Lowball is 1st Win for Raffi
Rafi Krikorian, a retired aerospace supervisor who's played full time for three years, got his first title tonight by winning the 15th event of Legends 2005, the $500 lowball world championship, after a three-way deal.
Few people realize that lowball, invented during the Stone Age, is still being played. There was a whiff of excitement in the air (or maybe it was Ben Gay) as 93 players, mostly old timers along with a few middle timers, hobbled in. Instead of jackets, the final table got shawls. There were few spectators for this event, since the average age of lowball fans is 83, and they need to be in bed by 10:00 p.m.
We were playing with $400-$800 limits when final table action began, 27:49 left. For once, there were no students and no danger of an f-word penalty, since the strongest term these gentlemen would ever use would be 'gosh.' The level of civility among lowball players was illustrated in a hand where German Leyva, thinking nobody had called him, mucked his hand. Richard Dunberg, who was about to fold, did so anyway. 'A gentleman and a scholar,' said David Hoekstra admiringly.
Most of the eight finalists were veteran pros, one of them being Don Halpern. He arrived with only $2,500, survived once with a pat 8-5, then busted on hand 18. He raised all in for $3,000 and drew one. Leyva called and turned up a pat 8-5-4-3-1. Halpern, drawing to a worse 8, didn't bother to see what he caught.
After 46 heart-pounding hands went by, we lost a second player. Steve Margulies was all in and stood pat with a 9. He had hoped that Chuck Cannon had called only because a player was all in, but Cannon, also pat, showed an 8-7.
After 52 hands we took a nap-time break. Chip leader was Hoekstra, with $24,500. He had picked up a lot of chips in four-way action a few hands earlier when he raised, got three callers and made a 6. Following him were Cannon, $21,500; Krikorian, $17,000; Leyva, $13,500; Dunberg, $10,500; and Bill Erwin, $6,000.
They returned to blinds of $1,000-$1,500 and limits of $1,500-$3,000. A few hands later, Erwin, going all in for the third time, button-raised to $2,000. Costing only one chip in the big blind, Cannon had to call but was embarrassed to draw four to an eight. ('Don't write about this,' he begged the writer.) He caught a queen while Ervin, with a jack, survived for the third time. But Erwin was soon back down to $1,500 when Krikorian later showed him a 7. A couple of deals later, Erwin raised all in for the $1,500 and got two callers. He caught paint while Leyva, drawing two, made a 7-6.
The five remaining players made a save and play continued. After a couple of hands, the chip count was fairly even, but by the time limits had gone to $2,000-$4,000, Hoekstra was getting low. On hand 94, he and Dunberg drew two. Dunberg bet. 'I have to give it to you,' Hoekstra said, throwing in his last couple of chips. Dunberg showed 7-5 and Hoekstra, mucking, cashed out fifth.
The deals went past the 100 mark when Cannon bowed out. He drew to an 8-6, caught a lady and lost to Krikorian's 8.
Krikorian now had a big lead with about half the chips in play. He repeatedly made offers to his two competitors to give them extra money and let him take the title. They finally agreed, and he had his first win. -;Max Shapiro
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BIOGRAPHY
Raffi Krikorian had been an aerospace supervisor for 20 years, playing poker weekends only, before retiring and deciding to play poker full time 'because I like to gamble.' He plays mostly side games, preferring $75-$150 Omaha. In fact, he came to the Bike planning to play in the high-limit Omaha game here, and decided to enter the tournament when he learned that the Omaha game wasn't being spread today. His other major tournament cashes include an Omaha final table at Commerce and a 35th in this year's LAPC/WPT championship event.
Tonight he struggled in early action and was down to $300 at the $50-$100 level before starting back up. He played very tight until the final table got down to four, then turned aggressive and bluffed a couple of pots when he paired or caught a king. 'He was the best of three Armenian players here tonight,' said Chris Grigorian. 'The luckiest,' Krikorian amended.
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