TEXAS RANCHER ROPES IN WIN
IN MILLION-GUARANTEE EVENT
Andy Miller, an Abilene Texas rancher/farmer, who also rides the tournament trail, corralled an official $499,500 for winning the 10th event of LAPC XIII, $1,500 limit hold'em. He earned his pay in the million-dollar guaranteed event because it was a wild bronco ride that went 63 hands at the three-handed level alone as the chips sailed around the table with leads changing hands and players going all in repeatedly.
This is the first major win for Miller, who travels to many tournaments, but can only can stay a few days each time. He has a second at the Bellagio and a cash-in at Foxwoods. Miller, who says he can play any style, started out playing aggressively at the final table but then tried to slow down as chip counts changed erratically. Holding the second chip lead with about seven tables to go, he came to the final table with an average count.
After going to 4 a.m. the first day, players at the last three tables returned at 11 a.m. the next day. When the final table was reached, the leader, with 339k in chips, was Tommy Hang, a mortgage broker and part-time player. He held onto that lead for much of the time with aggressive raising, but eventually finished third behind Hawaiian Gardens poker dealer Andy Bui.
Limits at the final table started at $6,000-$12,000, with 44:17 left. The first casualty came after limits went to $10,000-$20,000. Pat Rao was all in from the small blind with K-3, in bad shape against Miller's K-9. A flopped 9 left Rao dead to two running treys. Not surprisingly, he didn't get them, and the retiree retired in 10th place.
Danny Dang, winner of event seven, pot-limit hold'em, followed him out on the next hand. Earlier, on the second hand, Dang had gotten lucky when he was all in with Q-Q to Miller's K-K and flopped a set. This time, Miller evened the score. After Dang called all in for $10,000 with Qh-Jh, Miller put in a half-bet from the small blind with 5-3 and flopped a winning 5.
Hand 57 saw three-way action, with two players going all in, Emad Rayyan for 31k and Lee Salem for 26. Salem had A-K, Rayyan had A-5 and a third player, Chris Pikula, had pocket jacks. The board came A-Q-7-K-9. Salem took the main pot and Rayyan was left with 10k. A few hands later, right after limits went to 16k-32k, Pikula, a New York options trader who won a World Series hold'em event in 2002, was all in with Q-J against Steve Ford's A-K. A board of A-K-3-9-7 left him in seventh place.
A couple of deals later, Rayyvan posted his last chips in the big blind. He had K-9 to Hang's Q-J. Rayyan looked in good shape when the flop came K-J-8, but then a queen and a jack gave Hang a full house, and Rayyvan ended up eighth.
Right after limits went to 16k-32k, Pikula bowed out seventh. He held Q-J and Steven Ford, with A-K, flopped two pair.
On hand 89, Salem busted out in three-way action. Bui, starting with A-4, not only made aces-full and took the chip lead, but had the added pleasure of seeing Hang bet into his filly on the river. Salem, a poker player, has a win in the California State Poker Championship and a final table in the 1998 WSOP championship event.
Ford, a chief information officer with multiple final tables and two tournament wins last year, found himself in the small blind, all in with Q-2, on the next hand. Tran finished him off by catching two aces to his A-5.
The chip count now stood at: Bui, 465k; Miller and Tran, both with 345k; and Hang, 195k. Limits now were 20k-40k. Another 40 hands went by, with first Miller, then Tran and finally Bui, with over 700k, taking the chip lead. Hang went all in one time, but made a full house. On hand 138, J.C. Tran was in the big blind with only $15,000 left holding just 7-6. Bui raised with A-Q and Tran fatalistically added his last five chips. The board came Q-5-2-8-J, Tran finished fourth and Bui now had about $900,000.
Now the wild three-way action began, with the final table to eventually last 8-1/2 hours. When limits went to $30,000-$60,000, Bui still held the lead with 710k, while Hang had 360k and Miller, 280k.
Hang went in two more times in a row, each time surviving with full houses. Then, with 10 minutes to go to the next level, Miller, who had gone all in his share of times, had eight chips left and didn't think he'd get that far. But he picked up a few pots, and by the time limits went to 40k-80k, he had about 350k to 300k for Hang and 700k for Bui. He bit deeply into Hang's stack with a full house, then knocked him out when his Q-8 edged Hang's Q-4.
Heads-up, Miller won the next couple of hands to drop Bui down to about 100k. On the final hand, Miller had only 8-6 offsuit to Bui's J-4. Then the board came K-10-6-A-10, and the paired 6 was all Miller needed to nail down his half-million dollar win.
Max Shapiro
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