Knock Three Times:
In his third final table appearance, North Carolina poker player Don Mullis wins Lake Tahoe's WSOPC limit hold'em championship
In the long litany of live-action poker tournaments, perhaps as many as a thousand major events played around the world every single day and night, year around, there are rare instances when the magnitude of victory has a profound emotional impact on the winner. Sure, it's nice to win a poker tournament and collect big prize money. But there are extraordinary occasions when the achievement itself surpasses the value of money.
Last fall, Don Mullis, a 41-year-old former golfer and the semi-retired owner of a new car dealership in North Carolina, decided to join with his wife and 'see America.' So, Mr. and Mrs. Mullis bought a motor home. For the past seven months, they have been traveling around the United States. They decided to visit Northern Nevada upon hearing that the WSOP Circuit would be held at Harveys Lake Tahoe. Mullis couldn't possibly dream of what was about to come.
Prior to establishing a successful auto dealership, Mullis was an aspiring pro golfer - good enough to compete in several minor golf tournaments, but never great enough to make it as a touring golf pro. That put Mullis, entering his 40s, at a crossroads. Mullis admits he is driven to succeed in whatever he does. When he discovered poker last October, it became his 'new' obsession. Determined to learn more about the game and improve his skills, Mullis played more and more on the Internet.
Then, Mullis decided he was ready to play poker at the highest level. That means one thing - playing in the World Series of Poker. One week ago, a new motor home with North Carolina license plates turned into the Harvey's Lake Tahoe parking lot. Five days later, Don Mullis had not only become the only player at this year's WSOPC tournament to make it to three final tables, he also became the latest poker champion. The victory was made even sweeter by the fact that at both previous final tables, Mullis had been the first player out (9th in both events). In this event, he lasted about seven hours longer. It was well worth the wait.
The $1,000 buy-in limit hold'em event attracted 51 entries. After setting record numbers the previous week, it's become clear that 'limit' hold'em is now a distant second to no-limit' hold'em in popularity with tournament players. Day One resulted in the elimination of 42 players. The nine finalists returned on Day Two, with Bobby Quiring from Pullman, WA holding a slight chip lead. Finalists arrived with the following seat positions and chip counts:
SEAT 1 Jon Turovitz Granite Bay, CA 8,900
SEAT 2 Steve Severin La Jolla, CA 16,200
SEAT 3 Scott Laird Oakland, CA 7,300
SEAT 4 Bobby Quiring Pullman, WA 19,600
SEAT 5 Ammon Brown Ithaca, NY 2,300
SEAT 6 Dinh Quang Le Sacramento, CA 15,000
SEAT 7 Richard Pilewicz Phoenix, AZ 13,800
SEAT 8 Don Mullis Mooresville, NC 12,300
SEAT 9 Paul Evans Mt, Shasta, CA 6,700
Players were eliminated as follows:
9th Place - It took 40 minutes for the first player to be eliminated. Scott Laird, a commercial real estate broker from Oakland, was the first player to be cut. Laird has previously made several final tables in tournaments held at his local cardroom, The Oaks (Emeryville, CA). He went out 9th and collected $1,484.
8th Place - Ammon Brown, from Ithaca, NY arrived with the shortest stack. On his final hand he was dealt Q-Q and liked his chances to double-up pre-flop when his last raise was called by Richard Pilewicz, holding 9-9. But the situation was about to change. The board crushed Brown like a ton of bricks as Pilewicz ended up with quad nines. Brown's pocket ladies hit the muck and the New Yorker exited with $1,979 for 8th place.
7h Place - Paul Evans took two consecutive beats and went out next. First, he lost a big hand to Jon Turovitz. Then, low on chips made his final stand with A-8, paired the ace on the flop, but lost to a straight. Evans, a business owner from Mt. Shasta, CA who finished second in the $3,000 no-limit hold'em event at last year's WSOP, earned $2,474 for this finish.
