Poker Tournament Results

Legends of Poker - WPT Season 4

Place	Name	Prize
1	Ernie Scherer III (Los Angeles, CA, USA)	$26,300
2	Carla Strasburger (Los Angeles, CA, USA)	$13,340
3	Scott Rettberg AKA "ICEBERG" (Irvine, CA, USA)	$6,670
4	Rusty Bagaygay (Diamond Bar, CA, USA)	$4,565
5	Kelly Behunin (Woodland Hills, CA, USA)	$3,160
6	Chuck Cannon AKA "cannon express" (Mentone, CA, USA)	$2,455
7	Desmond Portano (Brooklyn, NY, USA)	$1,755
8	Dara Ly (Long Beach, CA, USA)	$1,405
9	Farhand Ebadipour ( Los Angeles, CA, USA)	$1,055
10	Steve Crockett (Costa Mesa, CA, USA)	$875
11	Kham Hoang (Pomona, CA, USA)	$875
12	Hai Lui (Davis, CA, USA)	$875
13	Marwan Abdelal (Los Angeles, CA, USA)	$700
14	Alan Myerson (Sherman Oaks, CA, USA)	$700
15	Samir Morcos (Sherman Oaks, CA, USA)	$700
16	Jacky Lee (Santa Ana, CA, USA)	$525
17	Deng Chanthavisigh (Temecula, CA, USA)	$525
18	Arman Tatervossian (Van Nuys, CA, USA)	$525
19	Nicholas Finamore Jr (Seattle, WA, USA)	$355
20	Tim Sweeney (Pasadena, CA, USA)	$355
21	Phil Hernke (St. Paul, MN, USA)	$355
22	Jay Siegel AKA "BugsyVegas" (Tustin, CA, USA)	$355
23	Daniel Rentzer (Tarzana, CA, USA)	$355
24	Coleman Roy (Inglewood, CA, USA)	$355
25	Abraham Gray (Lawrenceville, GA, USA)	$355
26	Philip Nguyen (Los Angeles, CA, USA)	$355
27	Rueben Carrillo (Bakersfield, CA, USA)	$355

Tournament Report

Scherer Wins Third Legends Ernie Scherer, an economics major turned full-time player, nailed his third Legends of Poker title by capturing event number 8, $300 limit hold’em. Last year he took first place in Omaha hi-lo and pot-limit hold’em. Tonight he had a fairly easy time of it, arriving at the final table with the chip lead and getting enough good cards to hold onto it all the way. When he got heads-up with poker dealer Carla Strasberger he enjoyed a 1.5-1 lead, and an immediate deal was made. For the third time in this year’s Legends, we started the final table nine-handed when. Kham Hoang, finishing 11th, and Stephen Crockett, finishing 10th, went out simultaneously at the second tables. Scherer led with $48,000. At the bottom was Farhang Ebadipour, a business consultant. His $3,000 lasted three hands. He had pocket 5s and in three-way action against Kelly Behunin and Strasburger, he went all in on a flop of 3c-3d-9c. An 8c hit the river. Behunin, with Kc-Jc, made a flush, and Ebadipour finished ninth. Three hands later, the pot, again with three-way action, was capped. Dara Ly, another poker dealer, called all in with K-Q suited. The flop was A-9-5. Scott Rettberg, in the printing/packaging business, had A-K. Ly couldn’t play catch-up and ended eighth. As he cashed in, he winced as he saw the flop on the next hand come J-10-9, which would have given him a nut straight if it had come a hand earlier. Limits went to $1,500-$3,000 on hand 10. Strasburger, who lost a lot of chips in two three-way pots, went all in, then doubled through when she hit a king to her K-3. Only 14 hands had gone by when a third player exited. Desmond Portano, a Brooklyn boy, was all in with only a Q-3 to defend his big blind. It wasn’t much of a defense. Scherer had Ks-Js and flopped a king. As play continued, not too much happened except that Rettberg made quad queens on hand 28. Later, Behunin was all in for $1,500 with Ks-Js and survived with a flush. When limits went to $2,000-$4,000, Scherer and Rettberg had most of the 187,250 chips in play, with about $60,000 each, Scherer slightly more. Poker player Chuck Connor busted on the 45th deal on a bad beat. When the flop came As-7s-6h, he bet out with aces and sevens and Scherer, with 10d-9d, raised. He was kidding around, he said later, trying to represent a flush draw in case a spade turned and figuring to fold if it didn’t. Instead an 8 gave him an inside straight and he left Connor in sixth place. Behunin hadn’t been able to build his chips back since his last all-in. He finally put in his last $1,500 with K-J, got out-kicked by Strasburger’s K-Q and cashed fifth. Scherer continued to build his lead when he made a full house to beat Rettberg’s flush. Meanwhile, Strasburger started to come on. She won a couple of pots and then, when her pocket jacks held up Rettberg, she had moved up into strong second position. When a chip count was called for, Scherer had $79,000; Strasburger, $60,000; Rusty Bagaygay, $34,500; and Rettberg, $14,500. No deal. Play continued. After getting short-chipped, Bagaygay went out against Strasburger. Playing her Q-6 strongly, she caught a queen to outrun his A-7. Four hands later it was over. In a raised pot, Rettberg went all in with K-10 against Scherer’s A-Q. The board came A-8-5-J-7 and we were heads-up. Scherer led, $112,500-$75,500 and he and Strasburger made their deal. –Max Shapiro BIOGRAPHY Ernie Scherer’s specialty has always been economics, but he left the business world (a pre-loaded credit card operation) to play poker full time. He spends most of his playing time in live games, preferring $65-$150 Omaha, and $10-$20 or $30-$60 hold’em when he can’t find an Omaha game. Despite his tournament successes, he only plays them occasionally as a “diversion.” It’s also a way to keep him from falling into a rut, because of the different strategy and thinking that tournaments demand. Tonight, he said, he only needed to play “ABC poker” because he was getting good cards that pretty much played themselves. A-K was a fairly frequent hand for him. His main strategy, he said, was to try not to give up his chips