The Four Queens Poker Classic
$5,000 No-Limit Hold'em Championship Event
Day Three, September 23, 2001
The Red Nine Strikes Again
By Andrew N.S. Glazer
Just what is it about these red nines deciding major poker championships, anyway?
The red nine that all witnesses will remember forever landed on the river on the final hand of the 2000 World Series of Poker Championship Event, a three-out nine of hearts that gave Chris "Jesus" Ferguson a well-earned (if lucky at the end) World Championship.
The second Big Red Nine landed on the river on the final hand of the 2001 World Series of Poker Championship Event, a nine of diamonds that gave Carlos Mortensen a well-earned (if lucky at the end) World Championship. Mortensen did have 13 outs, as he could have won with any of nine clubs, three nines, or the Ad.
Today, just at the stroke of midnight, eight hours after play began at the final table and four hours after the heads-up duel between Allen Cunningham and Barry Shulman began to decide the $5,000 no-limit hold'em championship at the Four Queens Poker Classic, a red nine did it again.
THIS TIME IT HIT ON THE TURN, AT LEAST
The red nines are slipping, though, as this one came on the turn, not the river, but let's leave the matter of which of these fine players caught the nine of hearts for a bit later in our tale.
When we began play, the seats and chip positions were:
1. Allen Cunningham, $107,000
2. Ralph Perry, $175,300
3. Burt Boutin, $49,100
4. Jim "Cincinnati Kid" Lester, $138,800
5. Erik Seidel, $29,600
6. Jack Ward, $11,900
7. Barry Shulman, $69,500
8. Melissa Hayden, $98,300
9. Annie Duke, $70,500
As you might expect in a $5,000 buy-in tournament, we had no unknowns in this line-up, although chip leader Perry isn't all that well known as a tournament player. If you know your high stakes money players, though, you're familiar with Perry, who can be found in games as big as $1,000-$2,000 over at the Bellagio.
Two of the three chip leaders got their early leads from big calls that took out players eleven and ten the night before. Cunningham, certainly one of the five best players in the world under the age of 30 and a soft-spoken, likeable guy who, if he plays poker for another 30 or 40 years, has a chance to retire as the greatest player the game has ever known, doubled through Boutin when he called three consecutive large bets with only a medium-strength hand, clearly playing his read on the man and not his cards.
PERRY STARTS WITH CHIP LEAD VIA SEIF K/O
Chip leader Perry set the final table by knocking out Mark Seif and his 80 grand when, with a king having hit the board on the flop, Seif checked the river, watched Perry bet 10k, and then raised him back the rest of his chips. Perry sat and thought for quite a while and then called 60k with his K-Q.
Seif had made what I thought was a nice move (for someone thinking about winning the tournament rather than just hanging on for the money) with his K-J, but he exited 10th, and Perry's good read left him in the catbird seat for the finale.
There were ten minutes left on the clock when we resumed on Sunday, with $300 antes and $1,000-$2,000 antes, and because there were no other games going in the rather large tournament room, the eerie background silence combined with the large sums at stake made the atmosphere very tense to start. No one called any initial raise in the eight hands it took to finish the first level, and even after we moved to $500 antes and $1,500-$3,000 blinds, no one played back at anyone for the first twelve hands.
#13 UNLUCKY, NOW THERE'S A SHOCK
On "lucky 13," the short-stacked Ward, who'd gathered a little ammo with one earlier all-in move, pushed his $20,000 all-in from two off the button. Melissa Hayden, appearing at her third final table in four tournaments, raised it to $40,000 from one off the button, in an apparent attempt to tell the three players left to act that she wanted to take Ward on by herself.
Cunningham then pushed all-in from the big blind, a great bet because if he could make Hayden lay down her hand, his $20,000 profit from her would leave him freerolling against Ward's $20,000, Hayden's other $20,000, and the other blind & ante money left in the pot. Hayden had to figure Cunningham for something pretty strong, and released what she later said was A-K offsuit.
Cunningham turned over pocket jacks, and Ward showed Ah-Qh. When the first four cards off the deck were J-5-7-7, Ward had no outs, and exited 9th, while Cunningham had moved into a virtual tie for the chip lead, and the big action hand seemed to loosen up both the room and the table.
SEIDEL LOOKS FOR WIN, NOT LADDER MOVE
This left Seidel as the short stack, and a player of his caliber isn't going to ante off in the hope of getting a ladder move from 8th to 7th. When Lester raised it to $10,000 from the small blind three hands later, Seidel moved all-in from the big blind with pocket deuces. Because he only had about $23,000, he was pretty sure Lester would call if he'd been on a cold steal, but he wasn't: A-Q.
