The crowd chants "Viggo, Viggo" and "El Matador!" Clearly the audience favorite, Juan Carlos Mortensen shares the last name of the returning King in Lord of the Rings, Viggo Mortensen (Thanks to Bob Fleck for this reference).
Whereas Viggo is a pacifist, in poker Juan Carlos is anything but. With a little luck on one hand and a whole lot of planned aggression, Mortensen returns as a King in poker. He joins the tournament host Doyle Brunson as both a WPT event winner and a WSOP champion.
Mortensen used a blistering rush of cards yesterday to take a commanding chip lead going into today's WPT telecast. Yet the player with the lowest starting stack, David Pham, was one card away from the title. How did this all happen?
FINAL TABLE
Seat 1 Juan Mortensen 2,523,000
Seat 2 Kido Pham 608,000
Seat 3 John Juanda 723,000
Seat 4 Hung La 815,000
Seat 5 David Pham 486,000
Seat 6 Erik Seidel 1,081,000
3,000 ante, 12,000/24,000 blinds. 58 minutes left at this level.
The Fontana Room in Bellagio is as spectacular avenue for a poker tournament as can be imagined. The fountains are exploding outside the floor-to-ceiling windows. The knockout Shana Hiatt is cavorting on the balcony waiting for some knocked out player to interview. Mike Sexton and Vince Van Patton are in place at their announcer podium. All is perfect in the WPT version of poker reality. All they need is someone to give the $1,000,000 to. Five and one half hours after the start they have that someone.
The last time the WPT was in this room for a final was in April for THE BIG ONE, the WPT Championship. Martin deKnijff won that one in a walkover of a very strong table. Like Martin then, Juan Carlos has a gigantic chip lead as we begin. Unlike Martin, Juan loses his lead before getting it back doubled.
Also unlike that table, this one was slow and deliberate. Several in the crowd of uninitiated were heard complaining, "We never get a flop." This is the unedited version of poker. It's called 'live.' Flops can be infrequent for long stretches of time. Showdowns can be rare as hen's teeth. When players have a starting average of over 40 big blind bets, they can afford to wait for good hands. The pot stealing will come later when the multiple is at 10 times and less.
It isn't until hand number nine that we see a significant showdown and it's one that 'It's Your Thang' Kido Pham will never forget. Kido is a major tournament newbie. He learned from a horrible experience earlier this week when he went off a Final Table in the first ten minutes. What he learned was how to suck out. There are few hands more dominating of A Q suited than pocket Queens. Kido has the A Q in Clubs. He raises Juan Carlos' bet by 200k in the cutoff seat. All fold to Juan who goes all-in with over two million chips. Trapped and pot-committed he figures, Kido calls all-in. No problem. What were you worried about? There were two clubs on the flop and one on the turn. Instead of being out in ten minutes, in last, Pham doubles up to over one million in chips. It turns out to be a real money $400,000 flush card.
Meanwhile something awful is happening to Hung La. Every time he raises someone comes over the top of him and he has to lay it down. His starting third place chips are evaporating before his eyes. On hand 15, Juan Carlos checkraises Hung 300k with the board A J 5 9. Muck!
With the new ante of 5k and blinds of 20k/40k on hand 29, Hung La lets it all hang out for the first of several times. He only has 280k left and lets all of it live in the pot. No callers returns his precious chips to him.
Someone who isn't in chip despair, John Juanda, does Hung La the favor of being first one out. John is in the small blind. He picks up a fateful hand, pocket 10's. Juanda has seen Kido Pham turn over some funky hands, so when Pham raise to 120k from the button on hand 32, Juanda reraises all-in for another 495k. I think John was surprised to be called. Juanda had done the exact same thing on the hand immediately previous when both players were in the blinds. Then Kido Pham folded. Certainly John doesn't like being called with only pocket 10's. Sure enough, Kido's trap fold of 120k the hand before works to perfection. The setup is ideal. Pham flips up pocket Queens and John Juanda is our 6th place finisher. He gets to go out on the balcony to be interviewed by Shana.
Two hands later an interesting foreshadow of the ultimate heads up play occurs. Kido Pham raises a 40k Mortensen flop bet to 600k. The flop is K 8 3 with two spades. For nearly ten minutes, Juan can't decide what to do. My guess is that he has a King with a weak kicker, but we'll know in a few months when we can see the cards. Finally, the short stack Hung La is seeing too many of his valuable seconds at this level ticking away. He calls for a clock on Juan. Amazingly, the WSOP champ cannot make a decision in the extra minute allotted to him and the hand is killed.
Juan Carlos asks Kido Pham to show him his cards. Kido refuses and instead makes a design on Mortensen's chest where his heart is, showing up the champion. Thang's got guts, folks. We may have a new player on the scene.
Almost two hours in and we've only played 40 hands. Likewise we still have five players. This is going to be a long one.
Moving along, Hung La is still going all-in and he's still not being called. No one wants to double up such a dangerous player without starting with a quality hand.
Hand 53 brings a significant ante and blind raise. It's now 10k ante, 30k/60k blinds. There won't be five players left after this blind is done.
No one may want to double up Hung La, but someone did. David 'The Dragon' Pham breaths too little fire under the gun and Hung comes over the top all-in from the big blind for 280k. David calls with the A 3 of Spades. La has Q 10 offsuit and slays the dragon this time with two Queens on board.
