talebi 100k
6 Mike Davis 80k
7 Spencer Sun 115k
8 Tom Franklin 140k
9 Chi Chang 180k
10 Tony Nasr 55k

9:45

Quinn Do doubled up again. This time against Noah Boeken. Noah didn't believe Quinn had any of the 9 83 flop and raised Quinn all-in with pocket 7's. Noah was right, Do had none of the flop, Q Q.

9:35

It's back to normal for Limit. Bet and take it. Tom Franklin has decided to quit paying everyone off. He dusted half his chips for minus 120k before the bleeding stopped.

9:25

Quinn Do doubles up on his all-in with the A K of Diamonds. Tom Franklin had A 6 and flopped the six he needed. Quinn got the diamond on the river he needed.

Spencer Sun is the next to double up all-in on Tom Franklin. Sun shown with pocket Aces vs Franklin's pocket 9's.

Franklin is helping all the short stacks stay alive. He just gave some chips to Noah Boeken when Tom couldn't call a bet on the flop.

Franklin is laughing a little hysterically as he pays another short stack all-in player off. Talebi made Aces to crush Franklin's pocket Queens. Maybe Tom should have been late coming back from dinner. He's paid four all-ins get well in the first fifteen minutes.

9:15

We're back at it after dinner. The blinds are now 4k/8k playing 8k/16k.

Chi Chang has started his 10 minute penalty for exposing himself...er...his card on the last hand before dinner.

Hopefully, my perforemance for the rest of the evening will live up to the expectations of my blog mate Amy Calestri.

7:55

Order has returned to my universe. The marketing people have saved the whales and we get out Final Table back. Still 9 handed. But chip distribution is changed as Noah Boeken doubled up plus with A K vs J 10 from Chi Chang. Chi flopped the Jack and Noah turned the Ace to go all-in. Chi exposed his Jack and gets a 10 minute penalty for doing so.

Another big change occured when Tony Nasr had Kings and had to pay Mike Davis off with Aces. I've written about Tony for 10 years and I've never seen him act so maturely. He used to blow up when things went wrong. Congratulations to him. If we could just have him give lessons now in handling adversity.

1 Noah Boeken 96k
2 Quinn Do 28k
3 Sam Arzoin 62k
4 Rodeen Talebi 106k
6 Mike Davis 125k
7 Spencer Sun 40k
8 Tom Franklin 243k
9 Chi Chang 201k
10 Tony Nasr 46k

Dinner break. Come back at 9:15 to live the fascinating, thrilling, Limit Hold'em event.

7:15

It took a while but on of the short stacks finally lost an all-in. Greg Debora is 10th. He went card dead after winning with pocket Queens in a previous all-in. Greg found a hand on the button and three bet with one extra chip. Debora had A Q. How much more dominating could he get over Tom Franklin's Q J. But Captain Tom flopped Q J and made Queens full of Jacks. Brutal.

6:35

In the first orbit of the FT, Tony Nasr doubles up with Aces vs Quinn Do's Kings.

Quinn then took some chips from Sam Arzoin in time to double up Noah Boeken's A 2. Noah, the Dutch boy wonder, flopped two pair and got a scare when a four flush came on the turn with a gutshot straight draw.

It's the ever exciting Limit Hold'em. As it's players like to remind me. The limits went up to 3k/6k playing 6k/12k. It could get exciting now as the average stack is 90k.

Chi Chang has been unusually quiet. The $40/$80 cash game player is in his first tournament. He was the default bettor for so long, it's odd to see him throw a hand away.

We've been bumped from the ESPN table, where we usually play, by a marketing department High Roller tournament. Gotta save the whales.

Our table is about a half mile from this computer, so updates wiil be less frequent.

5:45

Seat Player Chips
1 Noah Boeken 20k
2 Quinn Do 77k
3 Sam Arzoin 61k
4 Rodeen Talebi 101k
5 Greg Debora 44k
6 Mike Davis 87
7 Spencer Sun 105k
8 Tom Franklin 124k
9 Chi Chang 212k
10 Tony Nasr 33k

Nat Koe was 11th when he made the same mistake many others have made. He went all-in against Chi Chang with the best hand. Nat had A 6. Chi had Q J. No surprise, there was a Queen on the river.

5:25

Just one more now as Brian Clark is out in 12th. He had to get some equity so he raised all-in under the gun with his 1,500 and K 8 offsuit. Nat Koe reraised with pocket Jacks. Chi Chang gave Clark some protection with another reraise with the J 10 of Spades that was called by Koe. The Jacks were good. There are no short stacks at the moment, so anyone could be on the FT bubble.

4:25

Two more to go before the ten handed Final Table.

