Cordovez Beats Field of 239!
By Max Shapiro
Diego Cordovez
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Diego Cordovez, chief operating officer for an Internet software company in northern California, beat out 238 opponents to win event number 23 in Legends of Poker, $300 limit hold 'em. The rebuy tournament generated a prize pool of $162,300 to easily exceed the $100,000 guarantee. Cordovez, who won the $2,000 no limit hold 'em event at the World Series this year after a three-hour battle with the fearsome David "Devil Fish" Ulliott, said this Legends victory was particularly satisfying because he proved to himself that his WSOP victory was no fluke.
This was the final points event. With no major changes in the standings, Barbara Enright nailed down her all-around points victory to win the coveted Chrysler PT Cruiser and become the first woman ever to win a Legends all-around championship. Mike Sales won $20,000 for his second place finish, Brent Carter $10,000 for third and Mel Judah $5,000 for fourth. Seventeen places were paid in all.
The final table was set after the venerable Y.S. Woo, respectfully known to everyone as Mr. Woo, finished tenth. He went in with A-2 and flopped an ace but lost to Thu Nguyen's flush when four spades hit the board.
Three players got knocked out at the final table in the first round. Lou Elkus, operations manager for a children's clothing manufacturer, started with only $1,600. Chris Ferguson, holding A-J of diamonds, raised on the first hand to put Elkus, with a suited 9-8, all-in. Chris flopped a jack and Lou had an open-end straight draw on the turn, but a river ace gave the reigning World Series champ a winning two pair. Limits jumped to $3,000-$6,000 on the next hand. Ferguson, still short-chipped, raised with K-9. Cordovez, with lots more ammo, saw a chance to eliminate his strongest competitor, so he re-raised with only J-10 of hearts. The flop was 8-J-6. Cordovez bet and Ferguson went all-in for his last $1,000. Diego's jacks held up and the field quickly narrowed to seven.
Nguyen, a chemical technician, arrived with $71,600, close to twice as much as anyone else, but went steadily downhill. He quickly got drilled in a big pot by an Arkansas dentist named Doc Jennings. Nguyen started with K-Q of spades and flopped a queen. But Doc, flopping a flush draw with 10-7 of clubs, bet it all the way and hit it on fourth street. A couple of hands later, the dentist, with only 5-3 of spades, called an A-K raise by Cordovez. He bet out on a flop of 8-A-5 with one spade and was raised buy Cordovez. The dentist then extracted a lot of chips when two running spades gave him a second flush. "The most dangerous man at the table," remarked Tony Cousineau.
On only the seventh hand, a third player got knocked out. Tony Ng, with pocket queens, raised $1,500 all-in. "I don't want to look, I might fold," said Cousineau, in the big blind, as he called. He was fortunate to not have looked because he had only J-3 off, and then put a brutal beat on Ng by flopping trip treys. Three hands later, Mehal raised with K-Q. He went all-in for the first of several times when Nguyen raised with Q-10 of diamonds, then escaped with a king-high.
Later, with limits at $5,000-$10,000 Doc Jennings made a third flush, but it was one too many. He started with J-10 of spades against the A-4 held by San Francisco poker player Mehal Chaudhari. The flop was 8-2-8 with two spades. An ace of spades on the turn gave Doc a flush, but another bullet on the river filled Mehal.
Two rounds later, Thu found himself in the big blind with a few chips left. After Cordovez raised, he made a near-hopeless call with 3-2. The board helped neither player, and Thu was through for the night. On the next hand, Doc had the big blind with only $400 left and raised with K-4. Diego called with K-J and put the dentist to sleep when a jack flopped. On the next hand, Mehal went all-in for the last time with A-Q. Computer parts salesman Warren Karp was far behind with just A-5, but flopped a wheel.
Diego now had a slight chip lead over Warren, while Tony trailed well behind. They do a deal and collect their money. Cousineau, who made the final table in $5,000 stud at the World Series, was particularly happy because the only Legends tournament he had managed to cash out in was lowball, which embarrassed him, and he felt vindicated by placing second in hold 'em.
Biography - Diego Cordovez
Diego Cordovez has been playing poker seriously for about nine years. Besides his World Series win, he also came in 20th at the Tournament of Champions this year. Although he doesn't play many tournaments, he also has cash-ins at the Carnivale of Poker and Orleans, and was best all-around player at the Peppermill a couple of years ago. Tonight he had a bunch of bad beats, getting aces and kings cracked, but fortunately they came during the rebuy period. He made about four rebuys and an add-on and after that got lucky.
His game plan was to look for his spots and get a read on his opponents so he'd know whom he could make plays against. It was more difficult than usual for him because of the many unfamiliar faces at the final table, but he felt a lot more secure once Ferguson had left. Cordovez had lots of praise for the upgraded look of the Bicycle Casino, where he hadn't been for some time and for the handling of the tournament. "It was really well run," he said.
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