Cell Phone Salesman Babken Vardanyan Phones in Final Table Win
The 2008 Winnin' o' the Green series continued with Event #2, $325+$35 No Limit Hold'em including $25 bounties. A field of 141 players created a prize pool of $41,031 and took almost 6 hours to reduce down to the final table. Play was initially cautious by eight of the nine players during the first 17 hands. Tim Frazin was pushing the action by raising all-in multiple times and built his short stack into a formidable force for the duration of the final table.
The first final table bustout occurred on hand #17. Jeff White, a Buffalo, NY resident, raised from the cutoff for his last 10,000 and was called by Babken Vardanyan from the big blind. Babken immediately showed his pocket 10s and a disappointed Jeff slowly showed his pocket 9's. The board of 6-5-K-8-6 was no help to Jeff and Babken's higher two pair took the pot and sent Jeff out in 9th place earning $720.
The next elimination occurred on the very next hand. Ulises Zelayandia raised from UTG for 6,000 and John Vorhaus pushed all-in for a total of 4,600. All other players folded and John was in a coinflip situation. John's AKo was up against Ulises's pocket 4s. The board of 10-J-5-6-8 did not improve John's hand. Author, columnist, and TV commentator John Vorhaus was out in 8th place and collected $820 plus a handful of $25 bounties.
On hand #36, just as the blinds entered level #11 with antes of 200 and blinds of 800/1600, David Moskowitz raised all-in from the button and was quickly called by Phillip Penn. Phillip showed his pocket Aces and David realized he needed a lot of help and showed his A-10o. The board was Q-8-7-K-8. David missed his straight draw and finished in 7th place for a $1,025 payday plus a few bounties.
On hand #40, poker pro Paul Darden raised from the cutoff for 4,400, Babken Vardanyan flat calls and Ulises Zelayandia pushes all-in from the big blind. Both players call and it is checked down to the river with a board of K-J-6-5-K. Babken's pocket 8s beats out Paul's AQo and Ulises's Q-10. Ulises Zelayandia is eliminated in 6th place and pockets $1,435 for his effort.
The last elimination occurred on hand #50 when Phillip Penn, after suffering a earlier loss for a majority of his chips, saw the flop of A-10-9. Phillip bet out 4,000 and Babken raised all-in. Phillip went into the tank and made the call. Phillip showed a suited 5-9 for bottom pair and Babken showed A-10 for top two pair. The turn 10 sealed the deal and the river 5 finished out the board. Phillip 'JB: Penn was eliminated in 5th place and earned $1,845 plus healthy stack of bounty discs.
With four players to go, a chip count deal was calculated and after a brief but colorful negotiation, all players agreed to the deal. Babken Vardanyan, who started the final table second in chips to Paul Darden, was the chip leader and declared the winner. Babken's take of $16,411 plus one WOG trophy was a nice day's pay for this cell phone salesman from Glendale.
BIOGRAPHY
Babken Vardanyan is a cell phone salesman from Glendale, California. Babken has been playing poker for about 6 years and only playing tournaments for the last 3 years. He plays both cash games and tournaments and recounted his first time playing Hold'em was at The Bike in a $3/6 limit game. Babken said the tournament turned around for him when he made an all-in call with pocket 7s and was up against AA. Babken's flopped set was the beginning of journey to the final table. Babken is looking forward to playing future WOG events at The Bike and will be trekking up to Vegas to play in a few Deepstack tournaments.
| 
