Another Legend Win for Mel!
By Max Shapiro
Mel Judah
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Mel Judah, multiple winner of past Legends of Poker tournaments, added another as he took down this year's 13th event, $500 Omaha high-low. His steady play finally overcame runner-up Melissa Hayden, who experienced enormous chip swings by almost indiscriminately playing hand after hand and making catch after catch.
There was an especially sociable atmosphere at the last couple of tables as players joked and exchanged often wacky banter. One player took a call on his cell phone. "We're playing one and two hundred," he told the caller. "It's three and six hundred," Melissa Hayden screamed in annoyance. "Let me talk to him!" "Aw, it's probably a wrong number," another player added. When Denny Williams warned players about making fingernail marks on cards, Rich Korbin called for a fingernail inspection and then offered a learned dissertation on how women and men show fingernails differently (fingers extended, palms down for women, palms up, fingers bent inward for men). Then, when points leader Brent Carter came prowling in to check on the competition, Barbara Enright, poised to pass him, couldn't resist. "Hello, Brent," she cooed sweetly.
The final table got there after Florencio "General Poy" Umel's aces beat Kevin Song's kings. Hayden earlier had lots of chips, but by then had squandered everything but a paltry $1,600. She immediately went all-in but survived by chopping a pot with Amir Vahedi at the expense of Peter Doherty. On the second hand she removed more chips from Doherty by making four aces. A couple of hands later she scooped Judah with a baby flush. And a few hands after that she busted Amir when he bet all-in on a flop of 4-10-5. He had a wheel draw with A-3-5-8, she had A-A-4-K. Amir didn't help, and in a little over a round Melissa went from $1,600 to roughly $20,000.
Mark Biggs, who owns an export business, had earlier taken a 20-minute penalty in good humor when a card dropped. Now he was about to drop out of the tournament. He went all-in four times in a row, first getting his $1,500 quartered by Allen Cunningham, then scooping against Doherty, next splitting with Cunningham and finally surrendering when Melissa made a straight against him while General Poy, himself all-in, made an A-2 nut low.
On the next hand, General Poy was caught in an ambush and shot out of the saddle. He raised all-in with A-2-3-6 and made a 6-4 low and two pair on a flop of 3-2-4. But Cunningham, with A-5-7-Q, had made a wheel.
Enright, meanwhile, had been playing very selectively, trying to move up the points ladder. Finally, she found what she was looking for, a lovely A-A-2-3 with a suited ace. When Melissa raised with a speculative 10-10-J-9, Barbara re-raised. She went all-in and so did a short-chipped Neal Lorsbach, runner-up in the earlier $300 Omaha event. Barbara flopped a nut flush and nut low draw, but Melissa flopped a set of tens and filled on the river with no low. Enright, with more chips than Lorsbach, finished fifth, moving eight points ahead of Carter.
Doherty, starting with second-highest chips, went steadily downhill. Finally, he got caught in three-way action with Judah and Hayden. Trapped in the small blind, with limits just raised to $3,000-$6,000, he went all in with a nearly hopeless 6-6-7-Q. The board came A-2-7-8-2 with three diamonds. Melissa took high with a flush, Judah took low with 4-5-6-8, and Doherty took a powder.
Judah pulled way ahead in the chip lead by taking a nearly $40,000 pot. Cunningham had been betting all the way into a board of 5-Q-7-2. Judah was free-rolling on the turn with an A-2-3-6 nut low, and a river four gave him a six-high straight scooper.
Soon after, Hayden, once again in short supply, called Judah's bet on fourth street, again going all in. There were three kings on the board, and her pair of eights gave her a higher full house than Judah's fives. "I'm a hold 'em player," she shrugged. "The eights looked big to me."
Quite a few hands later, Cunningham got hurt when Judah made a bigger straight than his. A hand later, Melissa took his last chips by making a nut flush while he couldn't improve his starting queens. Heads-up, Mel and Melissa play see-saw with chips for another long time. On the last hand, ironically, Melissa finally has much the better starting hand, A-3-Q-K with a suited ace, to Mel's weak 3-7-8-10, but Judah wins when a board of J-Q-J-9-2 gives him a winning straight.
Biography - Mel Judah
Mel Judah, Australian born, was a top London hairdresser before turning poker pro. Among his many titles are Legends victories in 7-stud hi-lo in 1995, 7-card stud in '96 and '97 and limit hold 'em in '98, along with a couple of World Series bracelets in stud. Last year was a tournament drought year for him. This year, however, he cashed in five times at WSOP events. This is his second Omaha title, though he finished second at the '91 World Series.
He said he was confident all the way in tonight's event, though he had some good hands cracked, three times when he held aces, and had a lean time up until the second table. There, in a three-way pot, everyone missed their hands but he scooped with A-J high to shoot up to $14,000. Judah is expanding his poker horizons. Later this year he'll be co-hosting, along with Marsha Waggoner, tournaments in both Moscow and Costa Rica.
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