When you have two deuces and you're isolated against one player, it doesn't matter too terribly much if his overcards are 5-9 or A-Q: you just don't want to be up against a bigger pair. A-Q turned out to be the right overcards here, because the flop came J-J-Q, and Seidel was eighth.
Only seven hands later, on #23, Hayden, who had already lost 40k when Cunningham moved over her re-raise and 15k when Duke re-popped her the very next hand, moved all-in from three off the button. Perry, who had both the button and a mountain of chips, asked Melissa for a count, and it turned out Tournament Director Jack McClelland's estimate of $50,000 was exactly right ("Nice guess, Jack," said Melissa, to which the always-ready-with-a-quip man who ran the World Series of Poker for so many years said, "Yeah, and it's my first tournament, too!").
HAYDEN REALIZES TWO SIXES MEAN PROBABLE 86
"I call," said Perry, and Hayden started to stand up, not feeling very confident about getting called with two sixes. She had reason to worry, too, because Perry turned over Q-Q. The flop came Kh-Jh-4h, which provided no help because Hayden and Perry each had a heart, and when another queen hit the turn, Hayden had no outs. She exited 7th, at 4:40 p.m., and after the cautious start we'd now lost three players in 15 minutes.
Five minutes later, Card Player Publisher Shulman, who had already won a $300 no-limit tournament at the Four Queens and made a final table in another event, raised it to $10,000 from the button, and Duke moved her roughly 50k in from the small blind. Once again Cunningham moved all-in as the third player into a pot, Shulman let go of his cards no faster than he would have if they had, let's say, been coated with sulfuric acid, and Duke turned over 5-5.
Cunningham showed A-K, a king hit the flop, and players were leaving this table so fast, I was starting to wonder if maybe I'd forgotten to shower. I had remembered to shower, I realized, just as I had also remembered to shower my laptop with a 48 ounce Big Gulp coke two nights earlier, which is a really bright thing to do if you want to upgrade your laptop to a newer model about a year sooner than you were planning to.
HEY, WASN'T THEIR THEME "COKE ADDS LIFE?"
Memories of personal hygiene, personal stupidity, and my laptop's demise thus firmly established, I tried to figure out what the mass exodus had done to the remaining players' chip positions, and estimated
Cunningham, $250,000
Perry, $230,000
Boutin, $40,000
Lester, $150,000
Shulman, $80,000
It took all of eleven hands to knock out another player. Boutin, who when the poker world was last watching was jumping, hopping and dancing his way to an upset win over Dave "Devilfish" Ulliott in the 2001 WSOP $2,000 entry Pot-Limit Hold'em Championship, had moved up to just under 50k when Perry decided to push 50k at him from the small blind.
Boutin looked down at his big blind hand, saw As-8d, decided that Perry was probably bullying him with his bigger stack and a weaker hand, and called all-in. He was right, too, but not by as much as he would have liked: Perry turned over Kh-10h.
RUNNING HEARTS RUN BOUTIN OUT DOOR
Boutin still had the lead after the 2h-4c-6d flop, but the Jh hit the turn, giving Perry outs to any heart, king, or ten, and the 5h hit the river. Two running hearts had run Boutin out of the game, and with his fifth place exit coming at 5:02, less than an hour after we'd begun, I started thinking we might have a really short final table on our hands.
Then I thought a little more, and realized that these five fast exits left the four remaining players with stacks that were way out of proportion to the now relatively insignificant blinds and antes, and that barring some sort of accident like kings running into aces, it might take three hours to eliminate anyone else. Turned out I wasn't that far off. A chip estimate a few hands later made it
Cunningham, $250,000
Perry, $250,000
Lester, $150,000
Shulman, $100,000
Four-handed, the dead money was only $6,500 ($500 antes and $1,500-$3,000 blinds), and with four guys left who all knew how to play, it seemed unlikely that these small blinds were going to force anyone into making an unnecessarily risky move with the really big prize money now in sight.
OK, EVERYONE, RELAX A LITTLE NOW
Boutin had exited on hand #37, the fifth victim in 24 hands, but now play settled down, and nothing dramatic happened until hand #56, when Lester made it $31,500 from the small blind, and Shulman moved all-in from the big blind. Lester thought about it briefly, but he was getting pretty good pot odds, and unless Shulman had A-A, A-K, K-K, or Q-Q, he was likely to be in pretty reasonable shape with his A-Q, so he called. Only A-A and A-K would have been disasters.
