Making History:
International jet-setter and high-limit poker player Jeff Lisandro seizes first major U.S. tournament victory
Great final tables make you go through an entire gambit of emotions. At various points, you empathize with different competitors. You might start cheering for one player, and then root for a rival when the situation changes. Great final tables have both gratifying highs and gut-wrenching lows.
There are chip lead changes, miracle draw-outs, great poker decisions, terrible strategic blunders, and ultimately -- mental and physical fatigue for both players and audience. Finally, there is the post-tournament realization that what one witnessed was truly historic. The final table of Lake Tahoe's World Series of Poker Circuit championship had all of these things, and a lot more.
Lake Tahoe's main event attracted 173 entries. It took three days of play to eliminate 164 players. At the conclusion of Day Three, Alan Goehring was the last player to be eliminated, leaving only nine players to play in the Day Four finale. The final table included three former WSOP gold bracelet winners - Phil Ivey (with 4), David Pham (with 1), and Joe Awada (with 1). The six remaining players were each seeking their first WSOP win. The finalists took their seats under the bright lights and ESPN cameras, rolling inside the third floor grand ballroom at Harveys Lake Tahoe in Stateline, Nevada. Players and chip counts began as follows:
SEAT 1: Jeffrey Lisandro Chip Count - 402,800
SEAT 2: David Pham Chip Count - 195,800
SEAT 3: Phil Ivey Chip Count - 296,600
SEAT 4: Tommy Reed Chip Count - 63,700
SEAT 5: Joe Awada Chip Count - 73,300
SEAT 6: Jonathan Shecter Chip Count - 347,200
SEAT 7: Salim Batshon Chip Count - 148,600
SEAT 8: James Van Alstyne Chip Count - 113,400
SEAT 9: George Saca Chip Count - 89,000
Players were eliminated as follows:
9th Place - Things did not start well for the chip leader, Jeff Lisandro. He took three early blows, which cost him about two-thirds of his initial 400,000 stack. The worst beat occurred when Tommy Reed had K-K versus Lisandro's A-A. A king on the turn staggered Lisandro and allowed Reed to double up early. Lisandro took another punch when he was dealt 10-10 and called Joe Awada's 'all in' raise with J-J. This time, the top pair held up, and Lisandro was suddenly on the ropes.
Phil Ivey took the chip lead about 45 minutes into the action when he moved in and won a huge uncalled pot without showing his hand. Finally, after nearly three hours of play, the first player was eliminated. Joe Awada, the reigning seven-card stud world champion (he won the $5,000 buy-in stud event at last year's WSOP) was getting low on chips and moved 'all in' with A-Q, which was called quickly by Tommy Reed, holding J-J. Awada failed to hit a pair, and the former juggler and circus acrobat flipped off the final table as the 9th-place finisher. Awada collected $32,870.
8th Place - With eight players remaining, murmurs began to circulate that this would be either a long night or an early morning. Approaching the fourth hour of play, Phil Ivey was still the chip leader. George Saca was lowest in chips and made his final stand with 8-8. Ivey had plenty of chips and quickly called Saca's modest 'all in' raise. The flop came 10-4-3 rocketing Ivey into a big advantage and leaving Saca only two outs. Two blanks fell on he turn and river, which put Saca out in 8th place. The 48-year-old Bethlehem (Israel) born retail general manager enjoyed a very nice payday -- $49,305.
7th Place - David 'the Dragon' Pham wasn't able to seize the momentum that might have meant yet another major tournament victory. Pham, who has won 14 majors in the last three years - quite possibly the most of any tournament player - suffered the disadvantage of sitting in the worst seat at the final table, with Ivey on his immediate left. Pham was low on chips and moved 'all in' on a semi-bluff when his K-Q connected with a flop that came J-10-4. Ivey covered the raise holding K-J (good for top pair). Desperately needing a 9 or an ace for the straight, Pham missed everything. David 'the Dragon' Pham was extinguished in 7th place, which paid $65,740. That pot gave Ivey over 900,000 which was over half of the chips in play.
