Down to 500 Chips with Three Tables,
Ex-Dealer Ralph Juarez Wins Omaha/8
The record for brevity in Cal State 2005 is now held by event number 7, $500 Omaha hi-lo. After 35 hands, the clock was stopped just an hour and 15 minutes into the final table. The chips were counted, a four-way deal was made and Ralph Juarez was declared the winner. He had 34,000 chips to 30,500 for Ben Dela Cruz, 26,500 for Adam Spiegelberg and 17,000 for 'Super Mario' Esquerra. The chip-count payout came to $10,985, $10,232, $9,371 and $7,326 respectively, but Esquerra asked for a little more, everyone chipped in, and the Super one took home an even $8,000.
With three tables left, Juarez was down to five $100 chips. His strategy, he said, unless he has a lot of chips, always is to play to place in the money, and after that to gamble more. He took this strategy to the extreme, once mucking an A-3-10-K after everyone had folded to him on the button. His plan worked, and once he did get in the money, he began to steamroll.
Juarez is an ex-poker dealer with 25 years in the box. The high point of his poker career came when he won an Omaha event and placed third in limit hold'em at Winnin' o' the Green, and then took first place in a no-limit event at Hawaiian Gardens, all in the space of a week.
His rags-to-riches tale in tonight's event was matched by second-place finisher Cruz, a self-styled 'self-employed rookie' from the Philippines. By hand 16 at the final table, he was down to 1,000. He doubled up by flopping a nut flush, doubled up twice more on the next two hands, and on hand 24 made a nut low and four 7s to pull about even with chip-leader Juarez
Much less lucky was Andrew Wang, who started with the chip lead of 21,900, slightly ahead of Juarez, but managed to get himself quartered three times, couldn't make a hand and eventually finished seventh.
Spiegelberg is a Vegas pro whose cash-ins include a second at the Palms in no-limit, and a fifth in Omaha hi-lo at Legends of Poker.
Final-table blinds started at $400-$800, playing $800-$1,600, with 9:37 left.
Raffi Krikorian, a poker player, started with only 1,500, and it lasted him just three hands. He was all in with As-5s-K-J, a decent hand, but not nearly as good as Esquerra's A-3-4-Q. A board of 8-6-2-Q-Q gave Esquerra the nut low and trip queens. Andrew Wang was also in the hand and got only a quarter of the pot with the same low, while Krikorian had to settle for $917 for ninth place.
Blinds now went to $500-$1,000, with $1,000-$2,000 limits A few hands later, Wang got quartered again, this time by Ruiz, and began sinking fast.
On hand 14, Steven Kahn went in with A-4-5-9. A flop of 8-5-3 gave him the number two low, a pair of 5s and a wheel draw, and he re-raised all in. Spiegelberg already had the nut low with A-2-6-9, and then a 9 turned to give him a higher pair and eliminate Kahn, a commodities trader and comedy writer for 30 years. Kahn collected $1,048 for eighth.
On hand 16, Cruz sunk to his low point. He had A-3-6-10 to A-3-7-8 held by William Hamilton, a poker tournament dealer, an exhibit installer and semi-pro. A board of Q-5-2-6-9 gave both players the nut low, but it also made a straight for Hamilton. Cruz then began his recovery on the next hand when he went all in with As-Kc-Qs-5c and flopped the nuts with 10s-4s-3s.
Quartered down to 11 chips, Wang busted out on hand 20. With a board of 2-3-10-6-2, he bet all in. Hamilton turned up a killer hand of A-3-4-5, which gave him nut low and a 6-high straight. Wang, frustrated, mucked without showing his cards as he cashed in seventh for $1,833. Wang finished second in this event at the L.A. Poker Classic this year, and also has a best all-around points play-off win at the America's Poker Classic.
Hamilton went all in for 3,000 on hand 26 when the board showed 8-7-2-6-2. He got quartered when Spiegelberg had the same number two low plus a straight, but still managed to outlast one other player.
Esquerra got in trouble when his pocket aces were beaten but he quickly recovered. Holding A-3-8-8, a player going by the name of Teddy 'Good Bear' flopped aces-up, then got crippled, down to 1,000, when Esquerra, with A-2-5-J, turned a wheel. On the next hand, blinds went to $500-$1,500. On the button, the Bear, a stock options trader/pro player and former dealer, went all in with K-Q-9-2 and two spades. The flop came Q-Js-7s. Good Bear missed his flush when no more spades came, and Esquerra, with K-Q-Q-7, put him away with a set of ladies. Good Bear picked up $2,095 for sixth.
Hamilton got in real difficulty on hand 35. With a board of J-10-3-5-10, he bluffed at the pot holding only A-3-6-9 for a pair of treys. Ruiz, with Q-J-9-9, had flopped a straight draw. 'I had gone this far, so I had to call,' he said later. His pocket 9s did the trick, and Hamilton was down to 3,000.
Cruz finished him off on the next hand.He had A-3-6-Q to Hamilton's A-K-J-7. The board came Q-7-4-9-Q.
Trip queens usually beat two 7s, so Hamilton exited in fifth place and got $2,619.
The chip values were calculated, and the players were only two happy to give Esquerra a little extra payoff.
'Super Mario,' after all, is an extremely dangerous player who's made something like 60 final tables in the past six years. —Max Shapiro
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