David is Phamtastic Again!
David Pham, winner of the 22nd event of Legends 2002, $1,000 7-card stud, is having a 'phamtastic' tournament. To date, he's made six final tables, scored two wins and has a huge lead in the points race. He got heads-up with Kathy Liebert, making her fourth final, with a better than 2-1 lead, and beat her in 26 hands of match play. It was a tournament noteworthy for the incredible number of last-card draw-outs at the final table.
Liebert had been short-chipped, but got well beating up and eliminating Barry Shulman. First she made 5s full to leave him with $1,500. The next hand he went all in on fifth street with two upcard queens and lost to her two pair. The final table started with $100 antes, $400 low-card bring-in and limits of $500-$1,000. Liebert and Bigler were tied for the chip lead. On hand two, Daniel Negreanu raised all in with K-K-A-3. On sixth street, he and Pham had exactly the same six cards … with one small difference. Pham had four spades. He then caught a 4s on the river to knock Daniel out.
Some 25 minutes into the round, Kathy won a pot with queens-up in three-way action to take the lead with about $26,000. Meanwhile, Bigler, a retired Swiss businessman turned poker pro, was heading in the other direction. He got hurt when Ramzi Daniel showed him a full house, then lost two more pots. Finally, in three-way action, he went all in with two queens, along with Andre Maloof, all in with two 8s. On fifth street David snagged a third trey, all he needed to knock out both players.
The five survivors were in the money. Pham beat Liebert in a small pot to tie her for the lead. Later, Toto Leonidas escaped death twice, first with a river flush, the next with a river straight. In four-way action, businessman Daniel went all in on fourth street with no pair, then quadrupled up when he made two queens to beat everyone else's pair. A hand later, Leang Kuoch, an assistant floorman at the Bike's Asian side, went all in with 7-3/7. Liebert bet on fourth street "to protect my buddy" She also had split kings. Leang made 10s-up, but Kathy caught a second pair, and it was, so long, Leang.
Daniel then made yet another river suck-out. All in with two pair against Pham's trip 7s, he filled with a 10. At the break, Pham had increased his lead to $48,400 to Liebert's $29,000, while Ramzi and Toto trailed badly with $5,600 and $5,500 respectively. Returning from the 12:15 break, it took only 10 minutes for two players to depart. Toto went all in with A-4/K of spades. He caught a fourth spade, then a pair of kings, but that's as far as he went. Ramzi, with split 8s, caught two jacks and Toto cashed out fourth. On the next hand, Daniel's luck ran out. On sixth street, he was all in with two 9s and a heart flush draw against Pham, who had two queens and a club flush draw. Both flushes missed and David's queens got the match heads-up.
With $200 blinds, a $400 bring-in and $1,500-$3,000 limits, David had $60,400 to Kathy's $28,100. They discussed deal but decided to play. She nearly closed the gap, but then David began pulling ahead again. On the 25th hand heads-up she was crippled when her ace-high flush fell victim to his full house. On the next she went all with split 7s when the pot was capped on third street. She didn't improve, impatiently turned up his hole card before he could squeeze it, and found he had paired a jack to win it all. -Max Shapiro
BIOGRAPHY
So far in this Legends tournament, David Pham has wins in 7-card stud and 7-card stud hi-lo, a second in stud hi-lo, thirds in stud hi-lo and Omaha hi-lo and a fifth in 7-stud. He also has an 82-point lead in the all-around points race. Pham is also a World Series bracelet holder and was Card Player’s Player of the year in 2000.
Tonight, he said, he was short-stacked at the third or fourth table, but got well in four-way action, making a full house on fifth street and jumping from about $1,300 to nearly $5,000. He was never headed after that. He liked the final table line-up because he didn’t see a lot of strong stud players. Toto Leonidas was one, but he was short-chipped. Ramzi Daniel's game, he knew, was pot-limit hold'em. Kathy Liebert is a strong player, he acknowledged, but she isn't that much into stud. So he was confident, and his confidence was not misplaced.
EVENT #22 RESULTS
7-CARD STUD
$1,000 + $60
$44,000 PRIZE POOL
44 PLAYERS
1. David Pham $19,800
2. Kathy Liebert $11,000
3. Ramzi Daniel $6,600
4. Toto Leonidas $4,400
5. Leang Kuoch $2,200
CHIP POSITION FINAL TABLE
Kathy Liebert
$18,300
Andre Maloof
$6,600
David Pham
$13,000
Toto Leonidas
$9,800
Leang Kuoch
$9,400
Daniel Negreanu
$3,700
Chris Bigler
$18,300
Ramzi Daniel
$9,400
C hips raced and/or blinded off: $485
ALL-AROUND PAY-OFF POINTS
Name Total
1. David Pham 303
2. Daniel Negreanu 221
3. Kathy Liebert 203
4. Marlon Delossantos 192
5. Huck Seed 171
6. Men Nguyen 156
7. Scotty Nguyen 148
8. Sam Sanusi 138
9. Ron Faltinsky 132
10.Andre Maloof 131
SUPER SATELLITE
PAY-OFF POINTS
Name Total
1. Jeff Yoak 306
2. Randy Holland 278
3. Tony Cousineau 251
4. Param Gill 232
5. Mickey Mouse 193
6. Hassan Kamoei 175
7. Jimmy Tran 143
8. Can Hua 140
9. Coach 139
10. Paul Wolfe 129
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