Poker Tournament Results

The Mini Series

Place	Name	Prize
1	Tong Le (Stanton, CA, USA)	$11,490
2	Hershey Entin (Valley Village, CA, USA)	$5,710
3	Gene Willson (Long Beach, CA, USA)	$2,795
4	Michael Milliard (Dana Point, CA, USA)	$1,860
5	Fernando De La Luz (Southgate, CA, USA)	$1,395
6	Alan H. Mittelman AKA "Bad Dog" (Los Angeles, CA, USA)	$1,085
7	Khammy Lim (Yorba Linda, CA, USA)	$775
8	Nicholas Dileo (Boston, MA, USA)	$620
9	David Yoon (Los Angeles, CA, USA)	$465
10	Hugie Loya (N Hollywood, CA, USA)	$390
11	Nary Forrest (CA, USA)	$390
12	Carlos Ruiz (Filmore, CA, USA)	$390
13	Jesus Garcia (Norwalk, CA, USA)	$310
14	Eli Villagomez (CA, USA)	$310
15	Antour Vartanian (California City, CA, USA)	$310
16	David Podell	$270
17	Jimmy Lim (Glendale, CA, USA)	$270
18	Debbie Zhe (CA, USA)	$270
19	Jeff Hinman (CA, USA)	$215
20	Chan Nguyen (El Monte, CA, USA)	$215
21	Miguel Ramirez (CA, USA)	$215
22	Hung Nguyen (Los Angeles, CA, USA)	$215
23	Dan Natarelli (Simi Valley, CA, USA)	$215
24	Britton Purvis (Studio City, CA, USA)	$215
25	Joshua Thomas (San Dimas, CA, USA)	$215
26	Daniel Stover (CA, USA)	$215
27	Todd Zacharais (Huntington Beach, CA, USA)	$215

Tournament Report

Tong Le Wins Opening Mini Series Deepstack Event Event #1 of the Deepstack Mini Series enticed 320 players who received 4,000 in chips and virtually all of the players optioned their 1,000 bonus chips for $5/head. The 30-minute rounds moved the tournament along but with almost 1,6000,000 chips in play, only the short stacks were feeling the pressure of the increasing blinds as the final table fell into place at 4am. Without any reservations, hand #1 was played out with all-in pre-flop action from the cutoff by shortstack Hugie Loya. Hugie put his last 85,000 chips in the pot with A-Q and the button quickly pushed with J-J. The blinds folded quickly and the race was on. The board improved neither hand and Hugie Loya from North Hollywood was eliminated and collected $390 for his 10th place finish. A few minutes later, on hand #5, a three-way all-in pot developed pre-flop. Michael Millard, on the button, held 7-7, while small blind Gene Willson woke up to K-K and the shortstack David Yoon held A-J. The board came down K-10-3-J-K and Gene Willson's quad-Kings took down the pot. Michael Millard took a small hit to his stack and David Yoon was eliminated in 9th place earning $465. Hand #9 was a battle of the blinds when Nick Dileo was all-in with 2-3 in the big blind against the Q-10 of Tong Le in the small blind. The board was 9-7-5-5-8 and the Queen high gave Tong the pot. Nick Dileo finished in 8th place and earned $620. It took over an hour for the next elimination to occur. On hand #33, Tong Le called the all-in of Khammy Lim. Tong showed K-7 and Khammy held 8-5. The board hit the 7 and Khammy Lim was eliminated in 7th place for $775. Just a few hands later, the big blind called the all-in of Fernando De La Luz who was holding pocket Kings. Allen Mittelman had A-10 and was a 2:1 dog against the Kings. The board could not improve Allen's hand enough to overcome the overpair (Q-5-2-10-X). Allen Mittleman, a frequent final table player, was eliminated in 6th place and took home $1,085. On the very next hand, Hershey Entin called Fernando De La Luz's raise preflop. Fernando had the slight lead with 4-4 and Hershey was racing with A-K. The flop was A-8-8 and Hershey took the early lead. The turn and river 7-6 didn't change anything for Fernando and he was eliminated in 5th place for $1,395. As the blinds increased to 5K ante, 10K/20K blinds, the clock struck 6am. Hand #49 played out when Hershey Entin raised preflop to 60,000 and Tong Le re-raised. Michael Millard, in the big blind with over half his chips already in the pot, called his remaining 65,000. Hershey got out of the way and the heads-up pot contest was underway. Tong showed A-J and Michael showed 6-2. The flop was good for Michael with a Q-10-6 but the turn 9 gave Tong a straight draw to go along with his overcards. The river 8 gave Tong the straight and sent Michael Millard out in 4th place earning him $1,860. The remaining three players looked at a chip count deal and settled the event quickly. Tong Le, who declined previous chip count deals, was the chip leader and was declared the winner of the opening event of The 2009 Mini Series. -- Jay 'Bugsy' Siegel BIOGRAPHY Tong Le a resident of Los Angeles is a tournament only player and this is his first win in a big series. Tong plays a very deliberate and aggressive final table game. He takes his time on big decisions and frequently uses the power of the re-raise to shut out his opponents. Tong controlled the final table and earned the title through his aggressive play.