6th Place - Jon Turovitz felt the sting of defeat a short time later when he was dealt pocket 10s. Steve Severin was holding Q-Q. Neither hand improved, and the pocket queens took down the pot. Turovitz, a real estate broker, ended up in 6th place -- good for $2,968.
5th Place - It took another hour-and-a-half before the next player was eliminated. Bobby Quiring, from Pullman, WA was short-stacked and caught a strong hand with A-2 when he flopped two pair. Steve Severin had top pair with A-J and when the board paired, it meant Quiring's second pair (deuces) was dead, while Severin's jack played as the fifth-card kicker. Bobby Quiring, a poker room manager from Washington State, collected $3,463 for 5th place.
4th Place - At this point, Dinh Quang Le had seized the chip lead. That glory was fleeting as he lost a big pot to Steve Severin - which meant the chip counts were close to even amongst the four finalists. Then, things really went south for Phoenix-based Richard Pilewicz. The 48-year-old real estate investor made a big hand - a straight to the king on the turn and it looked like he might get close to the chip lead with the big pot. But three hearts on board gave Don Mullis a flush draw. Wham! A heart on the river was the final nail in Pilewicz's coffin. Pilewicz took 4th-place prize money -- $3,958.
3rd Place - Just when it appeared Don Mullins had all the momentum, Steve Severin caught a nice rush and catapulted into the chip lead. Most of those chips came at Quang Le's expense. After 40 minutes of struggle, Quang Le ran into Steve Severin's set of aces and lost most of his chips. That huge loss left Quang Le with a single 500 chip, which went into the pot on the next hand. Both opponents checked their hands down, and Quang Le's night was over after a seven-hour finale. Quang Le, who finished second in Event #2 collected $5,442 for 3rd place.
The heads-up duel between Don Mullis and Steve Severin began with Mullis holding a very small 53,000-47,000 chip advantage. Then, lightening struck. Mullis caught everything he needed to win. It was as if the poker Gods were apologizing to Mullis for early eliminations at both of his previous final tables.
It took three big hands to get over the last obstacle, Steve Severin - who played with just the right mix of patience and aggression. Unfortunately, Severin could not overcome Mullis' nice rush of cards in the closing stages and the determination of a highly-competitive poker player to win his first tournament. On the final hand of the tournament Mullis was dealt 5-5 versus Severin's Q-9. Severin tried to make a move at the pot with an inside-straight draw, but Mullis called the last bet of the night with a pocket pair. The final board showed K-J-6-4-8.
The runner up was Steve Severin, a 37-year-old business owner from La Jolla, CA. Severin plays mostly in big no-limit cash games, although he admits he will play more tournament poker in the near future. His goal is now to win a WSOP gold bracelet. He'll get his chance. Second place paid $9,894.
'I couldn't care less about the money. All I want is the ring,' said a smiling Mullis after his victory. 'I could almost cry right now. Words can never express what this means to me. I don't think there is a man breathing that can appreciate this ring more than I do. I'm on cloud nine.'
Mullis went on: 'I was never good enough to make it on the pro golf tour. So, when I started playing poker last October, I wanted to get really good at it because I thought I could succeed if I applied myself!.My wife knows this and she had to put up with it. As beautiful as my wife is on the outside, she is even more beautiful on the inside, and she has given me a lot of support - I spent 15 hours a day playing poker trying to learn the game. To make a final table was amazing.
That was enough for me to go back to North Carolina and say to myself 'I can play this game.' To make three final tables is unheard of. Then to win this event and the ring - I am so happy and thankful.'
Report by Nolan Dalla - World Series of Poker Media Director
World Series of Poker Circuit Director - Ken Lambert
World Series of Poker Tournament Director - John Grooms
Harveys Poker Room Manager - Vince Contaxis
Harrah's Full Service Games Manager -- Steve Schorr
As the event commences, the 9 who are left begin this $1000 Limit Hold'em with 200/400 blinds. One of the first hands played, and I imagine we can all recount the times it has happened to us, turns to disaster.
