| Jack Binion World Poker Open
Event #9
($500 buy-in) Pot-Limit Texas Hold’em
Entries: 198
Total Prize Money: $96,030
Four Texans made it to the final table of the $500 buy-in Pot-Limit Texas Hold’em event. Fittingly, the winner was a Texan – Tommy Vinas, from Houston. Vinas, a professional poker player and pot-limit hold’em specialist, busted X of X players at the final table and collected $38,412 in prize money for first-place. The World Poker Open victory adds to a lengthy list of impressive tournament performances for Vinas – who also won a major pot-limit hold’em event at the Four Queens a few years ago. Vinas’ win is particularly impressive, since he came into the second day with only $9K – out-stacked by chip-leader and poker legend TJ Cloutier by more than 4 to 1.
Blinds started at $500-$1000. Jeff Stone also came in low on chips and was forced to make an early stand. He found pocket 8’s and moved his last $6K into the pot after the flop came A-5-4. Bad timing. Cloutier flopped a set with his pocket 5’s and was absolutely thrilled to call the bet. Stone failed to catch an 8, and was quickly eliminated. Stone, who finished in the money in this event last year, added $1,536 to his tournament winnings.
Soon thereafter, Kelly Storm found the exact same hand – pocket 8’s. His last $5K went into the pot after a seemingly harmless flop of 4-3-2. Trouble was – Tommy Vinas was sitting on the other side of the table grinning boldly with the stone cold nuts, 5-6 which completed a straight. Storm’s miracle runner-runner didn’t come, which meant the crane operator from Wichita was lifted-off the final table in 8th place, good for $1,921. Storm said later this was only the second major poker tournament that he’s ever played. He‘d been down to just two chips the day before, but managed to survive and make the final table. Quite an accomplishment.
A riveting moment occurred early at the final table when Michael Brooks from Chicago made a pre-flop raise with A-9 off-suit. TJ Cloutier (with A-Q) came over the top with a re-raise and put Brooks all-in. The A-Q versus A-9 match-up was reminiscent of the classic finish to the 1999 World Series of Poker, when Cloutier lost the world championship when the horror card – a 9 shockingly fell on the river. However, this time, the laws of mathematics would hold up as Cloutier’s heavily-favored A-Q made two pair. Brooks, an attorney, took $2,401 pieces of legal tender back to the Windy City for 7th place.
With the chip counts at $57K for Cloutier, $40K for Vinas, and about $15K to $20K for each of the other five players, Cloutier’s stack got sawed in half when he tried to take down a pot with A-Q again, but lost to R.A.’s pocket 8’s. A few minutes later, Paul Clements went all-in with his remaining chips on a straight draw as the flop showed J-8-3. He lost when his 9-10 failed to hit the outside straight, with either a seven or queen. Clements, victorious in the 7-card stud high-low event just two days ago – picked up another $3,361 to go with his previous winnings.
This was not to be TJ’s day. Tournament pro Cloutier started the day off by sharing an old football story with the crowd, of the time he played in the 1959 Rose Bowl game. The former pro football player recounted that on the very first play of that game, he lined-up and broke the nose of a 315-pound defensive lineman. But it would be Cloutier who would get tackled at the final table, when he took a J-10 of clubs up against Vinas’ K-Q. Both players flopped a pair, and all of Cloutier’s chips went into the pot. The final board of Q-J-6-5-2 meant Vinas held the higher pair. And so it was -- the player who has won more poker tournaments than anyone else in history went out a disappointing 5th, and collected $4,321.
The next few hands would be a roller coaster ride for Tony Hellmann. First, Hellmann lost a $30K pot when his pocket 6’s were overpowered by Vilandos’ pocket aces. A few hands later, Hellmann extracted his revenge when he was dealt pocket rockets and took a $25K pot away from Vinas.
Vilandos would experience the same ups and downs as he stood at $32K but lost a key hand to R.A. Head. Head re-raised with the rest of his chips pre-flop with A-K off-suit, which Vilandos reluctantly called after a lengthy deliberation. Vilandos knew he was in trouble when he saw the A-K, as his K-J suited was totally dominated. A much-needed jack failed to materialize for Vilandos and he was left short-stacked with only $9K. Moments later, Vilandos was dealt his final hand of the night, A-6 off-suit. The chips went in, and Vilados once again found himself a huge underdog. Vinas held A-Q, which essentially gave Vilandos only three outs. The final board of J-J-8-Q-3 put Vilandos, from Houston, on the rail in 4th place with $5,762. Vinas had busted five out of six players, thus far.
With Vinas holding a 3-1 chip advantage over both Head and Hellmann, Vinas shifted into overdrive. Vinas used his large stack masterfully, raising and re-raising pre-flop and post flop in order to establish total control over the table. Vinas also had a bit of good fortune at one point when he decided to call Head’s all-in bet on the turn, when staring at a board of A-8-5-K (and two diamonds). It was a tough call for Vinas, holding the J-8 of diamonds, and realizing he was probably beat at that point. However, Vinas caught a diamond on the river, which topped Head’s pair of kings. In less than an hour’s time, Head had gone from having a slight chip-lead to 3rd place. Head, a businessman and lifelong poker player with his supporting wife cheering him on, collected $9,603.
Down to the final two players, Vinas enjoyed a sizable 4 to 1 chip advantage. Despite the disparity in stack sizes, Hellmann proved to be a scrappy opponent, clawing for every possible chip he could get his hands on. He wasn’t intimidated by Vinas’ big stack and began raising and occasionally even coming over the top of Vinas with a pot-sized bets. The two finalists got all the chips into the pot once and laughed when both hands were identical – A-J. But Hellmann never could get enough chips to seriously threaten Vinas, who knew he could gamble and afford to take some chances. After 25 minutes of head-up play, Hellmann ran cold and had only about $18K left.
The last hand of the night came when Hellmann was dealt K-5 off-suit and faced yet another pre-flop raise. By the turn, Hellmann’s last chip was in the pot – as he had a pair of 5’s. The turn showed Q-8-3-5. Unfortunately for Hellmann, Vinas held 10-8 for a pair of 8’s. Hellmann desperately needed a king or a 5 to survive, but was distressed to see an unhelpful deuce come on the river – which made Vinas the winner.
As Hellmann collected $19,206 for 2nd place he told an interesting story. The day before, Hellmann had just arrived at the Gold Strike-Horseshoe -- and with nothing better to do – he decided to play in the poker tournament. A self-described 7-card stud player, this was the first time he had ever played pot-limit hold’em before. Although Hellmann has played no-limit hold’em previously, he didn’t expect to do much except “kill some time.” As it turned out, he did far more than that. Hellmann, who is a tax accountant, will have some extra paperwork to file on April 15th of next year.
The winner is widely acknowledged as one of the best pot-limit players anywhere. Tommy Vinas played as close to perfection as may be possible in a pot-limit tournament. He came in with the third-shortest stack, stayed patient early, then went on to bust 7 of 8 players at the final table – slowly but surely increasing his chip position nearly every step of the way. It was a poker clinic for those who were watching. No question about it -- the best player on this day won the event.
-- Nolan Dalla
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