WORLD SERIES OF POKER 2000
EVENT #14 OMAHA (pot limit)
$2,500 BUY-IN w/Rebuys
$2,500 in chips
PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE
By Mike Paulle
Two poker players met in the present, one represented in quintessence the
glorious past of tournament poker, the other represented its potentially
fantastic future. One had been playing for generations, the other was in his
first generation. As long as poker is played, this might be the day that will
be known as the turning point. We may have experienced the day when the past
met the present and turned into the future of poker.
There were 100 entrants and 95 rebuys in the $2,500 Pot Limit Omaha for a total
prize pool of $487,500. 2 tables were paid, a total of 18 players.
For the second time in less than a week, Phillip Ivey took over the chip lead
entering the Final Table by eliminating the 10th place finisher on the last
hand of the night. This time it was Allen Cunningham who took 10's up against
Ivey's Aces.
Coming back on Saturday afternoon, Ivey's win had barely pushed his chip count
past that of a legend, the 1972 World Champion Thomas 'Amarillo Slim' Preston.
THE FINAL TABLE
34 mins left of 80. The blinds are $1,000/$2,000
| Player/Hometown | Chip Count |
| Seat 1 Hassan Kamoei (Indio, CA) | $38,000 |
| Seat 2 Amarillo Slim Preston (Amarillo, TX) | $90,000 |
| Seat 3 Markus Golser(Salzburg, Austria) | $47,000 |
| Seat 4 Dave Colclough(Smethwick, UK) | $68,000 |
| Seat 5 Phillip Ivey(Atlantic City, NJ) | $91,500 |
| Seat 6 Chris Bjorin(London, UK) | $26,000 |
| Seat 7 David Ulliott(Hull, UK) | $33,500 |
| Seat 8 Ali Sarkeshik(Northhampton, UK) | $38,000 |
| Seat 9 Phil Hellmuth Jr(Palo Alto, CA) | $55,500 |
What a lineup! Twelve bracelets, uncountable victories, untold millions of
dollars won and lost. If you had to pick a winner before play began, how could
you pick against Amarillo Slim? In 30 years of playing in the World Series of
Poker, NO ONE, not Johnny Moss, not Doyle Brunson, not Johnny Chan, not Phil
Hellmuth, no one had EVER beaten Thomas Preston at a Final Table.
As many cashes as Chris Bjorin has in the World Series, Chris had to know he
was trailing Phil Hellmuth when he called Phil's bet all-in for Chris' last
$12k. When an Ace hit the turn, Phil had A's and 3's. Chris had only an Ace and
a gutshot straight draw. "I was rooting for a 4," Chris said afterward. Bjorin
should have been more specific. With the 4 of Diamonds on the river, Chris mad
a straight and Phil made a flush with his 8 3 of Diamonds.
For the last several years, Europeans and especially the English have been
dominant at Pot Limit Omaha. It makes sense, the game is played extensively in
Europe and hardly at all in the USA. This Final Table started with five
Europeans, four of them English, and "only four lonely Americans" as Tournament
Director Bob Thompson called them. Even with the recent success, it was the
English who sent the first two players home. When a Queen high board flopped,
Ali Sarkeshik went all-in from the big blind with his last $17k and A Q. Markus
Golser, from Austria, was hesitant to call with pocket Kings for fear of trips.
Markus had the high straight draw locked up with K J. When the board paired on
the river, Golser's Kings were good and Ali 'Baba' Sarkeshik took his 40
thieves out with him in 8th.
Now it was the American's turn to give up one of their own. Hassan Kamoei
waited for pocket Aces to go all-in. The flop came J J 10 with two spades.
Hassan, who'd raised before the flop, now put in his last $9k. The flop gave
Dave Colclough a gutshot Royal draw with his A Q of Spades so $9,000 didn't
seem too much to pay to see the last two cards. When a Spade came, Kamoei left
in 7th.
A young man, Markus Golser probably aged considerably after today. He kept
being forced to make life or death decisions. Golser flopped J's and 10's, the
top two pair. In Hold'em this would be a pretty good hand, in Omaha High it's a
ticket to disaster. Dave Colclough had pocket Queens with a King, an overpair
to the board and the nut straight draw. Dave went all-in with only slightly
fewer chips than Markus Golser had. What to do? If he was wrong, Markus would
surely be the next one out. After several minutes, Golser called and was
rewarded when his two pair held up. Markus doubled up and David Colclough got
up in 6th.
