The average Final Table on television has around 25 of the most interesting or dramatic hands. Live poker tournaments aren’t always so viewer friendly. Tonight we had 172 hands and in the vast majority of them nothing happened.
This is to be expected and cherished as it means the players are getting sufficient time to decrease the luck factor inherent in tournaments.
FINAL TABLE
Seat/Player/Hometown/Chip Count
Seat 1 Andy Fox Shakopee MN 183,500
Seat 2 Luis Pires San Jose CA 21,000
Seat 3 Joe Awada Las Vegas NV 48,000
Seat 4 Tobey Maguire Los Angeles 97,000
Seat 5 Michael Kimbrell Yamhill OR 19,000
Seat 6 Jeff Rine Las Vegas NV 77,500
Seat 7 Richard Tatalovich Scottsdale AZ 115,000
Seat 8 Mark Wilds Biloxi MS 42,500
Seat 9 J. C. Tran Sacramento CA 77,000
Ante 500 Blinds 1,500/3,000 70 minutes left in this level.
This was not a good day for the starting chip leaders. Sometimes it happens like that. The players at the bottom win all the big pots and the ones at the top can’t win a hand. What a difference a day makes. You’re dominating the field on the first day of the event and twelve hours later you are dominated in the most humiliating fashion. As observers, it’s obviously so frustrating to the players.
They can’t believe this nightmare is happening to them. All that money and fame they dreamed about in the few hours sleep they got goes out the window. This reversal of fortune is a prime reason so few players stay at the top for very long.
There’s a little business to transact before we get into the serious money.
On the 4th hand big brother Luis Pires leaves in 9th. Luis didn’t learn from his little brother, John Pires, who finished in 2nd place a few days ago. It’s a battle of the short stacks as Luis goes all-in for his only 10k with the A 7 of Clubs.
Michael Kimbrell finds the only stack he can cover and calls with A K offsuit. The King plays and Luis gets to go ask his little brother for more lessons.
The deadwood is cleared from the table on hand 31 when J. C. Tran picks up pocket Kings and sends Michael Kimbrell out in 8th. Michael rowed his boat ashore with the A J of Hearts.
Now let’s talk disasters. Andy Fox is an ex-dealer trying to make it in the big time of pro poker. Andy was clever on Day One of this two day event and hounded on Day Two. His starting chip lead over second place Richard Tatalovich was greater than the amounts that the last four players began with. Andy had every reason to believe he would finish in the top three with a real shot at the title.
WRONG!
Andy Fox didn’t win a hand today, outside of a few big blind walks. The decisions that were golden yesterday were demented today. The mistake that cost him half his chips comes on hand 25. Andy gets himself trapped when he makes two pair on the turn. J. C. Tran slow plays trip 7’s and Andy un-slyly calls Tran’s all-in for an extra 50k loss.
Andy isn’t the next one out, first there’s that other disaster—Richard Tatalovich. Vitamin company executive Tatalovich must not have taken his anti-oxidants this morning, because he couldn’t win a hand either. Starting second in chips, Richard finishes an embarrassing seventh. In only 41 hands Tatalovich says bye-bye to the last of his beginning 115k.
When the flop comes 8 7 7 with two hearts, Richard has every reason to believe his pocket Jacks are good. Besides Mark Wild would have to call 70k of his 74k stack effectively eliminating himself if Mark makes the incorrect decision. “Does anyone have a coin?” Mark asks the table.
He thinks he has a 50-50 call to make. Actually he’s a massive favorite. Finally, after several minutes of agonizing, Mark makes a Wild call with pocket Kings. Duh!
It was already ugly for Andy Fox, now it gets positively distorted. On hand 48 the completely disgusted and humiliated former chip leader tosses in his last 40k with A Q offsuit. The new table captain is Joe Awada. Joe calls from the big blind and J. C. Tran calls with pocket 10’s. Andy picks up a flush draw on the turn but never gets his Ace or Queen. The 10’s are good. This is a day Andy Fox will never forget.
