| LONDON CASH GAME PLAYER ALI SARKESHIK IS PLO WINNER
Ali Sarkesnill, who shows up at tournaments mainly to play in the big cash games, tried his hand in tonight's $500 pot-limit Omaha event, the ninth of LAPC XIII, and overcame a very tough final table to take home first-place money. Among the top-name players at the table were Chris Bjorin, Brent Carter and the legendary T.J. Cloutier, the all-time leading tournament money winner with 55 major ($500-$25,000) victories to his credit as well as two Player of the Year awards.
It was a long and grueling final table that took five hours and 174 hands to complete, 67 of them alone in combat among the three finalists.
Sarkesnill, who is retired from the real estate business in England, normally plays a variety of live games at $500-$1,000 limits, though he also has a couple of second-place finishes at the World Series. Tonight, he said he was relaxed and never in trouble.
Finishing second was Jay Moriarty, a TV writer and the founder of "Aces & Eights," the oldest established private poker tournament in the world. Moriarty has also won tournaments in every casino in the Los Angeles area.
The final table started with $500-$1,000 blinds and 13:30 left in the round. Moriarty, who set the table by knocking out 11th-place finisher Ron Rose with a straight, arrived with a substantial chip lead of 59,800.
A very short-chipped Bjorin went out on hand four. In the big blind with K-Q-J-7, he had a good flop of 10-9-2, giving him a wraparound straight draw. Nothing came of it, and Michael Jacobs, a printer, won with just pocket 8s. Jacobs, who started lowest chipped with $2,100, soon went all in himself, but won all of the next six pots he played, shooting up to more than $50,000 by hand 16.
Cloutier, meanwhile, couldn't pick up any cards and by hand 10, with $800-$1,600 blinds, found himself all in with 10-9-7-5. Sarkesnill had pocket aces and won easily with a third bullet on fourth street.
Young Phan, with wins at the Rio, Commerce and Legends and a second in $5,000 hold'em at the WSOP, flopped top two holding A-K-9-9 with a board of A-K-Q. He bet and Houston pro Vinnie Vinh promptly raised him all in and out of action with a set of queens.
On the next hand, poker player Mike Chul raised all in when he flopped a straight draw. He couldn't connect and lost to James Smith, a computer network engineer and part-time player, who paired a king.
Vinh, meanwhile, began putting in pre-flop maximum raises just about every other hand. Carter, a retired harness race driver as well as a poker player, called one of those raises all in for about $5,000. He had A-K-Q-4 to Vinh's A-J-10-6 and a board gave Vinh a straight to knock Carter out in sixth place. By the time blinds went to $1,000-$2,000, Vinh's incessant raising and picking up of blinds had brought him the lead with about 58k. Trailing him were Moriarty, 50.5k; Jacobs, 40.5k; Sarkesnill, 30k; and Smith, 19k. When the new blinds kicked in, Vinh continued pushing in maximum raises, now $7,000.
"It's getting boring," Jacobs remarked after the umpteenth 7k raise.
Five players had been knocked out in 22 hands, but it took another 54 to lose the next one. That was Smith, a computer network engineer and part-time player. He went all in for 3k more after Vinh, with a flush draw, bet 7k into a flop of 5-3-2-7. Smith, with 10-9-8-6, had a straight draw. He and Vinh both missed, but Vinh's paired trey was sufficient to leave Smith in fifth place.
Later, Vinh and Moriarty got into a discussion of luck versus skill in poker. "Just play good and you'll win," Vinh lectured him. Moriarty, who hadn't been having much luck, finally went all in with A-K-K-10 against Vinh, who had flopped two small pair. Moriarty yelled for a king and got it. "You tell me luck doesn't make a difference?" he said.
With blinds at $2,000-$4,000, Jacobs the printer ran out of ink when Vinh made a straight on the river to eliminate him and increase his lead to about $90,000.
The three finalists now began their long duel. Moriarty, the starting chip leader, had dropped down and would eventually go all in five times, catching full houses and other big hands when he needed them.
Finally, blinds were $3,000-$6,000, meaning the first player in could raise from $12,000 to $21,000. After Sarkesnill beat Vinh's straight with a flush, and Moriarty beat him with two 10s, Vinh was down to 11k. Two hands later he went all in from the big blind and got knocked out when Sarkesnill made kings-up.
Sarkesnill now had 114k to Moriarty's 85k. Another 28 hands dragged by with Sarkesnill doing most of the raising and Moriarty picking his spots to call. On the final hand, Moriarty couldn't do anything with his A-6-2-2, while Sarkesnill, with A-J-5-5, made an ace-high straight to lock up his win and at last put an end to a very long evening.
-- Max Shapiro
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