Max (& Friends) Tags a Win!
Proving that he plays as good as he writes, Max Shapiro led the Card Player team to victory in the kick-off event of Legends of Poker 2002, the Casino/Card Room/Media Tag Team event. Well, he wasn’t exactly the captain. Card Player publisher Barry Shulman was, but he left after a few hands to attend to other business, as did Mike Caro, now returning as a Card Player writer. And Max didn’t exactly pile up the chips. He started playing stud heads-up with a chip lead built by Andy Glazer, and in two hands lost it to Team Soboba. The two teams then agreed to a chop, but since tournaments must be played out, they played one showdown hand, which Max brilliantly won with kings and deuces, so he is taking credit for the victory. Marshall Ragir, partners with Shulman in on-line enterprises, was the third member of the team.
The Bicycle Casino added $5,000 for a charity chosen by the winning team. Splitting it, the Card Player group selected Mothers Against Drunk Driving, and Soboba’s was Bikers Against Cancer. Glazer agreed to the chop because he liked Soboba’s choice. Their team members were David Wortham, James Carrico and Charles Baker.
The tag team event was preceded by a lavish buffet. A handsome brochure giving the scope and history of Legends was distributed. The tournament ballroom was redecorated and newly carpeted. Souvenir photos were taken during cocktail hour. “We’ve pulled out all the stops!” advertising director Kelley O’Hara enthusiastically announced to the players. It’s like giving birth.”
There were also brand-new Legends chips …which the Bicycle Casino wants to make sure are used properly. In addition to the final-table chip count, all chips out of circulation (from being raced and blinded off) will be listed. This measure, explains manager of poker operations Rick Cloward, is designed to protect the players and the integrity of the game. Any players with unauthorized chips in their possession, he warned, will be barred and/or prosecuted.
Steve Lipscomb, CEO of the World Poker Tour, which will film the Legends championship finals, showed a promotional film and predicted that the WPT would bring poker into a new era. In the course of a year, 13 major world tournaments will be taped on a 14-foot high, 27-foot-square stage using 15 cameras. The series of two-hour shows would then be nationally broadcast beginning in January 2003.
There was a cake for Mike and Phyllis Caro’s 19th wedding anniversary. Finally, in the all-important best-costume category, the Bicycle Casino’s OC Riders won $500 for their biker-chic costume of Harley-Davidson tee shirts and matching bandanas. Team captain was Welcome Desk hostess Sharon Silvas (“I don’t drive a Harley, I just ride in the back”), along with Jacqueline Marchan and Kyle Minnus. Second place of $250 went to the two-team entry from Ocean’s Eleven captained by Bob Moyer and Suzanne Carter. Third place of $150 was taken by the Southern California Gaming/Russian TV team. Unofficial prize for the cleverest name goes to Viacom. Poker writer John Vorhaus came up with Viacom Dios. They were first out. Via con dios, fellows.
The tournament began with 37 teams of three to five players each. Players could be tagged any time, so long as at least three hands were played. First out at the final table was the short-chipped World Poker Tour. On the third hand, playing $300-$600 hold’em, an all-in Lipscomb couldn’t help his K-Q against Team Soboba, losing to a paired 9.
Stud limits went to $500-$1,000, and the OC Riders immediately crashed when Minnus’ two 5s were overwhelmed by queens full. Then the Bike’s Plaza Players took a bad beat, starting and ending with rolled up 5s, while Glazer proceeded to fill. Marc’s Poker Pals, the defending champs captained by the Bike’s Marc Gilutin, busted out on the river when Kuni Tassew made a spade flush while Bike tournament staffer Marie Sohn of The Pets filled up.
Another Bike team, the Golden Dream, finished fourth in $1,000-$2,000 hold’em when Ricardo Gonzales raised all in from the small blind with 4-3 suited. Pet Barbara Connors called from the big blind with A-8, which was enough. Three-handed, the Card Player team now had close to two-thirds of the $30,000 chips in play. It got heads up when Connors went all in on the turn with pocket queens, losing to Soboba’s Chuck Baker, who held A-K and flopped a king.
The game was now stud, not this writer’s best (no Omaha?), and after two hands that didn’t get past fourth street, the finalists chopped and played the showdown hand. –Max Shapiro
BIOGRAPHY
Andy Glazer of the Card Player team, known as the “Poker Pundit,” writes for magazines, the Detroit Free Press and on-line venues. He has been everything from a chef to a masseur to a pro backgammon player to an attorney and is working on Phil Hellmuth’s biography, “Poker Brat.” Glazer has made final tables at several major tournaments. Marshall Ragir is partners with Barry Shulman in Cardplayer.com. He’s made final tables at the World Series, Hall of Fame and Rio. Max Shapiro writes a humor column for Card Player and does tournament write-ups for the Bike and other casinos. His only tournament win was at the Mirage.
Soboba team captain David Wortham is poker room manager at that Indian casino, located near San Jacinto. James Carrico is a dealer and Charles Baker is a prop. Their tournament experience has been limited to small events.
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