Poker Tournament Results

Winnin' O' the Green

Place	Name	Prize
1	Albert Shim AKA "Smiles" (Orange County, CA, USA)	$25,586
2	Minh Lee (Valencia, CA, USA)	$12,645
3	Jeremie Scott (Palm Desert, CA, USA)	$6,030
4	Luis Concha (Downey, CA, USA)	$3,765
5	Wayne Chang (Los Angeles, CA, USA)	$2,925
6	Joseph Brooks (Egg Harbor, NJ, USA)	$2,195
7	Makya McBee (Santa Monica, CA, USA)	$1,830
8	Benjamin Chung (Los Angeles, CA, USA)	$1,460
9	Nader Khalil (Glendale, CA, USA)	$1,095
10	Richard Nauffal AKA "TINNY" (Bayside, NY, USA)	$805
11	Michael Brooks (Ellsworth, KS, USA)	$805
12	Matthew Elsby (Los Angeles, CA, USA)	$805
13	Reno Grigorian	$590
14	Jorge Diaz (Sacramento, CA, USA)	$590
15	Vic Salcedi	$590
16	Paramjit S Gill (Diamond Bar, CA, USA)	$510
TIE	Roy Edery	$510
TIE	Koorish Russekh	$510
19	Rene Bordon (Long Beach, CA, USA)	$365
20	Ann Natarelli (Simi Valley, CA, USA)	$365
21	Emmett McDonnell (Simi Valley, CA, USA)	$365
22	Marcel Sabag (Tarzana, CA, USA)	$365
23	Mike Saczynski (Simi Valley, CA, USA)	$365
24	Randy Markley (Los Angeles, CA, USA)	$365
25	Mahshad Amir-Hubbard (Irvine, CA, USA)	$365
26	Jim McClure (Valley Village, CA, USA)	$365
27	Dan Loncaric (Valencia, CA, USA)	$365
28	Tom Magnetta (Beverly Hills, CA, USA)	$255
29	Michael Gross (Van Nuys, CA, USA)	$255
30	Keith Dablos (Rancho Cucamonga, CA, USA)	$255
31	Nicole Schmitz (Pac. Palisade, CA, USA)	$255
32	Lance Berkman (Long Beach, CA, USA)	$255
33	Giovanni Morcos (Wilmington, CA, USA)	$255
34	Roger Aielli (Laguna Hills, CA, USA)	$255
35	D. J. Villegas (Valinda, CA, USA)	$255
36	Edwin Jacinto (POMONA, CA, USA)	$255
37	Rong Lam (Bell Gardens, CA, USA)	$185
38	Michael Ni (Aliso Viejo, CA, USA)	$185
39	Jerry Huang (Torrance, CA, USA)	$185
40	John Szeps (La Crecenta, CA, USA)	$185
41	Tom Sellers (Lakewood, CA, USA)	$185
42	Lewis Gray AKA "L. D." (Los Angeles, CA, USA)	$185
43	Richard Kirchnavy (Upland, CA, USA)	$185
44	Steve Margulies (San Fernando, CA, USA)	$185
45	Troy Gabaldon AKA "BadBeat" (Corona, CA, USA)	$185
46	Robert Natividad (Cerritos, CA, USA)	$145
47	Tommy Kinder (Eaton, OH, USA)	$145
48	Ed Schafer (Long Beach, CA, USA)	$145
49	Don Larrimore (Munich, Germany)	$145
50	Richard Radford (Ocean Springs, MS, USA)	$145
51	Peter Liew (Huntington Beach, CA, USA)	$145
52	Jeff Malawy (West Hollywood, CA, USA)	$145
53	Rick Joy (Orlando, CA, USA)	$145
54	Michael Alton (Los Angeles, CA, USA)	$145
55	Michael Leanos AKA "CrownMike" (Los Angeles, CA, USA)	$145
56	Joe Caluag (El Monte, CA, USA)	$145
57	Chris Burns (Lake Balboa, CA, USA)	$145
58	William Bessent AKA "John" (Santa Ana, CA, USA)	$145
59	Eddie Manon (Chino, CA, USA)	$145
60	Hoang Ta (Westminister, CA, USA)	$145
61	Mike Slye (Canyon County, CA, USA)	$145
62	Jay Johnson (San Bernando, CA, USA)	$145
63	John Owen (Los Angeles, CA, USA)	$145

