David Taylor Cements WSOP Victory:
Ohio concrete contractor attends Las Vegas convention, enters poker tournament, wins gold ring and $113,965
Most Las Vegas conventioneers leave town poorer than richer. In fact, only a small percentage of 'tourists' actually win money. The number of convention visitors who have come to the gambling capital of the world and have won a World Series of Poker event is likely zero - at least up until this day when a 35-year old concrete contractor stunned the poker world by winning his first-ever poker tournament.
David Taylor, who plays mostly $20-40 limit hold'em in charity games back in Ohio, arrived in Las Vegas over the weekend to attend the National Ready Mix Association National Convention. He couldn't help but notice that the WSOP Circuit was taking place at the Rio Casino. How convenient. Taylor bypassed the chance to spend Saturday afternoon milling around cement mixers and listening to sales pitches in favor of a far more glamorous form of amusement. That turned out to be a wide decision, indeed.
Taylor topped a highly-competitive field of 379 entries in the $1,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold'em event, which was the first WSOP circuit event to be played here in Las Vegas. Following two successful circuit stops in Atlantic City and San Diego, the Rio Las Vegas hosted WSOP Circuit number three. The final 36 players were paid, in amounts ranging from $1,471 up to $113,965 for first place. On Day Two, players returned for the final table and were eliminated in the following order:
9th Place - Mitch Mitchener arrived at the final table with the lowest chip stack, just 15,000. With blinds at 2,000-4,000 he had to make a decision very quickly. Unfortunately, Mitchener didn't catch a break on his initial 'all in' raise and failed to double up. Mitchener, who won a limit hold'em tournament at the Legends of Poker recently in Los Angeles could do no better than 9th place in this event. He received $7,353.
8th Place - Robert Roter, a 51-year-old poker pro from Southern California has a large number of impressive tournament finishes - including payouts at the California State Poker Championship, the Bellagio, and the Commerce. He arrived at the final table tied for third in chips, but was never able to gain enough momentum to be a force.
On his biggest hand of the night Roter was dealt 10-10 and enjoyed a slight pre-flop lead against Dan Pugliese, holding two overcards -- A-J. But the board went from bad to worse and finally showed A-J-K-J-A for any number of full-house combinations. Roter sure didn't like seeing five overcards and the board double-paired. It was massive overkill. Roter went out a short time later and collected $11,029 for 8th place.
7th Place - Blair Rodman, a longtime poker pro and gambler (and soon to be poker author - he is writing a book on tournament strategy) has been at many final tables. Unfortunately, this one would turn out to be a disappointment. Rodman came in vulnerable in the chip count, and was desperate to make something happen. He tried to pull off a bluff from the blind with a re-raise (holding J-5) after Dan Pugliese made a standard raise from the button with A-K. This time Pugliese had the goods. The A-K held up and Rodman hit the rail at the 7th-place finisher - good for $14,705.
6th Place - Larry Tull, who works in management from Irvine, CA, was eliminated about an hour into Day Two. He made his final stand with A-J which was steamrolled by David Taylor's A-K. A Jack was about the only card that could save Tull, which failed to make an appearance. Taylor's A-K played for high card and Tull was gone. He earned $18,382.
5th Place - Iranian-born Sean Habibian, who now lives in Las Vegas, is a 33-year-old professional gambler. Habibian, mostly a middle-limit player, made a nice run by moving up four spots on the money list. Eighth in chips coming into the finale, Habibian looked to be in a good spot to move even higher when he was dealt A-Q suited and made an 'all in' raise. However, this proved to be a mistake as his hand was dominated by A-K. The live-saving Queen failed to appear for Habibian, who had to settle for 5th-plce prize money -- $22,058.
4th Place - Brooklyn-born Dan Pugliese, now a Hollywood television producer, has been playing hold'em for only two years. He has certainly mastered the game very quickly. Pugliese now has several final tables at major poker events (eight, by his count). He was grinded down to the lowest stack and made his final stand of the night with K-J. When David Tran called the raise with J-J, Pugliese was essential down to just a few outs needing a King. Once gain, the underdog hand failed to bark, and another player was eliminated. Pugliese, who plans to retire soon and play poker full time, added $25,734 to his poker bankroll.
3rd Place - Another east-coast transplant was Jersey City-born Sammy Schenker, who now lives in Las Vegas. Schenker won the $2,500 buy in Limit Hold'em event at the Bellagio's Five-Star Classic last year. Schenker arrived second in chips in this event and looked to be the main threat to seize the chip lead away from David Tran, who up to this point had the most chips at the table. But Schenker took a tough beat on his final hand and sormed away in disappointment.
