| Minh Ly is Back on Track!
Minh Ly, a local pro with "too many tournament wins to count," has been having tough sledding the past couple of years. Tonight he returned to form, stayed ahead of the pack at the final table and claimed victory in the ninth event of Big Poker Oktober 2002, $200 limit hold'em. He started with the chip lead and still retained it when the five finalists agreed to a chip-count chop.
With the exception of Jan Somchub and a prop named Yuyi Jiang, the final table featured a cast of very familiar faces in local medium-limit tournaments. One of them was Binh Do, who finished number eight to open up a 31-point lead in the all-around points race.
The "semi-final" table of 10 got there after Phi Nguyen's pocket jacks were beaten by Tho Nguyen, who flopped a king to his K-2 of diamonds. The real final table got there in eight hands. On a flop of K-Q-J, Tho raised. His K-10 gave him kings and a draw to a king-high straight. Ly, who flopped the nut straight with A-10, flat called. A river 9 was disastrous for Tho, giving him his number 2 straight. This time Ly raised and broke his opponent.
Limits started at $1,000-$2.000, 16 minutes remaining. On the third hand, Beverley Kruskol threw away her pocket queens after Phil Nguyen bet when an ace turned. It was a prudent fold because Phil flashed pocket aces, but Bev was left with just two chips. Those went in when she had only J-2 in the big blind three hands later. Binh Do had K-Q and easily put her away when a king flopped.
On hand 17, with limits at $2,000-$4,000, all-around points leader Binh Do had 10c, 10x. When the board came 8-K-3-5-5 with four clubs, Andom Ghebre bet to put Do all in as Ly mucked a jack of clubs. Andom then turned up A-4 of clubs. "I called because I knew you didn't have a king," Do said. Unbelievably, the same thing happened on the next hand: four clubs came, and a player went bust with a single club, losing to a player with two clubs. Jiang, in the big
blind, was all in with 8c, 5h. The board came J-10-6-K-Q with four clubs and Ly, holding Q-5 of clubs in the small blind, won with the number two flush.
To this point, Carlito Lampaya, who started with a respectable chip count of $22,500, must have been getting a terrible run of cards because he was playing very few if any hands at all as his stacks dwindled. Minh Ly still held the lead with $36,000 while Ghebre was right behind him with 35K. For an odds-defying third time in 13 hands, four suited cards again showed up with a player holding two of the same suit, this time spades. Phil Nguyen bet the river and threw his hand away when Ghebre raised and then showed K-10 of spades for the nuts.
Hand 31 was Jan Somchub's last. She was in the big blild, all in with A-Q. Saying he had no choice, Ly called from the small blind with K-5 of spades. A board of 9-5-4-7-9 gave Ly a pair of 5s, all he needed to cut the field to five. On hand 34, Carlito finally found a hand he could play: 9-9. He went all in and built his chips back up by beating Andon's two 7s. A few hands later Can Hua went all in for $3,500 on the turn and stayed in action with pocket aces. Two hands after that he was dealt bullets again and picked up some more chips.
With limits at $3,000-$6,000, the players got in four more hands, and then began discussing a deal. The chip count was: Minh Ly, $35,000; Can Hua, $31,500; Phil Nguyen, $27,000; Andom Ghebre, $24,500; and Carlito Lampaya, $23,500. After some discussion about saving a small amount and playing on, the decided on a chip-count division, to bring the festivities to a close
--Max Shapiro
BIOGRAPHY
Min Ly, who is 48, once plied the trade of a welder before he decided to play poker full time seven or eight years ago. He has a great track record, with numerous victories including a best-all-around in an America's Poker Classic event. Two years ago he started to run bad, frequently suffering the frustration of seeing players with one or two outs draw out on him. But tonight he felt so confident that he made a $1,000 side bet that he would win the event. That confidence, he added, propelled him through the final table.
Things did not look that great tonight with five or six tables left. He had only $200 left and went all in four or five times before finally picking up some meaningful pots. The key hand of the evening for him, he said, came when he flopped a club flush to eliminate Binh Do.
CHIP POSITION FINAL TABLE
Yuyi Jiang
$7,000
Jand Somchub
$8,000
Phil Nguyen
$10,500
Andom Ghebre
$19,000
Beverley Kruskol
$6,000
Carlito Lampaya
$22,500
Binh Do
$12,000
Can Hua
$21,500
Minh Ly
$35,000
Chips raced and/or blinded off: $240
ALL-AROUND PAY-OFF POINTS
Name Total
1. Binh Do 129
2. Clinton Moore 98
3. Justin Westmoreland 95
4. Ulises Molina 91
5. Andom Ghebre 87
6. Tony Abesamis 75
7. Jollibert David 73
8. Albert Luna 60
9. Tom Roach 57
10.Men Nguyen 57
11.Farhang Ebadipour 57
12.Anthony Tran 57
13. Minh Ly 57
14.Leo Alvarez 56
15.Boris Kolas 55
16. Richard Dagres 53
|
