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Charlie Boncich of Huntington, NY holds up his second crystal sailboat trophy for this year's $330 Limit Hold'em event.
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Boncich Hit by Typhoon
By Steven E. Way
The largest buy-in hold 'em event of the New England Poker Classic got off without a hitch yesterday right at noon. The #330 limit championship was the goal of all 167 entrants.
Fast and furious action brought the break and then the final table right at 8 last evening. With a first prize of almost $20,000 to be decided, the players started immediately trying to gain insight on their new opponents, and gain an upper hand in the contest.
Eighth place would be collected first by Kenneth Frye of Warwick, RI who went all-in with his pair of 10's but was splashed on the river by a spade flush belonging to Daniel Brodsky of Bayside, NY.
Frye would soon be joined on the rail by Bob Sarker of Lexington, MA who played Ace King all-in and could only watch as the 9, 10 club draw belonging to John Rooney of Framingham, MA turned into a pair of 10's for the win.
Nearly 30 minutes passed before the contestants were able to eliminate Bill Seymour of Liverpool, NY who fought tenaciously to stay in the fight. Seymour put his last chips in action based on Ace 9 of hearts on the flush draw, but would succumb to the pocket 8's of Brodsky.
The remaining six players carried on, and most of the four deep crowd of onlookers kept checking their watches, as it seemed that time stood still. Finally, after over an hour had passed, Jim Bucci of Hollywood, MD would go all-in with Ace Queen as part of a straight draw. Charlie Boncich of Huntington, NY would use only his pocket 9's however, and take the pot.
Kieu Duong of Atlantic City, NJ would play all-in several hands in a row attempting to remain in the contest until she finally missed everything and lost to Brodsky's Kings.
The play of the remaining four tightened severely as all the players had nearly equal stakes. After losing both blinds Daniel Barlin of St. James, NY would move all-in based on split 6's. Boncich holding pocket 7's and a straight draw made the call and would take the pot.
The third spot would end up belonging to John Rooney of Framingham, MA. Rooney who was the chip leader with four players was now short stack and the target of both Brodsky and Boncich. Holding pocket Trey's and facing only enough for one more big blind, Rooney pushed in. After an very long pause to reflect, Boncich made the call and won the pot with split 9's.
The action was heads up and blinds of $3,000-6,000. At one point the players were acting so fast, Boncich, so engrossed in stacking his chips from the previous pot, asked "Who Raised?" before realizing the answer.
Boncich finally caught the wave of cards he needed - a flood of Deuces. Several hands in a row involving Deuces would leave Brodsky with but a few chips remaining. After surviving multiple all-in's Brodsky told Boncich "I'm not gonna make it easy on you."
Boncich didn't make it easy for Brodsky either. On the next hand, with a board of multi-suited rags, both players proudly showed their pair of Deuces. Brodsky then said "But I have the kicker." and displayed his Queen, leaving Boncich to slowly expose his Ace in the hole.
Final Table Positions
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