TOILING IN THE FIELDS OF THE POKER GODS
It,s wonderful to be young, rich and a great player. But it's perfect to be loved by the poker gods.
There were 40 entrants in the $2,500 Buy-In, No-Limit Hold'em for a total prize pool of $94,000. Five players were paid
To setup the Final Table, two guys busted out on the two last tables so it didn't matter that Don Barton had a few more chips than R A Head. They tied for 10th and most importantly they both got swell Hall of Fame jackets. So, there were only nine to start.
THE FINAL TABLE: 14 mins. left of 60. The blinds were $150/$300
Player Hometown Chip Count
Seat 1 Mike Davis Harker Heights TX $ 1,550
Seat 2 Julian Gardner Manchester, UK $15,625
Seat 3 Chris Bjorin London, UK $ 7,200
Seat 4 Tony Hartman Minneapolis MN $ 4,900
Seat 5 Tony Cousineau Daytona Beach CA $ 4,900
Seat 6 Kathy Liebert Las Vegas NV $10,600
Seat 7 Ron Rose Dayton OH $30,800
Seat 8 Scotty Nguyen Henderson NV $ 8,750
Seat 9 T J Cloutier Richardson TX $12,425
Think the crew listed above is pretty tough. You might have even more respect for their play when you see just some of the group they had to beat to get there.
Alan Betson, Humberto Brenes, Layne Flack, Ken Flaton, Phil Ivey, John Juanda, O'Neil Longson, Daniel Negreanu, Erik Seidel, David Ulliott.
Both the 10th place gentlemen, who went out on the same hand before the Final Table formed, had more chips when they went all-in than Mike ‘Pizza Man' Davis had when he got to sit down. That tells you how much trouble Davis was in against this star-studded lineup. Mike pushed in his whole stack of $1,500 as second button in hopes of getting one caller who thought he was trying to steal. Instead both the small and big blinds called and checked to the river. Both blinds beat Mike. Chris Bjorin had pocket 7's and Tony Hartman caught a gut-shot straight on the river with his A J.
Either a few more hands or a little more luck and perennial Final Table player Tony Cousineau will have some nice paydays. "One of these days," Tony says philosophically. Like Mike Davis before him, Tony tried an A 3 but with improvements. His was suited in Clubs and he was on the button. Ron Rose started this table with almost one-third of the chips so the $3,100 all-in from Cousineau caused him only momentary contemplation on the button. In 8th, was Tony Cousineau when Ron's 8 played.
Asking that there be no references to ‘Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman' Tony Hartman was the short stack and went all-in with K 10. Julian Gardner, who just happened to make a cool 1.1 million dollars from 2nd at the WSOP Championship in May, called the bet from his giant mound of chips with A 10. It was nice to be able to honor Tony's request not to mention ‘Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman' because he felt bad enough about finishing 7th.
As rare as a blue moon? How about as rare as a ‘gotcha' move by Kathy Liebert. ‘Colorado Kate,' the first woman to win $1 million in a poker tournament, was down to $4,600. She moved all-in from middle position with the J 9 of Clubs. Behind her Scotty Nguyen woke up with pocket Queens. Kathy was the last one out of the money. "And she made her move with my signature hand," T J Cloutier said. "It was just at the wrong time."
"I'm just tired of waiting. It's been three hours since I was dealt a hand." T J Cloutier pushed all his chips into the pot, about $12,000 from the small blind with A 10. Julian Gardner took about five seconds to call with A K. "When's the last time you saw me draw out on somebody," T J lamented in 5th.
At the color up four-handed, Julian Gardner had taken over the chip lead with more than $30k largely due to a hand with Ron Rose where Julian checkraised Ron all-in from the small blind when the flop came 10 10 3. Ron couldn't call and it really bothered him that he couldn't.
But Ron Rose got his revenge. It wasn't against Julian, though. It was against Scotty Nguyen. Ron went all-in from the small blind with $17,400 on a stone-cold bluff. Rose had K 5 with the flop Q 8 7. Scotty took forever to decide to fold. But only after Ron promised to show his hand. Nguyen pounded the nearby furniture when he saw the bluff. Nguyen had A 7.
Another day, another money finish for Chris Bjorin. Julian Gardner was in the small blind and called Chris' all-in of $13,100 with only an A 8. Bjorin was in the lead on the turn with pocket 7's, but Gardner had tons of outs as the flop came 6 3 2 of Spades and Julian had the Ace of Spades. The fourth Spade on the river sent the Norwegian pro out in 4th.
Now three-handed as the blinds went up Julian Gardner, the Harry Potter of poker, had almost half the chips. He'd soon get a lot more.
Ron Rose has come out of obscurity to poker prominence recently with some big money finishes. He's not likely to run into tougher company than Scotty and Julian. On the button, Ron found out what the World Series Final Table and all of Europe knew from experience. Julian Gardner in his early 20's is already on the top echelon of players in the world. It doesn't hurt that he's running real good also. Even if he didn't win, Ron would have liked to beat Scotty Nguyen who had been riding him for hours. It wasn't to be.
Ron picked up the A 10 of Hearts on the button three-handed. It was going to be difficult to get off this hand. Ron rose up with a bet of $3k. Julian, in the big blind, reraised to $10k. Ron went all-in for another $6k. Gardner, the snake, had an A Q in the big blind and flopped a Queen. Rose left smelling like 3rd place.
"He trapped checked me on the flop and I went all-in with the worst hand," Julian Gardner said candidly. Scotty Nguyen got exactly what he wanted. He had an A 8 with the flop A J 9. Julian had a J 10.
It's wonderful to be young, rich and a great poker player. It's also wonderful to catch a runner runner double gutshot nut straight. The turn was a Queen and the river came a King. Scotty was so stunned he couldn't move as Julian came over to shake his hand. After $1.1 million for 2nd in May. Julian Gardner won his first U. S. tournament.
If any of us had this kid's future, we could throw ours away.
That's what comes from being a Gardner in the fields of the poker gods.
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