Erik Seidel is a short money favorite in any tournament he enters. He probably has more major event Final Tables than all the rest of the players here combined. But even the greatest players don't always win. Hand 59 is when the wheels come off of Erik's limo to the title. David Pham sets Erik up beautifully. In the small blind, David limps in with the A J of Clubs hoping for a raise from Erik in the big blind. Pham gets the raise he's praying for. Seidel makes it 150k to go. Bam! David is all-in for another 490k. It has been so long since Erik has seen a decent hand the K 10 of Hearts looks like a winner to him. When an Ace flops with no hearts, Erik Seidel takes a hit that he will not recover from this day. His beginning 1.1 million in chips is down to 300,000.
Juan Carlos is still the chip leader with 2.0 million but only slightly over Kido Pham. The other Pham, David, has 1.5 million now and Hung La has 580k.
Now it's Seidel's turn for repeated all-ins. Like Hung La, Erik can't get a caller either. Since the blinds and antes are 140k before the flop, it's "Shuffle Up And Steal," as Jack McClelland likes to joke. Who will be the first thief caught, Erik Seidel or Hung La. Someone is inevitably going to pick one of these guys off.
It's Hung La who gets to hang in 5th place. Juan Carlos has made a fortune in this tournament with pocket 8's. They've held up amazingly for him. So he keeps playing them, logically. On hand 71 Juan limps in under the gun with his 8's. Hung La had success with Q 10 offsuit the last time he was all-in so he tries the same hand again. Only Robert Varkonyi knows how to play Q 10 twice. The 8's hold up yet again.
Six hands later Erik can now leave in a more respectable 4th rather than 5th. One of the nicest people in the history of poker, Erik Seidel looks like he's done with it. Either he doubles up or he gets up. When Kido Pham makes it 180k to go first to act. Erik is in the small blind and raises to 400k with Q J offsuit. Kido reraises all-in and Erik calls his last 190k. Seidel has two live cards with his Q J but they are hounds to Kido's pocket Aces. The dogs have to go to the pound as the board comes all rags.
Three handed, Mortensen has 3.0 million, Kido Pham has 2.2 million and David Pham 900k.
It's feast or Pham-ished for El Matador. (Sorry)
It starts to look like famished in a few hands. First Kido takes over the chip lead then David does.
With the blinds now a lofty 50k/100k, stealing becomes mandatory. It's costing 60k a hand for each player. On the first hand of the new level, David Pham goes all-in for 800k with pocket 3's and he's called by Kido Pham with the A J of Clubs. The treys are good and we have a new sheriff in town.
For the next 20 hands whoever can bet will take the pot. Then comes the hand of the tournament, number 103 at 11:30 pm. These guys had already been hammering on each other for 4 1/2 hours. They have a pretty good idea by now what each bet means. Still, the brilliant David Pham springs a successful trap with his initial bet of 300k under the gun. Juan Carlos is in the small blind and he goes all-in for 1.8 million with the A 5 of Diamonds. David Pham calls the extra 1.5 million quickly. David has Juan covered by about 900k.
Well not all trappers wear fur hats and not all successful traps lead to pelts. David Pham is the clear favorite preflop. A gasp is emitted from the audience when a Queen windows. The flop comes Q 5 3. That's good for David with top pair, top kicker. But there are two diamonds on the flop.
It's unbelievable how often a tournament with over six million in chips can come down to one card. That card wins this event for Juan Carlos Mortensen. It's the 6 of Diamonds.
In that instant it takes for the turn card to fall, the Phams are battling for 2nd place money which pays $241,400 more than 3rd.
Hand 109 brings our last level of the night. 15k ante, and backbreaking 80k/160k blinds.
There is some disagreement between me and Kenna James about this next hand. You decide. I think it's the worst play I've seen since John Bonetti gave 2nd place in the WSOP Championship many years ago to Glenn Cozen when Glenn couldn't make it through the blinds. Kenna says Kido Pham made the correct play.
Here's the scenario. David Pham just loses all but 60k when Kido shows him top pair on hand 107. On the next hand David has to be all-in, right? Just to show you how awesome David Pham's grasp of tournament poker is, he makes one of the greatest laydowns I've ever seen. I think he sees that Kido Pham likes his hand. The only chance David has for second is if Kido goes all-in and loses to Juan Carlos. David mucks from the button against the two blinds with about 50k left! Then the impossible happens. Major tournament rookie Kido Pham picks up pocket 10's and raises all-in.
David Pham runs to his friends in the stands with his mouth agape. He can't believe how lucky he just got. Are you getting all this, Kenna?
Mortensen has a duke, the A 5 again but unsuited this time. He calls the two million happily. David Pham's great play and Kido Pham's attempt to give David nearly a quarter of a million dollars come to nothing. The 10's hold up.
Miracles over, David is a hard-luck third when his 9 8 is outkicked by K 9.
Heads up, Juan Carlos has about a 4-1 chip lead with 5 million. On hand 123 Juan bets 600k first to act. Kido Pham goes all-in for about 2 million. Mortensen calls with the K 10 of Clubs. Kido has the K 8 of Diamonds. Skidoo, Kido. You played great.
We have the 'Return of the King' Juan Carlos with the most coveted double in poker, a WSOP title as the world's best player and a WPT title as well. The accompanying millions of dollars aren't bad either.
Mike Paulle
MikePaulle@PokerPages.com
