1 Juan Carlos Mortensen Madrid, Spain 2,523,000
6 Erik Seidel Las Vegas, NV 1,081,000
4 Hung La Manhattan Beach, CA 815,000
3 John Juanda Marina Del Ray, CA 723,000
2 Thang Pham Dallas, TX 608,000
5 David Pham Cerritos, CA 486,000
THE MAN OF LA MANCHA
Who knew? The guy wins a world title as Carlos Mortensen and now we find out that's not his name. How funny is that? Let 'Juan' tell the story.
"When I came to America for the first time I couldn't speak any English. They'd ask me my name and I'd say Juan Carlos Mortensen. They only heard Carlos." BTW, Juan Carlos is also the name of the King of Spain. But you knew that.
You can call me Duncan. That's my middle name. Duncan Paulle, famous poker writer. Sounds classier.
Anyway, we're interested in Juan Carlos Mortensen because the knight errant of the Savant ran over a table of top pros like they were kindergarteners. At one point Juan (who?) won 9 of 11 hands. He played every hand and bet every card during that stretch, often winning without a showdown. Those who did call him were sorry.
This run vaulted Mortensen to the chip lead that he holds as the Final Table commences on Friday.
How did we get to the blessed six finalists?
Starting today with 29 players, we lost two of them on the first hand, Chris Bigler and Max Pescatori. Oliver Tse of the WPT Insiders saw Ralph Porter take down Max with AK over Q J.
The last entry into Poor Richard's Almanac has Richard Tatalovich coming in at 27. "I had pocket Jacks and Kenna James had A Q." When a Queen flopped, poor Richard was $7,800 richer. Tatalovich is funny to talk to because everything is always horrible. You'd think he was the first one out and had lost his life savings.
Sammy Farha is a magnetic personality as we learned on the WSOP telecast of 2003. He reminds me of Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca. He is an action player and that can cut both ways. Sammy had the chip lead temporarily yesterday, but he'd fallen to 11th to start today. It's reported that his knockout hand in 26th was a KT versus Bob Slezak's AT.
After Ted Forrest went out to David Pham in 19th is was time to get serious about making some money.
Down to the last two tables of nine players each, Robert Williamson is the first to leave. "I had the A 8 of Clubs in the little blind." Erik Seidel makes it 250k to go. Kathy Liebert's on the button and takes several minutes to decide what to do. Robert has 180k left and he thinks he might have the best hand. He's wrong. Williamson calls all-in for 180k, Erik has pocket 10's.
"I flopped 3's with a flush draw," Kenna James told me. Paul Wolfe goes all-in with the best hand, AK. Paul doesn't have enough left to scare Kenna with the A 3 of Spades. The paired 3's were enough to send Wolfe howling into the night in 17th.
Is anyone out there old enough to remember the character actor Walter Slezak? Bob Slezak must be related. Well, Bob is related to 16th place when he flops the second nut flush draw with the J 9 of Hearts. He is put all-in on the turn when Arthur Azen figures his K8 is good because Bob didn't bet the flop of A K 3 with two hearts. When no heart comes, Slezak acts like he needs to leave.
Older brother, Luis Pires, gets some bragging rights back in the family with a 15th place finish. John Pires was second in an earlier event. Luis didn't have many chips left and he shipped them in with A 5 offsuit. 'It's your Thang' Kido Pham has AK and the kicker is good especially when a King flops.
"He knew it was coming," Greg Duros says. Hung La (the best name in poker, especially if you're a male porn star in Los Angeles) sheepishly smiles. La hung Tom Robinson out to dry in 14th when he called Tom's all-in with only a 7 3 of Diamonds. Robinson had the K J of Hearts and he flops an airball. Hung doesn't need all those diamonds, the seven was sparkling.
"He called 114,000," J C Tran says incredulously. Well, Erik Seidel was chip leader and he was running pretty hot at the time. Still with Q J offsuit, Seidel didn't have to put Tran on the train to 13th. J C has pocket 7's and makes the shove. Erik catches a Queen on the turn. Tough.