With the bottom two and the top two gone, we can start to play poker. Everyone now has plenty of chips in relation to the still low blinds. The table tightens up so much that almost all the hands are ‘bet and take it.’ Whoever bets first wins the small pot.
The bet could come preflop or at the river. No two players can catch anything decent on the same hand. There were several all-ins but no callers.
A few minutes later, the battle for the title is joined. Mark ‘Born To Be’ Wild catches runner runner Queens for a full house against Awada. Mark and Joe separate themselves from the pack. J. C., Jeff and Tobey are going to be fighting for third place.
It’s a tournament so eventually and inevitably someone has to leave. That someone is Jeff Rine in 5th. Jeff has come out of nowhere this year to become quite a successful player. His game is solid as a, well, rhinestone. Pretty solid. But Jeff is up against Mt. Rushmore granites. These guys check second nuts to the river.
The company is so good, no one wanted to leave. They can tell their grandchildren they got to play with Spiderman. Tobey Maguire is starting to look like the best of the Hollywood gang that has suddenly discovered how hip poker is. Anyway, Jeff Rine is being blinded off with the junk he’s being dealt. He makes a move with the best hand and is cold decked for it. Jeff checks from the big blind and goes all-in for 22k when he hits his Ace on the flop of A 7 7.
Joe Awada is awash-a with chips. He calls Jeff’s flop bet with only 10 9 off. Of course, when you are as hot as Awada is this year, the board comes 10 10 to stone Rine.
Tobey Maguire is taking poker seriously. He plays in every event and his eyes never leave the table except to look at his girlfriend on the rail. Why someone with a fortune and more fame than can be imagined cares about a poker tournament is a question for a psychologist not a poker writer. But obviously Tobey cares very deeply.
He even goes on tilt like us mere mortals. When the cards started to go bad for him, He had all the same body language of a frustrated card player we all have.
On hand 86 Tobey finally gets to end his misery for the day in 4th. I’ve never seen Tobey turn over a sub par hand. His last one is no exception. All-in for 62k on the turn with top two pair, Maguire has A 10 to the red-hot Mark Wild’s A K. The King plays and the King of the action heroes is released from the web of his own creation.
J. C. Tran can’t hang on against the two giant stacks, but he lasts longer than Tobey by one hand. When Mark Wild folds Tran is first to act against Awada. J. C. sends all 51k sailing into the pot with Q J offsuit. Again, Awada has picked up a duke. Joe has the A J of Clubs for the goods.
Heads up we will play more hands than we did to eliminate the first seven players. These guys were ultra-conservative with each other. The tide rushes to both players alternately. They are playing for $55,000 in real money plus a $25,000 seat. Joe Awada is one of the hottest players alive today. He came within one card of winning two WSOP bracelets this year. He is wearing the one he did get today. With a name like Wild, Mark isn’t intimidated by Awada’s jewelry though.
Mark Wild is the opposite of his name. He’s as tight as they come. On one hand early in the heads up play, Awada could have put Mark out. On the river both make a gutshot straight but Joe Awada’s is higher. Mark bets out only 60k. The river card also puts a flush draw on board so Awada can only call with the nut straight. Anyone else he probably goes all-in.
I’m going to cut to the chase because you already know who won. It wasn’t until hand 172, four and three quarter hours into this puppy, that the winner is decided. Naturally someone had to make a mistake to lose, because both players still have plenty of chips to play on. The board comes Q 9 6 2 K with two diamonds on the turn.
Joe has top pair with Q J, Mark has pocket 10’s. Mark goes all-in when the King of Hearts comes on the river for all his 149k. “I put him on a flush draw,” Joe says. Joe stacks off the calling bet but can’t pull the trigger for a couple of minutes. Finally he calls. “Got a Queen,” Mark says. Yes he does and everyone can go home.
Mike Paulle
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