Shulman turned over A-K, and as if to show that such things are possible, the first four cards off the deck were 3-K-8-K. Shulman hadn't needed to hit his hand, of course; he had the lead. He had the same chance to hit his king twice (or once) as Lester had had to hit his queen, but there's no rule that says the guy who's trailing has to be the one who hits his hand, and after Lester had shipped what turned out to be another $53,500 over to Shulman, Barry had $172,000, and Lester had dropped down near $60,000.
Lester used the aggressive style that gave him such a dazzling 2001 WSOP (three of our "Final Four" had won bracelets in 2001; only mostly-money player Perry couldn't produce a recent bracelet) to get a few chips back, and when we hit the break at 5:50 p.m. (after hand #78), the chip counts were
Cunningham, $240,000
Perry, $250,000
Lester, $80,000
Shulman, $180,000
Play resumed at 6:05 with $1,000 antes and $2,000-$4,000 blinds, still only $10,000 in dead money and still not enough to force action from anyone but Lester, who usually doesn't need much encouragement to force the action anyway.
LESTER TRIES SHULMAN AGAIN, SAME RESULT
Lester lost ground slowly after the break, mostly because Cunningham came out firing and dominated the early action, with Perry winning a couple of the larger hands, but on hand #96, Lester decided to push at Shulman's big blind again, moving all-in for about $65,000. Shulman called instantly and flipped up pocket tens. Lester could only produce 9s-8s, and nothing ever remotely resembling a straight or flush draw ever got there. 3-4-6-3-Q, and the Cincinnati Kid was out fourth at 6:30.
Usually players are happy to get ladder moves into the top three, but with their big stacks, Perry and Cunningham were probably both already thinking top three, and with the third largest stack taking out the fourth, we now had a wide-open tournament:
Cunningham, $230,000
Perry, $320,000
Shulman, $200,000
We had many interesting and well-played hands between #97 and #131, several of which involved Perry increasing his lead, but in a final table that goes 346, yes, count ‘em, 346 hands, you have to pick your spots, and the next big one came on #132.
With Cunningham holding the button, Perry made it 14k to go from the small blind, and Shulman called. The flop came Qc-7d-4c, and Perry bet 15k, with Shulman calling. The 3h hit the turn, Perry checked, Shulman bet 25k, Perry moved all-in, and Shulman called instantly.
A $136,000 CALL WITH TWO EIGHTS
Shulman turned over pocket eights and a pretty darned good read on Perry, who turned over Kc-6c, a flush draw and a gutshot straight draw. An innocent Jd hit the river, and Perry had to ship Shulman $136,000 more. The $333,000 pot made Shulman the new chip leader, and knocked Perry down to about $160,000.
Curiously, Shulman had the exact same chip total when we hit the break after hand #140, although Cunningham took a 54k bite out of Perry's stack on the last hand before the break, when Perry couldn't push Cunningham's Q-J off a Q-6-8 flop with a 20k bet and decided to call a 20k Cunningham bet when a five hit the turn. Both players checked when a nine hit the river, and Perry, who had spent most of the day as the chip leader, was in trouble:
Cunningham, $305,000
Perry, $112,000
Shulman, $333,000
Play resumed at 7:45 still using a $1,000 ante but now with $3,000-$6,000 blinds. Nothing serious happened until hand #155, when Cunningham's J-7 took $53,000 from Shulman on a J-9-4-10-J board. Shulman had limped in from the small blind, bet 12k at both the flop and turn, and called Cunningham's 20k bet on the river.
On the very next hand, Shulman called from the button, Cunningham limped in from the small blind, and Perry moved all-in. Shulman let his hand go, but Cunningham called so fast we all knew he'd been doing some sneaky limping in, the kind you can't expect from someone with that Richie Cunningham face of his until you've played with him once or twice.
BUT CAN HE SNAP HIS FINGERS LIKE THE FONZ?
Ad-6d for Perry, but Q-Q for the Fonz's protégé, and when the board came 3-7-9-9-5, Perry was gone, and we had Allen Cunningham v. Barry Shulman for all the marbles. Cunningham started with more than a few extra marbles in his stack, leading $515,000 to $235,000.
The heads-up duel began at 8:10 p.m., on hand #157, and you already know this tournament took 346 hands to complete. I barely survived watching 189 heads-up hands, so I wouldn't begin to consider putting you through a hand for hand replay of them. We'll settle for a few patterns and a few key hands.
