David “The Dragon” Pham, ranked Player of the Year by Card Player magazine’s Nolan Dalla last year, aggressively seized a big chip lead early in the four-game S.H.O.E. event, held it until he got heads up, then fought off a determined challenge by Skip Wilson to win $140,455 and his first-ever World Series gold bracelet.
Pham, a native of Vietnam who owns a beauty supply business with his wife, has been playing poker for 10 years, three as a pro. He made nine no-limit hold’em final tables last year and has titles in no-limit from the Hall of Fame, Bicycle and Commerce casinos and Hollywood Park. He is a cousin of Men “The Master” Nguyen, who taught him the game. “The best teacher anyone could have,” Pham said in tribute.
His last opponent was Skip Wilson, who is a consultant for a manufacturing business he sold. Wilson, with homes in Ohio and Las Vegas, previously won a small seven stud tournament at Foxwoods and took a second at Commerce.
S.H.O.E. is an acronym for seven card stud, hold’em, Omaha high low and seven stud eight or better. The rounds were 35 minutes each for hold’em and Omaha, 45 for the stud games. It started with stud high, $600 ante, $1,200 bring-in, $4,000 and $8,000 limits.
The Dragon arrived with the second chip lead right behind “Miami” John Cernuto and started breathing fire from the outset, aggressively raising and taking down pot after pot. They were mostly small ones, but he won an astonishing 11 of the first 23 hands, piling up about $135,000 in chips.
First out, on the ninth hand, was poker player Paul Darden. Darden’s nickname is “Shoe,” though it was not made clear whether the tournament was named after him, or the other way around. He went all in for $3,900 with pocket jacks, made jacks-up and lost to Tom McEvoy who started with A-Q/3 and made queens-up. McEvoy, sartorially restrained as usual, wore a shiny sateen purple shirt, the royal color perhaps emblematic of his status as a four-bracelet world champion and the king of tournament book authors.
Art Duncan, a contractor, ended seventh in a hold’em round. He raised with 9-8 of clubs and documentary photographer Kristy Bidar re-raised with pocket aces to put him in and then out.
Cyndy Violette, a well-known eastern high-limit side game player with titles from the Golden Nugget, Caesars and the Taj, was totally card dead through 40 hands. Apart from picking up a couple of chips with two uncalled raises, she never got involved in a hand. Low on ammo, she finally looked down at A-6. At that point it looked it pretty big to her and she button-raised. McEvoy called with A-9. He bet a flop of A-J-8, she re-raised and he played back to put her all in. She cashed out sixth.
With the game now stud hi-lo, McEvoy scooped a big pot against Wilson and Pham with three kings. On the next hand he broke Kristy, who had been drained when she missed a draw to both hearts and a low. On her final hand, she put in her last $1,000 with an ace doorcard. McEvoy, starting with three babies, made a six low and a straight. “I hate to see you go,” he said as the dealer left.
McEvoy now had roughly $100,000, but the new dealer was less generous. Pham immediately scooped him with a straight, and by the time the game shifted to Omaha hi-low, he was back down to $33,000. Miami John wasn’t doing much better, with $41,000. Pham continued to fatten up with about $223,000, while Wilson had $63,000. Cernuto went all in a couple of times, once chopping the main pot with kings-up, then splitting with a low. Tom finished him off by edging him both ways, sevens versus fours for high, with a live deuce against Cernuto’s live four for low. Then McEvoy got almost down to the cloth when Pham scooped him with sevens full of aces. He hung around for a few more hands, but The Dragon finally consumed him when the game reverted to seven stud high. He started with Q-10/9, paired a 10 on fifth street and went all in on sixth when an ace gave him a draw to a straight flush. But a king on the river left him with just tens while Pham made nines and deuces.
Heads-up, Pham led with $213,000 to Wilson’s $149,000, far from a sure thing for the Dragon. “I knew I had to make a lot of moves,” he said afterwards. He did, making some bluffs, sometimes getting picked off, but not letting up on the pressure.
After nearly an hour of maneuvering, their relative chip position hadn’t changed much. But then, playing hold’em at $6,000-$12,000 limits, Wilson suddenly took the lead by taking a huge pot with a heart flush on the end.
Right after that, though, came what Wilson later described as “the killer hand.” He had the lead with K-8 on a flop of K-10-9. Pham hoped to make a straight holding Q-2. Instead, runner-runner queen, deuce gave him a surprise two pair winner.
The contest finally ended with stud hi-lo. Wilson folded, perilously low on chips when Pham bet on the river showing 5-2-7-A. “If he calls, it’s over,” Pham said. It really was over when Wilson put in his last $7,600 with 3-9/A-2-8-K, hoping to make an eight-low and chop with Pham, who showed fives and had two threes in the pocket. He caught paint on the river, and The Dragon collected his bracelet.
Max Shapiro
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