| Jack Binion World Poker Open
Event #7
7-Card Stud High-Low Split
($500 buy-in)
Entries: 188
Total Prize Money: $91,180
Paul Clements, a financial planner from Wisconsin, won the $500 buy-in 7-Card Stud High-Low Split event at the 2002 World Poker Open. In an intense 4-hour final table, Clements sat down with a slight chip advantage and consistently increased his stack until he had every single $1000 chip piled up in front of him, garnished with a gold bracelet on top as his kicker. For first place, Clements received $36,472.
Limits started at $1500-3000, with $200 antes. Play was extremely cautious in the early stages. Peter Moore, sensing he could take advantage of the situation, became the early aggressor. His stack quickly doubled from $16K to over 30K in the first half hour, with several bets and raises that caused his timid opponents to fold. After a series of split-pots that kept most of the stacks pretty much stable, the first significant hand of the day occurred when Don Luptak went all-in with his last $6K and miraculously caught a five on 7th street to make a both straight and a low, and scooped a nice pot. Don “the Cat” Luptak would prove to have many lives at this final table.
Jim McClelland, who Tournament Coordinator Jack McClelland jokingly introduced as “the McClelland that can REALLY play,” came to the final table with the second biggest stack (28K). But he took a beat by Mojgan Stringham, who scooped a $16K pot when her rolled-up aces held up for high, while McClelland failed to make a low.
De De Ross from Tampa, was the first player to make an unwanted exit. She arrived in decent chip position, but ran cold for the first hour of play and finally had to take a stand. She was dealt (2-3) 4-3-J-Q (K) and lost when she failed to improve on a good third-street hand. Her no low/no pair was topped by Don Luptak’s meager pair of 5’s. Ross, a business planner who plays mostly in home games in Florida, but also has been playing in poker tournaments for almost 20 years, collected $1,822 for 8th place.
A key hand occurred into the second hour of play. What began as a five-way pot got down to three players. McClelland started with (A-2) 7 and put his remaining chips into the pot. Unfortunately, he missed his low — successively catching K-8-K (9)….his pair of kings no good for high. Bill Boothby and Lamar Hampton cut up McClelland’s chips like savages, and the lawyer turned assistant district attorney from Louisiana was sentenced to 7th place and $2,735.
The next player to hit the rail was Mojgan Stringham. She started off with pocket 5’s and ended up with two pair — eights and fives. Her (5-5) J-4-8-2 (8) was crushed by Peter Moore’s full house (A-3) 3-3-Q-4 (4). Stringham who is recently married and plays poker regularly in Las Vegas, added $3,647 to her bankroll for a 6th place finish.
After Stringham was out, Don Luptak survived his 9th all-in (precariously holding onto his seat with about $10K in chips). Moore and Boothby were both close to the chip-lead, but Clements still held a slight advantage by just a couple of thousand. Then began the dramatic high-point of the final table. In the next four hands, the chip lead would go back and forth twice and another player would be eliminated. After Boothby scooped a 30K pot against Clements with a 10-high straight, he lost it all back (and more) on the very next hand. Clements caught a powerhouse flush to go along with a 7-6 low on the river to rip into Boothby’s growing stack (his final hand not shown). Then, it was Moore’s turn to rip into Clements, as he ended with a hand of (6-3) 2-A-Q-4 (5) to make a wheel against Clements’ (A-6) 5-J-A-9 (Q).
Bill Boothby started-off with split-queens against Clements’ (A-5) 2. By fifth street, all of Boothby’s remaining chips were in the pot. Hoping to scoop with the high hand, Boothby was disappointed when his hand failed to improve, which was hammered when Clements made his low and hit an ace on 7th street to for high (with a pair of aces) to scoop the entire pot. Boothby, who is a businessman from Ocala, FL and plays poker recreationally, was booted-out in 5th place and collected $4,559 for two days of poker playing.
With Clements and Moore co-chip leaders, the two big stacks got into several direct confrontations. Clements repeatedly caught bricks on 4th and 5th street, and Moore continued applying pressure by betting, which caused Clements to fold his hand each time. Within 20 minutes, Moore had accumulated a $75K to $38K lead over Clements. The momentum was clearly in Moore’s favor.
Then, Don Luptak’s 9 lives finally ran out. Playing in only his second poker tournament, Luptak had survived four all-ins on the previous day to go along with nine all-ins at this final table. After a staggering 13 all-ins in two days, Luptak started off with (4-2) A, and ended up with J-8-J (9) – for a pair of jacks. Lamar Hampton made two-pair (6s and 5s) and Luptak was knocked out in 4th place. Interestingly, Luptak just celebrated his 50th birthday the day before. At the last minute, he decided to attend the World Poker Open from his home in Chicago. Luptak, who works as a tax consultant, can buy himself a nice birthday present with his $5,471 in winnings.
Lamar Hampton went out on the very next deal. Hampton’s final hand (K-6) 6-8-9-5 (x) had absolutely no chance against Clements – who made a full house. Hampton showed great determination, by taking his low stack (he started with just $11K in chips) all the way to a third place finish. Hampton, who won the World Series of Poker Razz Championship in 1992 and finished 2nd in a World Poker Open event last year, complimented the way the tournament was run and was pleased to take home $9,118. An interesting side note -- Hampton was one of 6 Floridians (out of 16 places) to make it into the money in this event. Perhaps Florida should not be called the Gator State, but the “Eight-or-Better” State, instead.
Head-up play began with Clements holding almost a 2-1 chip advantage over Moore. Clements started off by pressuring Moore with several raises and presumed steals, which helped Clements increase his chip lead. However, Moore took the upper hand briefly when he spiked a spade flush on 7th street against Clements’ powerhouse (A-2) 5-5-3-A (x) – as Clements missed his low and failed to improve with aces-up. The critical hand of play came when Moore had trip jacks on fifth street, but then failed to improve, while Clements completed a flush to go along with a 6-5 low to scoop a monster-sized pot. Nearly four hours into the final table, with limits raised to $10K-20K, Moore took his last stand with (Q-7) 7-2-6-6 (10) for two pair. However, Clements made trip kings and won the last pot of the night.
Peter Moore, who has been married 34 years with two adult children, was humble about his tournament performance. “I had a great time,” he said, as he collected $18,236.
Meanwhile, it was Paul Clements who earned a well-deserved victory. Clements, a financial planner who’s been playing poker seriously for about 6 years, has had much success in Iowa cardrooms – where he plays regularly. He’s won several local tournaments, and now adds a World Poker Open championship to his record. While he complimented Peter Moore for his play, Clements later admitted he feared Lamar Hampton more than the other players. “I thought I could be aggressive and out-play the other players, but it was Lamar that worried me the most.”
-- Nolan Dalla
|
