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K-8 Inspires Ross, Leads to Win!
When Raed Abukartomy moved all in, Larry Ross looked down at K-8. He recalled that it was the final hand held by Alan Goehring when he won Commerce's LAPC championship last month. Inspired, he called, made a straight, knocked out Abukartomy in sixth place and won the tournament with the most chips when the remaining five made a chip-count deal. With nearly twice as many chips as the second player, he picked up $17,150 for his victory in event 18 of Winnin' o the Green 2006, $500 limit hold'em.
Ross, who retired years ago from the retail clothing business, rarely plays tournaments, and this was his biggest cash-out. He faced a very tough final table that lasted 3-1/2 hours. This wasn't bang-bang all-in no limit, the players all knew what they were doing, and were not giving any chips away.
Limits at the final table started at 1,000-2,000, with 37:23 left. Chip co-leaders were Marwan Abdel-Al and Abukartomy with 64,500 and 64,000 respectively. Abukartomy, with a number of wins at the Bike and Commerce, was making his 13th final table. John Bonetti, making his second straight final table (and much more subdued than yesterday), lost two pots in the first seven hands and was down to 4,000. He waited until his big blind on hand 17, then went all in on the flop with Kd-10d against Sang Pham’s pocket queens. "King high," he announced. "You have a flush draw," Anthony "Big Bad Wolf" Guadagni informed him. "Thanks for telling me," Bonetti responded derisively as he missed and finished 10th.
Three hands later, Cheu Lim, who had already survived two all-ins, followed Bonetti to the cashier. In three-way action, he put his last chips in with pocket 7s. Abukartomy had K-10 and won when a king flopped.
Limits were now 1,500-3,000. The Bad Wolf had been making wolf calls, but his cries weren't answered. Down to 1,500, with the blinds approaching, he tossed in his last chips with K-5. The pot was checked down by Ross and Buddy Khoury. Ross had pocket 7s, and they did the trick when the board came 10-6-6-10-Q.
On hand 41, just before the break, Abukartomy committed almost all his chips with a small pocket pair, then threw his cards down angrily when Gary Ableser, holding K-Q, hit a king on the river. The chip counts now were: Pham, 53,500; Khoury, 52,000; Ross, 41,000; Abdel-Al, 39,500; Ableser, 27,000; Edward Yoo, 26,000; and Abukartomy, 3,500.
Abukartomy then doubled through twice in the next few hands and starting building his chips back up. Now came a long paint-drying stretch. Fifty hands and two full rounds went by from the time we lost our third player until we lost our fourth. During this time, chips kept moving around the table while Abseler, an attorney, went all in four times and escaped. "Tell my wife I tried to go home," he said.
Finally, on hand 76, the limits went up again, to 3,000-6,000, and Abseler was able to go home on the first hand. He was all in with pocket treys, and Ross swept him away with pocket kings.
There were few spectators and no sideline noise for a change, but Abukartomy more than made up for the peaceful silence. On one hand, all in with K-Q and up against a player who flopped two small pair, he screamed "Yes! Yes!" when he caught runner-runner K-Q. A couple of hands later, he picked off Khoury's bluff with just ace-high. "You're playing with the best!" he shouted in a frenzy.
When limits went up again to 4,000-8,000, more than three hours had passed since the final table began. The chip count now ranged from 55,000 for Ross to 18,000 for Yoo. Then, on the 106th hand, Abukartomy, holding Q-4, raised with his last chips from the button. Ross called with his magic K-8, Abdel-Al with A-J. A board of 10-9-7-5-J gave Ross his straight, and five were left. A chip-count deal was made, and after some balking by Abdel-Al, agreed to. The chips and payouts were: Ross, 102,000 and $17,150; Pham, 54,000 and $10,370; Khoury, 35,000 and $7,690; Abdel-Al, 37,000 and $7,970; and Yoo, 16,000 and $5,010. -Max Shapiro
BIOGRAPHY
Larry Ross, who retired from the retail clothing business "many years ago," has been playing lowball poker for 40 years, and hold’em eight or 10. He plays mostly limit hold’em. In side games, he plays $40-$80 here and $100-$200 at Commerce. He won a Sunday tournament at Commerce, but this is his first major tournament victory.
His style of play, he said, is to try to play aggressively, but it all depends on the players and how well he knows them. Tonight, he was familiar with many of the players at the table and had good reads on them. He arrived at the final table well below average with 19,500. The turning point for him came in early action when his A-J made a straight. He then won another pot with pocket aces and was on his way up after that.
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