Minh Ly
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Minh Ly Takes Second Title!
By Max Shapiro
Arriving at the final table with the fewest chips,
and all in late in the tournament, Minh
Ly won two big pots to take the chip lead and go on to capture
his second Big Poker
Oktober title, $200 limit hold'em, thus vaulting into a big lead
in the points race. The
table resembled a United Nations gathering, with players hailing
from such diverse points
as Vietnam, Lebanon, India and Egypt. And, just as the night
before, the event ended
suddenly when the four finalists, after spirited negotiations,
struck a deal.
Tenth out on a bad break was Annabelle Najera, who won the earlier
$100 limit hold'em
event. A card slipped off the table, earning her a 20-minute
penalty. It was an obvious
accident and the other players felt sorry for her, but rules are
rules. With three minutes of her
penalty left, and blinds at $1,000-$2,000, her last $1,200 was
blinded off. While she was absent,
Chau Le was eliminated, but that was small comfort since places
10 through 12 paid the same.
In the first round at the final table, Perry Webb, a busy man
who is a farmer in Arkansas
and an industrial contractor in California, went all in three
times and survived. First he
beat Andre Maloof with a queen-high; then he edged James Miller
with A-Q against A-9;
and then his pocket kings held up against Avi Marrott's A-K.
Starting with the 15th hand, three players in a row got knocked
out. Marrott, a dental
supply salesman originally from Bombay, was first to depart. He
put in his last $1,300
with J-10 of clubs, no match for Ly's pocket kings. Poker player
Hung Le then went all in
with pocket sevens against attorney Chris Beshlian. Beshlian
held A-10 and won when an ace
flopped. And then Jim Miller, a shift manager at the Hustler
Casino, departed. He raised,
also with J-10 of clubs, and Beshlian, with pocket nines, re-raised
to put Miller in for
$1,100. The flop was A-3-5, and a nine on the turn gave Miller
no outs except the door.
Maloof, an accountant originally from Lebanon, next bled off chips
trying to force out Da
Nguyen with just an A-2. First he bet into a flop of 7-6-7, but
Nguyen, with pocket fours,
had made up his mind he would call no matter what. Maloof bet
when a queen turned;
Nguyen again made an exasperated call, and then again called all
in on the river when
Andre tried a final bluff after a 10 fell.
Then Ly got a big break. He raised with K-Q suited. "I
respect you, but I have a playable
hand," said Beshlian, calling with pocket jacks. A queen
flopped, and Ly, all in on the turn,
won and was back in action. A couple of hands later, Ly really
got pumped up in four-way
action. The board came 10-10-10-5-7. On the end, Webb called
with his last $1,200,
hoping his A-9 was good, but Ly was full with pocket eights.
On the final hand, Maloof held K-10 against Amgad Mahmud, stuck
in the big blind with
10-6. But Amgad, a full-time player born in Egypt, made two pair
to break Andre. The
four remaining players then agreed on a deal and Ly, chip leader
with $47,800 to
Mahmud's $43,100, took the title.
Biography - Minh Ly
Minh Ly, the welder who turned pro five years ago,
says he has been hitting his stride
during the past year, with a large number of final table finishes
at the Bicycle Casino,
Crystal Park and Hollywood Park. "I'm playing the same,
just getting good cards," he
says. With two wins in six events so far at Big Poker Oktober,
this is his best start yet
in any tournament series. Now that he has a sizeable points lead,
45 ahead of his nearest
competitor, Dai Nguyen, he's committed to play in all the remaining
events.
Tonight he said he had no problem and never went all in except
for that one time at the
final table. A key hand for him came when he was low on chips
and started building
up his stacks when he held pocket kings and knocked Marrott out
of the tournament. |
