David Daneshgar Ends Event #4
Suddenly after Long 3-Way Duel
With three players left, some 45 agonizing hands crawled by as David Daneshgar surrendered his once-substantial lead to Paul Javier. At that point, Javier had about 26,000 while Daneshgar and Walt Schafer were in the low 20s. Suddenly, everything turned around in an explosive hand.
Daneshgar opened for 3,300, Javier popped it 10,000 more, Daneshgar moved in. and Javier called with Q-Q. Daneshgar turned up K-K and seized the lead, leaving Javier with about 6,000 chips.
Four hands later, Daneshgar knocked out Walt Schafer and one hand after that took the few chips Javier had left to claim victory in event number four of Grand Slam of Poker 2005, $300 no-limit hold'em shootout, a non-points event.
Daneshgar, a venture capitalist, has had several big tournament cash-outs, in particular a chop worth about $60,000 at Commerce's LAPC, and a second-place finish at the main event in Barcelona's heads-up championships.
Under tonight's format, we played down to five players each at the last two tables to reach the final table. Opening blinds were 100 and 200 with 22 minutes remaining.
One of the finalists, Eddie Gharibeh, got there by sheer luck. With two tables left, he returned from a bathroom break, reaching his chair a few seconds after action got to him. Two players were all in. He tried to stop the action and call, but one of the players objected. Gharibeh took a peek at his dead hand and discovered to his dismay that he had K-K. But had he played he would have been knocked out, because one of the players, with A-10, made aces-up.
Not much happened the first dozen hands at the final table, with only one hand going to the river. But three hands later, things picked up. With the same blinds and 25 antes, there was three-way action as the flop came 9-6-5. It looked like great cards to poker player Hashem Abed, and he bet out 1,000. What he couldn't expect was that there were two sets out against him. Daneshgar had three 6s and made it 2,500 go. Anthony 'Big Bad Wolf' Guadagni had a set of 5s and moved in. Both players called
The turn and river changed nothing. Daneshgar took the main pot and Guadagni took the 875 side pot. Abed busted out on the next hand when Eulises Sandoval paired a jack to outrun Abed's pocket deuces.
A hand later, Thu Nguyen, a chemical technician, was all in from the small blind with A-7 and was blown away and finished ninth when Walt Schafer hit a straight flush on the river.
Meanwhile, a short-chipped Guadagni went all in and survived for the first of three times, once with aces versus Javier's kings, before finally departing in seventh place. He outlasted Sandoval, who moved in with Ks-3s. 'I've got two live cards,' the taxi driver said when Guadagni called and turned up A-Q. But the live cards quickly died when an ace flopped.
After blinds moved to 300-600 with 100 antes, the Wolfman made his last howl. On hand 46, Gharibeh, who is a finance manager, raised and Guadagni re-raised all in with A-J. Deciding there was 'just too much in the pot' to fold, Gharibeh called with Q-J and caught a lady on the river.
A bad beat left Pogos Simityan in fifth place. The barbershop owner was all in with pocket kings against Javier's pocket queens and went out when a queen flopped.
The chip count at this point showed Daneshgar leading with 30,800, followed by Schafer with 25,500; Javier, 9,100; and Gharibeh, 5,400.
Eight hands later the field was reduced to three after Gharibeh re-raised all in with K-J and couldn't beat Daneshgar's pocket 8s.
Now began the 45 'paint-drying' hands, where the blinds went up twice, first to 4,000-8,000 with 100 antes, then to 600-1,200 with 200 antes. Just before the second increase, Javier took the chip lead away from Daneshgar, who opened for 2,500 with Ad-10d. Javier re-raised all in for 11,300 with pocket deuces and took the big pot down when he flopped a set.
But then, on hand 115, came the big turnaround when Daneshgar's pocket kings pummeled Javier's pocket queens and the venture capitalist ventured into the lead again.
A few hands later, another dramatic hand developed that essentially ended the tournament. First, Javier raised to 4,300. Schafer then moved all in, and Daneshgar quickly moved in too. 'You guys fight it out,' Javier said, showing pocket treys and prudently folding. Schafer turned over pocket 9s and Daneshgar showed pocket queens. The board came 10-4-2-10-4, and the tournament was heads-up, though not for very long.
At this point Javier was down to about 2,500 before posting his blind and ante. 'I'll have to double through about 20 times to win,' he said.
He didn't get to double through even once. Daneshgar immediately raised blind and Javier was forced to commit his last few chips. He was not in good shape with 10-6 to a 10-7 for his opponent. An all-rag board showed 9-5-2-4-8, and Daneshgar locked up a $24,055 payday.
—Max Shapiro |
