Terry Ogle has the Chip Lead Going Into
Final Day of Caesars Indiana Main Event
Tom Schneider is Last
Of the "Name" Players
Elizabeth, IN--Terry Ogle, a 54-year-old rental business owner, is the leader with 339,000 chips going into the final day of the WSOP Circuit tour at Caesars Indiana. Ogle has played poker all his life, but this represents his first tournament cash ever. (His big prior achievement was in golf, where he scored four holes in one.) Close behind him, with 329,000, was Carlos Uz of Miami Lakes, Florida.
Aside from Tom Schneider, WSOP player of the year, the remainder of the field is relatively unknown, and Schneider is barely hanging on. The average chip count is 160,000 and he is lowest-chipped with 42,500.
Action today started with blinds of 600-1,200 and 200 antes with 19:34 left on the clock. It didn't take long for Mark "Pegasus" Smith's hopes for a second Circuit championship to be crushed. He was out on the first hand when he missed his open-end straight draw and lost to an A-K when an ace turned.
Denny Crum, former University of Louisville coach and host of the Denny Crum Poker Open at Caesars Indiana, was the next noted player to leave, finishing 24th. On a flop of Jc-9d-7c, he raised all in with 9c-4c, giving him a flush draw and second pair. He didn't improve, and lost to starting chip leader Vito Casullo's paired jack.
After two hours of play, Steve Miller busted out on the bubble, and the 18 remaining players were now all in the money. Keven Stammen was first to cash in, for $8,261, when his A-9 lost to Uz's A-J. Schneider picked up more chips by knocking out Russell James in 17th place, also paying $8,261. He had A-K, James had A-Q, and a board of 8-5-3-7-9 changed nothing.
Two more players, Antonio Spansera and Jim Karambinis, went out rapidly, and by 2:45 we were down to 14.
A little before the break, Terry Quinn cashed in 14th for $9,638 when he raised all in with A-10 on a flop of 5-3-2 and couldn't hit anything, losing to pocket 9s..
By now blinds had gone to 1,500-3,000 with 400 antes. Casullo was still holding onto his lead with close to 200,000 chips.
First out in the new round was Kou Vang who moved in with pocket 5s and lost to Chris Viox who had Q-J and flopped a jack. 13th place also paid $9,638.
The next three players out would each get $11,024. However, with play tightening, nobody else would go broke in this round. Schneider came close after losing about 45,000 chips to Uz, who went all in on a board of 9-4-4-7-9 after betting the turn. After long thought, Schneider called and then mucked his hand when Uz turned up pocket queens. Down to about 15,000, Schneider managed to recover somewhat when he moved in with K-Q, beating Marc Frattner's pocket deuces and escaping when a queen flopped.
The next level started with blinds of 2,000-4,000 and 500 antes. After 40 minutes of play, Matt Sterling re-raised all in for about 90,000 with pocket queens. Ogle called with pocket kings, and Sterling, dead to a runner-runner straight after a king flopped, finished 12th. Suddenly there was bang-bang action at both tables. Wilbur Futhey was out in 11th place. Immediately after, Bryan Sapp moved in with A-7. Uz called with Q-10 suited. "Queen is my card," he kept shouting. He didn't get a queen, but settled for a 10 when the board came 10-4-4-7-K, and in a flash, after 5-1/2 hours of play, we were down to the final table. Day 3 action will begin at 2 p.m. tomorrow. -- Max Shapiro
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