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John Phan K.O.'s the Field
If this were a prize fight, it would have been stopped in the early rounds. Poker player John Phan arrived with a big chip lead, raised non-stop, knocked his opponents silly, and with five players left had more than half of the $300,000 in play. When it got three-handed, he had virtually 2/3 of them. The fight was stopped then, and he walked off with the lion's share of the prize money.
Roberto Flood, jeweler to the poker world, and supplement distributor Ron Faltinsky took home the rest.
When the final table assembled, the players were looking at $500 and $1,000 blinds and limits of $1,000 and $2,000. It didn't take long for the first two players to depart. It was child's play to eliminate pediatrician Bob Landan. On the first hand he was in the big blind and went all in with a decent A-Q suited, but couldn't pair and then missed a flush draw. Just three hands later, John Harris had all his chips in before the flop with 10h-9h. The board came Q-7-2-4-K, and Paul Abbamanto, making two pair with K-Q, easily broke him.
Ryan Russ estimated he had gone all in about 22 times before the final table. Continuing his perilous habit, he made it number 23 with pocket fives and they held up as he once again escaped against Bill Condon's A-J. Abbamanto, meanwhile, had been doing a lot of raising without much success. When he missed his open-ended straight draw and tried a bluff on a board of 9-7-10-3-Q, Faltinsky made a good call and picked him off with a paired nine. When he finally did win a hand, he needed pocket aces to do it. "Can't miss 'em all," he said.
On hand 14, James Ferrel was under the gun and raised all in for 4k with Ah-5h. "Looks terrible," he said as the flop came Jc-9c-8c. Bad enough. Phan had pocket 10s, and that was all he needed to leave Ferrel in eighth place. Phan had now moved up from his starting count of 79k to about 90k.
Limits were kicked up to $3,000-$6,000. Once again, "All-in Russ" did his thing and came out alive again when he made a flush with Ah-Kh, at the expense of Abbamonto, who had K-Q. Three hands later Abbamonto, a mortgage broker, went even broker. He raised from the button with A-10. Faltinsky put him for one more chip with J-8 suited and proceeded to make a full house on a board of J-8-4-8-9.
Things continued much as before. Russ went all in and escaped a third time, and Phan continued to pick up pots, running his total to about $115,000. On hand 29 he raised again, with A-4, and bet blind before the flop, which came Q-Q-4. After a long hesitation, poker player Ben Tang called with K-J and added his last chip. A nine and deuce came, and Phan's paired four put Tang away.
As Phan raised yet again on the next hand, Faltinsky asked, "Don’t you ever let anything get by?" Replied Phan: "No, not at this point." "He's unstoppable," added Russ. Phan now had about 135k.
On the very next hand, Phan put business owner Bill Condon out of business. All in, Condon, with A-10, had the lead with a board of 10-6-5-5. Holding K-10, Phan called for a king, the only card he could win with. Guess what came? Phan now had roughly 160k.
Taking a break, Phan folded on the turn with a board of K-Q-9-7, and allowed Flood to wash away the next player. Flood had 10-9 and Russ was all in for the last time. After a few more hands, with Phan holding 190k to 66k for Flood and 44k for Faltinsky, a deal was struck, and Phan’s arms were raised in triumph. -Max Shapiro
BIOGRAPHY
John Phan, originally from Stockton, California, moved south to Long Beach some four years ago. He’s has been playing poker for a dozen years and professionally for six or seven. His game of choice is limit hold’em, he divides his time between tournaments and side games, and he generally plays $60-$160 limit hold’em cash games. His biggest prior cash-out was about $40,000 in a Commerce Casino L.A.P.C hold’em event.
Phan describes himself as normally an aggressive player, and said that tonight he was just playing his standard game. In early going, he was never in trouble and accumulated his big stacks by winning a combination of large and small pots before arriving at the final table. “I just tried to play the best I could,” he said. That he did.
CHIP POSITION FINAL TABLE
John Harris
$25,000
Ron Faltinsky
$44,000
Bob Landan
$12,000
Paul Abbamanto
$28,000
Ryan Russ
$8,000
Bill Condon
$28,000
Roberto Flood
$29,000
James Ferrel
$14,000
John Phan
$79,000
Ben Tang
$33,000
ALL AROUND
PLAY-OFF
POINTS*
Name Total
1. Barry Marfleet 61
2. Scotty Warbuck 57
3. Joe Whiting 53
4. Martin Corpuz 49
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