WORLD SERIES OF POKER 2000
EVENT #16 OMAHA HIGH-LOW SPLIT
$2,500 BUY-IN
$2,500 in chips
ROOKIE WINS FIRST TOURNAMENT
By Mike Paulle
We all started somewhere. For most of us, our first tournament win was a $20
buy-in event at our local cardroom. We didn't have any idea what we were
doing, the deck ran over us, and we proudly took home a little trophy. Maybe
first prize was a couple hundred bucks. Well, you can't win a lot of
tournaments until you win your first one. And our winner last night won his
first one…at the World Series of Poker.
There were 160 entrants in the $2,500 Omaha Hi-Lo for a total prize pool of
$400,000. 2 tables were paid, a total of 18 players.
There were some pretty big name at this Final Table, but there almost was one
more. The justifiably celebrated TJ Cloutier flopped the second nut flush,
Ron Stanley flopped the nut flush to take most of Cloutier's chips. TJ then
went out 10th.
Coming back on Monday afternoon, Las Vegas bar/restaurant owner and
well-known high stakes player Bobby Kirkwood had a slight chip lead over 'The
Lion,' 3-time bracelet winner John Bonetti. Forget about it! This was
supposed to be a two-man race. The only other player even close in chips had
never won a tournament before.
THE FINAL TABLE
48 mins left of 80. The blinds are $1,000/$2,000
| Player/Hometown | Chip Count |
| Seat 1 Bobby Kirkwood (Las Vegas, NV) | $76,500 |
| Seat 2 Michael Sohayegh (New York, NY) | $68,000 |
| Seat 3 Demos Kalivas (Las Vegas, NV) | $7,500 |
| Seat 4 Hasan Habib (Bell Gardens, CA) | $43,500 |
| Seat 5 Sang "Jimi" Lee (Downey, CA) | $39,000 |
| Seat 6 Hassan Kamoei (Indio, CA) | $40,500 |
| Seat 7 John Bonetti (Houston, TX) | $70,500 |
| Seat 8 Howard Lederer (Las Vegas, NV) | $12,500 |
| Seat 9 Ron Stanley (Las Vegas, NV) | $42,000 |
Waiting for pocket Aces to go all-in worked for Demos Kalivas, so Howard
Lederer tried it. Nothing serious! Howard only flopped top set and turned the
nut flush redraw. With a zillion or so outs, Lederer left in 9th chopped up
by a rivered, gutshot straight for high by John Bonetti and a Michael
Sohayegh low.
With 9th gone, Demos Kalivas didn't have to be the first one out. Unlike
Lederer, Demos' pocket
Aces held up twice to keep him alive. The blinds got him before he could get
them a third time. All-in for the big blind with a four flush, A 10 6 4 of
Clubs, Kalivas checked out 8th when John Bonetti made the nut flush in Spades.
Evidently, Kalivas was the only one of the short stacks who knew how to play
pocket Aces. Hassan Kamoei was next to try them all-in on his small blind.
Kamoei also got an Ace on the flop, but with a dangerous 4 5 as its partners.
Sure enough, Ron Stanley flopped a wheel with the deuce trey. Pocket Aces
with a flopped top set got cracked yet again. Welcome to Omaha Hi-Lo!
In one of the gutsier plays of the night, Jimi Lee went all-in on a draw
right before Ron Stanley would have to be all-in for his big blind. "I wasn't
going to wait just to move up one spot," Lee said. When Lee's draw got there,
it left Ron Stanley in 6th. 'The Carolina Express' has broken his Final Table
drought, however, that started after his 1997 loss to Stu Unger in the
$10,000 Championship. Ron's A K in the big blind lost to a flopped pair of
10's held by John Bonetti in the small blind.
By hitting his draw earlier, Sang 'Jimi' Lee made an extra $4,000. Going
all-in under the gun for his last 6 chips, Lee turned a straight but with the
wrong color card. Lee's straight card was also Michael Sohayegh's flush card.
Michael also had a better low. Sohayegh bloodied Lee in 5th, but Sang didn't
have to entertain for his supper.
This table had all the earmarks of another John Bonetti cruise to a bracelet.
John was stroking, he had the chip lead and was dominating in his usual way.
Then, suddenly, something happened. Michael Sohayegh started catching card
after card in big pots with Bonetti. When John mentioned it to Michael,
Sohayegh said, "You have to play them when they are coming," "You're
absolutely correct," Bonetti returned graciously. And they kept coming for
everyone but John, so much so, that Bonetti was driven all the way to the
felt in 4th. A killer hand for John was against Hasan Habib. With a 7 7 2 on
the flop, Habib had a full house then rivered an A 5 low. John survived one
all-in with the nut straight but they caged The Lion the second time with a
flush by Sohayegh and a low by Kirkwood.
Three-handed the chips were almost exactly even. Bobby Kirkwood said later,
"It was time to gamble." He turned down a deal that would have guaranteed him
an extra $50,000. Bobby Kirkwood plays big so he knows what can happen. His
cards went dead immediately. Kirkwood took the expressway to 3rd place.
All-in when he flopped a Jack high Spade flush, Bobby rapped the table for
Michael Sohayegh who flopped the Ace high Spade flush.
Head up, the tournament virgin Michael Sohayegh had a 2-1 chip lead over a
seasoned poker professional Hasan Habib. We've seen more startling upsets in
WSOP 2000 than any year in recent memory. Jennifer Harman over Lyle Berman.
Phillip Ivey beats Amarillo Slim Preston. Now someone who's never won a
tournament against someone who can't remember how many tournaments he's won.
If this fight were being booked, Habib would still be the favorite as a 2-1
chip dog. But every dog doesn't have his day. This was Michael Sohayegh's
day. As expected Hasan took over the chip lead in a 2 1/2 hour heads up
marathon, but unexpectedly Habib couldn't hold on to the chip lead.
Relentlessly, the cards kept coming for Sohayegh. A flopped set of 6's, a
higher straight over Habib's straight. Funky lows. When Michael check raised
Hasan after a second King hit the turn, Habib only had $80,000 left. The same
thing happened a little later when Habib had pocket Aces. On the last hand of
the night, Sohayegh flopped trip 2's. The dream night of a lifetime had
arrived. Michael Sohayegh, a New York City Real Estate Broker, beat 159 of
the toughest Omaha Hi-Lo players in the world to win the first poker
tournament of his life.
Official Money Winners
| 1. Michael Sohayegh | $160,000 |
| 2. Hasan Habib | $80,000 |
| 3. Bobby Kirkwood | $40,000
| | 4. John Bonetti | $24,000 |
| 5. Sang "Jimi" Lee | $18,000 |
| 6. Ron Stanley | $14,000 |
| 7. Hassan Kamoei | $10,000 |
| 8. Demos Kalivas | $8,000 |
| 9. Howard Lederer | $6,400 |
10th-12th received $4,800
TJ Cloutier, Blair Rodman and Vince Burgio
13th-15th received $4,400
Arthur Young. Phillip Gordon and Yuegi 'Rich' Zhu
16th-18th received $4,000
Paul Phillips, Barry Bindelglass and Larry Reynolds
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