EVENT #1 LIMIT HOLD'EM
Saturday, July 8, 2000
$130 BUY-IN
$600 in chips
TAKE THE MONEY AND RUN
By Mike Paulle
Until tournament poker has corporate sponsorship, prize pools will consist
entirely of player's money. The players who arrive at the Final Table have
won their chips from other consenting adults. Purists who hate the concept of
deal making will be dismayed, but since it is the player's money they can
decide what to do with it. They can decide to give it all to charity if they
want to. Or they may decide to give the most money to the player with the
least chips. To his credit Tournament Director Dave Hricsina knows this and
didn't try to discourage a NINE-WAY chop of the prize pool in Event #1.
There were 883 entrants in the $130 Buy-In Limit Hold'em for a total prize
pool of $114,790. 5 tables were paid, a total of 50 players.
Like the 'Perils of Pauline,' a lovely young woman by the name of Jeannie
Johnson was tied to the railroad tracks with the train bearing down on her.
Jeannie didn't have enough chips left for her whole big blind. There were 51
players left and her big blind was the next hand. Johnson, who is a prop
player at Ft McDowell in Arizona, had only one prayer that someone would go
all-in and lose immediately. Don Theis is a tournament veteran. He wasn't
trying to get 50th place. When he picked up A K he went all-in. Unfortunately
for Don, he didn't have enough chips to stop Eric Person from calling the
raise with A 3. Don't ya know that a 3 flopped and Theis was history, which
untied the ropes on Jeannie Johnson just in time for her to escape the
onrushing train. Whew!
The Final Table was set up when Larry Bierman was all-in for his big blind
against Paul Westley. Paul had a Q J and Larry had an 8 3. The high cards
held up when no pair arrived for either player.
THE FINAL TABLE:
11 mins left of 45. The blind are $2,000 and $5,000
| Player/Hometown | Chip Count |
| Seat 1: Phillip Luong (Lakewood, CO) | $64,800 |
| Seat 2: Nick Fiorvento (Vancouver, Canada) | $40,300 |
| Seat 3: Dick Helfend (Thousand Oaks, CA) | $62,000 |
| Seat 4: Willie Borsalino (Las Vegas, NV) | $40,400 |
| Seat 5: Nancy Nevits (Las Vegas, NV) | $20,900 |
| Seat 6: Paul Westley (London, England) | $56,800 |
| Seat 7: Steve Boler (Victorville, CA) | $74,600 |
| Seat 8: Angie Border (Las Vegas, NV) | $30,100 |
| Seat 9: Xiao Deng (Edmonton, Canada) | $66,800 |
| Seat 10: Robert Campbell (Brookline, MA) | $79,100 |
A poker dealer at Binion's Horseshoe in Las Vegas, Nancy Nevits may wonder
what the table had against her personally since they waited until SHE went
out to make a deal. Gee, why not a 10-way deal? All kidding aside, Nancy took
a bad beat after the flop that cost her at least $5,000. Nevits raised all-in
for $12,500 with an A Q. Paul Westley, known as 'GreatBrit' on the poker
Internet newsgroups, completed the raise to $20k with A K. With a Queen on
the flop, Nancy looked golden. But a 3-out King came on the turn to give
Nancy the only 'Official Money' figure that was correct.
Robert Campbell was insistent. "Just see what your chips are worth," he kept
pleading. Campbell knew from experience that many players don't really have
an idea how much real money they are risking at the high blinds levels late
in tournament. The blinds were now $5k/$10k which was over $1,500 a hand.
Nobody's stack was over 10 times the big blind.
Campbell's plan worked. When the players saw how much their chips were worth
all of them opted to take the money and run. The nine players only left the
paid TOC entry and the trophy on the table to play for.
