| NO-LIMIT IS NO PROBLEM AS THANH DINH WINS IT EASILY Thanh Danny Dinh, who says he has been playing poker for a long time but never had any major prior wins, scored a thumping wire-to-wire victory to take down event two of the 4 Queens Poker Classic, $100 no-limit hold'em. The Las Vegas retiree, originally from Vietnam, came to the final table with $113,900 of the $340,400 in play and maintained his daunting chip lead throughout.
The final table started at 11:30 with $2,000-$4,000 blinds and $500 antes, 26:43 left, after John Robertson finished 10th. He was in the small blind with only $4,500 left and decided to move in. But his J-8 was near hopeless against Stan Schrier, who held pocket jacks and filled when a jack and two deuces were dealt.
The pace was a bit faster than for the first event, where 90 minutes went by before the first player broke. Tonight, three players were gone in eight hands, and six departed in barely over an hour.
The first hand saw the first casualty. On his bio sheet, Ken Bastien described himself as a "Man of Leisure," and he was indeed at leisure when he pushed in the remainder of his $32,700 with A-K from the small blind. "You call?" he asked in some surprise when Dinh saw him and turned up J-10 of clubs. Three clubs flopped and the rich got a lot richer.
Five hands later, Joseph Karriman, an aerospace retiree, raised all in for $5,500 with A-3. Joe Belofsky, an artist making his 14th final table this year, got heads-up with him when he made it $15,000 to go holding K-K. No ace came and two were left. Only two hands later, Schrier moved in with A-K and Jaime Mena, with A-J, called him with a slightly smaller stack of about $24,000. Stan flopped trip kings and now three were gone.
On hand 10, the personable Spring Cheong, a San Ramon, California cardroom manager, lost half her chips to Marc Kroopneck when her A-Q couldn't catch his A-K. Two hands later she faced him again, moving all in under the gun with K-9 of clubs. His pocket 8s stood up when the board came A-Q-4-10-7, and she finished sixth.
After blinds went to $3,000-$6,000 with $700 antes, Belofsky got stung a couple of times. First he raised to $15,000 but quickly folded his pocket 8s when Dinh, using his massive stacks as a cudgel, announced all in. Joe tried the same raise a few hands later, but went south when Laurene Holland moved in for about $48,000. "He's afraid of my lucky dollar," she explained. Laurene, a RN who has only played no-limit for a year or so, is now tied with hubby Randy with three no-limit final tables this year.
On the next hand, after Schrier moved in again with A-K suited, Belofsky called all in from the big blind for about $19,000. The picture turned black for the artist when the board came A-8-4-3 and he was out of outs. Three hands later, still only the 29th hand, the sixth player cashed out. One off the button, Young Marc Kroopneck raised all in for his last $4,000. Dinh, in the big blind, had only 9-5 of diamonds, but the call was chump change to him. When the board came Q-9-2-8-5, his paired nine got the field down to the last three players.
Schrier, who has a new car dealership in Omaha, dividing his time between there and Las Vegas, is a very strong player. He came in third at the World Series championship in 2001, cashing in for $700,000, the biggest ever pay-out for that finish.
Tonight, he was the most aggressive and most assured player at the table.
"You're not all in again?" Dinh asked in mock surprise when Stan failed to push in all his chips on one hand.
When blinds rose to $4,000-$8,000, with $1,000 antes, Schrier had bulled his way up to $111,000, but still considerably trailed Dinh's $175,000, while nurse Holland was nursing her third-place stack of $54,000. On the first hand at the new level, Dinh moved all in with A-Q offsuit. Laurene decided to make her stand from the small blind with 10-9 of diamonds. When the board showed 7-5-2-6, she was still alive to a 10, a 9 or an 8 for an inside straight, but another 6 on the river crushed her last hope.
Dinh, who says he had only some small prior wins, now had $238,000 to Schrier's $102,000. It took him just two more hands to complete his night's work. On hand 39 of the final table, he opened for $30,000 with Q-7 of clubs. Schrier, with K-7 of clubs, moved all in yet another time, this time the last. The board came Q-5-3-4-8, and long-time player Thanh Danny Dinh had the biggest cash-out of his poker career. --Max Shapiro
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