6th Place - Then, the hours passed. Slowly. Entering the eighth hour of play, Ivey's dominance continued. Salim Batshon (a.k.a. 'Sam B'), a Palestinian immigrant who arrived in the U.S. 30-years ago and built a successful business before becoming a poker pro who concentrates mostly on high-limit side action games, looked like he might make a run when he was dealt 7-7 and was 'all in' against Ivey's A-K. On the turn, Batshon was in great position to double up. But an ace on the river crushed Batshon's dream of winning his first major tournament. He had to settle for 6th place, worth $82,175 in prize money. Batshon, who brought the largest and most vocal cheering section to the finale, could be proud of his fine performance in the tournament. Meanwhile, Ivey became the first player at the final table to crack the 1,000,000 mark.
5th Place - Tommy Reed made the biggest leap up the prize money ladder. He started the day dead last in the chip count, but moved four spots up in the money. Reed's final chips were committed after a flop of 6-6-4. James Van Alstyne checked after the flop, and Reed moved in hoping to steal the pot with two overcards -- A-K. But Van Alstyne was hiding in the proverbial bushes waiting with a sledgehammer. Van Alstyne had 6-7 and hit a set of 6s. That pretty much ended the night for Reed, a 35-year-old businessman from Chapel Hill, NC. Reed - who has only played in four tournaments in his life, and incredibly won two of them - added $98,610 to his poker bankroll for 5th place.
4th Place - Just as the clock struck midnight, Jonathan Shecter turned into a pumpkin. The Cinderella story ended when Shecter was short on chips and moved 'all in' with his last 90K on a club flush draw. Shecter had 5-6 of clubs and watched as the flop came A-K-10, with two clubs, triggering his final bet of the night. Unfortunately, the glass slipper did not fit, as Shecter missed his flush draw. Shecter, a 1990 graduate of Harvard University with one lone final table appearance on his poker tournament resume, survived ten long hours and ended up as the 4th-place finisher, worth $131,480. He was labeled the 'wild card' in this finale, and the remaining players were visibly pleased to see his departure.
3rd Place - That put the chip count at approximately 1,000,000 for Ivey, and about 300,000 each for both Van Alstyne and Lisandro. Then, Van Alstyne took one of the most expensive beats of his life. Van Alstyne started out with 10-8 and flopped two pair. Ivey had A-5 and flopped top pair with an ace. The turn showed A-10-8-2 and for an instant it looked like Van Alstyne might double up near Ivey in the chip count. Then, disaster struck. Van Alstyne's two pair was hammered by a higher two pair when a second deuce rained down on the river, blasting Van Alsyne off the final table. With a break or two, James Van Alstyne might have made things very interesting. Instead, he had to settle for third place, and $164,350 in prize money.
The heads-up duel between Phil Ivey and Jeff Lisandro began with Ivey holding a 1,296,000 to 435,000 chip advantage - about 3 to 1. With all due respect to the other seven competitors, many in the audience foresaw that in the final hour it would all come down the two highest-limit cash players. Both men routinely play in the biggest games in the world, experiencing six-figure wins and losses in a single session. Accordingly, it wasn't the prize money that was the prime motive for victory for either of the finalists. Both players had a single-minded mission on this night. Each in his way hoped to fill a deeper emotional void, and satisfy an old score.
At the age of five, Jeff Lisandro was taught the game of poker by his mother. Prior to the start of the final table, Lisandro said he hoped to win this one 'just for her.' Lisandro has been financially successful beyond his wildest imagination. He owns homes in Salerno, Italy and Santa Barbara, California. What he hoped to win on this night was something that money cannot buy. 'All that matters is winning the top prize,' Lisandro said in a pre-final table interview with ESPN. 'I'd love to win a WSOP event so I can show my mother back home that I won something.'
