| Mack the ‘Truck’ Lee Wins!
Paul Ladanyi was racing to victory in $1,000 limit hold’em until Mack Lee overtook him and flattened him like a Mack truck. Near the end, Mack made two consecutive straights to leave tire tracks on the former biochemist and demoralize him. Lee, born in Korea, would only give his occupation as “housewife.”
Two players were knocked out at the same time to miss the finals. T.J. Cloutier had A-10 to David Pham's K-Q, finishing 11th when a queen turned. At the other table, Tom Cawley finished 10th when his A-3 couldn't catch Lee's A-J. Limits at the last table started at $1,000 and $2,000, and 18 minutes later jumped to $2,000-$4,000. Phi Dinh Nguyen bet a flop of A-J-2, then folded his pocket tens after Tony Cousineau check-raised him. Left with $1,500, he managed to outlast Ken Flaton. On hand 13, Ken raised with A-K. Kevin Dykstra, with A-J, re-raised him all in, then shot down the Skyhawk with a river jack.
Nguyen’s $1,500 lasted two hands. His A-10 of diamonds lost to Cousineau’s A-K offsuit after the board came K-9-9-8-A. Then, Dave “The Dragon” Pham, 2000 Player of the Year and winner of this year’s S.H.O.E. event at the World Series, folded with only $2,000 left after the board showed J-10-7-6. In the small blind on the next hand, he called all in with K-5 of diamonds and was knocked out by Lee’s pocket tens. One hand later, Dykstra raised a flop of J-9-8 and Ladanyi three-bet it. Kevin had K-J, but Paul had the lead with 9-8. A nine on the turn gave Ladanyi a full house and all of Dykstra’s chips.
Phillip Ivey was next to go all in with three-way action against Ladanyi and Carl “Coach” Nessel, a firefighter who once coached football. Ivey stayed alive after he and Nessel split with ace-high straights. But a hand later, Mack raised with A-K. Phillip called with K-10 of diamonds and lost his last chips when the board showed K-10-3-J-A.
Ladanyi started building his stacks after taking a sizeable pot from Cousineau, who folded with the board showing a forbidding J-10-8-7, all spades. Eight hands later they mixed it up for the last time. Paul had A-K, Tony, all in, had A-J, and an all-rag board changed nothing. Ladanyi, moving like an express train, now had close to $120,000 of the $190,000 in chips. Two hands later, after limits rose to $3,000-$6,000, a three-way pot developed. Nessel, in the big blind, was all in for $3,000 with 10-2. When the betting was over, the board showed K-J-7-10-8. Lee, with pocket queens, had made a straight on the river to burn up the last of the firefighter’s chips and take a slight lead over Ladanyi.
The heads-up contest lasted 13 hands. On the eighth hand, Mack started with 6-5 and flopped an eight-high straight to leave Paul with only $35,000. On the next hand, Mack had 8-7 to Paul’s A-Q. A flop of A-10-9 gave Paul aces and Mack an open-end straight. The pot was raised and re-raised on the turn. A river six gave Lee another straight, leaving Paul with only $8,000 and very little patience. Cautiously, Mack gave him a couple of walks before being dealt a big hand, K-J. Paul raised all in with K-9 and the tournament ended when K-10-2-3-7 was dealt.
– Max Shapiro
BIOGRAPHY
Mack Lee, 41, lives in Pasadena. With a third-place finish in $500 limit hold’em and a seventh in 7-stud hi-lo, he now is in fifth place in the Legends points race. He decided to play this tournament after earlier playing a $20-$40 side game where he won only three hands and lost six and a half racks ($3,200). He figured it couldn’t get any worse, and that all his bad luck had been used up. Lee’s other major tournament win was in 7-card stud at the Commerce Casino a few years ago, and a third in stud h-lo in the same tournament.
Hold’em is his game of choice. Tonight he had only about $2,000 at the $300-$500 limit stage, but managed to gradually build back from there. Heads-up with Ladanyi, he had a strong feeling he could run over him. That was the reason, he said, why he declined to make a deal at that point.
|
