| The Dragon Eats Event #27
David “The Dragon” Pham overcame a huge heads-up chip disadvantage to overtake construction business owner Jaime Perez and take down event number 27, $500 limit hold’em. This was the first 2003 Legends final table for Pham, who won best all-around last year. Ironically, a mere $1,000 stood in the way of a deal that would have given Perez first place. When it got down to three, he had 140k in chips to 43k for Pham and 48k for Vinnie Vinh. The best the two very tough pros would offer Perez was 32k, the least he would accept was 33k. After Vinh went broke a few hands later, the two finalists went at it for 27 hands before Pham finally wore him down.
Limits at the final table, after three minutes of play, were $1,500-$3,000. Truong Lawrence was first out. He led with a paired jack on the flop, but Perez, in the big blind with 9-2, turned two pair and rivered a full house. Eight hands later, Phillip Luong was one away from the big blind and decided to go with 9-7. He flopped a nine, not nearly good enough against Tom Brownscombe’s pocket jacks, and finished ninth. Three deals later, on hand 25, Cy Jassinowsky, a pro from South Africa, was all in with A-Q, a big favorite against Pham’s A-J. Then a river jack washed him away.
At the break, Pham, the starting chip leader, still had a slight edge with 53k to Freddy Lavassani’s 50k, while Vinh was third with 39k. Limits now were 2-4k. Warren Karp who had been doing tournament volunteer work by shushing the noisy spectators, lost his job on hand 47. He raised with A-8 and got re-raised by Jim Schmidt, who had pocket kings. Karp kept chasing, and couldn’t catch an ace.
A pot of more than $40,000 developed on hand 40. With a board of Ah-4d-2d-As, Pham had trip aces and a flush draw holding Ad-Qd. A river king of diamonds gave Pham his flush, but Lavassani, with A-2, already had a filly and took a small lead. He increased it with a good call against Pham. With a board of As-Kc-5h-Qc-8c, Pham bet and Lavassani, who with his twin brother banks pai gow at Crystal Park and Normandie, called and won with a mere Q-J offsuit.
Now Perez went on a tremendous rush. Hand 55: He beat Lavassini with a river flush. Hand 57: with 3-6k limits, he went against Schmidt’s A-Q with A-4 and broke him with a set of fours. Hand 59: he eliminated Tom Brownscombe (making his fourth final table) with K-K against 10-10.
Lavassani went out on hand 69. He had K-6 to Pham’s 9-5 and flopped a six. Pham had a straight draw, but instead caught a nine on the river. The no-deal stalemate came when limits went to 4-8k. Right after Pham cut into Perez’s stack with a paired queen, Vinh went broke with pocket fives against Perez’s pocket aces.
Heads-up, Pham took the lead after 10 hands, lost it with pocket aces when Perez, with J-4, made three jacks, then moved back into a huge lead when he beat Perez’s pocket queens by starting with 8-7 and making trip eights. He left Perez very short-chipped when he rivered an ace to his A-Q. On the final hand, he beat Perez’s pocket jacks by catching two nines to his 9-6. –Max Shapiro
BIOGRAPHY: David Pham is 36 and came here from Vietnam 14 years ago. He has a WSOP bracelet in the S.H.O.E. event two years ago, was Card Player magazine’s Player of the Year in 2000, and in February collected $450,000 by winning Commerce Casino’s million-dollar guaranteed event. Hold’em, of all varieties, is his game of choice.
Though he made eight Legends final tables last year, this was his first 2003 final in eight tries. He said he had to rebuy at the $15-$30 level, but by the time he was at the eighth table he had the lead, which he held all the way to the last table. He said he really didn’t care one way or the other whether Perez had accepted the three-way deal or played it out, because he had great confidence in his short-handed game and he knew that Perez’s best game was stud, not hold’em.
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