Preflop, there are two players. Paul raises the blind to 800 and Dinh re-raises, and so on, getting all four bets in the middle for both. The flop arrives, and it looks like a T 9 6. Dinh bets at the flop and Paul re-raises and Dinh calls. Turn 3, Dinh checks, Paul bets and Dinh calls. The mighty river is a 7, Dinh bets and Paul calls. Ace crackers.......Dinh has the A A and Paul held two pair, T 9.
Don Mullis is a familiar face as he has made it to the final table three out of four events he has played. I like to call him poker furniture now. He has to be really proud of himself, as he has only been playing poker for 7 months. Dinh Le has made another final table again too. These guys are on fire. As a side note, if you want to see on fire, check out Vince Burgio's triple crown win at the Plaza last week. Vince is a columnist for pokerpages.com and we are all thrilled to see him do so very well in these events.
The first seat to lose a warm body will be seat number 3, Scott Laird. It began as a 3-way pot between Scott, Dinh and Don. The button is nesting in front of Dinh's chips, Jon is big blind and Scott raises it to make it 800 to go. Dinh calls and Don re-raises with Scott just calling. Flop comes T 6 4 and Don bets, Scott raises and Dinh gets out of this before he catches something and gets in trouble. Don re-raises and Scott calls.
Turn brings 3h. Don bets, Scott calls. River flows with the 7d and this time Don checks, Scott bets all in and Don calls. Don flips over the dreaded ladies, QQ and Scott tosses his cards into the muck and leaves with 9th place winning $1484.
Just as Scott was making his way to pick up his winnings, another two players knocked up against one another. Ammon Brown is all in against Richard Pilewicz. Ammon was hoping the QQ would work for him as well, but Richard's 99 proved fatal. The board ended up not only in favor of Richard by flopping 8 8 9, but added insult to injury by showing another 9 on the river making him quads. Ammon saw his dream come to an end. I imagine the thought of how those ladies treated him will sting for a while. Ammon picked up an 8th place for $1979.
With 7 left, there is really no low chip count to speak of. Seeing how it is limit hold'em, it might be a stand off for a while. The chip lead isn't really clear right now as Paul Evans and Richard Pilewicz look about even and ahead of the rest of the pack
I'll take this time to tell you a little about each player today. Jon Turovitz lives in Granite Bay California, is 31 years old and is a real estate broker. Been grinding it out at this game for about 6 years
and enjoys both live and Internet play.
Steve Severin hales from La Jolla, California and is a true entrepreneur at the age of 37. This is his first year to participate in tournament play and plans to win a bracelet and a major tournament this year. Although he has been playing for ten plus years, he usually plays cash no-limit hold'em.
In seat 3 was Scott Laird. He too is a real estate broker, concentrating on the commercial aspect. He is from Oakland and is 47 years old. Even though he has quite a number of tournament wins under his belt, he says poker will always be a hobby for him. After playing poker recreationally for 30 years, he took on the tournament world about one and a half years ago and seems to have found his niche. He also competes in Internet tournaments.
Looks like Bobby Quiring lives eats and breathes poker, as he is a poker room manager in the State of Washington and loves to play as well. He plays all kinds of games live and enjoys bigger buy in tournaments. He came in 3rd in a Peppermill $500 Championship event. As a poker room manager and player, he thinks the growth of poker is awesome.
Ammon Brown flew over from Ithaca New York to play in these weeks' events. He too is an online player and manages a poker site as his profession. He is 28 years old, has played for 4 years and enjoys $25-$50 tournaments online. He boasts of 5 online cashes over $10,000 and then says he is consistently dead last in his own weekly home game.
In seat 7 forty eight year old Richard Pilewicz has played for approximately ten years and competes for the enjoyment and challenge. He needs to get with some of his opponents after this event, as he is a Real Estate Investor.
Don Mullis is a Mazda/Suzuki dealer and may well have found a new profession.