Shulman took the aggressor's role early. Barry Shulman is a good poker player, good enough to know that Allen Cunningham is better, and so also good enough to understand that Cunningham wasn't going to be anxious to be doing lots of gambling on big pots with him. Cunningham already had a lead, and he wasn't going to be interested in letting Shulman flip a coin twice to win the match.
I DUNNO, BARRY, I WOULD HAVE TRIED THE SAME THING, SO MAYBE IT WAS WRONG…
So Shulman did exactly what I would try to do if I were in heads-up against Allen Cunningham (by the way, Allen, if you read this, make sure you remember that if and when we ever play heads-up, I'll try something different). He tried to take advantage of Cunningham's reluctance to play big pots. He stayed aggressive most of the time, and every time Cunningham's maneuvering on smaller pots started cutting Shulman's stack down, Shulman managed to get a big pot going and then make an all-in move that Cunningham wasn't willing to call.
Then again, I just said I would have tried to do what Shulman did. I can't say I could have done it.
Shulman's early aggression got him near the $300,000 mark (75 players-a very nice total considering travel woes Las Vegas started feeling in the middle of this tournament-buying in for $10,000 worth of chips each put $750,000 in chips into play, so whenever you have one player's total, you can figure out where his opponent stands by subtracting that number from $750,000), and he hovered between there and about $240,000 for most of the first 50 hands or so.
Shulman briefly got to 340k, but a nice Cunningham read on #196 allowed him to call a 25k bet with the board showing 4-5-6-6 while holding only A-9; Shulman had A-8, and dropped back to 300k.
We hit the break at 9:30, hand #216, with the totals
Cunningham, $438,000
Shulman, $312,000
The antes moved to $2,000, but the blinds moved to $5,000-$10,000-still not enough to force action, but high enough to punish a passive player. Probably 95% of the heads up hands either had a flop or a pre-flop raise that caused a fold. It was pretty rare to see someone give up when holding the small blind on the button (SBB).
Six hands into the new round, the wind shifted.
SHULMAN RETAKES THE LEAD
Cunningham called from the SBB, Shulman raised 20k, and Cunningham called. Each player checked the 9d-3d-4s flop, but when the 8s hit the turn, Shulman led out for $40,000, and Cunningham quickly slid a stack of 20 $5,000 chips out onto the table, a raise of $60,000. Shulman almost instantly moved all-in, and after a few moments consideration, Cunningham folded. Shulman now had the lead, $450,000-$300,000.
Shulman increased his lead but then Cunningham got back to about $300,000, when Cunningham evened the match on hand #269. Shulman brought the hand in for $20,000 from the SBB, and Allen called. Each player checked the Kd-10c-3s flop, but when the Kc hit the turn, Cunningham led out for 20k, only to see Shulman raise him 40k more. Allen thought for a while and called, and each player checked when the 8s hit the river.
Shulman announced "ace high" and Cunningham turned over A-Q, a better ace high.
DO YOU CALL AND PLAY FOR IT ALL?
Two hands later, Shulman called from the SBB, Cunningham raised it $20,000 more, and Shulman called. The flop came Js-8h-7c, Cunningham checked, and Shulman moved all-in. A Cunningham call, with the chips this close, would essentially decide the match.
Cunningham thought, thought, and then thought some more. Shulman had made a gigantic overbet. Did it mean he had a big hand and was trapping? Did it mean a weak hand where he was bluffing (and possibly steaming from the A-Q hand moments before)? Did it mean he was trying to protect something like bottom two pair.
HEY, RICHARD, JACK SAID IT, NOT ME!
Cunningham obviously had part of this flop, or perhaps an overpair, because he kept on thinking, and finally he folded, only to have McClelland break the ice by announcing, "Richard Tatalovich folds."
Tatalovich, in case you're not familiar with him, is a great player who has won a lot of tournaments, but he has a bit of a reputation for taking a long time to think through hands.
The lead continued to see-saw through hand #293, when Shulman brought it in for $30,000 from the SBB, with Cunningham calling. The flop came 3d-10h-3h, Cunningham checked, Shulman bet $60,000, and Cunningham called, giving us a $184,000 pot. The 9h hit the turn, completing a flush draw if anyone was on one, Cunningham checked, and Shulman moved all-in for his remaining $253,000.
Cunningham again thought a while, not quite as long as the last time, and let the hand go. Shulman had the lead. It lasted one hand, when he paid off a $50,000 bet on the end and Allen turned over a flush.
W OULD SOMEONE WIN … PLEASE!!!
At 11:15 we hit the next break, with Shulman back out in front with $460,000. With $2,000 antes and $10,000-$20,000 blinds, this 90-minute level stood a good chance of deciding the match … we hoped.
