Back to Back for Phil Ivey!
Phillip Ivey, enjoying his best year as a poker player, continued his streak by winning his second Legends 2002 event in a row, $1,000 H.O.S.E. The night before, he took down the the 1/2 7-card stud, 1/2 limit hold'em event. The young Atlantic City pro started with a 9-1 chip lead when he got heads-up with Andre Maloof, but it took 45 hands of match play for him to polish off the stubborn CPA.
Ivey set the final table by knocking out David Levi. David turned a straight in an Omaha hi-lo round, only to have Phil then hit a full house on the river. There were no casualties until 28 minutes had gone by in the next round, 7-card stud. Antes were $50, with $100 bring-in and $300-$600 limits. On third street, John Juanda was all in with split 7s against Kenny's two kings. The cards were dealt and each player kept leap-frogging over the other. From a higher pair for Ken to two pair for John to three kings for Kenny, and then, on sixth street, 10s full for Juanda. "Get it fixed," John said. Kenny got it fixed, all right. He made kings-full on the river.
Playing eight or better, Chris Ferguson got hurt in a hand against Card Player columnist Adam Schoenfeld. Adam showed 2-4-A-9 and turned up a 3-5 for a wheel. Meanwhile, Young Phan, who started with the chip lead, hadn't won a single hand yet. Then, two hands after Adam's wheel, Young scooped up Chris' last chips with an 8-high straight.
The game reverted to hold'em, $500-$1,000 limits. Some 20 minutes into the round, Dan Heimiller raised with pocket 7s and Ivey put him in with pocket jacks. The board came Q-Q-8-K-2, Dan was done for the night and the five finalists were in the money.
Ken Flaton departed during an Omaha round. He started with A-2-3-K to Ivey's K-J-8-8. The flop gave Ken a pair of kings to Ivey's jacks, but Phil hit second pair on the turn. "Phil sucked out as usual," Kenny smiled as he collected his $1,450.
The game was now 7-stud, with $200 antes, $300 low card, $1,000-$2,000 limits. Phan kept having to put in the low card bring-in, nine times out of 10 by his calculations. But he managed to outlast Schoenfeld, who was eliminated when his set of 3s got iced by Ivey's set of 8s. Ivey now seemed invincible as he ran his total to roughly $50,000 of the nearly $60,000 in play. A few hands later it got heads-up after Pham missed his straight. "Well, at least I made a queen-high," Young said affably as Ivey showed him three aces.
The count was now overwhelmingly in Ivey's favor, about $54,000-$6,000. Maloof got a little breather by going all in and winning the first two hands. On the 12th heads-up hand, Maloof made a 7-high straight and pulled into a slight lead with about $31,000, which he later built up to close to $40,000. But Ivey never blinked and began getting chips back. When he scooped with aces-up playing stud hi-lo, he took back the lead and kept it. Andre, set to play in tomorrow's championship event, wanted to make a deal-any deal-and go home, but Ivey wanted to play.
Finally, when Maloof lost a lot of chips to Ivey's queens in a $1,500-$3,000 hold'em round, he seemed almost relieved. "Anything to get out of here," he sighed. A hand later he was down to $600. After surviving five all-in hands, he finally got his wish. Ivey, with only 5-6 to Maloof's A-6, hit a straight on the river to claim victory.
Meanwhile, in the points races, David Pham now cannot be beaten in the best all-around, while Jeff Yoak has won the $15,000 super satellite race. -Max Shapiro
BIOGRAPHY
This is the first time that the 25-year-old Ivey has won two tournament events in a row. Besides his four World Series bracelets, his other major wins include a limit hold'em at Tunica, no-limit and 7-stud at Commerce and a no-limit victory at the Taj. Asked to name his greatest strength as a player, he said it was his ability to try to understand what his opponent are thinking and figure out what they're trying to do.
He noted that, unlike the night before, he was in trouble in this tournament, down to $3,000 early at the final table, but continued to play his usual patient game. Asked whether he was able to exploit Maloof's impatience to get it over with, he said he didn't try to deviate from his normal game. Maloof, he added, was a tough player and very hard to knock out.
EVENT #29 RESULTS
H.O.S.E.
$1,000 + $60
$29,000 PRIZE POOL
29 PLAYERS
1.Phillip Ivey $13,050
2.Andre Maloof $7,250
3.Young Phan $4,350
4.Adam Schoenfeld $2,900
5.Ken Flaton $1,450
.CHIP POSITION FINAL TABLE
Ken Flaton
$2,300
Andre Maloof
$8,975
Dan Heimilller
$4,025
Phillip Ivey
$8,125
Young Phan
$16,375
Chris Ferguson
$3,350
John Juanda
$4,950
Adam Schoenfeld
$11,850
Chips raced and/or blinded off: $1,965
ALL-AROUND
PAY-OFF POINTS
Name Total
1. David Pham 364
2. Men Nguyen 303
3. Daniel Negreanu 221
4. Kathy Liebert 219
5. Ken Flaton 193
6. Marlon Delossantos 192
7. Sam Sanusi 189
8.. Huck Seed 183
9. Andre Maloof 178
10. John Juanda 165
SUPER SATELLITE
PAY-OFF POINTS
Name Total
1. Jeff Yoak 405
2. Tony Cousineau 301
3. Randy Holland 278
4. Param Gill 262
5. Mickey Mouse 245
6. Hassan Kamoei 175
7. Kathy Liebert 162
8. Craig Brennan 153
9. Harley Hall 150
10. Jimmy Tran 143
|