Phil Ivey's reasons for wanting victory were even more emotionally stirring. One month ago, when Phil Ivey was playing in the WSOPC at the Rio in Las Vegas, his father sat proudly in the front row. Little did anyone know that it would be the last time Ivey would ever see his son playing poker. Two weeks later, Ivey Sr. suffered a massive heart attack and died. Burdened with pain and loss, Ivey somehow blocked everything out and for four days played the best poker of his life. Winning a major poker tournament provided a chance to pay a tribute, or perhaps it was merely an escape - whatever it was, Ivey was in top form.
Linked by bonds to family and joined by the insatiable desire to win this tournament, what all of this meant is that one of the aspiring poker champions would ultimately leave the final table extremely disappointed. This all added to the intensity of the duel and made for a fabulous final three hours that might very have been one of the most captivating heads-up matches on record. An intense psychological battle began between two great poker players. Every motion, reaction, and bet was scrutinized.
After being down 6 to 1 in chips at his low point, Lisandro staged a strong comeback. On hands when just about any other player (even very good players) might have decided to gamble hoping to get chips, Lisandro made all the right moves at the right times. Although he was one mistake away from elimination for two hours and forty-five minutes, Lisandro might have been one of Phil Ivey's toughest adversaries.
Just as Lisandro was close to drawing even in chips, on one big hand Ivey came over the top with an 'all in' move, forcing Lisandro to surrender his hand. The result of that loss was a 4 to 1 chip disparity. Then after another half hour, one of the most dramatic hands of the tournament took place when Lisandro was dealt Q-Q and moved 'all in' after the flop came K-10-4. Ivey, holding Q-J had an open-ended straight draw and called after a period of deliberation. Two blanks on the turn and river gave Lisandro the 850,000 pot. That put Lisandro into the chip lead for the first time in heads-up play, and the first time since the very first hour of the tournament.
Then, it all ended. The final hand came literally out of nowhere. In fact, no in the audience quite knew what had happened when the winning hand was announced. Lulled into a daze, the weary-eyed audience sat silently as Tournament Director Johnny Grooms announced that Lisandro was the winner.
As observers rushed towards the table and everyone stood up trying to see the final hand, it all became clear. Lisandro was dealt J-10 against Ivey's 9-2. The flop came 5-3-2. Ivey had bottom pair. Both players checked. A ten fell on the turn. Now, Lisandro had top pair. He bet 70,000 and Ivey called. A queen fell on the river. Lisandro bet 150,000 and Ivey moved 'all in' with his remaining 500,000 hoping to pull off a bluff. Lisandro read the situation perfectly. He called in what can only be described as seconds, leaving Ivey in stunned silence. Lisandro's pair of 10s scooped the final pot of the night and the longest final table in WSOPC history had ended just shy of 3 am.
The runner up was Phil Ivey. Within seconds, one of poker's quietest and most reserved stars left the room and was not seen again. One can only speculate the thoughts stirring in Ivey's mind on this night. Surely, the $299,360 in prize money was little comfort.
The final table clocked in at 12 hours and 20 minutes, a virtual marathon by poker standards. It was ten minutes longer than the WSOPC previous record set at Harrah's Rincon (San Diego) in the championship event won by Chris 'Jesus' Ferguson in February. Still, the packed gallery assembled inside the third floor grand ballroom had little energy left when the final hand was dealt. By the looks of the two players afterward, they had little left in the tank either.
The World Series of Poker at Lake Tahoe was a historic moment in poker for several reasons. It marked the return of the world's most prestigious poker tournament to the region where it all started some 36 years ago (Note: The idea for the WSOP actually started in Reno in 1969). The first event of the two-week tournament attracted the largest number of players for any tournament ever held in Northern Nevada (542). This was also Lake Tahoe's first time to host a major poker tournament in 15 years. Finally, Harveys Lake Tahoe accepted bets on the World Series of Poker inside the race and sportsbook. This was the first time since the early 1980s that a host casino has posted odds on the WSOP.
For Jeff Lisandro, this tournament was also 'historic' for far more personal reasons. He won $542,360. But oddly enough, the piles of hundred dollar bills and gold ring didn't seem nearly as fulfilling as the satisfaction of having crossed the finish line with a greater sense of purpose. For Lisandro, this victory was about something else -- something far more meaningful.
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
|