Schenker had Q-Q and was 'all in' against David Taylor, holding A-J of hearts. When tow hearts flopped, the biggest pot of the night to that point was at stake. The turn helped neither played, but then a heart rained down on the river, a crushing blow to Schenker. The 29-year-old poker pro (he routinely plays $30-60 up to $80-160) walked away with $29,410.
One might assume that Dave Taylor's biggest break came when play became short-handed and he managed to win the remaining chips. But in reality, Taylor probably never should have made it so far. When the final table was eight-handed, Taylor was getting short-stacked and decided to make a bold stand with 6-6. That turned out to be nearly disastrous, as he ran head first into pocket Queens. Taylor was down to basically two outs, desperately needing one of the two remaining Sixes in the deck. Remarkably, a Six flopped and Taylor not only lived to see another day - he literally rose out of the ashes and destroyed everyone else in his way en route to his first tournament victory.
At three handed, Taylor then managed another miracle catching the third heart for the flush to eliminate Sam Schenker. By this time there was no stopping a roaring freight train. It was quite simply - Taylor's day.
When the heads-up duel between Taylor and David Tran began, Taylor enjoyed a 2 to 1 chip lead. He never was in serious danger of losing his advantage. Over the next few minutes, Taylor won a few more chips with more aggressive play and decided to call David Tran's 'all in' raise, a last desperate attempt to derail the 'Taylor express.' Tran was a huge favorite with K-10 against Taylor's 10-4. But, in this case '10-4' really did mean 'over and out.'
The final board showed A-5-4-10-Q -- good for two pair (10s and 4s) by Taylor. Tran had come to the final table with the chip lead and played as well as possible under the circumstances. But in the end he was simply run over by a flurry of cards by Taylor. Vietnamese-born David Tran, tutored by one of poker's top pros, David 'Dragon' Pham could be proud of his performance. The LA-based player officially received $58,821 as the runner up.
Meanwhile, David Taylor was ecstatic about his first major tournament win. 'I managed to catch a lot of cards today,' he admitted afterward. 'But I played great and this feels so good to win.'
When asked what he plans to do with the prize money, Taylor said he has three daughters at home, 'who will sure tell (him) what to do with the money.'
Indeed, David Taylor came to Las Vegas to attend a cement convention and ended up with over a hundred grand in cash and a gold ring. While most of the tourists on his flight home later this week will lament losing a few hundreds dollars at the slots, Taylor can be proud that he has something concrete to show for his time in Vegas.
Report by Nolan Dalla - World Series of Poker Media Director
World Series of Poker Tournament Director - John Grooms
World Series of Poker Circuit Director - Ken Lambert
Rio Poker Room Manager - Robert Daily
Harrah's Lake Tahoe/Harvey's Lake Tahoe - WSOP Circuit Event Event 1
Harvey's prepared a beautiful tournament arena for the WSOP circuit event.
It seems so much more personal and warm than most of the events I have attended.
With a great deal of work by Steve Schorr, Full Service Games Manager and Vince
Constaxis, Harvey's Poker Room Manager became the perfect site for this event.
Harvey's is my "home" casino and I can see that they have made many
structural changes to accommodate this big event. Harvey's has never had an
event of this magnitude so kudos to all who participated in this endeavor. It
is also a fact that this is also the largest tournament ever held in Northern
California.
By 11:00am on the first day, the entire floor was abuzz with poker players
and their enthusiastic anticipation. Over 400 had already registered and there
was still a long trail of hopeful players plunking down the $200 plus to go
heads up with lady luck. Johnny Grooms and Ken Lambert are now on their 4th
of 5 circuit events and appear to have everything totally under command. They
are both very professional and seem completely relaxed this time around.
The day begins with 542 players. The cards dance around all the tables like
newly fallen leaves on a windy fall morning. The baseball caps are pulled down
and/or sunglasses are in place in order to hide those telling eyes. I don't
know if it is via the TV coverage or just watching other players, but each and
every one of these guys wait patiently for the action to arrive at their position
before taking the initial peek at their cards. For me it is a bit comical to
watch. All the eyes begin to shift from one player to the next trying to pick
up an unforgiving tell.
As the day wears on, the players begin to walk away from their respective tables
one by one wearing that look of defeat. Brings up the old adage "been there,
done that". So when it is all said and done, and the field has been harvested,
nine very tired players are left to battle another day.
