Battery Exec On Full Charge
Owen Frances, a sales executive of a hearing aid battery company, had a high-voltage night in the 7-card stud hi-lo event. He came to the final table with a big chip lead, twice as much as anyone else, was never headed and coasted to an easy victory. At the end, he had $94,000 to William Phoa’s $52,500, and they made a deal that ended the 12th and final regular event of Big Poker Oktober 2003.
Tomorrow is the best all-around points playoff for the Pinzgauer “mystery car,” an Austrian-made 4x4 cross-country vehicle used by the Swiss and other armies. If the winner cannot pronounce “Pinzgauer,” he or she can elect to take $18,000 cash (along with the first-place prize pool payout). Van Mahesh ended up as points leader. He gets $1,000 plus a buy-in to the invitational play-off. Players must have at least 10 points to participate. Each receives $300 in tournament chips plus 10 times their points total in additional chips. The game will be H.O.E., with no-limit hold’em at the final table.
Only seven players made it at tonight’s final table when two were knocked out on the same hand-for-hand deal. At one table, Brian Goddard finished ninth and collected $275 when his pair of nines were beaten by Nordai Khodadian’s jacks and deuces. At the other table, George Antablian had queens and lost to Scott McCaulley’s kings. Eighth place paid $365. At the last table, play commenced with $300 antes, a $500 low card and $2,000-$4,000 limits. Dean Bennett started with only $2,900, went all in on the second hand, and scooped the main pot with an overkill hand of three aces, two queens and two jacks. Limits now went to $3,000-$6,000, with $500 antes and a $1,000 bring-in. On hand seven, both Phoa and Khodadian were left short-chipped when the folded on the river against Frances’ board of 4-10-10-5. Khodadian had 5k and Phoa 8k.
Bennett, however, was first out. On the next hand he went all in with (2-2)3 and ended up with just the lowly pair of deuces while Phoa, starting with split eights, made two pair. Seventh place paid $545. Pro player Larry Eubanks was next to face disaster when he was left with $2,500 after he made trip sevens on fifth street and lost to Phoa’s full house.
Three players went all in on hand number nine, and they all pulled out. Khodadian immediately put in his last $2,500. McCaulley re-raised all in for a total of $15,500 on fifth street showing 7-2-A, and Phoa on the same street went all in for $10,500 showing 4-6-3. At the end, Khodadian took the high end of the main pot with trip nines while Scott took the much-larger high end of the side pot with aces-up and Phoa took the main pot low with a six. Frances showed the only loss with 10s-up.
Eubanks put in his last $2,000 on the next hand. In three-way action, Gerald Mayewaki scooped with trip fours against Phoa’s queens, while Eubanks mucked without showing all his cards. He had a $725 payday for sixth place. With $500 antes, $1,500 low card and $4,000-$8,000 limits, Khodadian finished fifth and earned $915. He made an eight-low and a spade flush, but it wasn’t good against Frances’ fours full and McCaulley’s seven.
On hand 16, McCaulley, a special effects manager, went broke. He bet all in on sixth street with 10s and 3s, lost to Phoa’s aces-up and got $1,100 for fourth. Two hands later it was all over. Mayewaki was all in with a draw to 4-5-6-7 and missed. Frances also missed his draw to 9s-10s-Js-Qs, but he settled for jacks-up. Mayewaki got $1,830 for third place, while Frances and Phoa made their deal for the remaining $10,980. –Max Shapiro
BIOGRAPHY
Owen Frances is the executive VP and co-founder of Resonate Industries, which manufactures and distributes rechargeable hearing aid batteries. He’s played poker for 55 years, and tournament for three. He’s made six final tables, but this is his first win. His favorite games are stud/8 and Omaha hi-lo, and in side action he plays $6-$12 Omaha and $20-$40 stud.
He described the tournament as a “miracle night” for him. He had been losing until 15 minutes before the break, when he suddenly began catching hand after hand and went on a rush that wouldn’t stop. He had a couple of big hands when he had the high end locked up, then caught a low on the river. He had to play exceptionally “smart” tonight, he said, because looking and on evaluating his play was Paul Grossman, a friend with whom he travels to play poker in Vegas.
CHIP POSITION FINAL TABLE
Gerald Mayewaki
$9,300
Larry Eubanks
$27,000
Dean Bennett
$2,900
Scott McCaulley
$27,500
Owen Frances
$56,000
William Phoa
$8,000
Norai Khodadian
$22,700
Chips raced and/or blinded off: +$445
ALL AROUND PLAY-OFF POINTS
Name Total
1. Van Mahesh 79
2. Eric Hamilton 78
3. James Mena 73
4. Manalito Navarro 61
5 Viet Tran 61
6 Angel Juarez 61
7. Michael Wong 61
8 Peter Wu 61
9. Larry Jensen 60
10 Binh Do 59
11. Patrick Schulze 59
12.Jorge Legaspi 59
13.Chris Grigorian 59
14.Andre Maloof 57
15.Owen Frances 57
16. George Shahrezay 54
17.Chris Straghalis 53
18 Jin Son Gu 53
19.Gioi Luong 53
20.Gary Vick 53
21.Steven Goldman 53
22.Cliff Cantor 53
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