November 9, 2002 EUR 320 pot-limit Omaha (unlimited rebuys)
Day # 8: Calm and capable German comes back from way behind to capture trophy
At today’s Omaha tournament, the final event at this week’s Master Classics, things looked rather simple. With Shawn Cole, a barber from Philadelphia, having a huge chip lead over all others and the only two players who could pose any threat on his immediate right, it seemed highly unlikely that the American would NOT be today’s champion. When on hand # 17 at the final table he was holding more than 75 percent of the chips, his three remaining opponents were basically battling for second place only. Two hours later, his mountains of chips were gone due to a miracle comeback by Germany’s strong and steady Joseph Noujeim, giving this tournament week an exciting, and appropriate, climax.
What had happened earlier
With two tables, or eighteen players left, it looked like some of the Dutch tournament stars were finally going to shine. But we lost big gunner Sammy Kamal, who had gotten hold of a big pile of chips too early in the tournament probably, and lost them to top-flight English player Ram Vaswani. We had Marcel Lüske still in action though, Europe’s Player of the Year 2001, who had managed to get hold of some chips, and who was expected to make a good showing today after a series of rather disappointing results. But once again, he got busted just in front of the final table, when he gave a bit too much action with top / bottom pair against Shawn’s middle set. And our final hope, the excellent Rob “The Chief” Hollink… well, we lost him, too. Wanting to go for first place rather than sneak his way into the final table, he was out in tenth place, giving his large stack to Shawn who was once again holding middle set. With the barber from Philadelphia holding a huge stack now, and the experienced Ram having gone from the biggest stack to the smallest and back to normal again, our final table looked like this:
Seat # 1: Joseph Noujeim, Germany, 27,800
Seat # 2: Man Ip, England, 43,100
Seat # 3: Ram Vaswani, England, 70,200
Seat # 4: Angelo Yu Zuoping, Italy, 87,900
Seat # 5: Shawn Cole, U.S.A., 225,100
Seat # 6: Johan Koops, Netherlands, 36,800
Seat # 7: Robert Cohen, France, 21,400
Seat # 8: Gilles Haddad, 24,600
Seat # 9: Barry Pitt, England, 38,000
Total chips in play: 574,000 (approx).
Short stacks dropping like flies
The only Dutchman left, Johan Koops –who had been making such a good showing this week- was also the first one out. When Shawn limped from early position, Johan figured his kings might be good and raised pot, but the American had been trapping with aces and busted him out. We quickly lost the two French players as well, Robert Cohen and Gilles Haddad, who were beaten in all-in confrontations against Barry Pitt and Main Event winner Angelo Yu Zuoping. But Angelo was busted out himself, when he came over the top of a pot raise by Shawn, for a total of 101,000. Of course Angelo was holding aces, but Shawn, holding one of the worst possible hands when up against aces, namely kings, called- and got lucky by winning with his side cards, a jack and a deuce. Shawn was now not only in total control and dominating the table, he also suddenly became talkative (“Hey, I knew you had aces- but aces don’t win all the time”), and it seemed no one would be able to stop him. When he also finished off Man Ip in an all-in gamble, he was in great shape, holding over 75% of the chips in play. At hand # 17, I estimated the chip counts as follows:
Joseph 40,000
Ram 40,000
Barry 60,000
Shawn 430,000
Shawn was now teasing his opponents, who were obviously more concerned now about getting into second place than about trying to win, but things slowly started to change for our chipleader. First he lost with A773 against Joseph’s A954 double-suited, and the German’s kicker proved useful when an ace flopped. He then also lost against strong Barry, who had built his chips by busting out Ram and by winning a pot against Joseph, and who now took some of Shawn’s chips too, when Shawn bluffed into the top set of the Englishman. It seemed like Shawn had lost momentum, and Barry looked like a real threat now, holding over 200,000 in chips. But he lost all of them when he tried to re-steal against Shawn’s pot raise. The American didn’t want to let go off his pretty decent AT97 with the ace of clubs suited, and got rewarded by making the nut flush. We were heads up now with the calm and capable Joseph Noujeim and the fierce and funky Shawn, who was holding 460,000 in chips against Joseph’s 110,000.
Joseph refuses to give up- on our way to an exciting climax
Despite being low on chips, Joseph simply wouldn’t give up and battled his way back into the tournament. First he showed the winner with AK77 single-suited to double up his stack, after Shawn put the German all-in before the flop. With now some chips in front of him, he came over the top of a pot raise by Shawn, and decided to stick in the remainder of his stack blind. When Shawn couldn’t call his bet against a K72 flop, Joseph suddenly held more chips than the American, and had made a great turnaround. He was then lucky to find a huge hand (AAKQ single-suited) and was able to go all-in before the flop against his opponent’s TT98, a pretty good hand when up against quality aces like this. When they both received no help, the tournament was over and it was the soft-spoken German who had done the unthinkable. He had come back out of a hopeless situation, having been short-stacked all the time, and was rewarded with a well deserved, but amazing title.
Some final words
Despite the disappointing overall performance by the Dutch, this year’s Master Classics can be considered the biggest, and most successful ever. With a record 198 entrants for the Big One, sell-outs on all other events, and a total prize pool of almost 1,500,000 Euros, this was probably the hottest European event of the year. With Holland Casinos adding a whopping 81,000 Euros to the prize pool, they have made this tournament the best value in the world and have shown for once and for all their great commitment to poker. The players have given a great showing of sportsmanship and gambling spirit in return, as the atmosphere at the tables was exceptional, and the behavior of most players exemplary. On behalf of these players, I would like to thank everyone for making this exciting event possible: the Holland Casino Board, poker manager Peter Voolstra, tournament director Adèle Bruijn, speaker Martijn Klein Essink and -most importantly- all you brushes, dealers and other employees who have given your all this week, to make this happening a huge success. I hope all you readers of this site have enjoyed the daily reports on the events, and I apologize for any mistakes I might have made- it was all done with the best of intentions. Maybe we will all meet again next year –either in Amsterdam or on this site- when we are going to try to make things even better, and break all records we have just set. As always, I will keep you guys posted. Take care, and good luck,
Rolf.
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