| Fran's the Man in 7-Stud/8!
Frances "Fran" Pinchot, the colorful retired teacher and basketball coach who had been struggling lately, was back in form as he dominated the final table and won the 11th event of Big Poker Oktober 2002, 7-card stud hi-lo. "In limit poker, I'm as good as the best and better than the rest," he modestly remarked after his victory. He demonstrated his reading skills when Raymond "Iceberg" Sitra, showing 2-J-Q-5 of hearts, bet all in on the river for $1,200. Pinchot called and won with just pocket 8s. Pinchot's final opponent was Tom Roach, winner of the $100 Omaha hi-lo event. Fran started the match-up with a sizeable chip lead and never gave Tom a chance to get close.
The last nine finishers played hand for hand for hand for hand for hand for one long hour. It dragged on so long partially because Daniel Dahan was saved by a mistake. He had only $200 left when he bet the river with aces-up. Sitra, a TV production executive and former poker writer, called with three jacks, but failed to raise him all in. Iceberg later explained that because of a vision error, he had thought chips belonging to an adjacent player were actually Dahan's. Daniel proceeded to go all in and survive three times, and then he was the one to finally knock out the ninth player, Jeff Kanow, with a straight and a 6-low.
The final table moved faster; four players gone in 20 minutes. After two minutes of play, limits went to $2,000-$4,000, with $300 antes and a $500 low-card bring-in. On the first hand at those limits, the venerable Y.S. Woo, respectfully known to one and all as "Mr. Woo," started with pocket 10s and made a second 9 on sixth street. He went all in for $2,500 and lost to Pinchot's aces-up. Four hands later, Dahan went all in with split 10s. He couldn't improve and lost to Anton Ulker's pocket queens.
One hand after that, "Lucky" Larry Kantor, a CPA, started with 2-8/5 and went all in with 5s and 7s. But Pinchot, starting with buried aces, was waiting for him with aces-up. A couple of hands later, Pam Aguirre bowed out. Starting lowest-chipped with $3,500, she had been hanging on, finally found herself all in with just three medium-sized cards and ended up unable to beat Roach's two 7s. Six hands later came the hand that melted down the "Iceberg." Sitra started with 3-4/2, so besides his four up-card hearts, he also had a wheel draw on sixth street. When he caught a 10, he couldn't even beat beat Pinchot's board of 6-Q-4-K, so his only out was a bluff bet. Partially because he himself had three hearts showing, and partially because he had put Sitra on a low draw, Pinchot, remarking on his opponent's "scary board," made a good call with his unimproved pocket 8s.
Ulker now had about $23,000 and Roach around $16,000. It was hard to tell how much Fran had because he likes to keep his chips in a big, messy pile, but simple math showed he had about $51,000. Limits now went to $3,000-$6,000, with $500 antes and $1,000 low card. After Anton lost some chips to Tom, Pinchot finished him off. Anton went all in drawing to a 2-3-4-5, made zip, and lost to Fran's pocket queens.
Fran now had better than a 2-1 chip lead and the two went at it, warily, for some 24 hands. Along the way, a tournament staffer observed that the last of the noisy spectators had disappeared. "Thank God," Fran said. "Now we can play poker." As Tom gradually sank, he was finally left with $7,000 after folding with 6s showing against Pinchot's board of K-10-7-3. Shortly after, Tom bet with K-5/A-7-2 and Fran check raised him all in with 10-5/3-3-10. Tom missed his low and back-door flush draws and Fran savored victory. -Max Shapiro
BIOGRAPHY
Frances Pinchot taught high school phys-ed and coached basketball in Trenton, New Jersey for 30 years and is proud that all 40 of the boys he coached (with a combined 119-21 record) earned full scholarships. He's played poker almost 50 years, picked up a lot of savvy playing with mob guys in "joints," and ran his own game for 14 years.
Stud (naturally for an Easterner) is his best game. He feels it takes the most skill "because you can control your money better and make so many moves." As a basketball competitor, Pinchot says he's more interested in the winning than the money. Not primarily a tournament player, he's won only one other, at an Atlantic City resort. In 7-stud, he had a flush, bet the river, got raised, correctly put his opponent on a full house, folded with $25, anted $15 on the next hand, and still won. Tonight, he said, he had chips, and that put him in full control.
CHIP POSITION FINAL TABLE
Fran Pinchot
$16,700
Daniel Dahan
$4,200
Anton Ulker
$14,200
Raymond Sitra
$22,600
Pam Aguirre
$3,500
Y. S. Woo
$13,700
Larry Kantor
$3,700
Tom Roach
$11,300
Chips raced and/or blinded off: $350
ALL-AROUND PAY-OFF POINTS
Name Total
1. Binh Do 129
2. Minh Ly 109
3. Tom Roach 106
4. Tony Abesamis 105
5. Clinton Moore 98
6. Justin Westmoreland 95
7. Ulises Molina 91
8. Andom Ghebre 87
9. Jollibert David 73
10.Can Hua 61
11.Albert Luna 60
12.Tho Ngo 58
13.Fran Pinchot 57
14.Joe Grew 57
15.Farhang Ebadipour 57
16.Men Nguyen 57
17.Anthony Tran 57
18.Leo Alvarez 56
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