EVENT #6: LIMIT TEXAS HOLD'EM ($500)
TOTAL PRIZE MONEY: $144,045
ENTRIES IN THIS EVENT: 297
PRIZE MONEY TO DATE (3/28-4/2): $762,905
TOTAL ENTRIES TO DATE (3/28-4/2): 1,573
Report by Don Larrimore
With devastating effect, Phillip Ivey swept like a Mississippi tornado through the final table to capture the second $500 Limit Hold'em event at the Jack Binion World Poker Open.
It was the first major tournament win for Ivey, who turned 23 in February and is the youngest finalist so far at the WPO. He started playing poker after high school and has been a professional for a year and a half.
"I'm very happy," Ivey said. "Two weeks ago my father had quadruple bypass heart surgery. He's fine now. I told him I was going to win one for him."
The final table performance was as dominating as any in limit hold'em in memory. Ivey arrived as chip leader and within 40 minutes he had amassed more chips than all his remaining opponents combined. It was over after less than two hours.
"From the first hand, I wanted to be the aggressor," Ivey explained. "I'm the kind of player who goes for the win. I felt comfortable and tried to stay focused. I've got to credit luck on some hands, of course. Overall I'm satisfied with my play, but I know I've still got a lot to learn. This will help me to go on to big ones later and I'll definitely be back here next year. It's a beautifully run tournament."
By the time the last survivor, Maurice Sova, faced him across the table, Iveyhad about 85 percent of the chips. They played a few unmemorable hands until Sova went all in with pocket fours with a flop of 9-2-2. Almost reluctantly, and to no one's great surprise after his steamroller performance, Ivey turned over a 10-2, the hand made famous by Doyle Brunson. The turn and river brought no miracle four, and after just ten minutes of heads-up play, Ivey was the titlist.
This was the second final table and thrid money finish so far at the WPO for Sova, a 59 year-old retired businessman and former thoroughbred race horse owner. He knew he was running up an impossible mountain against Ivey, but Sova is not one to be daunted by a challenge: In 1981, before the Alcan highway was anywhere near completed, Sova rode a mororcycle from Phoenix to Alaska and back, some 10,000 miles.
"I feel real good about being runner-up," Sova said. "I started out second in chips, damn near bombed out, and then came back. I've got to be happy." Pocketing his second place money, Sova quipped, "I'm going to stay here rather than go back to Phoenix -- the money's better!"
Third place went to well known poker professional Rod Peate, 52, runner-up in the 1983 World Championship, winner of one WSOP bracelet and four other major tournaments and participant at countless final tables in a 23-year career. He is currently a host and shift manager at Hollywood PArk Casino in Los Angeles, CA. "It was fun, I enjoyed it," Peate said. "They played pretty fast at the final table. I never had a hand until the end. Then I had the best hand, with the flush draw, and he catches an eight."
"He" was Ivey, who held 8-3 offsuit against Peate's 10-4 of spades. The board came 7-6s-2s/2-8, which put Peate out.
Larry Bierman, 51, a retired insurance agent playing in his second major tournament, nursed his small stack of chips carefully, survived a few all-in ventures and finally finished fourth when his Q-J didn't improve against Sova's pocket sevens with a board of 5-3-3/2-8. "I'm super happy and excited to get this (finalist's) jacket," Bierman said. "I know I was lucky. Yesterday I only had one good hand beat. And today, when I had that few chips, I had to wait for others to burn off some." Bierman has played poker seriously for five years.
Fifth place was taken by Don Pittman, 65, a retired TWA captain and the 1962 and 1963 National Aerobatics Champion, a title he attained by flying an open-cockpit Pitts Special biplane. A regular tournament player for about 10 years, Pittman finished 8th in the 1994 World Championship of Poker. He said, "All of them at the final table were good players. I could have played a little better and laid a few hands down. There comes a time when you've got to make a move." His move, with 10-8 crashed against Sova's K-J when the board came A-Q-3/6-2.
Josh Arieh, 25, last year's $3,000 Limit Hold'em winner at the World Series, finished sixth, his second time in the money at the WPO. The self-employed courier, who has played serious poker for about eight years, said he felt "kind of helpless" a the final table, unable even to take advantage of steal position since Ivey was almost directly after him with his towers of chips. Arieh was all in with A-2 agaisnt Peate's J-9, losing with a board of 9-7-3/6-Q. "This is a great set up for poker," Arieh said, referring to the tourmament area at the Gold Strike Casino Resort.
Seventh place went to Roland Mahan, 66, who had some local and vocal supporters as he played at his first major tournament final table. "I couldn't catch any cards," he said, and somewhat surprisingly added, "I don't really like gambling. I play only limit." Mahan, a plumber, said, "I was a guinea pig at the Yucca Flast nuclear tests in 1954. I was in the Army engineers, and we weren't given proper protetive clothing." Like many others whose stories have been revealed in recent years, Mahan said he ahd long suffered medical effects from the radiation.
First out in eighth place was Joe Bearden, a trucking company owner and 15-year recreational player, who pushed his short stack in with pocket jacks, only to run into Ivey's pocket kings. It was his first final table, and he took his early exit philosophically.
The Final Table Chip Standings & Seat Positions:
| Seat Position/Player | Chip Count |
| Seat 1: Rod Peate | $20,500 |
| Seat 2: Phillip Ivey | $31,500 |
| Seat 3: Joe Bearden | $7,500 |
| Seat 4: Don "Pilot" Pittman | $16,500 |
| Seat 5: Roland Mahan | $15,000 |
| Seat 6: Larry Berman | $8,500 |
| Seat 7: Maurice Sova | $26,500 |
| Seat 8: Josh Arieh | $22,500 |
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