WORLD SERIES OF POKER 2000
EVENT #9 SEVEN-CARD STUD
$2,500 BUY-IN
$2,500 in chips
OPPORTUNITY LOST
By Mike Paulle
If you are very lucky and extremely dedicated you may ONCE in your life be in
a situation where a World Series bracelet is almost on your wrist. How
heartbreaking if you lose that one opportunity.
There were 151 entrants in the $2,500 Buy-In, Seven-Card Stud for a total
prize pool of $377,500. 2 tables were paid, a total of 16 players.
Tournament Stud is such a tough game. There are comparatively few hands an
hour, yet the levels increase just as fast as in other games. The antes on
every hand take an enormous toll on the patient. You have to gamble and you
have to win. When John Gledhill was forced to gamble Monday night and lost,
Larry Kantor got in by the skin of his teeth.
Coming back Tuesday afternoon, 'Fast Freddie' Brown had the chip lead. We
were to find out quickly how 'Fast' Freddie really was.
THE FINAL TABLE:
52 mins left of 80. The ante is $300, bring-in $500,
playing $2,000/$4,000
| Player/Hometown | Chip Count |
| Seat 1 Chris Ferguson (Pacific Palisades, CA) | $69,100 |
| Seat 2 Perry Friedman (Monterey, CA) | $48,600 |
| Seat 3 Al DeCarlo (Miami Beach, FL) | $60,100 |
| Seat 4 Larry Kantor (Woodland Hills, CA) | $4,000 |
| Seat 5 Kevin Song (Hacienda Hts, CA) | $60,400 |
| Seat 6 Pierre Peretti (Paris, France) | $24,700 |
| Seat 7 Kim Nguyen (Las Vegas, NV) | $25,200 |
| Seat 8 Fred Brown (Howell, MI) | $85,700 |
How ironic for Larry Kantor. Here he is at the Final Table with no chips and
he makes quad 10's on his first all-in hand. Where were those puppies when
they could have made him some money? Now the quads couldn't even take Kantor
off life support. Larry would have to sing for his supper in 8th when his
flush draw all-in lost to Fred Brown's 9's and 4's.
Chris Ferguson was the main recipient of Pierre Peretti's chips. With only
$24,000 to start with, Pierre couldn't afford to lose a showdown, but he did.
Chris turned over A's and 8's. Pierre mucked his hand with only a few chips
left. All-in for $600 Peretti, a Frenchman with an Italian name who speaks
very little English, couldn't even catch a pair as Ferguson finished him off
in 7th with Aces up.
Speed kills. 'Fast Freddie' Brown lived up to his nickname by dusting off
$85,000 in chips in near record time. Brown lost every big pot he contested
with Chris Ferguson and Perry Friedman. In the hand that ended the day of
Pierre Peretti, Fred Brown went to the river with a pair of 7's and no draw.
Fred was drawing dead to a 7 that didn't come. Ferguson took out two players
on the same Aces up hand. Brown was already downtown but with more chips than
Peretti at the start of the hand, so Freddie quickly took 6th.
Gambler or Housewife? Is there a difference? Kim Nguyen on her bio for the
Final Table scratched out 'Gambler' as her occupation and wrote in
'Housewife.' Maybe she knew she'd get no cards to gamble with. After being
nearly anted out of the game, Kim found a hand she could at least make a
stand with. All-in for her last $4,000, Nguyen made Q's and 10's. The red-hot
Chris Ferguson took no pity on the poor housewife and wiped out her
lifesavings with A's and K's.
A dominant limit hold'em player, Kevin Song made up no tunes at this Stud
table. Repeatedly, Kevin had the best hand to 5th or 6th street only to be
drawn out on. The ultimate discordant note came on Song's final aria. With
rolled up 5's, Kevin and Perry Friedman went at it to the river. Perry
started with A 2, then he had 2's with an Ace, Aces and 2's and finally 2's
full of Aces as the cards kept rolling in. Meanwhile, Kevin's hand went flat
when he couldn't make another pair. Song could sing the blues in 4th.
Today's Final Table is a story about lost opportunities. With three players
left, Perry Friedman had half the chips. He was cruising to the title. The
magic cards kept coming. Then suddenly they stopped. On the pivotal hand for
Friedman, he and Al DeCarlo built a $250,000 pot. Unbeknownst to Friedman
with two pair, DeCarlo had caught a third Jack. Now the magic slippers were
on the feet of Al DeCarlo and Friedman was headed for the rail. After a
couple of valiant saves to stay alive, Perry left in 3rd to Chris Ferguson's
A's and K's.
"We were playing for second," Chris Ferguson said. After Al DeCarlo made his
trip Jacks to take the chip lead, he went on to stack over $300,000 of the
$377,000 in chips on the table. This game was over. Ferguson and Friedman
were actually mucking hands to try to finish 2nd. That's how over this game
was. But when Chris Ferguson took out Perry Friedman, suddenly Ferguson's
prospects brightened. He had a little stack to bet with. Al DeCarlo is a
high-stakes Stud player who doesn't enter many tournaments. He plays very
fast and hard as is normal in big money live games. Maybe only once in his
life will Al DeCarlo be this close to having a World Series bracelet on his
wrist. Maybe he'll win one soon, who knows? But as well and courageously as
Chris Ferguson played today, this opportunity was lost by Al DeCarlo. The
game should have been over. The door was never slammed shut and Chris
Ferguson, with some divine intervention, squeezed through and won.
Official Money Winners
| 1. Chris Ferguson | $151,000 |
| 2. Al DeCarlo | $75,500 |
| 3. Perry Friedman | $37,750 |
| 4. Kevin Song | $22,650 |
| 5. Kim Nguyen | $18,875 |
| 6. Fred Brown | $15,100 |
| 7. Pierre Peretti | $11,330 |
| 8. Larry Kantor | $7,555 |
9th-12th received $5,660
John Gledhill, Mel Judah, James Pauton and Wei Wei
13th-16th received $3,775
Frank Thompson, Peter Brownstein, Brian Kaplan and Yueqi 'Rich' Zhu
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