Randy Rushes to 7-Stud Win!
Short-chipped with five players left, attorney-turned-pro Randy Holland suddenly went on a rush, sucked up chips like a vacuum cleaner and zipped to a $6,000 victory in event number seven of Winnin’ o’ the Green, 7-Card Stud. “The cards ran over me,” he acknowledged. Justin Westmoreland, winner of the limit hold’em event the night before, finished second and slipped past Men “The Master” Nguyen to take over the all-around pay-out points lead.
Stranded in ninth place was Sam Sanussi, who couldn’t beat Ferydon Afshar’s kings. With limits at $3,000-$6,000, Ferydon, Justin and Hon Le all came to the final table with somewhat over $20,000.
Three players were knocked out in just five hands. First to depart was Jerry Bremonte, who started with split nines against Randy’s split tens. He made nines-up and lost to tens-up. A hand later, former Israeli soccer pro David Levi went all in with split queens. He couldn’t improve and got shot down by Hon Le’s two bullets. And right after that, full-time player Tony Jennings raised with buried tens and a nine up and then went all in for $2,900 with a jack on fourth street. Ferydon, a Bicycle Casino floorman, had a five door card and made trip fives to reduce the field to five.
Four hands later, Randy started his rush. He was down to only $1,100 when his jacks held up and he beat Hon Le. The next hand was perhaps the key one of the evening. Hon Le bet out with a board of 5-5-K. Randy called showing A-Q-K and with a queen and a jack in the hole. On sixth street, Randy paired his ace and bet. On the river he bet again. The Kamikaze Kid thought for a very long time, finally made a reluctant call with his last chips and then flung his hand into the muck when Randy turned up two queens for a full house.
Randy then picks up a couple more small pots to accumulate some $50,000, about half the chips on the table. On hand 17, with $5,000-$10,000 limits, poker player Hamid Mohammadi goes all in with A-7/2. “You have enough chips to gamble,” Justin says to Randy, a remark which irritates Hamid because he sees it as a prompt. Randy elects to leave the mop-up work to Ferydon, who wins with two fours when Hamid can’t make a pair.
Five hands later, Justin bleeds off more chips to Randy. He raises with an ace up and Randy pops it with an eight showing. When Randy bets on fourth street, Justin folds. “I know you’ve got eights,” the Arkansas native drawls. Better. Randy shows him pocket queens.
Ferydon, who hadn’t played any tournaments in a long time but felt like taking a shot tonight, goes all in on third street for $2,600, but stays in action after making kings-up. He lasts only one more hand. He raises with split kings and is called by Randy with A-10/Q. After catching two running deuces, the floorman goes all in, then settles for third place when Randy outruns him by making aces-up.
Heads-up, it’s no contest. “You have way too many chips,” Justin groans, staring at Randy’s huge stacks. Randy finishes him in two hands. Justin is all in for a few hundred dollars with 5-2/8, not a bad hand – if the game was 8 or better, which it isn’t. The best he can make is two fives, while Randy, starting with Q-4/2, once again gets all the cards he needs, wins going away with aces and queens and turns off the lights on his way out. –Max Shapiro
BIOGRAPHY
Randy Holland, born in Calgary, Canada, moved to Florida when he was 10, became an attorney and worked for the state government. He started playing poker full time eight years ago and has since piled up numerous wins and best all-around titles at Commerce and the Bike.
Tonight, he said, he had one scare when Hon Le had him all in with 12 tables to go. After that, he always had enough chips so that an opponent couldn’t call without pumping him up. The final table was “very easy” because he won every hand he played except once when he folded on fourth street. The critical decision, he said, was when he decided to call after Hon Le paired his door card five. “If he had three fives he would have taken over the lead, but I didn’t believe he did.” That was the hand where he made queens-full and never looked back.
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