Poker Tournament Results

Legends of Poker / WPT Event Season 7

Place	Name	Prize
1	Gabriel Habbaba (La Mesa, CA, USA)	$30,427
2	Edward Vartanian (Los Angeles, CA, USA)	$14,910
3	Steve Zola (Santa Barbara, CA, USA)	$7,660
4	Sang Pham (Fountain Valley, CA, USA)	$4,835
5	Brian McCann (Reseda, CA, USA)	$3,625
6	Ronald Todd Crosswell (Hanford, CA, USA)	$2,820
7	Alex Notov AKA "BkAlex" (Berkeley, CA, USA)	$2,015
8	Farhad Saadat (Los Angeles, CA, USA)	$1,815
9	Henry Machado AKA "DEVLDOG" (Los Angeles, CA, USA)	$1,610
10	Pogos Simityan (Glendale, CA, USA)	$1,410
11	Bashar Satoot AKA "Charlie" (Burbank, CA, USA)	$1,410
12	Nhut Tran (Las Vegas, NV, USA)	$1,410
13	Shay Malka (Beverly Hills, CA, USA)	$1,210
14	Men "The Master" Nguyen (Bell Gardens, CA, USA)	$1,210
15	Kirk Conrad (Orange, CA, USA)	$1,210
16	Carlson Le (Goodyear, AZ, USA)	$1,010
17	Mehrdad Maghoulipour (South Pasadena, CA, USA)	$1,010
18	David Rayor (Torrance, CA, USA)	$1,010

Tournament Report

Gabriel Habbaba Takes Down $300 No Limit Event Without a Rebuy The 2008 Legends of Poker series continued with Event #2, a $335 buy-in No Limit Hold’em event with one optional rebuy. A field of 175 players created a prize pool of $80,607. It was shortly before 1am when the final table was set. Two players shared the chip lead with 125,000 each and two players shared the shortest stack count of 20,500. The action started cautiously with ten minutes to go in Level 13 with antes of 500 and blinds of 1,500/3,000. The 40-minute rounds provided a good level of play through the final table. The first elimination came on hand #15 when Steve Zola pushed all-in and was called by the big blind Pogos Simityan. Steve held pocket Queens and had Pogos covered holding pocket 10s. The flop gave Steve the set with Q-9-6 and the turn King gave Pogos a shot for the Jack. The river 10 came too late and Pogos was eliminated set-over-set in 10th place and received $1,410. The next confrontation resulted in a double elimination on hand #25 when Gabriel Habbaba raised from UTG and Farhad Saadat pushed in immediately. It then folded to the big blind and he pushed all-in. The cards were shown and Gabriel Habbaba showed A-6, Farhad A-10, and the big blind Henry Machado held Q-Q. The board came A-5-4-2-6. Gabriel Habbaba rivered his two-pair and knocked out both opponents. Henry Machado took 9th place and earned $1,610. Farhad Saadat finished in 8th place and pocketed $1,815. Just after tripling up his short stack, Alex Notov pushed all-in for his last 27K with A-7. He was called in 2 spots by Brian McCann holding A-Q and Todd Crosswell for his last 14K with a K-4. The board came 5-5-2-K-3 giving Todd the main pot but Brian’s Queen kicker sent Alex to the rail in 7th place for $2,015. A few hands later (#43), Todd decided to limp in early position with a Ad-10. He was raised by the chip leader, Gabriel Habbaba with a dominated A-9d. Todd pushed all-in and was called for a few more chips. The flop landed Jd-6d-5d and Todd extended his lead. The 9h on the turn gave Gabriel the lead and the river King was no held for Todd. Todd finished in 6th place and took home $2,820. The final five players discussed a chip count and after a brief but involved deliberation, all players agreed to the deal. Gabriel Habbaba held the chip lead for most of the final table and was declared the winner with a substantial chip lead. -- Jay 'Bugsy' Siegel & O.J. Alcaraz BIOGRAPHY Gabriel Habbaba, from San Diego, has been playing poker for a little over 2 years. He plays both tournaments and cash games. You can find him playing $5/10 No Limit at The Bike. His strategy tonight was to be knocked out by 8pm and go home to spend time with his wife. With this win he plans to play more tournaments at the Legends and will make more time for his wife once the series concludes.