Rounding out the table in seat 9, we have Paul Evans. He lives in Mount Shasta, California and lives the American dream of owning his own business. He must not live near a Wal-Mart. He is a young man 41 years of age and has been playing for 30 years. Doin' the math here.......... His biggest claim to fame..so far, is that he placed 2nd in a $3000 WSOP event making him a cool $227,000. He also won back to back at the Reno Hilton Pot of Gold and multiple other smaller wins.
Break time. The blinds are growing and have reached 300/600 for the 600/1200 limit. The cards are airborne and the 7 contenders are back at it. Bobby Q came into the final table as chip leader with 19,000 and is down to 4500 at break. Richard is now leader with 24,300 followed closely by Don Mullis with 23,200 and Dinh with 23,000. Steve holds at 14,300 and Paul has slipped to 4600. Jon had 7300 but just tangled with Don Mullis and lost a whole lot of his chips. Don showed an A A after 3 rounds of betting and raising. Steve couldn't call the re-raise on the turn and folds. Right behind that hand Jon pushed all in with A c Kc and recovers a bundle of chips. He can breathe a little easier now. Immediately thereafter, Jon goes against the other small chip stack, Bobby Q. Bobby Q gets him this time and severely cripples Jon Turovitz. He is all in again up against Paul Evens as Paul raises and Jon calls all in. I will now remember Jon as Jon 'nine lives' Turovitz as he shows the fantastic hand of Q 8 against Paul's A 7. Flop all but wraps up a win for Jon as it comes Q 8 T followed by a K and a 7. He doubles up and he's off and running again.
Paul Evans tried to make his J T work for him and made it 900 to go following Bobby's raise to 600. This takes Paul down to the felt. When all is uncovered, Paul loses to Bobby's A J and takes home 7th and $2475 in cold hard cash. The next hand felt good to go for Jon and Steve and they side by side showed their hole cards. Jon turns over two red tens and Steve is dancin' with the magic ladies, QQ. The board was totally uneventful and Jon moves to the bank to collect his $2968 and his 6th place finish.
7:00 pm and no one is being overly aggressive. Looks like Dinh has gone fishing with back-to-back hands and has ended up very short stacked. The blinds are 400/800 with the bets now at 800/1600. There was a big hand between Don and Dinh, with multiple raises and re-raises. At the end, Don shows QQ and Dinh mucks, losing a bunch of chips. Right behind that hand he danced with Steve and lost a few more of those chips of gold.
He sits with the smallest stack at this time with 8800. Dom Mullis has taken the lead with 37,100 because of mixing it up with Dinh. Steve has a nice accumulation of 24,000 chips with Richard and Bobby about even with 16,100 and 14,500 in that order.
Everyone is in with two bets each except for Richard who has left the table for a few minutes. No one bet after that until the river and Don makes a 1600 chip bet making everyone else run for the woods. Richard got back just in time to get head to head with Dinh Le and ends up doubling Dinh back to something more reasonable with his A A holding up.
And the rich get richer. I visited with Don and his lovely wife for a few minutes during the break and he seems to be much more relaxed tonight. The other two events where he made the final tables, he was very, very tense. He's making jokes, winking at his wife and playing his game. He has amassed a huge heap of chips four hours into the game. After the second break the blinds have inflated to 500/1000. Things could start to look a little rough for the short stacks now.
Bobby got too emotionally involved with a hand against Richard and dropped himself to $1000 left. Two hands later the party is over for Bobby Q. He held an Ac 2c and felt it was the hand for him to try and triple up. Dinh was the button, Richard small blind and Don big blind. Steve raises and Bobby moves all in. Dinh and Richard elect to get out of this one. Don and Steve check the rest of the hand down. Steve pulls in a nice pot with an AJ beating Bobby's final stance with the A2. Bobby makes his way to the rail after picking up his paycheck of $3463 for the 5th place finish.
Good news for Dinh. He has found a few nuts and has padded his nest again. There is no clear chip leader but the winds have changed a bit as Richard is now the one hanging in there with 11,000 vs. Dinh with 30,000, Don with 30,000 and Steve with 20,000.
