| Bac Wins 3-Way Near Tie
The ninth event of Legends 2005 ended in a virtual three-way tie. With 388,500 chips in play, pro player Dao Bac had only 2,000 more than Bashar “Charlie” Satoot, and 6,500 more than Chris Wong, both fellow pros, but it sufficed to get him the title after a chip-count deal.
This tournament saw high drama, with numerous draw-outs and chip-lead changes. It saw Batoot, starting with very little at the final table, hanging in and making miraculous catches to finish second, while at the other end Hon Le, who held the chip lead much of the way, flamed out at the end and finished fourth. He had been the deal hold-out, and when he left, there was a chop.
The final table started with $1,500-$3,000 blinds, $500 antes and 27:50 left. Shawn Langdon led with $85,000, followed by Hon Le with $80,000. Satoot arrived on a stretcher with a mere $7,500, but in eight hands made a miracle recovery. After doubling through against Walid Abirafeh and John Canawati, he proceeded to knock out Abirafeh, who had 6-2 in the big blind and made two pair on a flop of 8c-6s-2s. Satoot, with As-7s, turned a flush and moved up to close to $50,000.
Hon Le took a big hit on hand 13, calling with A-4 after Wong moved in with A-Q. When rags came, the Kamikaze Kid handed over about $40,000. But he got well again when a huge pot developed two hands later.
First, Canawati moved in for $15,000. Hon Le called. Langdon re-raised for about $60,000 more and Hon Le called all in. Langdon had A-K, Canawati, Kd-Qd, Hon Le 3-3. When the board came 10-7-5-9-6, Hon Le’s pocket treys prevailed as Canawati finished 10th.
With blinds at $2,000-$4,000, Sang Pham moved in for around $25,000 with A-6 and Xuan Van Nguyen called all in for $10,000 with A-4. Wong had them covered with A-10. A board of J-5-2-8-2 missed everybody, and two more players were missing as Pham finished seventh and Van Nguyen eighth.
At this point Wong and Hon Le were the big leaders, with Wong holding roughly $100,000 and Hon Le close behind. A chip count was requested, but Hon Le said no. As play continued, Hon Le proceeded to take a slight lead..
Meanwhile Langdon’s chips had been dwindling, and he got very low in a dramatic hand. He started with deuces versus 10s for Bac, made deuces full on a board of A-A-5-2, then lost to Bac’s aces full of 10s when a third ace rivered.
Two hands later Langdon got knocked out in the same depressing sequence. He was all in with the worst hand, A-J to Minh Nguyen’s pocket queens, took the lead when an ace flopped, and then busted out in sixth place when a river queen gave Nguyen a set.
When blinds went to $3,000-$6,000, Hon Le led with $135,000 to $115,000 for Wong.
Short-chipped again, Satoot survived again when he had A-5 to A-Q for Nguyen and made a wheel. “Let’s see how bad I can play,” he laughed. For some reason, Minh was not amused.
With $4,000-$8,000 blinds and $1,500 antes, Minh busted out with A-10. Wong had Ac-6c and made a flush on the river.
Wong now had a big lead. Then Hon Le began bleeding off chips. He tried an all-in move with 9-2, ran into Bac’s pocket kings and lost $51,000. On the final hand, he was on the button and moved in for about $60,000 with K-5. Satoot, just covering him, called and broke him holding Ah-Jh when the board came 10-4-3-4-7, setting up the final chip-count deal. –Max Shapiro
BIOGRAPHY
Dao Bac has been playing poker professionally for seven years. He is mostly a live game player, preferring hi-lo stud, in $40-$80 and $100-$200 limit games. In tournaments, he’s made a lot of final tables at the Bicycle and Commerce Casinos and has a win in no-limit hold’em at Big Poker Oktober last year. He’s known for changing gears a lot, sometimes playing carefully, sometimes aggressively. “That’s why nobody believes him,” laughed his friend Minh Nguyen.
Bac’s most spectacular triumph came when he won a 7-card stud hi-lo tournament at the Bellagio’s Five Diamond/WPT event this past December, winning $75,000. At the final table, he was down to a single $1,000 chip out of 386,000 in play. He proceeded to go all in and win the next three pots, moving up to about $40,000, eventually getting heads-up at a 2-1 disadvantage before going on to win.
|
