Mike "Sales" to Second Win!
By Max Shapiro
Mike Sales
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Mike Sales was becalmed without cards for most of tonight's $1,000
7-card stud event. But once he reached the final table, where he estimates
he played 70 percent of his hands, the wind suddenly filled his sails and
gusted him across the finish line. The auto moving executive, who earlier
took first in $300 limit hold'em and third in $500 pot-limit hold'em,
moved up to third place in the points race behind Barbara Enright and
Brent Carter. Finishing second was Bill Fain, owner of the Gold Hill
Hotel, Nevada's oldest, and supposedly haunted by two ghosts, Rosie
and William. "I asked them to come down and help me, and I think
one of them did, because I got good cards," he said. When he got heads-
up, not even the ghosts could help because Sales had him about 10-1.
Just like the night before, the last player out before the final table was
Skip Wilson. Fain beat him when he started with buried kings and made
two pair. Together for a while at the other second table was the noted
poker duo of Harry Thomas and his wife Jerri, winner of this year's $1,500
7-card stud event at the World Series. How competitive are they? At one
point Jerri complained that he was trying to distract her by touching her leg.
Anyway, she made the final table and he didn't. An early casualty there was
Gerard Rechnitzer, who is in the real estate business with his father, George.
Rechnitzer, who won the $1,000 stud event at the L. A. Poker Classic this
year (his father finished fourth), made kings-up but was knocked out by the
aces-up of David Chiu, winner of last year's Tournament of Champions.
Chiu came to the final table chip leader with $28,500, but had little luck
after that. In early action, he re-raised Richard Tatalovich when both started
with an ace door card, but ended up losing $8,000 when he couldn't beat aces.
Tatalovich, who manufacturers nutritional supplements in Scottsdale, Arizona,
has been playing poker seriously only three years, but already has titles from
the Carnivale of Poker, Hollywood Park's National Championship and the
Orleans. He also won the Omaha hi-lo event at Crystal Park the night before.
Sales started to accumulate chips, first by raising Tatalovich on fifth street and
getting him to fold, then by edging Chiu, jacks over against tens over. Soon after,
two players got knocked out at once. Dealt a low-card four with J-8 down, Casey
Kastle had to throw in his last $200. Thomas, with pocket threes, also went all in.
Tatalovich started with A-9-Q. The cards are dealt. Casey makes kings; Jerri,
treys and deuces. But Richard breaks both of them with tens-up.
Vince Burgio, short-chipped and playing prudently in an effort to move up in
points, had earlier changed his cushion, looking for a "lucky one." It helped
for a while, but he finally succumbed to Chiu, fives against aces. The key pot
was next. In three-way action, Sales showed 2-5-10-5, Tatalovich had sevens
and three diamonds and Chiu's board was 2-A-2-A. On the river, Tatalovich
tried bluffing - into two full houses! At the showdown, when Chiu said he had
a full house, Sales said the one thing Chiu did not want to hear: "How big?"
He was full with deuces, Sales with fives, and suddenly Sales had a big lead.
He then went on a tear, beating Fain with aces, beating Chiu with three
sevens, and taking a pot when Chiu folded on the river, giving him about
$70,000 in chips. Chiu, down to a bit over $1,000, hung on for a while after
going all in and making a wheel against Fain. But on the next hand he lost
everything after starting with split aces. Tatalovich made a reluctant call with
J-8-Q of diamonds, but caught two more queens to narrow the field to three.
Later, with limits at $2,000-$4,000, Sales put a brutal beat on Tatalovich by
catching a third ten on the river and leaving him with a few hundred dollars.
That went in the middle on the next hand, and Mike took it with sevens and
sixes against Richard's fives. On the next and final hand, Fain doesn't have a
ghost of a chance. He has to bet his low-card deuce, Sales raises with a nine
and Fain re-raises all in with his pair of deuces. The cards are dealt, Fain
can't improve, and Sales the ghost-buster wins with two eights.
Biography - Mike Sales
Sales said the two key hands were when he had a bigger full house in three-
way action, and when he raised with sevens, caught a third seven on fourth
street, and David called him all the way down. Sales also said he was pretty
fortunate, late in the tournament, to be able to stay away from David who
was running well and accumulating chips at another table, and never against
Burgio, when he was doing well, also at another table.
Sales has been running hot at Legends. Besides his two wins and a super-
satellite victory, he says he would have also won the event where he came in
third if Stan Goldstein hadn't caught an 11-outer on the river. His final
observation was that this was a very tough field, with all the points
contenders playing. "Certainly the toughest 48-player field I've ever seen."
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