There was a time when I loved 7-card stud, and THEN I learned hold'em. The stud game became an effort, much like 'watching paint dry'. Then, I learned no limit hold 'em in tournament play and was hooked for evermore. Not that watching limit hold 'em isn't exciting, (and if you believe that I have some oceanfront property in Arizona), but, really. SNORE! I guess I could start telling jokes. I would have to go comb my email for the best ones, but those are not really appropriate I guess. I think I will just try to channel a bad beat for someone to change the pace.
OK. The remaining four have struck a deal and are going to play for the ring. The payouts will be the official ones and the how they finish will fall in that order. Maybe we can see a loosy goosy game now and at least find out who is the luckiest. Everyone is chatty now and the game has lost its sense of urgency. However one cannot turn his nose up at the possibility of winning the ring. Not only does it signify a major win, but it is a hefty chunk of gold to boot.
Don Mullis seems to have lost his concentration and has given away the majority of his chips. He has a very careless attitude and seems to want to get this all over with. He got all in with a set of threes and scooped his all in pot and now has about 15,000 chips with which to amuse himself. I am pretty surprised that he has loosened up so much, but he has suddenly become hot, as 'all inners' often do. Seems that online the player who is complaining that they only want to go to bed wins over and over and over. Is there some rule, like does Murphy have an 'all in' poker rule of some kind?
The red-hot Don Mullis is causing holy havoc on the table now. He is chip leader extraordinaire and eliminates Richard Pilewicz for 4th and $3958. Seems he is now ready to go after the ring after such a lackadaisical attitude 15 minutes ago. Almost every hand is a 3-way pot. They're gamboolin' now and have made this into quite a fishing expedition!
Fast-forward another hour. Dinh is down to one 500 chip after some pretty silly play. He had an 82 in the bb and got beaten up pretty badly by Steve when he had the pocket rockets and hit a set on the flop. All 3 are in for this one. It put Dinh all in and Steve and Don checked it down to the end. Steve had a made hand from the beginning leaving Don and Dinh hanging out to dry with as Dinh had a big Ah Kh and Don the Jh and 7h. Dinh's hope was dashed when the flop held two hearts and nothing but black hit the turn and the river. Dinh completes the evening with a 3rd place finish for $5442.
Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how one looks at it, the two remaining players are almost even with Don leading by 54,000 to 47,000. Another break. The blinds will increase, thank goodness and the bets will be 4000/8000.
In a big hand, Steve avoided sure disaster when Don tried to check raise him into betting. Don only had Quads. No go. Don does snag a big pot and is towering over Steve at this point. More damage was done to Steve when he tried to bluff the river and sneak a pot from Don. Don didn't comply, he called and showed a pair of sevens to Steve's T high. The next hand finishes this event off. With Steve all in, Don shows a pair of fives and Steve turns over Q9. He had too over cards, but there was no luck to be found for Steve. The Board was terribly unremarkable with J 6 K 4 8.
After 3 final tables Don brings home the gold. This guy has only been playing this game for 7 months and says he wanted to be a pro golfer but was not quite good enough to make the cut. He says he has a little bit of an addictive personality and when he starts playing a game, no matter what it is, he learns it from top to bottom and has an overwhelming desire to conquer it. Don said he loves the game and that the money really didn't matter. It was the ring. He wanted that ring. He said there isn't a man alive who would be more proud than he of that ring. He went on to give many accolades to some online players who have been accommodating by giving him transportation while in Reno and England. He thinks that all the people involved with this event are very special and wonderful. He couldn't stop smiling and said he on the edge of tears. He gives most of the credit to his wife who has endured his endless hours of learning the game online, sometimes beginning at 6am.
These two guys were so friendly and kind. It was a pleasure to watch all these men, as the game was just that, a game. Steve takes down a 2nd making him $9894 and Don takes the $17094 first place along with 'the ring.' Until tomorrow.
Sharla Lehrmann
Sharla@pokerpages.com
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