| Rong is Right,Wins Hold'em!
Rong Lam, a full-time player specializing in smaller tournaments, weathered some ups and downs in the first $500 Legends event, limit hold’em, before outlasting 175 opponents for a $35,200 payday. In March, he captured a $200 Winnin’ o’ the Green no-limit hold’em event. More than 60 boisterous spectators looked on, and the finalists interacted good-naturedly with them and with each other. The festive atmosphere was quite different from the night before, when just one lonely onlooker observed the lowball event.
It took forever to get the 10th player out. Finally, at 3 a.m., Van Pham put up his last chips in the big blind with A-4 and lost to Paul Lee’s pocket sixes. Limits were $2,000-$4,000. Norai Khodouzadeh made his third final table appearance, though just barely. He came with three $500 chips and hoarded it for 11 hands, splitting once, finally having to go all in with Q-3 in the big blind. "Raise it!" he requested, seeking protection. Ben Tang obliged and Lam called. Not much protection: Tang had two queens and Lam had two aces. The pot was four-bet on a flop of 6-4-3, the bullets held up and Norai was out.
On the next hand, it was poker player David Niknaf's turn to go in on the big blind. He had Q-3 of hearts versus Tang’s K-10. A king on the turn sealed David's fate. Two hands later, Tony Nguyen went broke. Holding Q-7 of clubs, he called all in after Ben raised with A-6, and a board of Q-K-J-J-10 gave Tang an ace-high straight.
Margaret Delfino, who does accounting work at a computer firm, and who placed third in limit hold'em at the Orleans Open this year, was only the second woman (after Marsha Waggoner) to make a final table thus far. One away from the big blind with $2,500, she decided to go with K-5 of diamonds and raised the extra $500. Paul called with 9-9, Mack with J-J. The board came 8-6-4-A-10, and she bowed out.
Tang was left with only $2,500 after losing a big pot to Lam on hand number 30. In a raised pot, with limits now at $3,000-$6,000. Tang bet a flop of K-Q-9 with two hearts, and Lam flat called with a set of queens. Tang then bet the turn when a dangerous jack of hearts fell. After long hesitation, Lam called, then filled with a river nine, raising after Tang bet out again. He later said he was “80 percent sure” he had the best hand on the turn, but had to see it through in any event. On the next hand, Tang lost the rest of his chips when his pocket sixes were crushed by top section player Mack Lee who started with 10-8 of spades and made a straight.
Six hands later Paul went out when Lam outdrew his pocket jacks by flopping a king to his K-5. Later, Rong got a surprise when a three-way pot was checked on a flop of 3-3-K. He bet the turn, only to be raised by part-time player Cuong Phan, who showed him threes full of kings. “Nice kicker,” Lam said. After limits went to $5,000-$10,000, the three finalists were fairly even, chopped most of the money and played for the rest. Down to $9,000, Mack went out in the big blind on hand 60 holding Q-6 after Lam, with K-J, put him away with a river king.
Heads-up, Phan had the lead, but Lam quickly pulled ahead. On the last hand, he held A-7 of diamonds and caught an ace on the turn to crack Cuong’s pocket nines and win his second Bike event this year. –Max Shapiro
BIOGRAPHY
Rong Lam is 42, originally from Vietnam, and has been playing poker for ten years, tournaments for five. The Bell Gardens resident also took a second at a Commerce stud hi-lo tournament a couple of months ago. He plays mostly tournaments, liking limit and no-limit hold’em and 7-stud hi-lo. For side-game action he prefers $9-$18 and sometimes $15-$30 limit hold’em.
Tonight he had about $1,400 at the first break, built it into a chip lead at about the six-table level, dropped down to $4,000, then worked his way back up. Key hands? Pocket queens three times, winning two big pots and one small. His general strategy, he said, is to play aggressively, carefully watching his opponents, both to get reads on them and to pick up things from them that he can incorporate into his own style of play. His main goal for now is to one day make a World Series final table.
|
