RETIRED PHONE LINEMAN WINS FOUR QUEENS OPENER
Jay Snyder, a retired telephone cable repairman and recreational poker player, won his first major tournament by capturing the opening event of Four Queens Poker Classic 2003, $100 limit hold'em, despite being "close to the velvet several times" in early going. When he got heads up at midnight with Florida poker dealer Paul Bishop, he had a chip lead of 102k to 84k, and the two finalists chopped the remaining money.
It took only 54 hands to eliminate the first seven players, then another 67 before Gus Weiss, an 81-year-old retired accountant, bowed out in third place. Weiss was lucky to get anywhere near the final table because he lost the first nine hands he played and was down to three chips. But he arrived with a huge chip lead of 56k and in early final-table action looked like a runaway winner as he knocked out five players in a row and nearly doubled his chips.
Then, when it got down to three, the chip lead changed repeatedly. Bishop, surviving three all-in encounters, was the most aggressive, raising almost every hand, while Weiss was the loosest and Snyder the most selective, just "staying out of the way" as Weiss and Bishop repeatedly tangled.
The 10 finalists started with $500-$1,000 blinds and 1-2k limits, with eight minutes left. Ben Santoli, arriving second-lowest in chips, was gone in seven hands when his pocket eights were crushed by Mindy Dewey when she flopped an ace to her A-K. With limits at $1,500-$3,000, another of the four retirees at the table, Tom McHugh, became the first of Weiss' victims 12 hands later. Holding 8-7, Weiss flopped two more eights, slow-played his hand and broke McHugh, who went all in with A-10.
Two hands later Weiss scored a double knockout. First, Guy Vitale, the fourth retiree, raised all in with pocket kings. On a flop of J-9-8, Dewey bet and Weiss, with 10-9, raised to put her all in. Weiss missed his open-end straight draw, but a 10 turned to give him two pair, and now four were gone. On hand 23, Weiss took down his fourth player. He button-raised with pocket deuces. Robert Tybursky added his last $500 chip and couldn't help his Q-10. Tybursky, who is a table games supervisor at the Aladdin, was the winner of this event last year.
Amazingly, Weiss made it five straight on hand 33 when he nailed Mike Hodson. Hodson had raised pre-flop with pocket eights. Weiss called with K-3, flopped a king and put Hodson all in and all out. Hand 44 saw the biggest pot so far. Limits were now 2-4k, and the pot was capped in three-way action. On fourth street the board showed Ac-7c-5c-3c. Nobody had a club, and an all-in Snyder out-kicked Weiss, A-Q to A-9.
With 15 minutes left in the round, Weiss and Bishop were about tied with a little over 70k each, while Snyder had around 35k and Patricia Moynihan, an attorney who started with the fewest chips, was just hanging on with 5k. Shortly after, Weiss tried a river bluff with nothing, ran into Bishop's pocket aces and surrendered the lead. Moynihan finally went broke a couple of hands later. She had 8-7 and flopped an eight, but Snyder rivered a club flush.
Soon after it got three-handed, Weiss flopped a queen to his Q-10 against Bishop to regain the lead. When the limits went to 3-6k, he led, 88k to 59.5k for Bishop and 38.5 to Snyder. But then the swings began. After beating Bishop when he caught a 10 to his K-10, and then beating Bishop again with just 4-2 when a four flopped, Snyder rocketed up to about 85k.
Then Bishop found himself going all in, surviving once with king-high, then with a set of fives, but never slowed down. Relentlessly raising, he was roughly tied with Snyder, about 50k each, while Weiss still led with around 80k, as limits went to 4-8.
As chips went back and forth, Weiss warned his opponents, "You're trying to wear me down, but you don't know that I play all night all the time." "We're trying to wear each other down," Snyder corrected him.
As the hands passed the 100 mark, Bishop now led with about 90k while Weiss had dipped down to only around 37k. Finally, Snyder took the lead and left Weiss with only $500 when Weiss couldn't beat Snyder's paired 10. Two hands later, hand 121, Weiss finally succumbed. All he had was 4-3 and lost when Bishop, with A-7, flopped a seven. The two finalists quickly agreed to a chop and event number one was over. -- Max Shapiro
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