EVENT #8 LIMIT HOLD'EM
Saturday, July 15, 2000
$260 BUY-IN
$600 in chips
RUNNIN' GOOD, RUNNIN' BAD
By Mike Paulle
How could someone be runnin' so good and so bad at the same time? It seems
like a contradiction in terms. Jeff Shulman knows. A 25-year-old with the
poker world at his feet, Jeff has experienced more highs and lows in poker
over this last three months than many of us will experience in a lifetime.
One card away from the probable World Championship in May when the six of
Hearts fell for Chris Ferguson, today something even more improbable happened
to Shulman.
There were 354 entrants in the $260 Buy-In Limit Hold'em for a total prize
pool of $92,040. Three tables were paid, a total of 30 players.
The Final Table was set up when Buddy Green called Gary Gabler's all-in bet
with A J on the button. Gary was drawing razor thin with a K J and even
thinner when an Ace flopped.
THE FINAL TABLE:
46 mins left of 1 hr. The blind are $1,000 and $2,000
| Player/Hometown | Chip Count |
| Seat 1: James Woodley (Versailles, KY) | $6,600 |
| Seat 2: Buddy Green (Philadelphia, PA) | $43,000 |
| Seat 3: Mickey Mills (Tulsa, OK) | $13,600 |
| Seat 4: Jeff Shulman (Las Vegas, NV) | $36,700 |
| Seat 5: Louis Asmo (Columbus, OH) | $13,900 |
| Seat 6: Andy Carroll (Lovington, LA) | $25,900 |
| Seat 7: Joanne Bortner (Palo Alto, CA) | $1,400 |
| Seat 8: Ngoc 'Jimmy' Tran (Houston, TX) | $19,000 |
| Seat 9: Ernie Romano (Queens, NY) | $36,900 |
| Seat 10: Wayne Adams (Yale, OK) | $16,000 |
Gary Gabler took a tough beat when he had to go all-in. Joanne Bortner was
all-in a few hands earlier from her big blind with a 10 4 and was granted a
stay to her execution when a K Q J 9 hit on board. Now at the Final Table,
Joanne played the first hand from the small blind all-in with an A 4. Ernie
Romano had A Q to give 'J. J.' the hook in 10th.
At little later, James Woodley suffered a ghastly beat when Ngoc Tran raised
from late position with K 8. James reraised with pocket Aces in the big
blind. Then Woodley went all-in on the flop that had three clubs. Tran called
with the King of Clubs and was rewarded with a fourth Club on the turn. In
understandable disgust, Woodley stormed from the table in 9th as neither of
his Aces were clubs.
The weakness of all-in hands isn't so much in the cards as in the inability
to protect the best hand. Mickey Mills would have very likely survived his
all-in if he could have made one more bet. Mills had A 9. Two free cards
allowed Ernie Romano to go to the river and catch a King with his K J to
leave Mills grinding his teeth in 8th.
Runnin' good can be defined precisely. There were five pocket Aces at this
Final Table. Jeff Shulman had two of them. Both of Jeff's pocket Aces held
up, one for a giant pot thanks to Buddy Green. The other three, by three
different players, all lost. Each destroying their holder's stacks in the
process. Wayne 'Cat' Adams, as he prefers to be called, ran into the first
pair of Shulman Aces when he went all-in under the gun with A 8. Wayne was
allowed to go take a catnap in 7th.
Unlike the TOC last year, Louis Asmo didn't get any of the pocket Aces today.
In fact he hardly got any cards at all. Louis finally found a hand he could
bet and went all-in from the small blind with pocket Jacks. Buddy Green
called the reraise with A Q and flopped an Ace. Asmo, in 6th, was 2nd in last
year's inaugural Tournament of Champions so he has an automatic exemption for
this year's event that starts in a few days.
Pocket Aces were the ruination of Andy Carroll in 5th. He had them against
Ernie Romano who caught perfect perfect for a straight to leave Andy with
only a few hundred dollars which went in soon thereafter. Carroll wasn't
singing when his 10 8 in the small blind lost to Ngoc Tran's 5 2 in the big
blind as the flop came with a 5 2.
In the strangest trip of the day, Buddy Green went from initial chip leader
to the felt and back again. Buddy just won't give up on a pocket pair no
matter how many overcards come on board. He gave a fortune to Jeff Shulman
went he reraised Jeff's pocket Aces with his pocket 9's. Later he did the
same thing with pocket 6's to Jeff's pocket Jacks. In the interim, Buddy
punished others with Heart flushes. Green's erratic play finally ended when
Buddy's nemesis, Jeff Shulman, caught perfect perfect against him. Buddy had
pocket 4's and only a few chips. Jeff didn't want to call with his 6 4 in the
big blind, head up, but he felt he had to for the other players. With a 7 on
the flop, a 5 on the turn and a 3 on the river, Buddy's wild ride ended in
4th.
We've already defined runnin' good, how can someone run bad at the same time?
This strange table ended in the strangest of ways. Jeff Shulman halted the
proceedings by announcing a three-way deal. Jeff had $143,000 in chips, Ngoc
'Jimmy' Tran had only $60,000 and Ernie Romano had but $10,000.
"He wouldn't go out," Jeff said of Tran, "It was killing me." Prior to the
beginning of the event that had 354 entrants, Shulman made an agreement with
the only player who would cost him money. Jeff and Ngoc had agreed that if
they both got heads up at the Final Table they would chop the money evenly no
matter what the chip count was! Jeff had found the only one out of 353 other
players to get heads up with him. Rather than play it out, Jeff and Ngoc
agreed to give Ernie Romano $10,000 for third and Shulman and Tran chopped
the rest 50/50. That's how you know you are runnin' good while you are
runnin' bad.
Official Money Winners
| 1. Jeff Shulman | $33,315 |
| 2. Ngoc Tran | $17,110 |
| 3. Ernie Romano | $8,555 |
| 4. Buddy Green | $5,860 |
| 5. Andy Carroll | $4,500 |
| 6. Louis Asmo | $3,150 |
| 7. Wayne Adams | $2,250 |
| 8. Mickey Mills | $1,800 |
| 9. James Woodley | $1,350 |
| 10. Joanne Bortner | $1,125 |
11th-15th received $675
Gary Gabler, David Dodgion, Richard Tatalovich, Dave Klassen and Tex Morgan
16th-20th received $585
Bob Crossman, Koo Young, Jerry Rand, Andrew Kelsall and Lance Carte
21st-25th received $495
David Pham, Carl Heller, Fred Morin, John Schostag and Bill Cole
26th-30th received $450
Jim Meyer, Joan Mills, Rick Kimmel, Christian Munk and J.P. Schmalz
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