The Four Queens Poker Classic
September 16, 2001
$1,000 Limit Hold'em
"Good Idea, Mr. President"
By Andrew N.S. Glazer
LAS VEGAS-Several months ago, I came to an agreement with Tournament Producer Bonnie Damiano to cover the $1,000 events at her "Four Queens Poker Classic," not knowing at the time that I was not only going to move to a policy of working only for websites and magazines or newspapers, and not for events, but also that I was going to run into an event which now seems rather minor in the grand scheme of world events.
I didn't really want to come, and I wasn't alone. Attendance dropped dramatically after September 11. But I did come, for two reasons. First, I'd promised, and I like to keep my promises. Second, President Bush asked all Americans to try to go about their daily business, a leadership move I applauded. Almost everyone has been in shock, and most people need some sort of dose of responsibility to others to get refocused and at least partially out of shock.
So, Mr. President, while I haven't always agreed with everything you've said and done, I thought you did well here, and I decided to do my best to follow your request.
WHY DID THEY PLAY ON THE ELEVENTH?
I'll get down to the actual poker in a moment, but the first question I had on my mind when I reached the Four Queens was to ask Damiano about the decision to hold the event that had been prescheduled for September 11, the $500 no-limit hold'em, eventually entered by 89 people and won by France's Martine Oules.
This had been on my mind for a while, because I'd originally planned on playing a no-limit event in my home city of Los Angeles the same day, at the Commerce Casino, but decided-rather easily-that I was in no shape to play and that it wouldn't be a useful diversion for me.
In the aftermath, a poker pro friend of mine emailed me and asked if he thought he was being too sensitive, because he thought both tournaments should have been canceled that day. "After all," he wrote, "they did cancel the baseball games."
I told him no, I didn't think he was being too sensitive, and I agreed that the events should have been canceled, but I followed up with an some other thoughts I felt were relevant.
"At least in my opinion it was an error in judgment," I wrote, "but first, I think we should differentiate between a baseball game, where 40,000 people might congregate in one place watching the quintessential American game and would have thus been a potential target, from a poker tournament, where there would almost certainly have been no danger.
IF EVER THERE WAS A DAY TO EXCUSE A MISTAKE…
"Even more important," I continued, "is that I think we need to take into account the kind of shock everyone was in on September 11. In the immediate wake of this disaster, I think there are very few errors in judgment that I could conceivably hold against anyone. We all need to be a little more gentle with each other anyway, but in particular, I wouldn't rush to criticize any decision anyone made on September 11."
I'm quoting almost verbatim a September 12 email exchange, but Damiano said much the same thing to me tonight.
"It was a very tough call for both me and the hotel, who made the decision jointly," she said, "and in retrospect, I think I made a mistake, I think it would have been better to halt the tournament for one day. But we didn't have a lot of time to decide what to do, and obviously a lot of people did want to play as a kind of diversion. I think we've been doing a lot of things to make up for it. We have collected a lot of money from the players that is heading off to the Red Cross."
Her tournament is going to generate a little more money for the Red Cross than she thought. President Bush's wise words aside, my conscience is allowing my body to be here this week because I'm donating my entire writing fee, sending half to the Red Cross and half to the fund for the NY firemen's families.
ALL FOUR QUEENS EVENTS NOW ONE-DAY TOURNAMENTS
OK, enough preliminaries. We had a poker tournament here today, and even though all the $1,000 events were originally scheduled to be two-day events, and the Championship Event a three-day affair, the drop-off in attendance caused Damiano to decide to make all events one-day events. This will mean some late nights for me, but at least I'll get to sleep in. One finds one's little bright spots where one can.
57 players entered the event, and when we started play at the final table, the seats and chip counts were:
1. Van Pham, $15,500
2. Melissa Hayden, $3,900
3. Tony Cousineau, $2,700
4. John Bonetti, $4,200
5. Chris Tsiprailidis, $11,000
6. Jim Bucci, $2,200
7. Kenny "the Kid," $6,900
8. Tom Cawley, $6,800
9. David Plastik, $1,800
With the blinds at $100-$200, Plastik, who had already won the one event here, lost most of his chips when he flopped a nut flush draw with the Ah-10h, and then his final $300 went in under the gun with pocket nines. Bucci called on the button, both blinds also called, and the 8-7-4 flop looked promising for Plastik.
A queen hit the turn, though, and Plastik muttered, "That's a bad card," and when Bucci bet in a situation that cried out for maximum effort to eliminate a player, everyone was pretty sure Bucci had a queen. The blinds folded, Plastik turned over his 9-9, and Bucci showed Qd-10d. The river brought another eight, and we were eight-handed.
Tony Cousineau, who would probably make anyone's list of the 20 most promising newer full-time pros, also went out on a short two-hand sequence. On the first, Van Pham tried a steal from the button with Jd-2d, but Cousineau called with K-J in the big blind. The flop brought a king with two diamonds. Cousineau led out and got called, and Pham made his flush on the turn.
"Nothing wrong with trying to steal the blinds with J-2," Cousineau exclaimed, "but you don't have to make a flush with it!"
