| ‘Superman’ Defeats Spidey!
“I must be Superman,” said Phi Nguyen after winning the sixth event of Legends of Poker 2004, $300 no-limit. “I knocked out Spiderman, and only Superman can do that.” With about 16 tables left, actor Tobey “Spiderman” Maguire, with pocket kings, spun a web with a small trap raise and ended up snaring himself. Nguyen called with Qs-10s. When the flop came Q-8-2 with one spade, Nguyen bet, Spidey moved in, and then two running spades brought Nguyen a flush and a big pot. Nguyen said it was the key hand of the night for him because it gave him enough chips to play comfortably from there on.
There was more to it than that, because this was a grueling tournament that lasted until nearly 8 a.m. with countless chip-lead changes along the way. Nguyen, a host at Hawaiian Gardens, played a controlled, assured game, avoiding the barrage of all-in raises all around him, picking his spots and steadily building his stacks with smaller raises. Nguyen, finishing second yesterday, now has a substantial points race lead.
At 5 a.m., three players were knocked out at once, leaving just eight for the final table. At one table, Kevin Song had the big blind, all in with 8-2. On a 10c-7c-5 flop, Amir Vahedi moved in with Q-Q and Rajesh Sharma called with A-K. An offsuit 6-3 came, Song finished 11th, Sharma ninth, and their chips gave Amir the lead with $99,500. At the other table, Kathy Liebert raised all in with pocket 9s. Min Lee called with Q-6 and made two pair. Liebert finished 10th.
The final table started with $500 antes and blinds of $1,500-$3,000, 17 minutes remaining. On hand 28, with blinds at $2,000-$4,000, Ignacio Villegas pushed in his $42,000 with Ah-Qh. Ashkan knocked him out with A-K and took over the lead with about $125,000.
Four hands later, Lee moved in with A-Q. Keith Hang called all in with 8s-7s and busted out after a queen flopped. In the first 27 hands, there were only three flops because of so many all-in moves. Doing more than his share was Ken Wagner. He started lowest-chipped with $17,000. By hand 49 he had gone all in eight times and his aggressive play had gotten him the lead with about $115,000. Going in the opposite direction was Vahedi, who kept taking hits. The first came on hand 42. Lee opened for $12,000. Vahedi came over the top for $20,000 more, then folded when Lee moved in. Vahedi showed two 8s and Lee showed two 9s. On the next hand, Vahedi’s pocket 5s fell to Wagner’s pocket 8s. A few hands after that, with limits of $3,000-$6,000 and $1,000 antes, Vahedi was all in for $3,000 from the small blind with Kd-10d. A player going by the name of A.M. had A-K, and a board of A-J-6-7-8 left Vahedi in sixth place. A.M., obviously French, had loud support from six nearby Gaullist pals.
Some 20 hands after Vahedi’s departure, Bijan Ashkan suffered two terrible beats. The first time, Lee tried a steal by moving in with 10-7 and flopped a 10 to beat Ashkan’s A-8 suited. On the next hand, Nguyen took the rest of his chips when he flopped a set of treys to outrun Ashkan’s 7-7. Now Nguyen led. Wagner, meanwhile, had gone card-dead. Finally finding a reasonable hand, he went all in for $47,000 with Kc-Qc against Lee’s Kd-Qd. It looked like a split when they both flopped a Broadway straight, but then runner-runner diamonds gave Nguyen a very big lead with three players left. He then knocked out another player by outdrawing him. Lee was all in with 5-5 and Nguyen flopoped an ace to his A-Q.
Heads-up, Nguyen had $295,000 to $88,000 for A.M. Blinds immediately went to $6,000-$12,000 with $2,000 antes. A.M. moved in the first two hands, and Nguyen let him have the pot. The next hand, A.M. moved in again, with Kc-4c. Smiling, Nguyen called this time with 5-5 and took all the chips when the board came Q-J-4-6-A. –Max Shapiro
BIOGRAPHY
Phi Nguyen, a host at Hawaiian Gardens for the past three years, has a World Series bracelet for no-limit hold’em in 2002, and this year came second in $2,000 pot-limit hold’em and eighth in $3,000 pot-limit hold’em at the WSOP.
Asked about his pattern of moderate raises amidst all the all-in moves by other players, he said he learned this technique from David “The Dragon” Pham, whose trademark is an almost invariable raise of three times the big blind. Besides disguising the strength of his holding, Nguyen said, this style also lets him get away from his hand if someone plays back at him. Tonight, he said, he had plenty of chips after knocking out Spiderman, and never had to struggle. When he got to the final table he felt he was a big favorite, and after Amir Vahedi, whom he described as “fearless,” was knocked out, he knew he would win.
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