According to one friend Arthur Azen doesn't play much poker. "He's a high-roller in Atlantic City." For a non-player, Azen had a whale of an event. Running low on ducats, Arthur goes all-in with A 6 of Hearts against the hottest person on the planet Juan Carlos Mortensen. The former WSOP champ has the A 10 of Spades. The board comes all rags and the 10 plays Azen into 12th.
First year WPT champ Alan Goehring went on one of his patented rushes a day too early. On Day Two of this championship, Alan went from 143rd to 1st by winning 637,000 chips. No one else won as many as 400,000. Ever wonder what it feels like to rush like that in a $1,000,000 first prize tournament? So do I. Day Three is Mortensen's day to rush. It takes over four hours, but Alan manages to lose all of his starting chip lead of 649k. He only had 150k with 18 players left. And Alan now is all-in with K 10 offsuit against Hung La's K 7 of Clubs. When a 7 flops, the retired bond trader has to trade his seat for an 11th place exit.
At last a Final Table! But it isn't a REAL Final Table. In the WPT, six is all that's allowed on the telecast.
2,000 ante, 8,000/16,000 blinds 52 minutes left at this level with approximate chip counts.
Seat 1 Juan Mortensen 600,000
Seat 2 Minh Nguyen 600,000
Seat 3 Kido Pham 700,000
Seat 4 John Juanda 700,000
Seat 5 Kathy Liebert 300,000
Seat 6 Greg Duros 500,000
Seat 7 Hung La 900,000
Seat 8 Kenna James 500,000
Seat 9 David Pham 600,000
Seat 10 Erik Seidel 1,000,000
To be or not to be…on TV. That is the question.
(I'll tell you how star-laden this table is. Even the dealer, Mike Majarus, has a WSOP bracelet.)
Greg 'Fisherman' Duros gets to go fish in 10th as he slow plays his pocket Kings into oblivion. With a 16k big blind, a 45k lead out bet from middle position invites callers. Juan (still can't get used to that name) calls from the small blind with Q 10 offsuit and flops the top two pair. This is the start of Mortensen's blistering rush where he gathers two million chips from these saps. Now that his Kings are dog food Greg bets them. Too late. Juan goes all-in and Greg feels he has to call with an overpair. That's one who won't be on TV.
This is the era of 'Logo Wars' in poker. Players are getting extra money if they can get a sponsor's name on TV. Here, a couple of players are wearing website logos, but I'm not getting paid to tell you what they are wearing (to tell you how sick this is all getting, Tom Robinson refused to have his picture taken without being paid a fee). Kenna James is wearing a WPT shirt however, with the whole name spelled out down his left sleeve. Sucking up the boss isn't working for James. The cards have quit coming for Kenna in 9th. David Pham in particular has owned Kenna James all day. Finally, Kenna tries to gang up on David with an all-in K 10 off. No good. Pham has A Q and James is eliminated by Ace high. How does that feel on?
Sadly for the poker world, the new-look Kathy Liebert won't be on TV either. Kathy has seen what Annie, Clonie, Evelyn and others have done with looks. It must be embarrassing for her, but she's trying. Bless her heart. Kathy kept having to muck muck muck. Finally, pocket 7's looks like pocket Aces. She goes all-in. Erik Seidel has a hand that REALLY looks like pocket Aces…pocket Aces. "She had six outs on the river," Erik tells me. That's a set draw and a gutshot straight draw. Liebert gets so close, but 8th won't get you on TV in the WPT.
We are down to the magnificent seven. This one hurts. It's one thing to be one out of the money. To be one out of a WPT telecast is a disaster. The fame and fortune that comes to poker players these days with TV recognition makes just missing especially awful.
For a while it looked like 7th place was going to be reserved for 'It's your Thang' Kido Pham. He blew off 400k of his 550k on a river bluff attempt against Mortensen. But Kido fought back leaving Minh Nguyen as low man. When Hung La bets out 100k, Minh sends his entire 244k all-in with the K Q of Diamonds. Hung calls with the dominating A Q offsuit. It's tough to beat an overkicker in that spot, especially when two Aces flop.
Then there were six.
The Man from La Mancha, Juan Carlos Mortensen, is king for a day. Will he be king at the end of tomorrow. Stay tuned.
Mike Paulle
MikePaulle@PokerPages.com
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