Driver Gebrehiwet Goitom Wins O/8
After Nut-Nut Hand Puts Him in Gear
Las Vegas, NV--Gebrehiwet Goitom, playing in the sixth event of the WSOP Circuit at Caesars Palace, $500 Omaha 8 or better, said he was steaming after absorbing a lot of beats. Then the driver/poker player from Dallas, Texas, played a marginal hand, 2c-4c-5c-9h and ended up with the double nuts when a board of A-3-K-4-6 gave him the best low and a straight. After that, he started picking up cards and chips. He said he plays very well once he has chips, and from that point began playing aggressively and moved straight up. His victory brought him $24,199 along with a gold-and diamond championship ring. Goitom, originally from Ethiopia, has been playing 11 years now, learning by just playing, and has a lot of tournament cashes along the way, the largest being $41,040 for finishing second in a $500 no-limit Legends of Poker event at the Bicycle Casino in 2006. His favorite game, though, is Omaha/8 because it's "not a boring game." You can play every hand almost, he added. Goitom is married with two children.
There were 18 players left when day two of this event got underway. Way in front with 173,000 chips, more than three times his closest competitor, was Wayne LaMonica, and he was still comfortably ahead when it got down to the final nine.
Here were the starting chip counts:
Seat 1. Gebrehiwet Goitom 72,000
Seat 2. Tony Townsend 32,000
Seat 3. Kevin Petersen 62,000
Seat 4. Brent Carter 86,000
Seat 5. Tu-Trung Quach 60,000
Seat 6. Soo Lee 30,000
Seat 7. Ryan Carey 12,500
Seat 8. Wayne LaMonica 183,000
Seat 9. John Reiss 79,000
Play started with blinds of 1,500-3,000, 3,000-6,000 limits and 25:12 left on the clock. First out was Tony "Sizz" Townsend, who went in with two low and two high cards, caught nothing and lost to a pair of treys. "I took a chance and missed," he shrugged afterwards. "I shouldn't have played it." Ninth paid $1,494. Townsend, 64, is retired, from Denver, Colorado, and is the spokesperson for the Colorado Card Players Assn. and the Colorado Gaming Consumer Council. He learned poker at home games and worked five years as a prop. His poker highlight was winning the 2001 Best Player Award at the Fall Classic in Canterbury Park, Minnesota.
Not long after, Soo Lee went out. Goitom started with A-3-5-J, made a straight when the board came 7-9-6-4-3, and Lee mucked her cards without showing and departed, collecting $2.241 for eighth. Lee is a housewife from Las Vegas.
Just before blinds went to 2,000-4,000 with 4,000-8,000. limits, Goitom made his nut-nut hand against Tu-Trung Quach and moved into high gear. With the new level starting, LaMonica still held a comfortable lead.
Ryan Carey, meanwhile, who had started with much the lowest chip count, got a little breathing room with an all-in win, but couldn't hold on much longer. He was all in with A-2-4-7, missed his low when the board came Q-9-4-8-K and lost to LaMonica's pocket 6s. Seventh paid $2,988. Carey is a 21-year-old poker player from Vegas. He learned to play when he was 15 or 16 and worked in a pool hall. This is his second Circuit. He has a couple of second-place finishes, at the Binion's Poker Open and the Caesars Palace Classic last year.
Blinds now were 3,000-6,000 with 6,000-12,000 limits. After John "JR" Reiss raised, Brent Carter, in the big blind, reluctantly added his last chips. He had just 2-2-4-Q, called for a deuce, and got his wish when the flop came 2-3-3, giving him deuces full. Unfortunately for him, Reiss, with A-2-3-J, flopped treys-full, and Carter finished sixth, paying $3,735. Carter, a retired harness race driver, is 59 and from Oak Park, Illinois, with well over 200 cashes in his long career. He has two WSOP bracelets, and lifetime earnings of nearly $3 million. He is not yet, as he wrote on his bio sheet, "fading into obscurity."
Next it was Quach who was all in with K-Q-9-8. He got calls from LaMonica and Reiss. When the board came 8c-3h-Kc-Ac-6d, his two opponents chopped Quach up, LaMonica taking low with a 2-5 and Reiss high with Qc-Jc for a flush. Finishing fifth, Quach collected $4,481.Quach, 32, originally from Vietnam, now lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he is a mortgage broker. He has entered two Circuits, and his hobbies are golf and tennis.
Reiss was next out when LaMonica made a straight on the turn and a flush on the river that was bigger than Reiss' flush. Fourth was worth $5,975. Reiss, 45, is a professional gambler from Omaha, Nebraska. He's made three WSOP final tables (third, fourth and sixth), and has wins at a Venetian Deep Stack event and at the World Poker Open. He also likes to bowl and golf.
Later LaMonica made quads when the board showed three 7s, but only got a chop. After that, his cards faded and he did too, going rapidly downhill as players kept taking his chips. By the time stakes had gone up twice with blinds now at 5,000-10,000 and limits at 10,000-20,000, he was down to the cloth. He then went out when he missed his flush draw while Kevin Petersen flopped a wheel. "I just couldn't keep them off me," he sighed. Finishing third, he was compensated with $7,469. LaMonica, 55, is from Tustin, California, is self-employed and has two nicknames, "Lucky Kevin" or "Special K." This is the second Circuit for LaMonica, who has wins at L.A. area casinos such as the Bike, Commerce and Hawaiian Gardens. He has six kids and five grandchildren, and loves them all. He likes to fish and play with his grandchildren.
Heads-up, Goitom now had a substantial lead with about 440,000 chips to 175,000 for Petersen. As they played, Goitom ground down his opponent, who managed to hang on with a couple of all-in survivals, once when he had 3-5-8-J to Goitom's A-K-4-6 and caught runner-runner 5s on the turn and river. But he couldn't make much headway. On the final hand he had 3c-5d-7h-Qh. Goitom had 4d-6c-Js-Qs. A board of Q-4-3-9-10 gave Goitom queens and fours to Petersen's queens and treys, sufficient to end the evening. For second, Petersen picked up $12,697. Peterson, nicknamed "Bleo," is a poker player from Las Vegas. His poker highlight was being televised in a $2,000 no-limit tournament at the WSOP in 2006, where he finished 32nd. --Max Shapiro
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