TROY PLAYS 7-STUD ON ‘WHIM'
AND RUSHES TO DECISIVE WIN.
Maxwell Troy, a high-limit 7-stud cash game player who rarely enters tournaments, did so today on a whim' when his must-move game was breaking downstairs. It was a great break for him, because he would go on a tremendous rush, totally dominated the final table in the latter stages, and owned 147,000 of the 240,000 chips in play when a three-way deal ended the 14th event of 2006 LAPC, $1,000 7-card stud.
Troy collected $33,418. John Womack, with 60,000 chips, took home $20,253, while Dan Torla's 33,000 was good for $16,166.
Possibly the key hand came when Troy made a straight flush against Max Pescatori's trip aces to move into a dominant lead.
Troy, a pro for 10 years, plays $100-$200 stud at Commerce, and has played as high as $1,000-$2,000 in Vegas. He's pretty much a stud specialist, but feels he should learn other games because stud is becoming an antique.
Tonight, he said, he was lucky to avoid pitfalls and was able to dump mediocre hands without notice, so that he got action when he had strong holdings.
Since there were fewer than 100 entrants, this became a one-day event, even though it went well past the 3:30 a.m. cutoff date for tournaments with over 100 players. It was after 3 a.m. (yawn) before the final table even started. We got there when Torla, starting with split jacks, made two pair to knock out player number 9, who couldn't help his 5s.
The table started with 200 antes, a 300 bring-in and 1000-2000 limits, 13:39 left. Torla, who is in sales/marketing and has stud wins at the 2002 WSOP and Cal State, was chip leader with 48,2000, closely followed by Troy with 43,900. Nobody was badly short-chipped.
By 3:30, with limits now at 1,500-3,000, with 200 antes and a 500 bring-in, we had two short stacks. One belonged to Womack, a retiree with a WSOP final table, and the other to William Mendicke, a Michigan gasoline wholesaler, and the two shorties tangled. Mendicke showed 2-Q-9-2. He went all in on the river and turned up two 8s, but the gas man ran out of gas when Womack, with two treys on board, brought out two aces.
At 4:15, Womack knocked out his second player. He had split kings and didn't improve, but didn't need to because Avdo Djokovic, a manager from Staten Island, was all in with pocket queens and couldn't help either
By the time limits went to 2,000-4,000, with 300 antes and a 500 bring-in, Troy had taken the lead with about 65,000.
The big pot developed after Pescatori made trip aces, only to have Troy show him a king-high straight flush. After winning the next pot with two kings, Troy had just under 100,000 chips.
Pescatori, meanwhile, was down to 8,500, but stayed in action when he doubled up with queens. At 5 a.m. there was four-way action. At the end, Troy, showing 3-5-7-A, turned up a winnning two pair. An all-in Minh Poker Host Nguyen, a pro with numerous tournament wins, showed 10-2-6-J. He mucked his cards and cashed out sixth. Troy, rushing on, now had about 115,000 of the 240,000 chips on the table.
Pescatori, meanwhile, continued his recovery with rolled-up queens against Torla, and then won a third all-in with aces.
As the next level approached, Sirous Baghchehsaraie made a tough laydown. He had (K-K)2-8-Q-2, bet, and was raised by Troy, showing 10-6-9-7. When Troy bet the river, Sirous reluctantly folded against Troy's possible straight. Kings are my nemesis tonight, he remarked. Troy had now climbed to about 130,000.
One hand later, players took a short break, returning at 5:35 to play for limits of 3,000-6,000, with 500 antes and a 1,000 bring-in. A couple of hands into the new level, Pescatori, a native of Italy who has two WSOP bracelets and ranked ninth in Card Player's 2005 Player of the Year competition, on fourth street went all in for the last time with pocket treys. Sirous had (A-4)K-Q and proceeded to make a spade flush.
Next all in was Womack. I knew it, Torla exclaimed when Womack turned up a third 6 to beat Torla's pocket 10s and stay in action.
At 6 a.m., the table got down to three players. Sirous had split 9s, and Troy blew him out with trip queens.
A chip-count payout was calculated, the players accepted, and Troy took home an unanticipated $33k and an impressive Remington trophy. — Max Shapiro |
