Poker Tournament Results

Legends of Poker WPT Season 3

Max Pescatori

Tournament Report

13-Way Chop in No-Limit! Stop the presses! We have a new entry in the Guinness Book of World Records! Not only did the 18th event of Legends 2004 end in a deal without playing down to the last player, it didn’t even play down to the last table! At 12:30 p.m., with 13 players left, blinds in this $200 buy-in, no-limit rebuy event were at a substantial $3,000-$6,000 with $1,000 antes. In 12 minutes and 56 seconds they were set to jump to a back-breaking $5,000-$10,000 with antes of $1,500. At this point, Warren Karp, a Card Player columnist, tournament director and marketing consultant for TruePoker.com, suggested a 13-way deal with the persuasive argument that at those limits the tournament would become pretty much of a showdown with as much skill as hopscotch. There was one objection to the deal. Param Gill reasoned with the player by holding a knife to his throat, and the lone objector was persuaded by that logical reasoning. The tournament staff began doing the math with the aid of an M.I.T. supercomputer, and three days later the figures were ready. Everybody was polled, and everybody agreed, and everybody cheered, except the player who was afraid to move because Gill was still holding the knife to his throat. The cheering, however, was drowned out by the sound of the rebuy stamp clattering away. The line formed for the payouts. It was longer than the line for the soup kitchen on Skid Row at Thanksgiving. Even more impressive were the TV and film offers for this milestone event in poker. Deals were lined up for “60 Minutes,” “Larry King Live” and "Believe it Or Not" The winner? Oh, yeah, the winner was Massimiliano "Max" Pescatore, a genial Las Vegas by way of Italy poker pro and sports bettor with two prior tournament wins at the Reno-Hilton. His winning chip count when festivities concluded was 29,755, which was less than three times as much as the 11,245 that the 13th-place finisher, Scott Fischman, had in front of him. The payouts for the 13 players based on chip-count ranged from 56 to 149 times their $200 buy-ins. Even though the official payout for first place was $106,630, Pescatore said the deal made sense because at the next level, if there were still 10 players left, the $5,000-$10,000 blinds and $1,500 antes would have represented 4 percent of the 738,000 total chips in play. Fischman agreed, pointing out that even last place in the chip-count deal was worth more than four times as much as the official $2,665 pay-out for 13th. Matt Heintschel, who finished fourth, joked that he felt “dirty” about making the deal, but that his wife and five kids were happy. The actual, unofficial payouts were: Massimiliano Pescatori, $29,755; Phi Nguyen, $24,390; Peter Nam, $23,050; Matt Heintschel, $22,510; Minh Nguyen, $22,245; Binh Do, $19,560; Jerry Garver Jr., $18,755; Param Gill, $17,815; Mayen Grigorian, $16,745; Chris Karagulleyan, $16,340; Warren Karp, $15,805; Eric Arreca, $11,780; Scott Fischman, $11,245. Pescatori also finished seventh in event #15, Omaha hi-lo. Nguyen, who finished second tonight, won event #6, $300 no-limit hold'em, and came in second in event #4, also no-limit. Third-place finisher Nam came in fifth in a prior no-limit. Sixth-place finisher Binh Do had a fourth in another no-limit, and Fischman came in ninth in the Omaha event. On a more somber note, earlier in the day a private memorial service was held at the Shutters Hotel in Santa Monica for Andy Glazer, the prodigiously talented poker writer whose tournament reports set a new standard for the industry. Along with about 40 family members, in attendance were poker notables Linda Johnson, Jan Fisher, Casey Kastle and Mark Tenner. This writer was also present. Tenner, author of a book on Omaha, gave a particularly eloquent eulogy praising Glazer's multi-faceted, multi-talented persona. On Tuesday, August 17, a public memorial service will be held from 6:30 to 7:15 p.m. in the Bicycle Casino ballroom, with everyone invited to attend. Max Shapiro BIOGRAPHY Massimiliano “Max” Pescatori first started playing poker at home games in his native Milan, Italy. He regularly plays $80-$160 hold’em at the Bellagio, and high-limit Omaha when they spread it. He began playing tournaments two years ago when they got popular. “I can compete against players like Jennifer Harman and Todd Brunson when I couldn’t afford to play in their cash games,” he points out. Last year he won two events, limit hold’em and Omaha/8, at the Reno-Hilton’s World Poker Challenge. Pescatori also handicaps horse racing tournaments, where participants pick 20 horses and get points for their finishes. One event he won (shared with partners) paid $80,000. In tonight’s tournament, he picked up chips during the rebuy period when players were gambling and later won big pots when he flopped a set one hand and a flush in another. He describes his strategy as smart. “I can play crazy or tight. No one knows what I’m thinking”