BEWARE OF QUESTIONS THAT HAVE ANSWERS
Just a couple of hands later, Cousineau got the rest of his chips in holding Ac-5c, and staring at a board that came 5h-5s-9c: trip fives with top kicker and a backdoor nut flush draw. As he turned his cards over, he said, "Can anyone tell me how THIS hand can lose?"
Be careful what you ask for, I guess, because as Tom Cawley turned over his pocket fours, a four hit the turn, giving Cawley a full house and sending Cousineau out eighth.
Because this was a one-day event, the players soon thereafter went on a dinner break. When players returned playing with $200-$400 blinds, Jim Bucci was the short stack, and he lost it almost immediately taking Qs-Js against K-Q. The flop was a harmless looking 6-10-2, the turn sent Bucci into the lead with a lucky jack (somehow it doesn't feel right to call it a "miraculous jack" today), but an ace on the river gave Pham an ace-high straight (somehow it doesn't feel right calling it "Broadway" today), and Bucci was seventh.
We lost the great John Bonetti not that long thereafter when he cast his short stack lot with 8-8, only to get called by Pham's Ks-4s. The flop came A-2-3, Bono bet his last couple of chips, and Pham called. Continuing with today's theme of trouble cards showing up on the Turn rather than the river, a five hit, giving Pham a straight, and sending Bonetti out sixth.
I went for a rough chip count at this point, and figured the remaining five players for
Pham, $10,000
Hayden, $6,500
Tsiprailidis, $13,000
The Kid, $6,000
Cawley, $22,000
I usually don't go with sobriquets like "Kenny The Kid," but that's how the pleasant young Asian gent from Downey, CA wanted to be known, and who knows, maybe someday I'll be so good I don't want to scare off opponents with my tournament reputation, either, so I'm honoring his request.
THE CHIP LEADER COULDN'T SLOW DOWN
Van Pham had been the chip leader when the final table began, and he'd even managed to increase his stack for a while, but he kept pushing with a lot of second-best hands, three-betting and check-raising with questionable cards, and eventually it because obvious the players each individually decided they were going to let Pham create the action and then play back at him after he'd invested too much, instead of yielding to his consistent betting pressure.
Pham was the one who had to do the yielding, and his stack steadily decreased. One time he hooked up on a hand against Hayden, who re-popped Pham when he bet out at an A-K-2 flop. Another deuce hit the turn, evening things out in case Pham had an ace with a bad kicker and Hayden a good one, and Pham called Hayden's bets on the turn and river.
She turned over A-Q, her nice kicker ruined by the Turn card that had made any ace hand aces and deuces with a king kicker, and I assumed we were splitting the pot, but Pham mucked what I assumed had to be something like K-Q. Later, staring into a board that contained three clubs as well as an ace, king and jack, Pham called Hayden's bet on the end and mucked when she showed A-7 offsuit.
The chip leader, in other words, had been stricken with a case of chip-itis, unable to slow down from the fast gear that had accumulated him so many chips (and, I was told, a victory just a day or two before at the Commerce), and I felt certain he was going to go out in fifth place.
When we hit the next break (they played 80 minute rounds), the chip count was:
Pham, $7,000
Hayden, $8,000
Tsiprailidis, $12,000
The Kid, $5,000
Cawley, $25,500
For a brief moment after the break I thought my "feeling" about Pham was going to be wrong, because the short stacked Kid got the rest of his money in on the flop against Tsiprailidis, or "Syracuse Chris," as he is called by the many people who don't want to mess with pronouncing or spelling his name. Chris had had the better starting hand, As-Js, but The Kid's A-6 looked better on the 6-4-7 flop, and when the board finished 7-2, Kenny "The Kid" had survived again.
HAYDEN FINISHES OFF PHAM
Hayden, who had position on Pham throughout the day, got the last of his chips when he pushed with 4h-6h, took the lead with a 4-5-J flop against Hayden's K-Q, survived a ten on the turn that gave Hayden 14 outs (any 9, Q, K or A), but fell when a king hit the river.
This win gave everyone but "The Kid" a reasonable shot at victory, but he managed to nurse his short stack along for a couple of hours while no one got eliminated. Meanwhile, Cawley, a Canadian who now resides about half the time in Whittier, CA, moved up over $30,000, more than half the chips in play, but two unsuccessful clashes with Tsiprailidis in three hands halved Cawley's stack and pushed Tsiprailidis into the lead.
Cawley then slid down even further, to about $13,000, and he slumped visibly. His body language had reeked of confidence ten minutes earlier, and suddenly the unthinkable looked possible: there was a chance Cawley was going to exit before The Kid.
THE KID DODGES A FEW ALL-INS
The trouble shifted from Cawley to The Kid, though, as The Youthful One survived two all-in situations. He started out the favorite in the first, taking Q-Q against Tsiprailidis' A-10, but the flop came A-2-4, and it looked like the Kid was gone. The board finished 3-5, though, a straight on board, and The Kid got half the pot. Not long thereafter he got all-in again, needing a seven or queen on the end that wasn't a club (six outs), and caught a red seven for about a $7,000 pot.
