Welder Wins Lowball Event!
David Gurney, a 46-year-old certified welder, fired up a win as he outlasted 126 other lowball enthusiasts to claim victory in the eighth event of Winnin’ o’ the Green. The final table looked like a kitchen table because all but one of the last eight competitors in this venerable old game were recreational players. When it got down to two, Gurney held a massive chip lead over runner-up Igal Cohen, and a deal was quickly struck.
Ninth out was a player named Raffi, playing his first lowball tournament. He was a slight underdog to Marty Lewin of Calabasas. Raffi drew three to an 8-2 while Marty, playing his first tournament in over a year, stood pat on a six.
Limits at the final table started at $2,000-$4,000. Joe Schulman, an antique dealer (an appropriate occupation for a game that tends to draw antique players) was first out on the first hand. In the big blind and all in for $400, he took one card to a 9-8-7-3 and paired his nine while Mike Manning drew to 7-6-5-4 and caught a jack.
Two hands later the limits went up to $3,000-$6,000. Jerrod Ankenman of Aliso Viejo, a project manager for a software company, was in the small blind. He called all in for his last $7,800 when Marty raised. In three-way action, holding 7-7-7-A-5, he drew two and made a seven. But Igal took him out when he drew three cards to an A-4 and made a six.
On the eighth hand, two players went broke. Igal raised with a one-card draw to a six. Mike Manning of West Covina and A.C. Shigyo, who lives in La Mirada, both called all in. Each had somewhat over $3,000 in chips, but A.C. had slightly more. Mike drew one to an 8-6-3-A and made his eight. A.C., who’s in the computer business, stood pat on a 9-6-5-3-2. But Igal caught a seven, and suddenly the table was down to four players.
Dave started to pull ahead on the 10th hand when his 8-5 edged Marty’s 8-6 and then he never looked back. Meanwhile, Del Cabot, the only professional at the table, was getting in trouble. He was left with only $400 when he drew two to a seven and paired his three, losing to Marty’s queen. He stayed alive briefly when his nine beat Igal’s paired deuce, but then went all in again for $1,400 when the big blind came around to him. “I’m drawing dead,” he declared, taking two cards to a nine and seeing that Marty was taking one to an eight. Marty caught a jack, but that was good enough as Del paired his three.
Now Dave starts to accumulate chips at Marty’s expense. On hand 18, he calls Marty’s bet after the draw and wins with a ten. Two hands later, when limits rise to $5,000-$10,000, Marty bets out after drawing three. When Dave calls, he throws his bluff away, announcing that he had a 6-4. “A wheel,” Dave responds, showing his made eight.
The 23rd hand is the final one. Dave and Marty square off again. Marty is in the big blind and goes all in for his last $6,000. He draws two to an 8-6-2 and makes a nine, while Dave takes one and completes his eight. Heads-up, Dave and Igal, who’s in the carpet cleaning business and plays a lot of Nooner tournaments at the Bike, make a deal and call it a night. –Max Shapiro
BIOGRAPHY
David Gurney, who works for a contractor, has been most recently doing welding work at Disney’s new California theme park. He’s been playing poker since he was ten, and Omaha is his game of choice. Some of his bigger cash-outs include a 369-player free-roll victory, a second at a Rags to Riches event at the Commerce in 1996 and a seven-player chop at a Nooner Nights tournament last year where he held 42 percent of the chips.
In this lowball tournament, he says he got lucky in the early going when a couple of K-Q hands held up after everyone checked. But he said his “best” hand was played out during the time that he had stepped outside for a smoke. That was the hand where Igal Cohen made a straight seven to knock out two players at once.
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