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ROAD-BUILDER PAVES WIN
AT ‘ALL-AMERICAN’ TABLE
The final table for the $500 7-stud 8 or better event was as all-American as apple pie. There were players from Vegas, Idaho, North Dakota, Iowa (two), Florida, New Jersey and, last but not least, Brooklyn. The winner was Tom McCormick, president of a family-owned road-building company in North Dakota. McCormick, whose nickname is “The Shamrock Kid,” is the “all-time leading World Series money winner from North Dakota,” with seven final-tables including two third-place finishes in $2,500 and $5,000 limit hold’em.
This is the first major win for Tom, who plays about 30 tournaments a year. Runner-up was Dr. Scott Aigner, playing his first major 8 or better event. Host for the event was Layne Flack.
Final table limits started at $1,500-$3,000, with $300 antes and a $500 low-card bring-in. First out was “Miami” John Cernuto, whose legion of poker accomplishments include two World Series bracelets, three best all-arounds and a record four wins at the 1999 Legends tournament. He came to the table lowest-chipped with only $7,700, thanks to a brutal beat two tables earlier at the hands of McCormick. John made aces-full, but Tom, with rolled up nines, made quads on the river to deprive John of a possible chip lead at the final table. Cernuto lasted only four hands. Starting with split kings, he bet all in on fifth street, couldn’t improve and lost to the jacks and 8s made by Al Loonin, a retired basketball coach.
Four hands later Jack Culp, a computer programmer, was programmed out of the tournament by Roger Van Driesen, an oil refining consultant with 20 final table finishes in major tournaments to his record.Culp missed his draw to both a low and a flush while Roger caught an ace on the end to make aces full.
About 10 hands later, Doc Scott started out hunting a low with 5-6/2 and ended up with just two queens. Still, that was all that the urologist needed to bust Dan Wilson’s bladder and send him home in sixth place, when all Dan could find was two 6s.
Avner Levy Salah, who started as chip leader, added to his stacks by putting a beat on Loonin, who held three 8s, but couldn’t bet into Avner’s scary board of 7-5-A-4 with three diamonds.
Al didn’t fill and Avner scooped with a 7-low and diamond flush. Avner, who started as the chip leader, claims wins in 15 hi-lo stud tournaments. At the $1,500-$3,00 limit, he came close to putting Loonin away. He drew to a 2-4-5-6 but paired his five, and lost everything to Al, who scooped with jacks. But on the next hand, the ex-basketball
coach dribbled away more chips, again with jacks, when Doc Scott made fives and threes. Loonin kept the ball in play for a couple more hands, but then fouled out in fifth place when he called all in for his last $2,700 with queens and sevens, only to see Van Driesen dunk a flush at the buzzer.
Four-handed, Roger has taken over the chip lead with about $40,000. A number of hands later, Doc Scott performs a chipectomy on Avner. In a pot that was raised and re-raised on third street, Avner, showing 10-9-Q-9, confidentally bets blind on the river, only to be raised by Scott, who shows J-Q-6-5 and turns over J-J-6 for a full house.
Avner, upset, says that Scott got lucky, and doesn’t believe the good doctor, who swears on his Hippocratic oath that he was rolled up but didn’t bet the middle streets for fear that Avner was already filled. Avner, an Israeli, sticks around for a couple more hands and puts in his last $100 on fifth street chasing a low and a flush in three-way action.
On the river he pairs and busts out as Tom catches a full-house deuce - Max Shapiro
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