Poker Tournament Results

Winnin 'O' the Green

Thanh Luong

Tournament Report

Tommy Luong Dominates Main Event Final Table The 2009 Winnin’ O’ the Green series hosted the $1,500 + $80 Main Event with 162 players competing for the title and a share of the $225,710 prize pool (plus a $10K Legends of Poker seat). The winner will earn $85,205 in cash and a $10,000 entry into the WPT/Legends of Poker main event. The Legends of Poker series will be held in the newly constructed Event Center. The WPT/LOP TV final table will be taped in the Event Center as well with a multi-million dollar prize pool expectation. The two-day event concluded on day one with 42 players remaining. The players returned at 4pm on Saturday and the final table was set at 11pm. The 60-minute rounds gave the players plenty of play and the 162,000 average chip stack at the final table was 27 big blinds. On hand #5 George Yutuc called the all-in raise of Susan Trabue. George had Susan covered by a small amount. George showed an A-Q and Susan showed her dominating suited Ad-Kd. The flop was two diamonds (Td-7d-6). The turn paired the board with another 7 and the river was a Queen but it was the 4th diamond giving Susan the nut flush. Susan doubled up through George and his stack was crippled. On hand #6 Antonio Forror raised with pocket 9s and George called his last few chips with a suited Ace (Ad-2d). The flop came 9-9-4 and Antonio flopped quad nines. George was drawing dead as the turn 10 and river 3 hit. George was eliminated in 10th place for $3,950. On hand #10 Brandon Long was all-in with A-10 but ran into Antonio Forror’s pocket Kings. The flop looked good for Brandon with an A-J-J but the turn King gave Antonio the full house. Brandon was looking for an Ace on the river but it was a rag. Brandon Long finished in 9th place and earned $4,515. Hand #15 Dong Xu was all-in for his last few chips with 10-5 but ran into Sung Cho’s pocket Queens. The flop was Q-3-2 and Sung’s flopped set had Dong drawing to a runner-runner situation. The turn 4 was one of the runners giving Dong the open-ended draw. The river Jack wasn’t one of Dong’s outs and he was eliminated in 8th place and collected $5,080. Hand #19 had Ha Pham all-in with a suited As-Js against Lance Tahata’s pocket 8s. The flop came 9s-3-2 and the turn was a 2nd spade (3s) but the river 9 gave Lance two pair for the win. Ha Pham was eliminated in 7th place $5,645. Hand #26 had chip leader Tommy Luong calling the re-raise all-in of Sung Cho. Sung showed his Ac-Kc and Tommy showed a dominated A-J offsuit. The flop fell J-10-6 and Tommy overcame the domination for top pair-top kicker. Sung could still catch a Queen for the win but the turn 9 and river deuce were no help. Sung Cho finished in 6th place and took home $7.900. The final five players played about 7 more hands until the end of the round and a 10-minute break commenced. During the break, several conversations started regarding a final table deal with the remaining five players. Without a chip count they agreed to a deal and play never continued. Tommy Luong held almost 50% of the chips in play and was declared the winner of the Main Event. All players seemed to agree the deal was fair. - Jay “Bugsy” Siegel BIOGRAPHY Tommy Luong has been playing poker for about 2 ½ years. He now makes a living playing poker with a few tournament wins/final tables but mostly he plays cash games. He plays Limit Hold’em $20/$40 and $500 No Limit Hold’em regularly. He owned his own business until he found out how much he was making by playing poker and his main business became his side business and eventually he dropped it all together.