In 14th, Sam Lewis was short and shoved with K 10. Noah Boeken, who'd had A A cracked by Rodeen Talebi's J 9 earlier for almost half his chips, got some of them back from Lewis when he called with A 10. An unneeded Ace flop. Lewis was already dominated.

In 13th, Derek Laforte was also short and was put out by Tom Franklin with a pair of 5's to Derek's A Q. Derek's gutshot straight draw didn't get there.

3:45

Chi Chang remains unconscious. That's how you win tournaments. Last night on the last hand before leaving, Ivo Donev picked up the rockets. He raised Chang on every street so it was obvious that Ivo had pocket Aces. It wasn't obvious to Chi. He had an overpair to the board and he was going to the river with his pocket 10's. Bang! 10 on the river to knock Donev out in 21st.

Chang took out Keith Videtto a few minutes ago when Keith went all-in with big slick. Chi called with 9 5. 9 on the flop, King on the turn. 5 on the river. Videtto was 16th.

In 15th, Mark Gregorich was "blinded off," viewer Raymond Davis said. As usual the super-tight Gregorich couldn't find a hand that met his exacting standards. Short stacked Mark went all-in with A 2 only to find Rodeen Talebi behind him with the cowboys, pocket Kings.

3:05

Ashok Surapaneni was short stacked when he picked up presto, pocket 5''s. He didn't have enough to get Spencer Sun off K J when Ashok went all-in on the flop of Q Q 8. With an 8 on the turn, Ashok's pair was counterfeited. He needed a 5 on the river, he got 17th instead.

2:45

Former WSOP champ Carlos Mortensen was crippled on a preceding hand and he went all-in preflop with J 10. Erik Gault called with pocket 7's and spiked an unneeded 7. El Matador was 19th.

Redraw to two tables. Chi Chang still has the chip lead.

Erik Gault didn't make enough of Mortensen to last long. He was 18th when his 14k all-in preflop with pocket 10's was called by Quinn Do with A Q. 'Ace On The River,' for another plug of Barry Greenstein's new book.

2:25

What a lovely way to begin, no? Steve Shkolnick and Tony Nasr get it all-in both with A 7. It's a split, right? Nasr has A 7 SUITED! The spades come home and Steve Shkolnick, the Hollywood location manager, goes home in 20th.

2:15

About to start.

--Keep those WSOP Champion picks coming daily. They are all being recorded.

Here are the rules. Everyone who enters gets one pick a day, starting today. If there are mulitiple winners, they split the $500 equally. If there are no winners, who ever has the name that lasts longest wins. As with the Champion, mulitple winners of the last longer split the prize equally. All entries have to allow me to use their full name in the blog. Entries will be accepted up until midnight PDT July 6, 2005.
Email MikePaulle@PokerPages.com


Players remaining going into day 2


Player Name Hometown Chip Count Table # Seat #

Chi Chang Los Angeles, CA $114,000 116 2
Greg Debora Toronto, Canada $96,000 127 9
Spencer Sun Novato, CA $95,000 128 6
Sam Lewis Las Vegas, NV $75,000 116 5
Sammy Arzoin New York $69,000 116 9
Noah "Exclusive" Boeken Amsterdam $62,000 128 5
Tony "TNT" Nasr Pico Rivera $51,000 116 6
Rodeen Talebi Dallas, TX $50,000 127 1
Nat Koe Irvine, CA $44,000 127 4
Juan Carlos Mortensen Madrid, Spain $40,000 127 8
Captain Tom Franklin Gulfport $39,000 127 6
Mark Gregorich Las Vegas, NV $34,000 128 2
Quinn Do Seattle, WA $33,000 128 3
Keith Videtto San Ramon $30,000 128 7
Ashok Surapaneni Las Vegas, NV $30,000 128 8
Erik Gault Burke, VA $22,000 127 2

Mike Davis Spokane, WA $19,000 127 7
Derek Leforte Vancouver $18,000 128 9
Steven Shkolnik Los Angeles, CA $13,000 116 4
Brian Clark Roseville $13,000 116 1

Some info on the top 3 chip leaders

Chi Chang Our chip leader is a new face to the final stages so far in this years WSOP.
Chi comes from Los Angeles, California, and brings $114,000 in chips. He will be hoping to keep us his great form and win his first WSOP bracelet and $265,975 in prize money

Greg Debora has had 3 money finishes to date and has an overal prize money total of $41,755. Greg is from Toronto, Canada and with recent good performances in the Five Star Poker Classics at the Bellagio, Greg maybe peeking at the right time to take his first WSOP bracelet.Lets see if he can do it.

Spencer Sun Has has 13 money finishes and has has an overal total prize money of $280,924. From Novato, California, Spencer has the most experiance of the top three chip leaders. Still a way to go, But Spencer will have the title and a WSOP bracelet firmly in his sights.

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