| Canadian Pro Takes Event 6!
Tom Cawley, a pro from Canada who started on the tournament trail just two months ago, won his second title by taking the sixth event of Legends of Poker, $300 limit hold'em, right after winning a similar tournament at Commerce in June. "I got very lucky tonight," he said, after defeating the very tough Chris Tsiprailidis. Although the 53-year-old Cawley has been playing professionally for 36 years, he avoided tournaments until he got his residency papers; before that he would have had 39 percent of his winnings withheld.
Two players tied for 10th when they broke in the same hand. Allan "Calypso" Enciso, in the small blind with J-2, and Tony Grand, with Q-J, went all in for $2,000. David Wong had Q-7, and won with two pair.
At the final table, the recess bell rang early for school teacher Nick Sciurba. With limits at $2,000-$4,000, all his $2,500 went in on the first hand with K-Q against Cawley's A-J. He flopped a queen, but Tom completed a wheel on the river. The Greek-born “Syracuse Chris,” whose clutch of major titles includes a $90,000 win at the Carnivale of Poker in limit hold’em and $70,000 victory at Tunica this year, showed just how good he was when he made a laydown in a big pot against Alex Bentounsi.
“Do you have two queens?” he asked when Alex bet into a board of J-J-3-2-9. That was the exact hand.
David Wong finished eighth. On hand ten he was caught in the big blind with just 3-2 and couldn’t catch Mai Hung’s pocket eights. Three hands later Seng Tran went all in and survived for the first of five times when he paired an ace to outrun pocket nines. Norai Khodouzadeh, a Garden City prop, ended up seventh when Mai Hung’s A-7 edged his K-9.
Right after limits went up to $3,000-$6,000, a $90,000 pot developed. Van Zakarian, a designer of ladies sportswear, raised, Chris re-raised and Tom made it $12,000 to go. On a board of 3-3-2-Q, Chris and Van got into a raising war and Van went all in with Q-2. Chris’ A-Q won and he now had about $90,000 of the $193,000 in play.
Cawley, who had been getting low, began a fast rise when he took a big pot from Bentounsi with pocket aces, then picked off a river bluff by Tsiprailidis with pocket sevens. Left with $6,000 after he folded in a $36,000 pot, Hung took one pot, then went all in with A-J and lost to Cawley’s pocket deuces. Tran, a furniture company sales rep, risked his chips for the sixth and last time with Q-J. Syracuse Chris started with 10-7 of spades and made a flush.
Three-handed, Tom and Chris both had about $80,000, Alex $30,000. A hand later, Alex, a salesman for a men’s sportswear firm, was left with $8,000 when Tom, with A-Q, flopped a lady. A couple of hands later, Tom finished the job. His A-10 held up against Alex’s K-Q when the board came J-8-6-8-8.
Heads-up, with $5,000 and $10,000 limits, Tom built his stacks up to $140,000 when his 9-7 won on a board of 8-8-10-9-10. Chris, who throughout the final table had been the most aggressive player, tried to fight back. But when Tom, with K-7 of spades, won a pot by catching two more sevens, Chris raised his hands in a gesture of futility. Still, Tom refused to get reckless. When Chris re-raised, then bet blind before the flop, Tom didn’t call even though Chris had only $5,000 left. On the final hand, Chris started with K-10 and couldn’t overtake Tom’s two jacks. –Max Shapiro
BIOGRAPHY
Tom Cawley, who came here from Canada in 1980, has already chalked up four final tables in his two months of tournament play. His lucky charm seems to be Stan Goldstein. He won both his tournaments two events after Goldstein won his. Tonight he had to overcome a 20-minute penalty -- which luckily came early -- when the cards stuck to his fingers and slipped off the table. He said he got in trouble at the final table when pocket queens got knocked off, but then the cards came to his rescue.
“This was a really well-run tournament, and I could play very relaxed,” he said. He said he knew Syracuse Chris would be his toughest opponent, but “I just held so many good cards.” Though both his tournament wins were in limit, he feels his best game is no-limit. Asked to describe his style of play, he gave a short answer: “I’m tight.”
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