Here is what the players took down based solely on the value of their chips
on a 'chip count' basis:
| Paul Westley | $16,738 |
| Robert Campbell | $16,586 |
| Phillip Luong | $11,035 |
| Dick Helfend | $10,354 |
| Nick Fiorvento | $10,050 |
| Steve Boler | $9,062 |
| Willie Borsalino | $8,302 |
| Xiao Deng | $8,074 |
| Angie Border | $6,250 |
Paul Westley said afterward, "I thought of trying to renegotiate because I
had the chip lead and Robert Campbell's big blind was coming up, but I didn't
want the short stacks to try to renegotiate also."
Often in these situations someone will say, "Let's play for something." And
everyone will put some money back into the pot. That didn't happen this time,
which shows how intimidated everyone was by the sky-high blinds. Even a
player as successful as Phillip Luong, who had a significant experience edge
over the others, chose to take the money. Which, in Luong's case, was better
than 3rd place would have been.
Understandably the play got very loose after the money deal was agreed to.
Steve Boler went all-in with pocket 9's. Xiao Deng had A Q in the small blind
and flopped an Ace.
Angie Border's husband wanted to go home. He told her to go all-in dark on
the next hand. She did, with an 8 7. Good timing! Angie, who had a lot of fun
for someone who "never plays tournaments," ran into Quad Aces held by Xiao
Deng.
Phillip Luong raised the blinds with Q 6 and found Dick Helfend in the big
blind with A Q. See ya, Phil.
Willie Borsalino was one of the three women at this Final Table, all of whom
happened to live in Las Vegas. "And all blond," Angie Border said. Well, only
their hairdressers know for sure. Anyway, Willie took a rough beat for her
exit. She had A 9 against Dick Helfend's K Q of Hearts. There was a heart on
the flop, a heart on the turn and, oh my, a heart on the river.
The dealmaker, Robert Campbell, may have know something as he was "blinded
off" from the deal on. Campbell went all-in with Q 5. Xiao Deng called from
the big blind with Q 7. The flop came J 7 5. Xiao made a higher pair and now
there were four.
The deck was completely running over Xiao Deng at this point and he was able
to slow-play trip Kings on the flop to get Paul Westley all-in with Q J.
Nick Fiorvento finally gave in to the blinds all-in with 5 3. Xiao Deng had Q
10 and flopped a Queen.
Xiao had about a 3-1 chip lead over Dick Helfend. No fool, Helfend had seen
what was happening. He immediately rushed over to Deng and asked for $600 to
lay down his chips. Agreed. Xiao Deng won the trophy and the TOC entry. His
rush came to late for him to take the money and run. But he can walk to the
TOC, which will be held in this same room in two weeks.
Official Money Winners
| 1. Xiao Deng | $41,730 |
| 2. Dick Helfend | $21,430 |
| 3. Nick Fiorvento | $10,715 |
| 4. Paul Westley | $7,360 |
| 5. Robert Campbell | $5,075 |
| 6. Willie Borsalino | $3,385 |
| 7. Phillip Luong | $2,820 |
| 8. Angie Border | $2,255 |
| 9. Steve Boler | $1,690 |
| 10. Nancy Nevits | $1,130 |
11th-20th received $645
Larry Bierman, David Crawford, Jitterbug, Ryan Himes, Darwin Wallenberg,
Ron Stanley, Eric Person, Carl Peavy, O'Neil Longson and Robert Snell
21st-30th received $405
Eric C, Tom A, Rusty M, Joe King, Srini Yarba, Roy P,
John Brewer, Barry Pitt, Mike Sandifar and Tommy Lacklin
31st-40th received $290
Sidney Miller, Manrique Quesada, Terry Ding, Alex Brown, Dave Harvey,
Chicago Tom, Joe Parille, Lou Macchiaverna, Mike Green and Ted Samuels
41st-50th received $180
Bob C, Mike Huckalak, Greg Pappas, Avi Levy, Ali Gomrokchi,
Barry Shulman, Will Noyes, Jeannie Johnson, Joe Molinario and David Stainton
|
