Poker Tournament Results

Winnin 'O' the Green

Mark Nasser

Tournament Report

Mark Nasser Continues His Run With 2nd Major Title in 2008 The 2008 Winnin' o' the Green series continued with event #17 No Limit Hold'em. Sixty-five players battled out the longest tournament in this series. The final table lasted over 6 ½ hours and could have played on for 2 more hours had a deal not been accepted between the final 3 players. The elimination hands will not be reported due to scheduling conflicts between this reporter and the change in schedule of this 2-day event. With a small field, the event was changed to a single day tournament. Had they known the final table alone would be over six hours, a two-day event would have worked out fine. I was able to interview the winner Mark Nasser who has been on a terrific run between the 2008 LAPC and this year's WOG. Mark has won over $100,000 this year and earned 2 titles. Mark owns a small video production company that he started 15 years ago and does freelance television production. Mark had begun playing poker seriously around 2004 after seeing the famous 2003 WSOP television coverage – aka "The Moneymaker Effect". In his first tournament he cashed in 18th place of a 293 player field. From then on he was hooked. Poker has always been an interest and hobby for Mark but this was the beginning of regularly scheduled poker playing. Mark says he learned poker from Doyle Brunson's Super System and learned some interesting lessons in character from Amarillo Slim's auto-biography. Mark felt like he was playing a solid game but went cold between June 2005 and September 2007. He quit playing on-line and stopped relying on books to improve his game. He felt the on-line experience was training him to play far too loose and it wasn't teaching him enough about player tells. About six months ago, Mark feeling like he was playing to technical started a transition that relied more on feel. That is Feel for the player, the situation, and a feel of himself. The results showed that this adjustment to his game was working. He has cashed five times since last September including two 1st place finishes. Mark described his change in thought process from asking the question "What 2 cards could my opponent have?" to "Why would my opponent do that?" It was the "Why" that transformed his analysis of the game into much more of a reading the situation concentric focus rather than a mathematical approach. He also is keenly aware of how the players perceive him and he often strays from the predictable play. Last night's tournament Mark was fortunate enough to double up in the early rounds. Even though he arrived 45 minutes late, he accumulated chips early and was the chip leader at every table he played. He recalled an early double up hand where he had Q-10 suited and was up against A-J. The board was K-Q-Q-x-10 and Mark filled up on the river and his opponent made the Broadway straight. Mark doubled up and began to use his chip stack as an effective "chip accumulating tool". If he was in a pot, he was playing passively. Mark said he took a few bad beats but had enough chips that it did not affect his big stack strategy. Mark also spoke of a tale that not too many poker players tell: "The greatest check I ever made." With about 25 players remaining Mark limped into a pot with Kd-9d. He was in with a couple of callers including the big blind. The flop was K-9c-6c. He fired out a pot size bet and was called in one spot. The turn was a offsuit 4 and Mark fired his second shell and was called. The river was another offsuit 4 and the big blind checked quickly. Mark noted that she had check-raised several times before and won each one she had to show down. Mark almost fired out what he thought would be a nice value bet but paused, and checked while announcing that she is the only player at the table that he would check this hand. His opponent showed a 10-4 for trip 4s and he mucked face up Kings-up. The table was surprised that he checked on the end. Mark was fortunate she missed a river bet because he was sure to have called it. Next stop for Mark is The Five Diamond series at Bellagio. He will also play in the Winnin' o' the Green Championship event on Saturday, March 23, 2008. Great job on your second major win this year and I look forward to seeing your continued run in '08. -- Jay "Bugsy" Siegel