L.A Poker Classic IX Report
By Max Shapiro
Commerce Casino's ninth annual L.A. Poker Classic had a few new wrinkles this year. Lowball and razz, long eclipsed by action games like hold'em and Omaha, were brought back: razz for the high-limit players and lowball for the old-timers. Although the $300 Lowball event drew 109 entrants, the $1,000 buy-in Lowball Championship attracted just 32 players, none of them kids. In fact, the average age of the finalists was deceased.
The biggest change was dropping the all-around points play-off and substituting a $100,000 freeroll. There was some grumbling by a few pros who said they played in fewer events than they would have if they had been in a points race. However, the idea of the freeroll, noted tournament director Cheri Dokken, was to give the greatest number of players a shot at some extra money. This strategy seems to have been successful, because a field of 124 players qualified by playing in at least seven events.
The $2,500 No-Limit hold'em Championship was won by the great Johnny Chan. Almost as gratifying to him as the first-place prize money of $98,975 was the satisfaction of getting even with old nemesis Kevin Song, who always seemed to get lucky against him at critical times in prior tournaments. This time, Song was one of two players Chan knocked out in the same hand just before the final table. When a player named Ned Cruey bet $7,000 holding 7-6 of diamonds, Chan raised $10,000 with pocket eights and Song moved in for $31,000 with pocket sevens. "His luck ran out," Chan said, after his eights held up.
If there was one word to describe this championship event, it would be: "LONG!" It started at 2:30 p.m. and dragged on until 8:30 a.m., 18 hours later. Certainly the longest (non-stop) tournament they've ever played in, Chan and several other finalists agreed. The most spectacular hand came when fourth-place finisher Greg Alston moved all in for $30,000 with sevens and was called by runner-up Crews Johnston with jacks. Alston flopped a set, but Johnston, who hails from Alabama where he says he began playing hold'em when it was first invented, made a bigger set on the river. Third-place finisher Brad Daugherty, winner of the 1991 WSOP championship, wasn't getting many hands in the late stages, so A-Q looked big to him when he shoved in his remaining $48,000 by re-raising Chan. It wasn't big enough because Chan had A-K.
The two finalists started fairly even in chips. They played cautiously, the hands weren't eventful and not many chips changed hands as the finale dragged on well into the second hour. Finally, they agree to keep raising the blinds themselves and bring in $5,000 chips. Eventually, Chan gained the momentum and finally put his opponent all in. He made a flush, but Crews escaped by filling with two running aces. The last hand was anti-climactic. Crews went all in with 4-3 and Chan, with K-Q, flopped a king to put it away.
In the early stages of the Poker Classic, it was almost an all-male event, with only one woman making the final table in the first 11 events. Then Janet Yo won event No. 12, Seven-Card Stud, and Kathy Liebert really closed the gender gap by winning the $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em, coming in third in $1,000 Pot-Limit Hold'em and finishing fifth in the freeroll, which was won by "Miami John" Cernuto.
In other highlights, Chris Tsiprailidis (or Syracuse Chris, as he likes to be known now) won the $500 Pot-Limit Hold'em and, the next day, the $500 Razz event. Then there was the fascinating father-son combination of George and Andre "Gerard" Rechnitzer. In the $500 Stud event, son Gerard finished second (actually he had the most chips when he made a deal with Janet Yo) while George came in 16th. Then, they made a dual appearance at the final table in $1,000 Stud, won by 23-year-old Gerard while dad finished fourth.
Worst bad beat? Layne Flack, who won the $300 No-Limit Hold'em event, was one of four finalists in $1,000 Pot-Limit Hold'em. After winning a small pot, he flipped his cards to the dealer. But his aim was bad, they fell to the floor and he got a mandatory 20-minute penalty. When he left he had about $6,000 in chips. When he returned, all but $1,400 had been blinded off, and a hand later he was out.
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