Rosen Chalks Up First Win!
By Max Shapiro
Russ Rosen
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Russ Rosen, a stock trader and occasional poker player whose normal game is hold 'em, won his first tournament tonight by finishing first in $500 7-card stud, event number 12 in Legends of Poker. He came to the final table with a slight chip lead, was never in trouble and kept catching cards as he posted pretty much a wire-to-wire victory. His final challenger was Scotty Warbuck, a tough opponent with considerably more stud experience. Warbuck is currently involved in the arcane study of "reverse speech," which proposes that our subconscious sends us hidden messages that can be uncovered when our speech is played backwards (Could this be used for tells?).
Ninth out was David Plastik after Warbuck beat him by catching three running jacks. Barbara Enright, winner of two earlier Legends events, came to the final table with only $3,700, but managed to survive to sixth place. On the fifth hand, she got pumped up when she raised with 8-9-10 and was called by Rocky Dorcy, a bankruptcy attorney, and Rosen. She caught a six on fourth street, when all-in for $1,200 and snagged a river seven for a winning straight.
Rosen later increased his lead by making quad fours against Dorcy and "Lucky Larry" Kantor, a CPA. First out was Young Phan. He raised on third street with split kings and kept betting on the next two rounds. But he couldn't help, and finally called all-in, with a sigh of resignation, when Dorcy bet his winning queens-up on the river. Kantor, meanwhile, was desperately low on chips. Enright accidentally bumped him and said, "Excuse me." "I'm just glad I'm still here for you to kick me," he replied. He wasn't there for long. On the next hand he was all-in against Brent Carter, who started with queens and made two pair while the CPA couldn't make anything but the exit.
Enright now faded fast. She couldn't find a hand and worse, kept having to post the $300 low-card bring-in. Finally, with split deuces and a ten, all live, and limits about to go up, she decided to take a stand. But nothing more came and Warbuck took her last chips with eights and threes. Still, her sixth-place finish moved her into second spot in the points race behind Carter.
Five-handed, Carter is low man with $9,300, Lindsay Jones, another CPA, has about $15,000, while the others are bunched at around $19,000. The boys agree to take a little off the top for redistribution and continue to play. Limits are raised to $2,000-$4,000 with a $300 ante and $500 bring-in. Jones immediately busts out, and is none too happy about it. He goes all-in with split queens against Rosen's pocket tens, only to see Russ catch a third ten on fifth street, one of several of his big draw-outs.
Carter, meanwhile, trying to grab every point he can, has been very choose about what cards to play. finding a hand he likes with buried queens, he raises all-in for $1,600 and is called by Rosen, who has a nine door card and an A-3 down. Rosen then catches two more nines for another big suck-out, and Carter settles for fourth place and 36 more points.
Starting with three low cards, Dorcy next beat Warbuck with sixes full after going all-in. Warbuck perhaps should have been peeking at the big closed-circuit television screen, because tournament director Denny Williams warns Dorcy that he's been flashing his cards on TV.
With limits at $3,000-$6,000, chip position starts fluctuating violently. First Warbuck, who's been running low, beats Rosen twice and pulls roughly even when Russ misses his flush draw both times. Then Dorcy pulls more chips away from Rosen by catching a third eight. But Rosen pulls well ahead again by making trip threes to knock Warbuck down to about $8,000 in chips. And then Scotty makes a come-back. He goes all-in against Russ with pocket jacks and proceeds to be dealt... a six-high flush!
After a very long period of three-way action, Rosen finally narrows it to two by putting Dorcy all-in and making deuces full. As the bankruptcy attorney starts to walk off, Scotty calls out, "Don't leave, I want to talk to you."
The heads-up match lasts five hands. After Scotty folds a couple of times, Russ raises with Q-6-J, Scotty re-raises with split sixes and goes all-in on fourth street. The cards are dealt and Russ pairs his queen to win the tournament when Scotty can't improve.
Biography - Russ Rosen
Russ Rosen has been playing poker since 1987. Though this is his first tournament win, it's his seventh final table. his normal side game is hold 'em, usually $15-$30 or $20-$40, and he also plays backgammon, bridge and chess. He has very strict rules about poker. He won't come down to play in tournaments or cash games unless he feels good that day, especially since he has to "shlep" all the way in from Westwood, where he lives with his wife and two children. He won't play tournaments unless he wins a satellite. And he won't rebuy. "If you're not running good, why throw good money after bad?" he reasons.
Last week when he played in a stud tournament, he had $4,000 at the third table, but managed to blow it. This time around he was more careful, slowly building his stacks until he caught a little rush. He admits he made a lot of big hands, but points out that you have to if you hope to win a tournament.
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