| A Wild Win for the Dragon
Tonight’s $500 limit hold’em contest, #19 in Legends 2004, was truly memorable. It featured great play, a tremendous laydown, amazing draw-outs, an incredible comeback and some raw emotion. The winner was David "The Dragon" Pham. He came to the final table with nearly 40 per cent of the chips, but later found himself in a brutal three-way battle with John Phi Nguyen and "Super" Mario Esquerra where the lead kept changing hands. It ended in a quick chip-count deal after Esquerra had been eliminated. Nguyen, with $64,000 to Pham’s $181,000, had made a stunning comeback from 17 hands earlier when he was down to two $1,000 chips!
Limits at the final table started at $1,500-$3,000, 28:39 remaining. Two short stacks left quickly. On hand two, Ron Faltinsky raised all in for $2,500 with A-5 and lost to Joey Flores’ A-K. On the next hand, Sirous Baghchehsaraie, blinded down to the same $2,500, said “Get my money ready,” as he raised all in with A-K. Pham was a big underdog with As-5s, but hit a 9-high straight. Give Sirous his money.
Barry Greenstein then had two narrow escapes. All in against Esquerra, his pocket 9s held up with four spades on board. Next Greenstein had A-K against Travis Dang's K-K and flopped an ace. With limits at $2,000-$4,000, self-described tournament rookie Joey Flores busted out. He flopped an ace to his ace-10, but Nguyen had K-Q and hit a third king on the river. On the next hand, Greenstein tried an all-in move with 10-7 on the button and Nguyen picked him off. He had A-6 and caught a 6 on the river. Later, Esquerra, who had been at three tables with Greenstein, expressed awe at his intuitiveness. “I couldn’t find any fault with his play,” he said. Greenstein is also famed for giving all his tournament cash-outs to charity.
David Levi was defending champion in this event. Tonight the best he could manage was sixth. On hand 31 he had K-3 and flopped a trey, while Travis Dang (brother of Danny) had a J-5 and flopped a 5. Five were left. “Mexico against Asia,” Esquerra remarked as he faced a Pham, a Phan (Cuong Phan), a Nguyen and a Dang.
Mixing up his play, Pham, in the big blind, made it three bets after Phan button-raised. Pham then bet the Q-4-4 flop, Phan folded and The Dragon showed a 10-7. Dang busted out on hand 47 with A-2 in the big blind when Esquerra, in the small blind with 8-6, flopped a 6. With $3,000-$6,000 limits, another bad beat left Phan in fourth place. He had K-Q to Pham’s Q-6 and a 6 flopped.
Pham at this point had over 100k, but dropped $39,000 of it to Esquerra in a pot that was capped pre-flop. The river showed K-8-4-4-A. Pham bet, Esquerra raised and Pham, holding A-K for top two, gave Esquerra credit for kings-full, 8s-full or maybe even quad 4s and made a tremendous laydown. Esquerra then confirmed he had pocket kings. The two were now roughly even with about $90,000 each.
For a long time, chips moved around with no players getting short. Then Nguyen lost a few pots, and by hand 88, with limits at $4,000-$8,000, was down to $2,000, which he posted on the next hand. Pham raised with 5h-3h and Esquerra blew up, even after Pham explained that he thought the blinds were $4,000-$8,000 and he wanted to get heads-up with Nguyen cheaply. Nguyen had Q-10, made a straight, began moving up and getting more hyper with each pot he won, loudly proclaiming that he would capture the tournament.
On hand 104, Esquerra had pocket kings again, but this time took a big hit when Pham, with A-2, made a wheel. Esquerra busted out on the next hand. He capped the pot pre-flop with A-K, bet his last $4,000 dark and lost to Pham’s pocket queens. The deal was made and a remarkable tournament was over. –Max Shapiro
BIOGRAPHY
Tonight’s win is just the latest in David “The Dragon” Pham’s outstanding poker career. “I got lucky; anybody can win,” he said modestly. He said he played badly early in the tournament and played too many hands because he was tired and wasn’t playing up to his standards since it was a relatively small buy-in event and wasn’t getting his full attention. As he began catching cards, however, he got more alert and began playing his A-game. When the tournament got down to three and then two tables, he went on a rush and began speeding, pushing hands super-aggressively, which is how he came to the final table with such a large lead, holding 95,500 of the 245,000 chips in play.
In no-limit, Pham is known for his inscrutable play by almost invariably making his pre-flop raises three times the big blind. In limit, he said, he is more flexible, basing his play on his opponents and the stacks on the table. |
