Young Aussie takes the Pot!
Toby Atroshenko, a 29-year-old resident of Sydney, Australia who looks years younger, loves poker and is in this country now on a “poker holiday.” They don’t have cardrooms in Sydney, but he gets plenty of practice playing in twice-weekly pot-limit home games. His expertise and fearlessness was in evidence as he faced down a table that included such seasoned pros as T.J. Cloutier and Randy Holland to win the 14th event of Legends of Poker 2002, pot-limit hold’em.
T.J. came to the final table with the chip lead after knocking out Amir Vahedi.
After T.J. had made a minimum raise with K-Q, Amir raised all in for about $8,000 with A-8. Knowing that he’d still have plenty of chips left if he lost, T.J. almost beat Vahedi into the pot, winning by making kings and queens.
At the final table, Paul Ladanyi busted out on the second hand. With blinds of $1,000-$2,000, he raised to $7,000 with A-Q, then called for his last $7,400 when Mel Wiener re-raised. Ladanyi was decidedly unhappy to see Wiener, a real estate developer with one World Series bracelet, turn up pocket aces, which won easily.
Vitamin distributor Ron Faltinsky must be taking mega-doses of his own pills, because this was his fourth final table thus far, though a brief one. On hand seven, he raised all in for $3,000 holding A-6. But Marlon Delossantos, now with a big lead in the points race, was making his fifth final table. In the small big with 9-6 suited, he called the $1,000 raise, then caught a 9 on the turn to send Ron packing. There were two artists at the final table: Andy Lakey, whose specialty is painting angels and hands, and Joe Belofsky, who does oil paintings. The colorful T.J., who loves to spin yarns, had just finished describing the origins of the so-called “sawmill” hand, K-9. He said Cowboy Wolford named it by saying that even a sawmill worker wouldn’t go broke with it. Suddenly, Andy was all in with 9-8 suited against a sawmill hand held by Randy Holland. Neither player helped, and the K-9 cut Joe out of the tournament.
A couple of hands later, Wiener blind-bet the flop, then folded when T.J. came over the top. “Don’t be dark betting me unless you can afford it,” T.J. lectured him, showing a 7-4. On hand 25, Atroshenko raised to $7,000 and Wiener re-raised all in for about $7,000 more. Mel, with A-J, was an 11-1 dog against Toby’s pocket aces, and couldn’t catch up.
Holland was next out, holding J-5 of spades. He raised, and T.J. put him all in with A-10. The board came A-6-4-9-9, and four were left.
Belofsky, meanwhile, went all in twice but survived. The first time he and Toby both had A-J suited, but Joe made a flush. The second time he had queens to Toby’s 7s and turned a set. It was Delossantos who finished fourth. With blinds at $1,500-$3,000, he raise to $6,000 with A-J. Toby put him in with two 5s, and then made a set. Belofsky, building his stacks, beat T.J. with A-6 vs A-J by catching a 6 on the turn. Then, when T.J. put in his last $18,000 with the same A-6 against Toby’s A-Q, he couldn’t get as lucky, losing when all rags hit the board.
Heads-up, with blinds soon rising to$2,000-$4,000, Toby, who had played aggressively throughout, now had better than a 2-1 chip lead. Joe couldn’t make much headway, and after 24 hands he had just $2,000 left after posting his blind. He won that pot, but on the next one he was all in again with J-3 suited. Toby had A-6 and finished him off when the board came 10-8-6-K-5. –Max Shapiro
BIOGRAPHY
Toby Atroshenko is something of a professional student. He has earned degrees in law, arts and teaching (“anything to avoid work”), but the only use he put them to was to work two weeks as a lawyer. Playing poker is what he really wants to do. On the first month of his current poker holiday, he won a tournament at the Orleans, worked his way up from $4-$8 to $20-$40 side games, lost badly and had to drop back down again.
He said he wasn’t awed playing against the great T.J., because he had played him before. Tonight, he noted, he struggled for a while at the early limits before beginning his climb up, and could play a bit more aggressively than usual because he was getting good cards. He calls L.A. a “poker paradise,” and plans to stay here another three weeks before heading to Vegas and then to Costa Rica.
CHIP POSITION FINAL TABLE
Marlon Delossantos
$10,100
Andy Lakey
$6,100
Randy Holland
$16,700
Toby Atroshenko
$24,600
Paul Ladanyi
$15,400
Ron Faltinsky
$6,000
Mel Wiener
$21,400
T.J. Cloutier
$31,100
Joe Belofsky
$16,000
Chips raced and/or blinded off: $450
ALL-AROUND PAY-OFF POINTS
Name Total
1. Marlon Delossantos 184
2. David Pham 152
3. Daniel Negreanu 145
4. Sam Sanusi 122
5. Ron Faltinsky 118
6. Toby Atroshenko 103
7. Paul Ladanyi 103
8. John Juanda 99
9. Kenny Nguyen 95
10.Russell Rosen 94
SUPER SATELLITE PAY-OFF POINTS
Name Total
1. Jeff Yoak 292
2. Tony Cousineau 207
3. Mickey Mouse 193
4. Randy Holland 166
5. Jimmy Tran 135
6. Amir Vahedi 120
7. Phillip Barres 102
8. Eskimo Clark 88
9. Hassan Kamoei 88
10.Mike Fetter 79
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