Nine hands into the new level, Cunningham brought the hand in for $60,000 from the SBB, with Shulman calling.
"I'd hoped we weren't going to get to blinds this high," Cunningham told me after the match. "With blinds that big, the bets and raises have to get pretty big to mean anything, and you're really starting to gamble."
Each of the two gamblers checked the 7s-Qs-As flop, but when the 9s hit the turn, Shulman bet $40,000. Cunningham called. Both checked the 7c river, and Shulman turned over about as big a bluff as you'll ever see, 2h-5h. Cunningham turned over Kh-8s, and 312 hands into the final, we were even … again.
SIX IN A ROW FOR ALLEN
Shulman found a faster gear and moved back up near the 500k mark with an all-in move on #322, and then got near 600k on #328. Cunningham promptly won six hands in a row, and Shulman was down near 400k again.
We thought (and by "we," I mean not merely the crowd, but also the players) thought we might have an end on #335, when Shulman limped in from the SBB, and we saw a 7d-9d-9c flop. Cunningham checked, Shulman bet 20k, Cunningham raised 45k more, Shulman moved-in, and Cunningham called quickly.
Each player turned over J-9 offsuit. There were no freerolls; we knew we had a chopped pot, and each player's heart could start beating again.
The match drew dead even… again … on hand #337, when Shulman opened the pot for 40k from the SBB, and Cunningham moved all-in. "Now you're playing," laughed Shulman as he folded. It was the first time Cunningham had overbet a pot Shulman-style.
Shulman won three quick hands and then Cunningham one, before Shulman took a substantial lead on hand #343 when he brought it in for 40k from the SBB, and Allen called. Allen bet 60k at the 3s-4h-6h flop, but Shulman moved in again, and Cunningham let the 204k pot go.
Cunningham drew a bit closer on the next two hands when a hand that had long earlier gotten Shulman into the match returned for another visit … this time with the shoe on the other foot.
THE CLOCK STRIKES MIDNIGHT … BUT FOR WHOM?
At the stroke of midnight, Cunningham brought the hand in for $60,000 from the SBB, and Shulman called. The flop came 3h-4c-Jh, and Shulman moved all-in. Cunningham didn't hesitate for long. "I call," he said, flipping over Ad-Jd, top pair, top kicker.
Shulman turned over Kh-6h, a flush draw. When play was three-handed, more than four hours earlier, Ralph Perry had moved in with Kc-6c, a flush draw, and Shulman had called with his pocket eights. The flush missed, back on hand #132.
On hand #346, the flush didn't miss. The red nine, the nine of hearts, the same nine of hearts that had taken down T.J. Cloutier against Chris Ferguson, and given the chip positions, a very similar red nine to the one that had taken down Dewey Tomko against Carlos Mortensen, hit on the turn, and Barry Shulman was the champion.
Shulman was gracious in victory.
"He's great, fabulous, awesome," said Shulman of Cunningham. "I bet he bought a hundred pots from me with nothing. He knew when to bet, when to raise, when to fold. I just kept getting myself back into it with the all-in moves. A couple times I had absolutely nothing, a couple times I had big draws, and a couple times I had big hands. I just knew there was one guy I didn't want to play heads-up up here, and that was Allen Cunningham, so the win feels pretty good."
A GOOD GAME PLAN WORKS
It would be easy enough for a critic to say that Shulman got his money in with the worst of it with a flush draw, but I was impressed by his game plan throughout, and given Cunningham's prior reluctance to call big bets, Shulman's "two ways to win" move (i.e., by moving in he could win either with the bet or with the hand) earned him his win. You don't play nearly 200 hands heads-up against Allen Cunningham and win just by getting lucky. I'd bet Allen in a re-match, and I suspect Barry would too, but they both gave us some great poker.
I just wish they'd given us a little less of it! J
Final Official Results
Four Queens $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em Championship
1. Barry Shulman, Las Vegas, NV, $145,500
2. Allen Cunningham, Marina Del Rey, CA, $83,663
3. Ralph Perry, Las Vegas, NV, $43,650
4. Jim Lester, Cincinnati, OH, $25,463
5. Burt Boutin, Las Vegas, NV, $20,006
6. Annie Duke, Las Vegas, NV, $16,369
7. Melissa Hayden, Las Vegas, NV, $12,731
8. Erik Seidel, Henderson, NV, $9,094
9. Jack Ward, Anchorage, AK, $7,275
The Four Queens tournament also raised more than $10,000 for the American Red Cross!
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