First Win for Stock Analyst!
By Max Shapiro
Tony Brenner
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Tony Brenner, a 57-year-old stock analyst, scored his first tournament win ever by taking first place in the fifth event of Legends of Poker 2000, 7-card stud. Though he came to the final table in second chip position, he was still far behind lawyer-turned-pro Randy Holland, who won the all-around points race at Legends two years ago. But Holland failed quickly when he lost a couple of pots early on, and once Brenner took the lead he was able to play a more aggressive game.
Just missing the final table was the player who goes by the nom de plume of "Scotty Warbucks." Scotty lost his last bucks when he missed his straight, which wouldn't have been much good anyway against David Pham's king-high flush.
The finalists started out playing with a $300 bring-in and limits of $1,000-$2,000. Right off the bat, Brenner took a big chunk out of Holland's stacks. Randy had buried aces and was pushing his chips in, but pulled up when he couldn't improve and Brenner bet out on sixth street after making jacks and eights.
The limits quickly went up to $2,000-$4,000 with a $500 bring-in. Hon Le, aka "The Kamikaze Kid," lived up to his reputation. Starting with split queens, Hon Le re-raised full-time player Shaheen Abdel and went all in. The hand was dealt down and Abdel easily beat the queens with aces and jacks.
A few hands later, Holland bled off some more chips. He raised with a third-street jack, then went to the river and folded his J-4-8-10 when David Pham bet out showing 6-10-2-Q.
On the next hand, both Holland and Can Hua, a full-time player who won a limit hold 'em event earlier this year in the Winnin' O' the Green tournament, went all in. Holland had the best hand, aces-up. Hua, with more chips, came in second with kings-up and they both survived and split up Abdel's chips. Still struggling, Holland later went in for his last $800 on third street with split kings. He was in bad shape against Pham, who had split aces, and roofing contractor Todd Petitt, who also went all in later in the hand and made queens and fives. But Holland paired a seven on the river to stay alive, and so did Petitt when Pham couldn't help his aces. But the roof then collapsed on roofing contractor Petitt in a later hand when he committed his last chips with trip sevens, only to see Hua catch a third eight on the river.
Next, Abdel was left with only $1,800 when he called Brenner's $4,000 bet on the river and was shown kings and fives. Holland finished him off by completing an open-end straight on the river to out-run Abdel's two small pair.
Dave "The Dragon" Pham, a semi-pro who operates a beauty shop with his wife, was then slain by Hua. Pham bet all in on sixth street showing Q-6-9-Q against Hua's board of 3-5-3-A. But Hua then turned over two aces to show aces full. Londoner Anthony Hamilton was the next player to put all his chips at risk. He bet all in on sixth street, when he made trip queens, then filled on the river to easily beat Brenner.
Holland finally succumbed when Brenner, with buried aces, check-raised him all in on fourth street. He went on to make aces and threes against Randy's eights and sevens.
Brenner now had a strong chip lead, but wasn't taking any chances. When Hamilton raised with only a door-card five showing, Brenner folded, saying "Smells funny to me." "Smells good to me," Hamilton replied. The banter continued when Brenner asked about a break. "Sure, come back in an hour," Hamilton responded.
But Brenner was doing his talking with his chips. On the next hand, he cut the Brit down some more when his nines-up edged Hamilton's smaller two pair. Hamilton, who works in casino management on a cruise chip out of Florida, then took a final torpedo from Brenner when he put in his last chips with deuces and lost to the stock analyst's aces and sevens.
Heads-up, the two finalists counted down their chips. Brenner had $63,100 and Hua had $32,600. They came to a mutually satisfactory cash arrangement and called it a night.
Biography - Tony Brenner
Tony Brenner, 57, has been a stock analyst all his business life. A native New Yorker, he came to California two years ago and now lives in San Juan Capistrano (He still hasn't gotten around to visiting the famed mission in that city where the swallows of legend return each year.). His main game is high-low stud, and he came in fifth in that event at the Stars and Stripes tournament at the Bike this year.
He was all in several times at the fourth or fifth table before making a come-back. In describing his style of play, he says, "I'm usually pretty tight, but I try to be aggressive when I have a hand. Tonight I had a lot of hands and was catching a lot of cards."
The key for him came when he took the lead from Holland and was able to "bulldoze" the table. Besides Holland, he said he had a lot of respect for runner-up Hua. "I was looking out for him."
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