Poker Tournament Results

Legends Of Poker WPT Season 2

Place	Name	Prize
1	Joseph Grew (Carlsbad, CA, USA)	$37,400
2	Nicholas Dileo (Boston, MA, USA)	$17,765
3	Juan Halub (Los Angeles, CA, USA)	$8,880
4	Neil Ho	$5,610
5	Dan Bakker (Hot Springs, AR, USA)	$4,205
6	Brian McCann (Reseda, CA, USA)	$3,270
7	Don Hoffman (Redondo Beach, CA, USA)	$2,335
8	Lawrence Truong (Fountain Valley, CA, USA)	$1,870
9	Habib Khanis (San Diego, CA, USA)	$1,635

Tournament Report

Joe’s Chips Grew & Grew Joe Grew’s chips just grew and grew in the ninth event of Legends of Poker 2003, $500 pot-limit hold’em. After 17 hands, with eight players left, the 30-year-old from Carlsbad, California had more than 40 percent of the chips, and after that he went on an unbelievable rush, catching cards at will and blowing away the field in a performance even more dominating than that of Scotty Nguyen’s the night before. When it got heads-up, he had $167,500 of the $187,000 in play, and he mercifully ended the slaughter in a deal with runner-up Nicky Dileo, a New York pro with a bracelet from the World Poker Open. Only nine participants made it to tonight’s final table after Steven Ford and David Levi, both with smaller pairs, were dispatched by Dileo’s pocket kings. Ford couldn’t complain, though. He made it all the way to 10th place after being down to one chip with four tables left. The finalists were playing with blinds of $600 and $1,200, which allowed the first one in the pot to raise anywhere from $2,400 to $4,800. At that point, Grew, with $37,900, was just a tad behind chip leader Neil Ho. Gone in 60 seconds was salesman Habib Khanis who committed his $4,300 to pocket fives on the first hand. He was okay until the river when Lawrence Truong caught an ace to his A-10. After that, nothing very significant happened until hand 17 when Grew made a three-bet all-in raise of $25,500. He held pocket 10s, and after long thought, Lawrence Truong called with Ks-Qs. Grew made 10s full on the turn and Truong was left with just $2,100. Grew told Truong he should have gotten away from his hand after the last big bet, but in point of fact, the 10s were only about a seven percent favorite. In any event, Truong put all his chips in from the small blind with A-K on the next hand, losing to Daniel Bakker’s flush. Grew now led big with 78k. Behind him were: Neil Ho, 45k; Dileo, 21k; Bakker, 17k; Juan Holub, 11k; Brian “Bear” McCann, 8k; and Don Hoffman, 7k. With blinds of 1000-2000, Hoffman, a contractor, was in the big blind with Qh-9h. McCann, who just began hosting a new no-limit game at the Bike, put him in and broke him with pocket kings. A few hands later, McCann raised $10,000 with pocket aces and issued a challenge: “Put it in. Let’s gamble.” Responding all in with pocket sevens was Holub, who flopped a set and filled. “They do it to me every time; I’m the unluckiest person on the planet,” McCann moaned as he grasped his last four $500 chips. Under the gun in the next hand, the Bear tossed in his four chips with Jd-9d. “I’ll give you some protection,” offered Ho, raising 5k. “Protection from what?” McCann replied. Forgetting what happened when the Bear asked for callers, Ho then said, “The water’s warm. Come on in.” Dileo found the water so warm that he raised all in 17k. The water was now too hot for Ho, and he jumped out. Dileo had pocket 10s, and, like McCann’s tormentor the hand before, flopped a set and then filled. From here on out, the show belonged to Grew. Hand 31: His pocket queens knocks Bakker out in fifth place. Hand 37: he has A-Q to Ho’s J-10. Ho bets 5k into a flop of 6-6-6, Grew raises him all in and wins with a river ace. Hand 41: Holub raises all in with As4s. “I’ll take the odds,” Grew says, calling with Q-8. A flop of 7-6-5 and two spades makes Holub better than a 3-1 favorite, but an offsuit river queen wins it for Grew. He has virtually all the chips now, and it ends with a deal. –Max Shapiro. BIOGRAPHY: When he won the Big Poker Oktober championship event last year, Grew was described as something of a “mystery man” who begged off providing any significant details about himself or his background or occupation, other than that he was 29 and currently lived in Carlsbad. Same story tonight. Even his photo, with the bill of his cap pulled low over his eyes, was identical to the one taken a year ago. As Plato said, the more things change the more they remain the same. (Whatever that means.) Though he's played poker for seven years, Grew turned to tournaments just last year, placing 17th in a World Series shoot-out event, then returning to California to make a final table at the Bike's Mini Series, along with several other finals he's made in the past year.