Tournament Report

Internet Engineer Wins No.1 With poker records falling everywhere, it was no surprise that the opening event of Winnin' o' the Green 2005 would attract the most entrants of any WOG tournament to date. A record-shattering 731 players turned out for the $100 no-limit opener of this popular Bicycle Casino tournament series, now in its 16th year. The field was so big that 63 places were paid. The winner was Albert Shim, a network engineer for a wireless Internet company, who was a pro for one year before returning to the business world. When the table got down to five players, a chip count deal was made. At that point, Shim had a huge lead with 249,000 of the 585,000 chips in play and was declared the winner. Tonight's event was structured with 20-minute levels until all players were in the money, at which point the levels reverted to 30 minutes. When the final table assembled, we were at level 14 with $1,000 antes and blinds of $3,000-$6,000, 24:13 remaining. With a round costing each player $19,000, there wasn't much room for tight play, and the action was bang-bang from the outset. It took only two hands for the first player to be eliminated. Richard Nauffal, who won best all-around at the Commerce Casino's 1998 Heavenly Hold'em event, was the only player at the final table identifying himself as a pro. He arrived lowest-chipped, and moved in for his remaining 22.5k with pocket 4s. James Brooks, a student, called with Qs-Js. The board came Q-3-2-2-5, and Nauffal ended 10th. A few hands later, Benjamin Chung took a big hit when he moved in after Brooks opened for 40k. Chung had pocket 6s to Brooks' pocket 10s, and couldn't catch up. Makya McBee, a teacher, started with a sizeable lead of 137.5k, but went downhill from there. His luck started turning bad after Jeremie Scott moved in with K-10. McBee called with the better hand, A-Q, but Scott survived when a 10 flopped. On hand 11, blinds moved up to $5,000-$10,000 with $1,500 antes. Khalil Nader, originally from Cairo, Egypt, was short-stacked and called all in from the small blind with just 10-7 after Luis Concha raised in late position with A-6. A board of J-J-4-2-8 changed nothing, and Nader finished ninth. Chung had a close call a hand later. He pushed in all his 33k with pocket 7s, and was called by McBee with A-Q. Chung started to get up with the flop brought Q-9-8, but then sat down with a 7 turned to give him a set. But he wasn't so fortunate on the next hand. All in again, his pocket 10s ran into Shim's A-A, and he was left with 5k, all of which paid for the ante and big blind on the following hand. With only Q-7, he faced McBee with A-K and Scott, also all in, with Q-J. The board came 8-7-3-5-J, and the river jack gave Scott the pot as Chung ended up eighth, while McBee took yet another hit. Hand 18 was spectacular. Wayne Chang moved in from the cut-off seat with K-Q for about 30k and got a call from Brooks, who was in the small blind and a big underdog with K-J. A flop of J-J-8 gave Brooks trips, making him almost a sure winner. Almost. First a 10 and then an ace came, rescuing Chang with a Broadway straight. Only 18 hands had gone by, and this event was nearly over. One hand later, McBee lost his final hand and finished seventh. This time he had the lesser hand, pocket 10s to Scott's pocket jacks. The jacks stood up, and so did McBee. Another four hands went by and another player departed. Shim opened for 40k with A-10. Brooks, with pocket deuces, raised all in for 26.5k more. After some hesitation, Shim called and left Brooks in sixth place when the board came K-8-4-10-7. A few more hands went by. Then, with blinds about to go up to $10,000-$20,000, the five left agreed to a deal. Min Lee finished second with 120k in chips; Scott took third with 86k; Luis Concha was fourth with 85k; and finishing fifth was Chang with 43k. --Max Shapiro BIOGRAPHY Albert Shim is an engineer with 1st Internet Universe of Irvine, California. He has been playing poker for three years, and for one year took off to try his hand as a full-time player. He made 50 final tables that year, and won a limit hold'em event at Hollywood Park, but still found it tough going as a young man with a family. "I got by, but couldn't save any money," he explains. He still managed to play 50 tournaments last year. "I keep telling my boss, as soon as I make a million, I'll return to poker," Shim laughs. Shim plays Omaha hi-lo and stud hi-lo, but prefers no-limit for tournaments because, he explains, "you don't need a hand to win." Tonight, however, he faced a final table with relatively inexperienced players. "It was a hard to put a read on them," he said. "So I played more solidly than usual, waited for a hand and tried not to do anything stupid."