The 'Devilfish' David Ulliott promotes this nasty table image. It's helped make
him a fortune at poker. But many people don't know how funny Ulliott is,
because his humor is of the dry, sardonic English variety. When Ulliott
survived an early all-in with a miracle card on the river, David jumped up from
his chair and did a swivel-hipped Elvis Presley imitation complete with a few
bars of "All Shook Up." It was fall-on-the-floor funny coming so unexpectedly
from poker's bad boy, the Devilfish. By even "The Devil," as Ulliott calls
himself, couldn't beat Amarillo Slim at a Final Table in the World Series of
Poker. No one had before, why should anyone start now? The flop came 9 9 4.
"If he bets, I fold." Slim said later. We'll never know if that would have been
true or not. Slim tells many tales. Ulliott checked the flop, "I don't know
what he's got," Slim said. "I bet." Now the Devilfish came over the top all-in
for $37,5k. Slim called with pocket Queens and rivered a Queen to crack
Ulliott's Kings and send the Devil back to Hades in 5th to practice his Elvis
routines.
The hand that Phil Hellmuth went out on wasn't the one that gave him 4th place.
Against Markus Golser, Phil still had enough chips to move up, but when
Hellmuth raised and was called by Golser, Phil gave up on a hand that he might
have won. The flop came 9 3 3. Phil checked and Markus bet. Hellmuth had A Q J
9 and folded with only $10,000 left after putting over $40,000 in the pot.
Golser said Phil's 9 was good. All-in for $7,500 against his nemesis Phillip
Ivey, Phil bolted from the room when Ivey's two Queens were a winner.
"I should have raised before the flop," Markus Golser said. "I made a big
mistake." By allowing Amarillo Slim to limp in from the small blind, Golser
trapped himself with A Q. The flop came with an Ace and the turn brought a
Queen, but by then it was too late for the Austrian. Slim had flopped trip 5's
and took almost all of Golser's precious chips. Phillip Ivey finished Markus
off in 3rd with two Queens against A K.
Like Jennifer Harman against Lyle Berman a few days ago, this was supposed to
be a gigantic mismatch. The 71-year-old Thomas 'Amarillo Slim' Preston with
over 50 years of top grade experience, and a perfect World Series record of
never having been beaten at a Final Table. Oh, and a 5-1 chip lead head up.
Against a kid, really, only barely legal at 23. Someone who has only played
tournament poker for six months. Why, Slim has lizard-skin boots older than 23.
How could Phillip Ivey win? It was impossible. The future hasn't arrived yet,
has it? It's still the present, isn't it? And the past is still vivid in our
imaginations, isn't it? Maybe that was Slim's problem, he imagined himself
winning another World Series bracelet and forgot he had to play the hands.
Phillip Ivey is a very tight player. He throws away a lot of hands, but when he
bets or calls watch out! He has a big hand. Slim may have thought he could run
over the kid heads up, because Phillip wouldn't call a lot of Slim's bets. It's
hard to get good hands heads up, even in Omaha. But Phillip Ivey is a player.
Just when Slim thought he knew how Ivey played, Phillip loosened up. Twice, for
gigantic pots each time, Slim bet out with two pair on the flop. Both times
Phillip called with draws. Each time the draw got there, once with a flush and
once with a straight. Now the lizard-skinned boot was on the other foot.
Phillip Ivey at 23 isn't the future of poker by himself, but he represents a
new generation of players that will carry poker into what looks to be a
fantastic future. That Phillip Ivey is African-American is only a small part of
this story. If poker is going to grow, as we all expect it to, we will need to
open poker up to everyone. If Phillip's flush draw doesn't come on his first
all-in, we'd be writing about how Amarillo Slim won his 5th bracelet, but the
flush came and the straight after it. Now with Slim all-in with the best hand
for the third time, Preston flopped a straight. Slim had two Kings with a 9.
The flop came Q J 10. Phillip Ivey had A J. Only a King would give him the
title. There were only two Kings left in the deck and one came on the turn.
Phillip Ivey had accomplished what seemed impossible. He is the only player in
WSOP history to beat Amarillo Slim Preston at a Final Table. The past is
prologue, the present is forever and the future is now.
Official Money Winners
| 1. Phillip Ivey | $195,000 |
| 2. Amarillo Slim Preston | $97,500 |
| 3. Markus Golser | $48,750 |
| 4. Phil Hellmuth Jr | $29,250 |
| 5. David Ulliott | $21,940 |
| 6. David Colclough | $17,065 |
| 7. Hassan Kamoei | $12,190 |
| 8. Ali Sarkeshik | $9,750 |
| 9. Chris Bjorin | $7,800 |
10th-12th received $5,850
Allen Cunningham, Tam Duong and David Winston
13th-15th received $5,360
Chau Giang, Dewey Tomko and Phil Mazzella
16th-18th received $4,875
Donald Thompson, Danny Dang and Donald O'Callaghan
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