The nine players remain in order of chip count:
Name Home Chips Seat
Tony Prestigiacomo Genoa NV 144,500 7 1st
John Buchanan Las Vegas 76,500 1 5th
Kevin Kanemasu Sacramento 71,500 5 6th
Jody Thompson Atlanta GA 60,500 6 3rd
Steve Lunn Arroya Grande 46,000 8 2nd
Hien Le Sacramento 43,000 9 8th
Jeff Bond Thousand Oaks 41,500 3 7th
Don Mullis Mooresville, NC 35,000 4 9th
Ron Collins Oakley 24,000 2 4th
Today is the final for Event #1. All nine men are sitting with faces of steel.
Inside of each of these stealthy men, the sugar plum fairies must be dancing
like crazy. I find it interesting that there is only one ball cap and no sun
glasses in the group of nine. Johnny Grooms just introduced the group and Vince
Constaxis gave the go ahead to get the cards in the air. Let the games begin!
With only a few hands out of the way, Don Mullis in seat 4 pushes in all his
chips. Don is a new car dealer and has been playing the game of NL hold'em for
only 7 months. The action is on Tony Prestigiacoma in seat 7. He immediately
calls. Don misses everything he needs and is the first to leave the table taking
with him $2105 for his piece of the event.
Two hands later, Ron Collins makes it an all in bet and Steve Lunn answers
with a call. Ron shows an AK and Steve holds JK. Nothing on the board helped
either player and Ron Collins, a construction manager, doubles up leaving Steve
with a small stack of about 23,000. Once again, only a few hands later, Jody
Thompson makes it all his chips to go. And, once again, Steve Lunn gives him
a run for it. Jody holds a 22 and this time Steve has twenty miles of railroad
track, TT. And just as in the last two all in moves, the board proved to be
useless and Steve Lunn doubled back to where he started.
Another one bites the dust. With the blinds at 3K and 6K, Tony Prestigiacomo
calls. The action moves around the table to Hien Le and he decides now is the
time to make the attempt. Unfortunately, when the cards are exposed, Tony flips
over the mighty AA with Hien showing the QJs. The board spits out a 65TA2 absolutely
smashing Hien's hope of carrying on. He leaves the table with a handsome $3155.
Another player finds his way to the rail by playing a 56. Jeff Bond made his
move with these two cards and ran up against the evil AK held by John Buchanan.
As the cards unfolded, with the flop of A35, it was scary for both players,
with John holding a commanding lead. The turn is a 2 followed by a Q. Jeff,
a sales manager and a relatively new player of the game gets a cool $4205 for
his two days of play. We are down to six.
And the table is diminished once again by one more player. More head to head
play. Kevin Kanemasu has QQ with John Buchanan holds a mere 57s. Right off the
bat the flop pops out an 8A7. It gives John a chance to hit and win. The turn
comes a 5 and indeed the board made it one of those hands where those cruel
ladies take a player down the tubes. Can anyone relate?? Kevin Kanemasu walks
away with a pocket full of bills, $5255 to be exact. Being an auditor, I bet
he will find a piece of that win to try his hand again soon.
Steve Lunn is hanging in with 24K in chips. He has made several all in moves
trying to increase his stance little by little. With only 5 players left he
has little or no choice but to take a few gambles.
The antes are beginning to literally chip away at the small stacks. With the
blinds at a steep 4K and 8K following the antes now at 1K, everyone is thinking
about their moves. The all in bets are rampant at this point. The action is
not. Not many are ready to take the title of 5th place. Seems to be a battle
if there is to be one, between the blinds. No one is finding their fighting
cards just yet. Every now and then there is a theft in progress, but mostly
folding is the most popular activity. Imagine that!
The "big blind special" took its toll on Steve Lunn with yet another
all in attempt. Steve was on the button, the only people in were the blinds,
and so, he took the opportunity to push all in with that overrated hand, AK.
The big blind couldn't get in fast enough because he had been dealt AA. The
board brought no good news for Steve and he dwindled down to a small stack of
7K.
Here comes another all in by Steve. Ron Collins calls and Jody adds to the
pot. The flop brings a QT5. Checked by the remaining two players. The river
brings a 4 and it is checked once again. The cards are revealed and Steve got
blessed with lady luck this trip. He holds a Q7 for the straight. Jody had a
45 for two pair and Ron tossed his cards. Steve lives and breathes and increases
his stack threefold plus the dead money..
"ALL IN" he says. Steve is at it again. The chip leader, Tony Prestigiacomo,
calls him. The cards turn and Steve is holding that ominous Q7 once again. Tony
holds 25. The flop is TT4, no help. The turn comes the 7 for Steve and Tony
is drawing dead. The river comes another T. Steve scoops again. His chip count
has doubled multiple times and he is baaaaaaaaaaack!
