Event 18 Ends in 4 Hands!
Doesn’t anybody want to play poker any more? Yesterday’s final table ended in a 10-way deal without a shot being fired at the final table. Tonight’s event, $500 pot-limit hold’em, didn’t go much farther: four hands to be precise. Oh, yes, Joe Grew had the most chips so he was declared the winner of event number 18, even though he was reluctant to accept the mantle for a tournament that wasn’t played out.
Should these all-pay, no-play scenarios continue, tournament writing will become an extinct art.
Still, it could have been worse. There was a very close call for this writer when a 10-way chip count deal was proposed. Filling space would have been even more difficult than yesterday, if not totally impossible, because, with only nine players slated for the final table, there were still two tables in play. This would have meant that no bio sheets would be distributed to offer an inkling of who each player was, and there would be no way to lay out a final table chip position graph. However, after the tournament staff calculated the chip-count pay-out numbers, there was an objection to the deal and play resumed. Whew!
This writer’s relief was short-lived. The final table assembled after a low-chipped Yda McCaskey went out with K-J against Grew’s pocket 5s. As soon as the final nine assembled, there was a resumption of lengthy and heated discussion about a chip deal, and this time one seemed imminent. It was finally vetoed, and play resumed once more. Whew again!
Final table action started with blinds of $800-$1,600, meaning the first player in could raise to anywhere from $3,200 to $5,600. The clock showed 34:25 left at this level.
The veteran player Billy Duarte, who used to have the moniker of Boston Billy, arrived with the most chips, 19,400. Incredibly, he was first out, and in only three hands. On the first hand, he raised with A-K and Grew re-raised for his entire $13,600 with pocket 9s. Duarte called. The board came J-7-7-5-2, and in one hand Duarte went from top to bottom, tied with Young Min Song for last place with 5,800 in chips.
On hand two, Grew raised and wasn’t called. Then, on the third hand, Eugene Tito raised the maximum of $5,600 with pocket 7s and Duarte went all in for $200 more with pocket 6s. Tito’s pair held up when the board came K-10-3-4-4, and the table was now down to eight.
But after only one more hand, to this writer’s horror, yet another chip-count proposal was brought before the house and this time, after the usual lengthy wheeling and dealing, it was accepted. Rocky Enciso expressed the sentiments of all the players, saying that a deal was just as well because with those blinds and betting limits, anyone could bust out in one hand. In addition, Enciso, who finished second by chip count, was happy to accept the points because it extended his lead in the all-around race to a huge 70 points ahead of John Hoang.
Grew, a young pro from Carlsbad with two prior wins at the Bicycle Casino, ended with a big chip lead of 32,000. Local pro Enciso finished second with 19,400. In third place with 11,400 was Tito, a financial analyst, nurse and instructor, with cash-outs in Legends and Heavenly Hold’em, and a win in a winner-take-all no-limit event.
Retired realtor turned poker player John Bessent finished fourth with 10,400. Bessent, an ex-marine, won last year’s California State poker championship $500 limit hold’em event. Habib Khanis was fifth with 7,500 chips. Song had 5,800 and was sixth. Land developer Chuck Albrecq was seventh with 5,300. And Massoud Setayesh, with 5,200, was eighth in the evening-ending deal. Max Shapiro
BIOGRAPHY
Joe Grew won the no-limit hold’em championship event at Big Poker Oktober in 2002 and a pot-limit hold’em contest at Legends last year. When he won the BPO championship, he was described as something of a mystery man, reluctantly photographed with cap brim pulled over his eyes and few details provided about himself other than he was then 29, lived in Carlsbad and was originally from someplace else. He wasn’t any less secretive when he won the Legends event, or tonight either.
Anyway, he’s been playing poker for seven years and tournaments for two. Pot-limit hold’em and pot-limit Omaha are his preferred games, and no-limit hold’em for tournaments. He’s also had other final tables, including the Bike’s Mini Series of poker, a 4th-place finish in a $2,000 no-limit event at Hustler Casino’s 2003 Poker Challenge Cup, and 17th place in a $1,500 shootout contest two years ago at the World Series.
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