The Mouse Outlasts Raymond
Throughout tonight's final table, the irrepressible Raymond Davis had been challenging the colorful Mickey 'Mouse' to get heads up, and when that actually happened, it became 'Entertainment Tonight.' For nearly four hours the duo traded chips and quips as the lead changed hands countless times. Finally, the Mouse, changing his style to deny Davis the offensive, wore him down and a deal was cut at 5:30 a.m. with the Mouse holding a substantial lead.
The final table started with $1,500-$3,000 blinds, $500 antes, 34:46 left and Davis holding a big lead of $79,500. On the third deal, Chris Cellery moved in with pocket 9s. 'The blinds are too big,' sighed Kenna James, calling with A-K. Cellery flopped a set, and one player was gone.
We lost another on hand 14 when ad man Lance Allred was all in for about $8,000 with J-9 against Jack Boghossian's A-J and the board came A-6-5-7-Q.
Action continued at a rapid pace, and hand 17 was the biggest yet. David LeRoy, raised to $32,500, only to see Mickey come over the top all in, and then have Daniel Porter call all in. LeRoy folded. It seemed like a great laydown when Porter showed K-K and Mickey A-K. But LeRoy groaned 'Oh, man,' when a board of A-J-Q-8-A would have filled him. Instead, Porter busted out eighth, and the Mouse now had about $130,000.
Blinds became $2,000-$4,000 with $500 antes. Cellery immediately knocked out another player, again with pocket 9s. LeRoy was all in with A-J, Cellery's pair held up and the Club Caribe tournament director finished seventh.
Veteran player and ex-business owner Tony Grand arrived lowest-chipped with only $13,000, surviving this far after a couple of all-ins. His luck ran out when he had Jd-5d against Mickey's J-4. When the flop came A-A-4, Grand moved in for $13,500. Mickey called with his paired 4, and Grand left in sixth place.
Davis was constantly baiting the Mouse, challenging him to play winner take all if they got heads-up. Ignoring him, the Mouse continued to play far more than his share of pots, winning more than his share, and piling up a big lead. 'You're playing every pot; uncanny,' Davis remarked as the Mouse beat Grand. At the next break, the count was: Mickey, 203k; Davis, 96k; Cellery, 49k; Tran, 35k; Boghossian, 34k.
With $3,000-$6,000 blinds and $1,000 antes, Boghossian took a bad beat. He had pocket kings and finished fifth when Cellery flopped a set of 8s. Not long after, Tran moved in with K-9 for $30,000. The Mouse called with pocket jacks, and we were down to four players. On hand 47, Cellery moved in for $60,000 with Qs-10s and Davis beat him with ace-high.
Another 73 hands would go by two-handed. Mickey started with a lead of about $237,000 to $180,000. After picking off several of his bluffs, Davis got dead-even, then moved into about a 2-1 lead when Mickey had A-Q, the board showed 6-4-3-Q and Davis, with 4-2, made two pair on the river. As the two exchanged jokes and barbs, one of the dealers unintentionally got a laugh when she announced during one hand that it was heads-up. 'Who else?' someone reminded her.
As the match dragged on, Mickey got even, then moved way ahead when he moved in for $91,000 with a paired 10 and Davis, putting him on 'absolutely nothing,' called with a paired six. There isn't space to begin to describe all the twists and turns, but blinds had climbed to $8,000-$16,000 when Davis tried a bluff on the final hand, lost to pocket 9s, and finally surrendered. -Max Shapiro
BIOGRAPHY
Mickey 'Mouse Mills' has had about 40 cashes in major tournaments since January '03, including two final WSOP tables last year. His biggest was $71,860 for finishing seventh in a $3,000 WSOP no-limit event that year, and he also finished sixth in Omaha hi-lo after coming to the final table with the chip lead.
Tonight, as usual, Mickey Mouse played with his lucky Mickey Mouse charm atop his chips. Even when he was down 2-1, he said he remained confident because time was on his side. He said he expected to see Davis make some all-in bluffs, but Davis had completely changed his game tonight. He said that when Davis has the initiative, he's as dangerous as they come, so he tried reverse psychology, bluffed more than usual, got picked off a lot, but then wasn't believed when he did have big hands. 'He was playing my game instead of his game.'
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