Ron Collins and John Buchanan get tangled up with all their chips ending up
in the middle of the table. John was really low, was big blind and decided to
go for it. He held a 56 and Ron had a pair of treys. Nothing on the board paired
for John and he had to rise and goes to claim his prize of $6310. During the
next four or five hands there is a lot of posturing and stealing going on. I
wish I had a little heart monitor attached to each of these guys. That would
be like the "wave" of heartbeats as the action passed from player
to player. The button is playing a huge part in moving chips around and around
the table. The small blind has been sticking his neck out quite a few times
also. Thievery absolutely abounds.
Finally there is a call. No more passing hand after hand. Ron Collins in last
position and makes a move with his AQ. Being an actor as a profession, Jody
shows no fear and automatically calls. Jody holds TT. The flop comes 68J. The
turn comes a 9 and now Ron has more hope. But, just like clockwork, the river
lands a useless 3 and leaves Jody the winner with his pair of tens. Ron Collins
adds $7360 to his bank account. Jody Thompson seems to be on autopilot now.
His stack is huge and is now the chip leader.
Steve Lunn and Tony Prestigiacoma go heads up, each holding an Ace but with
Tony outranking Steve with a 6 over his 5. The board creates a chop situation
and Steve is back on the road. The next hand, Steve is on the button and pushes
all in once again. Jody Thompson quickly calls and flips his cards showing a
44. Steve is a little behind with that AK combo. Steve loved the flop and I
hear his wife giggle and let out little scream. The flop divulges a mighty K
with a 7and 5. The king is boss, and Jody has to have a 4 or running straight
cards. Nada. Steve pulls in a huge pot and is now the chip leader. It is utterly
amazing what he has done with his small stack of 7K. This unconditionally proves
the "chip and a chair" saying.
Yes, you guessed it. Steve is all in once more in the big blind. Jody thinks
long and hard. I could see the smoke seeping from under Jody's cap. It was a
tough spot to be in. He spreads his arms on the two chairs on either side of
him and smoothly turns his cap to a "hip hop" stance. He calls. Over
go the cards. Steve has an A4 and Jody has A6. Both are standing, and both are
breathing hard, but the board brought about another chop situation.
This time Jody and Tony jam the pot and the one time chip leader doubles his
low stack for a little breathing room. It was another Ace and a race scuffle
and this time it worked to Tony's advantage. Time to pump it up now which will
make the blinds 5k and 10k staying with the 1k ante. Every move is an important
one at this point in the game. Another skirmish has begun and it is a big one.
Tony is in the big blind and raises it 20k. Jody gives it little thought goes
all in and Tony says he is ready to play. Jody has an A9 and Tony holds QJ.
The flop quickly presents a 9T4 to help Jody out. However, the turn brings devastation
for Jody. One of the cards Jody didn't want to see landed squarely in the middle
of the table. The 8 made a straight for Tony and Jody knew his day in the sun
was finished, at least for this day. He walked away with $8410 to add to his
bankroll. It wont be the last we have seen of Jody.
Heads up now. Tony has regained his chip lead holding 404K while Steve has
only 139K. Now folks, Steve had already gotten up to take 5th before he realized
he had been left with 7k. This is a man with staying power! Now the real head
games begin and the best man for this event will surface as the winner. The
first clash started with a 20K bet preflop. The flop came Q67 and Tony fires
out 40K with Steve right behind him with the all in. Tony decides to play another
day and lets the pot get shipped over to Steve. The very next hand got Steve
to go all in again, and this time Tony didn't hesitate to call. Tony has a 66
and Steve behind him with 44. The final confrontation of the night was in order.
The flop brought a 6QQ just about clinching the win for Tony. No help was to
be found for Steve, with a measly 7 and 3 arriving on the board shortly thereafter.
With this hand, Tony walks away with the grand prize of $31, 563 along with
the WSOP circuit ring and Steve received $16,940 for second. If two 2nd place
finishes in two WSOP circuit events is part of retirement, let me retire like
Steve!
Tony was born and raised in Sicily, Italy. At the tender age of 8, his Mother
and Father and 5 siblings immigrated to the United States. Tony is the youngest
of the family. He was the only one to complete a college education by getting
a bachelors degree in Engineering. After that accomplishment he went on to achieve
a Masters degree in Computer Science at NYU. As time moved forward, and when
Tony had to make a business trip to the west coast, he knew he and his wife
and son must make their home near Lake Tahoe. Ten years ago they settled in
the oldest town in Nevada called Genoa, which is on the other side of the mountain
from Tahoe in Carson Valley. This is where he remains; enjoying his family,
profession and that wonderful game we call poker.
It was a game well played and congratulations to all the winners.
Sharla Lehrmann | 
