| TV Man Is Bounty Winner
This is Lakers week. Last night, team owner Jerry Buss won the no-limit event.
Tonight, the limit hold'em bounty tourney was captured by Karlo Gharabegian,
an editor at local TV station KCAL who does the Lakers pre-game show. Tomorrow,
look for Kobe Bryant to win Omaha hi-lo. Tonight's event ended in a five-way
chip-count deal, with Gharabegian holding a slight lead over Lisa Rosenburg,
a middle school teacher from Houston, Texas.
The buy-in for this new bounty event was $225. Each player was given a "headhunter"
disk worth $25 which was then handed over to whoever knocked that player out.
When the final table assembled, uniform salesman Charles Davidson, a familiar
face at local events with numerous small tournament wins, had the most disks
with 10. "I'm free-rolling," he said. The chip lead, however, was
virtually a three-way tie between Rosenburg, Gharabegian and business owner
Ira Dupere with 40.5k, 40k and 39.5k respectively. At the other end, six players
were short-stacked with 9k or less.
Opening limits were 1k-2k with 21:19 remaining. Shawn Spaulding, a winner of
several online tournaments, was making his first live final table. He started
with only 4k and was all in for the second time when he had 8-7 in the big blind
on hand six. Dupere had K-Q and took Spaulding out with two pair. Spaulding
got $560 for 10th place.
A few hands later, another short stack went out. Matthew Trexler, who is in
the military, went all in for 3k with Q-J. He was in big trouble against Rosenberg's
A-Q, and the teacher expelled him by flopping an ace. He collected $670 for
ninth.
All the shorties managed to survive up until hand 31 when John Isaac went out
with pocket 9s. The board came Kh-Jd-8d-Qd-6d. John Henson, a telecommunications
technician and the son of Bill Henson, winner of event 6, was also all in from
the big blind and won with a 10 of diamonds in his hand. Eighth place paid $895.
Meanwhile, Gary Radtke, a senior VP with Blue Cross, was dry as a bone and had
been able to play only one hand, which he didn't win. He went out big time three
hands later holding A-6 when Davidson, holding pocket jacks, made quads. Radtke
collected $1,120 for seventh.
As play continued, Rosenberg picked up a lot of chips against Dupere. He had
pocket 9s, but her K-Q suited turned into a nut flush.
Limits went up to 3k-6k on hand 39. Seven hands later, Henson would be the last
player out. He had managed to survive several all ins, but his luck ran out
on the 46th deal. He was in the big blind with pocket kings and Rosenburg called
with A-7, saying she did so because Henson had only 1k left. She hit a bullet
on the flop, and that was enough to put Henson out in sixth place, which paid
$1,570.
A chip count deal was now proposed. Gharabegian was in the lead with 49k.
Behind him were Rosenburg, 44k; Craig Brennan, a securities trader, 37.5k; Davidson,
30k; and Dupere, 19k. And that's the order they finished in. The official payoff
for Gharabegian was $16,800. The official payouts for the remainder were, Rosenburg,
$8,505; Brennan, $4,255; Davidson, $2,910; and Dupere, $2,015.
--Max Shapiro
BIOGRAPHY
Karlo Gharabegian has been with station KCAL for five years, first in the news
department, and for the last couple as the Lakers pre-game host. Tonight he
had to leave the station early to make the tournament and was warned he'd better
win it, so he had a special incentive. He's been playing poker since he was
seven, and in casinos for eight years. He plays side games, $200 and $500 buy-in
no-limit, and $20-$40 or $30-$60 limit, to win enough for tournament buy-ins.
He also loves stud. Prior tournament wins include the 7-stud Mini Series world
championship a Turkey Shoot event, both at the Bike last year.
Gharabegian's general style of play is to either raise or fold. "I don't
like limping," he says. Tonight he was in good shape throughout, raising
his chip count with each new limit. The big hand for him before the final table
came when he had A-Q and beat a player with A-4. |