Tsiprailidis (or perhaps his cards) decided to pick on Hayden next, crippling her in two hands, once with A-6 when he flopped two pair against what appeared to be an ace with a better kicker, and then later in a classic shorthanded confrontation, the kind of hand that would rarely be played out in a full ring game.
Hayden held A-10, and Tsiprailidis A-Q. Hayden raised from the button and Tsiprailidis popped her back. The flop came 9-7-5, check-check, another seven hit the turn, Tsiprailidis led out for $1,200, and Hayden raised it to $2,400.
In a full ring game, most players would let go of an unimproved A-Q into the face of a raise on fourth street, but shorthanded action, especially amongst talented pros (and all four remaining players were quite talented), doesn't play out the way full table poker does. Tsiprailidis called the raise, both players checked the four on the river, and Tsiprailidis collected the pot, leaving Hayden the new short stack, about $3,500.
Cawley finished off Hayden when, knowing she didn't have enough chips to hurt him, played along with J-10 when she raised with Ad-5d. The flop came K-J-Q, both players checked, and Hayden's last chips went in when an ace hit the turn. Cawley's ten gave him the nut straight, and we were three-handed just as the break hit, with the chip counts now:
Tsiprailidis $30,500
The Kid, $9,500
Cawley, $18,000
With the blinds now $500-$1,000, The Kid didn't have a lot of time to wait or a lot of margin for error if he played, and he lost the first two hands he got involved with, the final one taking him out of the tournament holding K-Q against Tsiprailidis' A-9, when neither player improved.
LET'S NOT MAKE A DEAL
Heads-up, and with Tsiprailidis holding a $34,500-$23,000 chip lead, Cawley asked Tsiprailidis if he wanted to make a deal, and Tsiprailidis indicated he would deal if they split it just according to the chips. Cawley wasn't interested unless he got something extra for his short stack, and they quickly decided to play it out without a deal.
"I almost never deal," Cawley said later. "I'm willing to do it if I can get the best of it, but otherwise I'd just rather play, even against someone I respect like Chris. I offered here because I do respect his play, and because I'd gotten lucky against him in the finals of a $500 limit hold'em event at the Legends of Poker a couple months ago."
Cawley got lucky again here, in part because Tsiprailidis wasn't offering any premiums, and in part because almost from the moment they got heads up, Cawley held all the cards. "Almost every time I looked down at my hand, it seemed like I had an ace or a pair there," he said later.
Cawley took the first three contested pots, and almost before anyone could settle in, suddenly had a $40,000-$17,500 chip lead. Tsiprailidis' stack kept shortening as the players at least looked at a flop on every single hand. Finally, after about 20 hands, Cawley decided to fold from the small blind on the button. Sometimes, it's just your day. Tsiprailidis looked at his cards and turned over two aces.
Tsiprailidis loved his 10-3 a few minutes later, when the flop came Q-10-10, but wouldn't you know it, Cawley had K-10. This blow left Tsiprailidis with three $500 chips, and he managed to double through once before the end came. Holding A-10 against Cawley's Js-7s, it looked like Chris might double through once more when the flop came K-2-4, but The Night of the Turn Card stayed true to the finish. A seven hit the turn, Tsiprailidis' cards hit the floor, and the final eight eliminated any need for Tournament Director Jack McClelland to wonder about a "card on the floor" penalty that would have anted Chris right out of the tournament even if he had hit an ace or ten on the river.
UNDERSTANDABLE FRUSTRATION
Normally I'm not much of a fan of thrown cards-this was actually more of a flip in disgust, rather than an Oddjob attempt to saw the dealer in half-but Chris' cards had gone dry and Cawley's hot so fast once the action got heads up that his frustration seemed understandable.
Tom Cawley wasn't just some guy who got hit run over by the deck, though. He certainly had the best of it at the end, but played a very steady game throughout, and recovered nicely from the two-hand pounding Tsiprailidis gave him when the game was still four-handed.
Cawley is 53, and has been a poker pro for more than just a little while. "Never had a different job my life," Cawley told me. "Been supporting myself playing poker since I was 17. I mostly play 30-60 or 40-80, but about a year ago I started playing tournaments, and for the last four months have been playing tournaments almost daily."
I asked him if he'd played on the 11th. He had, it turned out: he'd played in the very same Commerce "Heavenly Hold'em" event that I had decided to skip. "I shouldn't have played," he said. "I was sad and angry, and didn't play well."
He played well enough today, though, that much was certain, and I expect we'll be seeing more of him in the winner's circle.
Final Official Results, $1,000 Limit Hold'em (57 entrants)
1. Tom Cawley, $22,116
2. Chris Tsiprailidis, $12,717
3. Kenny The Kid, $6,634
4. Melissa Hayden, $3,870
5. Van Pham, $3,041
6. John Bonetti, $2,488
7. Jim Bucci, $1,935
8. Tony Cousineau, $1,382
9. David Plastik, $1,107
OTHER FOUR QUEENS NEWS AND NOTES: Bonnie Damiano has been running a lot of interesting promotions and contests for the folks who have showed up and stayed here, and I'll be catching you up on some of them tomorrow, when I report on the $1,000 Pot-Limit Omaha event.
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