Cincinnati contractor Jim Lester beat Phil Hellmuth in a quarter-million dollar pot, then accumulated so many chips that he was able to bulldoze his way past his final opponents to win the tenth event of the World Series of Poker $3,000 limit hold’em. To quote tournament director Bob Thompson, he was a runaway freight train going downhill.
This is the first bracelet for Lester, who was being staked in $100-$200 home games when he was 14. He finished ninth in the pot-limit Omaha event two days earlier, won the seven stud event at Tunica last year and has now made the final table in six of the last eight limit hold’em events he’s entered.
It was truly an international final table, with four players from Vietnam, one from Hungary, one from Switzerland and one (Alex Brenes, younger brother of poker player Humberto) from Costa Rica. Finishing third was local pro Minh Ly, a high-limit side game player not to be confused with an entirely different Minh Ly who’s won some tournaments at the Bike and Commerce. They’re friends, but not related.
Paul Ladanyi, a former chemist from Budapest, arrived at the final table with the chip lead, but had terrible luck. Five times he tried to play terminator by tangling with all-in players, and lost each time. First Mike Shi’s A-Q beat his A-J. Next, Swiss bedding retailer Alphons Jaeggi made a royal flush on the river. Then Shi’s pocket aces beat his A-K. On the very next hand Hung La’s pocket aces beat his A-Q (how many aces are in the deck, anyway, he probably thought). And finally, Shi frustrated Ladanyi once more when he went all in again, this time with A-6 and beat Paul’s A-9 by flopping a six.
Action began with $4,000-$8,000 limits. What action there was, that is. Everyone played so snug at the outset that in the first 20 hands, only one went past the flop, not counting all-in situations where the board was dealt down. First out was Phi Nguyen. He went up against Brenes in a classic match-up: his A-K versus Alex’s pocket queens. Three clubs hit the flop and Nguyen, with a king of clubs to Brenes’ queen of clubs, bet all in, but the ladies prevailed.
With limits at $6,000 and $12,000, Jaeggi raised with A-10. Ly re-raised with A-K to put him all in and then put him away when a king turned. With seven left, Lester, who had picked up a nice couple of pots, held a sizeable chip lead with about $160,000. There were seven left after Hung La committed his last chips with A-8. Hellmuth had A-10 and hung La out to dry when he snagged a ten on the river. Brenes then evened the playing field a little when he bet into an $87,000 pot with four spades on board and Lester folded.
When limits were raised to $10,000 and $20,000, action predictably speeded up as tight play became a less viable option. Hellmuth, at the top of his game and making lots of moves, had now taken over the chip lead. But this changed in the key hand of the night. He had A-K against Lester’s J-9. Phil raised under the gun, Jim played back and Phil four-bet it. Lester bet out on a flop of J-6-5 and Hellmuth called. When a nine came on the river, Lester bet his two pair and Hellmuth tried a steal by raising. Lester came over the top all in for almost a full bet and Hellmuth, perhaps for the size of the pot, called with nothing but ace-high.
On the next hand, it was Lester who tried a steal with only pocket threes and a big-card board against Hellmuth’s pocket tens. To his surprise, he made a flush with the two treys and knocked the WSOP champ out of the tournament. “Put me in your next column,” Lester told him. It sounded like a needle, but Lester later said that it wasn’t. He explained that, with 12 players left he was in a hand against Hellmuth. When Phil raised, he knew he was a big dog, but was more interested in shooting for a bracelet than in making the final table short-chipped, so he made what he knew was a “bad play,” called and then drew out. “What are you doing calling after I raised you?” Hellmuth chastised him. “Don’t put me in your column,” Lester replied. His quip when he eliminated Hellmuth may have been humorously intended, but Phil was in no mood for jokes. “Very funny,” he replied sourly.
On the next hand, Shi got knocked out. He had K-7 and flopped a king, but Ly had pocket aces. No jokes, though. Ladanyi, who had managed to rebuild his stacks to about $170,000, now began to take a pounding. First Brenes, with K-J, beat him by turning a king. Then Ly, with A-K, snatched an ace on the river. On his last hand, Ladanyi had A-8 of spades and bet all in on a flop of J-4-2 and two spades. No more spades came and Ly’s K-J won.
Three-handed, Lester had about$330,000, Brenes $150,000 and Ly $100,000. Now Lester shoved the throttle on his freight train to the limit and began raising, raising, raising and pummeling his helpless opponents. Finally, he beat Brenes down to $35,000 and Ly to $25,000. It was all over but the technicalities.
Alex nailed down second place when his A-Q beat Minh’s A-J and the board came 8-Q-K-J-4. But he had little chance to go further because there was no way Lester was going to lose that bracelet. Brenes hung on for a few hands, then succumbed when he pitted his A-K against Lester’s jacks and couldn’t catch. Lester had a $223,490 payday and looked forward to making even more final tables.
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