Art Cadena Flops Quads On His Way to Victory
The 2009 Mini Series of Poker continued with Event #22, a $225 buy-in No Limit Hold’em tournament. A field of 169 played for a share of the $32,786 prize pool. Final table play began at level 17 with blinds at 6-12K with a 2K ante. Tim McElhannon arrived as the chipleader with 204,000 of the 1,520,000 chips in play.
Our first elimination occurred on hand #12 when Tong Thanhle raised preflop with K-Q and Anthony Lee went all in with A-K. Thanhle called in what was a huge pot between two large stacks. The flop came 9-9-6 and Lee was still in the lead. The turn brought a King pairing both players but Lee kept the lead with his Ace kicker. The river spiked a Queen and Thanhle’s two pair sends Lee out in 10th place for $575.
Hand #18 saw Sang Pham go all in from the cutoff with Q-7. Clayton Wenger called from the big blind with A-J. After the board came J-6-5-2-J Wenger’s trip Jacks sent Pham out in 9th place for $655.
Couple hands later after Tong Thanhle raised preflop Eric Arreca went all in with A-J. Thanhle called with A-4. The flop of 2-4-6 paired Thanhle’s 4 and gave him the lead. The turn came a 9 and river brought a 10 as Thanhle’s pair of 4’s were enough to send Arreca out in 8th place good for $740.
On hand #23 George Kozel pushed all in from the cutoff with 10-8. He ran into Art Cadena’s pocket Jacks. It was all over on the flop of J-J-4 giving Cadena quad Jacks sending Kozel out in 7th place for $820.
Zhou Huang was now the short stack at this point. He put his last 26K in the pot and was called by 3 other players. The flop came 8-A-K and Tong Thanhle made a bet that caused the rest of the field to fold. Thanhle held A-6 and Huang had J-10. The turn brought a deuce and Huang needed a Queen to win the pot. It was not meant to be as the river brought another deuce sending Huang out in 6th place for $1,150. The remaining 5 players then discussed a chip count deal. Play was stopped so the tournament staff can run the numbers. After the numbers were announced, each player was in agreement thus ending the tournament. Art Cadena was the chipleader at this point and thus declared winner of event #22.
-- O.J. Alcaraz
BIOGRAPHY
Art Cadena has been playing poker for 15 years. He plays all over Los Angeles County with most of his action being at the Bike. You can see him at the 100-300 buy-in No Limit Hold’em cash games. His tournament style is to play the player and change gears when necessary.
CHIP COUNTS ARRIVING AT FINAL TABLE:
Seat 1 Ted Woolridge $124,000
Seat 2 Sang Pham $48,000
Seat 3 Tong Thanhle $177,000
Seat 4 Anthony Lee $195,000
Seat 5 Eric Arreca $153,000
Seat 6 Clayton Wenger $130,000
Seat 7 Tim McElhannon $204,000
Seat 8 George Kozel $155,000
Seat 9 Art Cadena $165,000
Seat 10 Zhou Huang $176,000
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