| MICHAEL LEMKIN WINS OMAHA
'ALL-IN' ENDURANCE BATTLE
Everybody took turns going all in and bouncing back during a grueling Omaha battle that dragged on for nearly 80 hands at the three-handed stage. In the end it was Michael Lemkin, down to the cloth seven or eight times, who made the final rally to win the 10th event of Cal State 2003, $500 Omaha hi-lo, and score his first major tournament win.
Lemkin is a portfolio manager with a stock brokerage company. A poker player since college, he came in third in Omaha at Hollywood Park's Sport of Kings last month, and sixth in a no-limit event at Hustler Casino last year.
Omaha is his best game. "It's a simple game," he explained, "much less complicated than no-limit. Hands are almost always shown down, so if you don't have a big piece of the flop, there's no point in continuing." It's also important, he said, to change your game when it gets short-handed because values change.
Limits at the final table started at $500-$1,000 and five minutes later went to $1,000-$2,000.
Dave Shumate lasted 11 hands. One off the button, he called Rusty Mandap's raise with A-2-J-Q, and had two pair when the board showed Q-10-3-J. But Frankie O'Dell, with A-K-Q-10, had a straight, put him all in and busted him.
Ray "Iceberg" Sitra, winner of the $500 seven-card event, started with a measly $3,500 and hung on tenaciously for 25 hands. Right after limits moved up to $1,500-$3,000 he went all in with A-K-Q-8. Mandap challenged him with K-Q-10-7 and won with two pair when the board came 10-9-4-Q-8.
O'Dell, who won Omaha events at the World Series and World Poker Open this year, finished eighth. Holding A-3-9-K, he had draws to a nut low and straight when the board showed Q-7-2-10. When another deuce came on the river, he fired out a bet in a pure bluff and was picked off and left with $1,000 when Tom Hunt called him with pocket aces. On the next hand he put his last chips in with A-Q-J-10, Brent Carter got heads-up with him when he raised with a low hand of 2-4-5-8, then won with an unexpected high hand when he flopped eights and deuces.
There's nobody I'd rather have out," Carter said in tribute to the dangerous O'Dell.
Lemkin went all in for the first of seven or eight times at the final table for $1,500, with three other players trying to eliminate him. Mike Krescanko made a full house, but Lemkin squeezed by with a 7-4 low. A few hands later, all in again, he stood up ready to leave, then scooped with a gut-shot straight on the river.
Poker player Krescanko had A-Q-5-6 when he was all in, but the best he could do was make a 7-6-5 low and pair his six when the board came J-6-7-2-2 Lemkin, with 3-4-5-J, scooped with a better low and two jacks.
Marshall Ragir, a co-developer of the cardplayer.com website, has final table finishes at World Series, Hall of Fame and Carnivale. His proudest moment, however, came when he was privileged to be a teammate of Max Shapiro when Max led a Card Player team to victory in last year's Legends of Poker casino/media tag team match. Tonight he struggled to stay in action as he went all in and survived three times, finally losing when he missed his not low draw and his paired king was beaten by Lemkin's kings with a better kicker.
At the break, Hunt had the lead with $35,000, followed by Don Halpern with $34,000, Lemkin with $24,500, Carter with $16,500 and Mandap with 4k. With limits at 2k-4k, Mandap, a tournament coordinator at Hawaiian Gardens, had just enough for the blinds four times, managing to get a piece of the pot each time. Finally, he missed everything with A-Q-6-8 and Carter finished him with a paired king.
Some 30 deals later, on hand 84, Halpern suffered a bad beat to exit in fourth place. Holding A-3-8-Q, he flopped trip eights with a number two low draw. But a jack and ten gave Hunt, who had been looking for diamonds, a backdoor straight.
The three finalists were reasonably equal, each with between 35 and 40k.Now began a very long session. As the chips moved back and forth, each of them went in numerous times, but each would then survive and recover. "We'll be here all night," Carter complained at one point. "You have been here all night," Lemkin corrected him.
With limits at 4 and 8k, the frequently all-in Lemkin, who had just made quad nines, now led with 64k while Carter and Hunt each had about 25k. Now it was Carter's turn to begin going all in, six times in all. Finally, on hand 161, he went all in for the last time with A-A-Q-10. All Lemkin had was 8-8-3-4, but scooped with a set of eights on the flop. "Just when I finally had the best hand," Carter groused.
Heads-up, Lemkin enjoyed a slight lead, $60,000-$54,000, just as the limits moved up again to $4,000-$12,000. At first, Hunt was getting all the cards, eventually putting Lemkin all in several times. Tlhen the tide shifted direction and Lemkin began regaining the advantage as it became Hunt's turn to go all in several times.
On the last hand, number 178 to be exact, Lemkin held A-A-4-7, and put Hunt all in on a flop of Q-9-5. With only 7-7-J-2, Hunt hadn't much hope, and the marathon session ended as Lemkin's aces held up.
The best part of winning, Lemkin said, was bringing home the trophy, a heavy crystal globe, to his 8-year-old son, who loves poker.
--Max Shapiro
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