| Tom Connors, a dealer at the Bicycle Casino and son of two veterans of the poker business, dramatically came from behind to win the opening event of Legends of Poker 2001, Limit Hold'em. The runner-up, “Hollywood T,” was playing in his first tournament.
The record-setting 522 entrants created a prize pool well in excess of the $30,000 guarantee. In a cooperative effort to standardize rules, guidelines from the Tournament Directors' Association were used. This resulted in several minor changes: $100 chips are raced off; an odd chip between two low hands in a split game now goes to the high card; in a stud game, if a player with a forced low is not in his seat when he has to act, the minimum bring-in will be posted and his hand killed.
The final table convened after John Corrigan, a poker dealer at the Hustler Casino, knocked out Donald Choquette. Choquette, with A-10, was in the lead on a board of 9-6-3-10 until Corrigan, with Q-J, spiked a queen on the river.
Limits at the last table began at $6,000-$12,000, and soon rose to $10,000-$20,000. This left players little opportunity to wait for premium hands or to do anything fancy. At $10,000-$20,000, an average stack couldn’t last through even one hand that was bet just once on the flop, turn and river. Not surprisingly, in 35 minutes the field narrowed to four players.
First out was Daniel Apodaca, an Indian reservation poker dealer, all in with pocket nines against Carlson Le’s A-10 and Ky Ngo’s Q-9. The board came A-8-7-3-8 and Le, who started as chip leader with an impressive $133,000, added to his stacks. Soon after, Ngo busted out in a four-way pot that was four-bet before the flop. Both he and Frank Zavala, who owns a sports information business in Vegas, went all in. Ngo had 10-10, Zavala had J-10 and Connors had Q-Q. When two aces and two jacks hit the board, Zavala took the main pot, Connors took the side pot, Ngo took his leave and Corrigan was left with a single $500 chip. After doubling up, Connors posted his $1,000 in the small blind with a mere 8-6. Zavala started with A-10 and blew him away with trip tens.
Chiethai Chao, with A-Q, then lost his last chips to Ming Huang, who had J-9 and flopped a jack. Zavala was next to depart when his suited A-3 couldn’t catch Connors’ pocket fives. Then it was Huang’s turn. With limits at $15,000-$30,000, he made a desperation all-in bet of $22,500 with K-3 into a board of 10-4-2-6-10, but Le called him and won with A-9.
Three-handed, Connors survived a couple of all-in encounters, then got heads-up after Hollywood T broke Le, Q-J versus Q-4, on a board of Q-8-6-A-9. Mr. T had about a 3-1 chip lead, but Tom pulled slightly ahead in a few hands by aggressively betting and forcing T to fold. On the final hand, Tom was a big dog with K-10 against A-K. Pre-flop, he raised, T three-bet it. The flop was 10-9-2. Tom bet, T raised. When a deuce turned, Tom checked and T bet. A king on the river gave T kings and deuces. But Tom, with kings and tens, check raised him all in to win $19,575 and take the lead in the race for the Mercedes SUV. – Max Shapiro
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