| Retiree Wins College Event
A 65-year retiree won the Bicycle Casino's first-ever college poker tournament, an event where the final table was supposed to be filmed for the Bike's live-action weekly poker webcast, another first, only one that didn't happen because there was no final-table action, since the nine finalists agreed to an immediate chip-count deal. And, no, as Dave Barry would say, I am not making this up.
OK, let's start from the beginning, and forgive me if I repeat myself because I have a lot of space to fill with very little to fill it with. I have to be careful, because this all-deal, no-play situation came about once before, at a Legends tournament, as I recall. When that happened, I sent out a casino memo explaining that there would be no report, and my one-paragraph memo ended up being written up as the entire report itself. That wasn't too bad for me, because my payment per word came out to more than Stephen King makes per word, but it was embarrassing nonetheless.
OK, lets start from the beginning. This was a $50 buy-in (with rebuys) no-limit hold em college/charity event that was open to all college students and alumni (reform school graduates did not qualify). To give the event a proper collegiate atmosphere, the outside tournament area had sports memorabilia and framed photos on display for sale. Fifteen percent of the prize pool went to a designated charity, the Special Olympics, and the Bicycle Casino added another $2,500, so the total donation was $8,365.
Since this was Wednesday, the day for the Bike's weekly 6-10 p.m. live action poker webcast, the plan was to relocate the final table nine players because of filming considerations to the camera area, located in a corner of the top section of the main poker room. However, the players immediately began talking deal. Chip-count calculations were made, everyone agreed and school was out for this college event.
The winner was Mervin Gass, the chip leader with 78,000. And no, the senior citizen is not a college freshman, but he did graduate from New York University. The official payout for first place was $12,465. Gass splits his play between tournaments at the Bike and live action at Commerce, and his biggest prior cash-out was $6,000 for a weekend Bike event.
Coming in second and close behind in chips with 73,000, was Allen Lu, an orthopedic surgeon. Not only does Lu not have any poker tournament history, he said he was in big trouble because he wasnÃ't even supposed to be playing, so I promised Lu I wouldn't use his name. Second place paid $6,315.
Next was Greg Vogel with 59,000. Vogel's resume alone could almost fill this write-up. His occupations include software engineer, cattle ranch cowboy and private plane and charter pilot (he owns three planes). He's had a lot of small tournament wins, and now poker gives him all the excitement he craves. His mother and father were poker enthusiasts and he used to think they were degenerates. He knows better now. Third place paid $3,155.
Finishing fourth, which was worth $2,160, was Manuel Pardo, a director of finance.
Fifth was Henrik Antanesian, whose credits include a se cond at the L.A. Poker Classic. His finish paid $1,495. Antanesian said he didn't feel the payouts were big enough to justify a deal, but he didn't want to be the spoiler.
Coming in sixth was Juan Holub, a plumbing contractor with numerous local tournament cash-outs. Sixth place paid an official $1,165.
Seventh was Darius Zolnor, the token student at this college final table, who has a win at Hollywood Park's Endless Summer event. Seventhpaid $830.
Finishing eighth, for $665, was John Herrick, a developer.
And Timothy Croston placed ninth, worth $500. He's a TV writer (King of the Hill ) but refused to help me out in writing this report.
And now, having filled out this report with smoke and mirrors, I can prepare myself for tomorrow's $50,000 guarantee no-limit hold em event. ;Max Shapiro
BIOGRAPHY
Mervin Gass has had two careers after leaving college where he was a business major. First he was a wholesale drapery fabrics salesman, and later a certified financial planner. In 1997 he retired and has been playing poker ever since. He' a low-limit ($3-$6) side-game player who favors both limit hold ½em and Omaha hi-lo. Since his tournament play has largely been confined to the Bike's Saturday and Sunday events, tonights win is his largest cash-out yet.
He describes himself as a very, very tight player, and that style served him especially well in tonighs small buy-in, rebuy event, where wild play was rampant. One player, he observed spent $300 on rebuys. play the button, I'm not a bluffer, and if someone goes all in and I have king-queen suited, I throw it away. Gass did not make a single rebuy tonight, and he got most of his chips in two big pots, both times holding pocket kings.
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