Ken Davis Wins Stud Hi-Lo!
The 11th event of Winnin’ o’ the Green, 7-card stud hi-lo, took a long and often monotonous nine hours, with pots chopped and chips moving back and forth. But in the end, the last chips moved to Ken Davis, a production designer who plays a lot of tournaments. Runner-up was poker player David Plastik, and finishing third was Joe Wynn, the current stud hi-lo World Series title-holder. “This was the most congenial final group I’ve ever played with,” the easy-going Davis commented.
Limits were raised to $2,000-$4,000 with $300 antes with still two tables. “When we get to the final table we’ll only play one hand,” Wynn predicted. Qi Liu finally got them there by knocking out Al Ack. Earlier, he had called for coin machines to tell bad beat stories to. It was an omen. On sixth street, he had three jacks to her trip deuces, but she caught a diamond on the river for a flush.
Veteran tournament player George Mansour departed on the second hand of the final table. On fourth street he had pocket queens and a four-flush. That’s where he ended, losing to aces and sevens. And three hands later, stock analyst Tony Brenner went all in with three small cards and caught a bunch of bananas, busting out against Liu’s aces and eights.
A few hands later, poker player Paul Honas began walking a long tightrope by going all in and surviving the first of a half-dozen times before lasting to fifth place. Then, Sinh Quach started with a promising low of A-3/7-5 and went all in for his last $500 on sixth street. He missed and was cut down by Liu’s trip eights. Liu started with a huge chip lead, and just before the limits rose to $3,000-$6,000, she was still ruling the roost. But from there it was all downhill, starting with being scooped by Plastik’s eights and sevens, and later pumping an almost empty Wynn by folding on sixth street.
Play continues for many more hands. Then Honas goes all in for the sixth time again by betting his scary doorcard ace. “I got caught,” he says, turning up a 9-6 when Wynn calls. But he proceeds to also get lucky, making a 6-4 and chopping. A couple of hands later, Liu gets chopped down low herself when Plastik, showing 7-8-2-Q, turns up two more deuces for a scoop. Two hands later, Honas makes his last stand, putting in his last $1,300 on fifth street with tens and losing to Davis’ aces. One hand later Qi Liu follows him to the pay window. She starts out with pocket nines against Wynn’s pocket queens. On sixth street she picks up a diamond draw, misses it, makes trip nines and still loses to Wynn’s sevens-full.
Three-handed, Davis has $47,100 to Plastik’s $44,300,while Wynn trails with $17,900. Two hands later, when Plastik bets his fourth-street ace, Wynn calls all in with split kings. “Bet you don’t have another ace,” he says. Plastik doesn’t, but catches one on his next card. On sixth street, Wynn’s only out is a king, which he proceeds to river.
The limits go to $5,000-$10,000, and the hands go on and on. “Real exciting,” observes Davis. Finally Wynn surrenders to Davis when he can’t improve his queens and loses to two pair and a low. By now even the bleachers have emptied. “At least it shows you two don’t owe money,” cracks tournament director Denny Williams. The end finally comes when Plastik starts and ends with split jacks and an ace, losing his last chips to Davis’ queens and sixes.—Max Shapiro.
BIOGRAPHY
Ken Davis, 49, who lives in Malibu, has been playing poker for eight years. His job is designing sets for television commercials when he isn’t playing tournaments, which is quite often. He also has titles in no-limit, razz and lowball at various casinos, including a no-limit hold’em victory four years ago at Commerce Casino’s Los Angeles Poker Classic. No-limit is his favorite game, and most of his poker time goes into tournaments instead of side games.
Tonight, he said, he was in pretty good shape throughout the tournament. He was never in trouble, never really low on chips, and climbed steadily. He paid tribute to his final two opponents as two really nice guys who were also great players. Joe, in particular, he thought, was fantastic. “He really can talk and really can play.”
ALL-AROUND PAY-OFF POINTS
Name Total
1. Justin Westmoreland 112
2. Men Nguyen 99
3. Pat Enos 86
4. Sinh Quach 75
5. Khang Pham 73
6. Del Cabot 70
7. Tony Jennings 68
8. John Inashima 65
9. Ken Davis 63
10.Art Kern 61
11.Richard Radford 59
12 Mario Esquerra 59
13 Lich Bui 59
14.Sam Sanusi 58
15.Randy Holland 57
16.Andre Maloof 57
15,Rong Lam 57
16.David Gurney 57
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