EVENT #17 NO LIMIT HOLD'EM
Sunday, July 23, 2000
$940 BUY-IN
$2,000 in chips
PLAYING FOR SECOND
By Mike Paulle
When one chip leader takes out the other, the resulting stack is so
formidable that everyone else is left playing for second place.
There were 320 entrants in the $940 Buy-In No Limit Hold'em for a total prize
pool of $300,800. Three tables were paid, a total of 27 players.
In a portent of things to come in reverse, Stan Goldstein called a short
stack with 9 8 and spiked a 9 on the river to knock out the 28th player who
had an A K and get everyone in the money.
The Final Table was set up when Jim Boyd reraised Mike Sukonik's raise all-in
with A 5 and his last $18k. Mike 'Shag' had two 5's that walked when no Ace
came.
THE FINAL TABLE:
5 mins left of 1 hr. The blind are $1,000 and $3,000
| Player/Hometown | Chip Count |
| Seat 1: Michael 'Shag' Sukonik (Warminster, PA) | $98,500 |
| Seat 2: Scott Byron (Elmhurst, NY) | $20,500 |
| Seat 3: Gary Solomons (London, England) | $62,000 |
| Seat 4: Michael Danino (Margate, NJ) | $110,000 |
| Seat 5: Alex Papachatzakis (Torrance, CA) | $36,000 |
| Seat 6: Stan Goldstein (Los Angeles, CA) | $137,000 |
| Seat 7: 'Amarillo Slim' Preston (Amarillo, TX) | $26,500 |
| Seat 8: Darren Hamilton (Butte, MT) | $126,000 |
| Seat 9: Christoph Haller (Truenstein, Germany) | $29,500 |
There were some giant stacks at this table and some not so giant. The leader
of the 'have-nots' was Christoph Haller. One of the three short stacks seemed
doomed to go out first. When Scott Byron won his first all-in hand, Haller
tried to follow. Christoph made a move on the blinds with 10 9 all-in. Gary
Solomons was wise enough to find an A 10 of Clubs in the big blind and made
the decision that Haller should finish 9th.
Mike Sukonik was committed to his hand when he raised to $15k. Scott Byron
reraised all-in for another $8,000, which wasn't enough to get Mike off his
hand. 'Shag' had the K Q of Spades. Scott slammed the table when a King came
on the flop to crack Scott's pocket Queens. Is that anyway to treat a boy
from Queens for playing Queens against one overcard?
If he doesn't have the best hand, Amarillo Slim can talk you out of your
winning hand. That's what got him all the way to 7th place. But Slim couldn't
talk Darren Hamilton out of an A K in the small blind. Preston had only about
$15k so he raised all-in from the button with Q J, then he went over to talk
the paymaster into giving him his cash.
'Israeli' Mike Danino took a terrible beat on the first hand of the Final
Table. Mike had pocket Queens, Alex Papachatzakis had pocket 10's behind him.
Alex called Mike's raise all-in and caught a 10 on the turn to cripple
Danino's stack. Mike never recovered from the hit. Still with $53k left,
Danino tried a move on the blinds with a $25k bet from middle position and
with the J 10 of Clubs. Darren Hamilton was having the day of his life, so he
had no problem raising all-in on the button with the A Q of Diamonds. Mike
called with his last $28k and watched as an Ace came on the flop and a Queen
on the turn to liberate Danino from any further suffering in 6th.
"This table is from 'The Twilight Zone'," Stan Goldstein kept saying as
stranger and stranger things happened. He tried to be careful so that those
strange things wouldn't happen to him, but Stan couldn't count on a bizarre
play by Darren Hamilton. For some reason Darren made a move, raising with a J
7. The flop came with a 5 and two spades. Stan had the 8 5 of Spades and
raised Hamilton $85k on the turn. How Darren called this bet is anyone's
guess. Some days you can't do anything wrong. When a Jack came on the river,
Goldstein let go an curse to the dealer.
Jacks were to be Stan's Twilight Zone card. All-in with a heart draw and the
high card, Stan left in a shocking 5th when Darren caught another Jack with
his J 6 in the big blind.
Now Darren Hamilton had over half the chips on the table. The other three
were playing for second. Mike Sukonik made the first move with the best hand,
but there was no beating Darren Hamilton today. Darren raised from the small
blind with A 9. Sukonik came over the top all-in for $80k with A K. No
worries, the 9 peeled right off the deck.
Down to three, Gary Solomons and Alex Papachatzakis wanted no part of someone
as hot as Darren Hamilton. First Gary and Alex agreed on an $8k save between
them. Then when it became obvious that Hamilton was going to use his nearly
$500,000 stack mercilessly against their two $80,000 stacks, Gary and Alex
took an offer from Darren to accept $13,545 off first place and to split 2nd
and 3rd evenly. Hamilton got $100,000. Solomons and Papachatzakis took
$49,350 each. Darren wasn't experienced enough at deal making to know he
could have shut it down right there if he'd asked. Gary and Alex were
delighted when Darren said, "And we'll play for the TOC."
After Gary Solomons went out 3rd with an open-ended straight draw that
failed, Alex Papachatzakis asked for and got an amazing $2,000 for his 3-1
dog stack that was worth about $500. Darren may have ended this strange
evening with a very strange deal because Hamilton's girlfriend wanted the
World Famous Orleans trophy. The Orleans Open 2000 was history when those
playing for second got what they asked for.
Official Money Winners
| 1. Darren Hamilton | $113,545 |
| 2. Alex Papachatzakis | $56,770 |
| 3. Gary Solomons | $28,385 |
| 4. Michael 'Shag' Sukonik | $19,415 |
| 5. Stan Goldstein | $13,440 |
| 6. Michael Danino | $10,455 |
| 7. 'Amarillo Slim' Preston | $7,470 |
| 8. Scott Byron | $5,975 |
| 9. Christoph Haller | $4,480 |
10th-14th received $2,990
Jim Boyd, Tex Flaniken, Jacob Horowitz, James Woodley and Jack Fox
15th-18th received $2,240
Bill Shalhoob, Mike Krescanko, Diego Cordovez, and Edward Zidd
19th-23rd received $1,795
Paige Williams, Brent Carter, Richard Davidson, Jerri Thomas and Joe Meyers
24th-27th received $1,495
John Hoellein, Mansour Matloubi, Peter Delamos and Dewey Weum
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