| Lam not so silent
Tonight was H.O.E. night at the Bicycle Casino. No, it wasn't a night for cultivating a garden or a party with lady's of the evening. Instead it was a tournament combining three different poker games. The games were Hold'em, Omaha Hi-Lo and Stud (8-or better).
One thirty in the morning saw the last player not to get paid getting knocked out. As usual there was a lot of glad handing and then the two tables got down to the business of getting rid of half the existing players so there could be a "final table."
Two hours later that mission was accomplished as Bill Henson was eliminated in ninth place. Bill a tournament veteran might have been especially disappointed since he had quite a few chips at different times in the tournament.
Ron "The Rock" Faltinsky was the first casualty of the final table when he found pocket Kings in the big blind. He was played against from the small blind by Kirk Conrad.
Kirk held Queen Seven of hearts. When the flop came Ace, Ten, Eight of hearts Ron was quickly collecting his prize money and his complementary Bicycle Casino jacket given to all the final table contestants.
As the first Hold'em session at the final table ended David Levi took the chip lead with over 30 thousand in chips. David would ride a roller coaster ride the entire evening.
Mark Dravis who seemed to be having the most fun of all the players at the last table was next to get eliminated. What started out as a three way pot between Kirk, Ulises and Mark ended up by being heads up between Kirk and Mark. When all the betting was over Kirk showed an Omaha player's dream hand. That is of course nut-nut, meaning the nut low and the nut high. Mark remained happy as he took seventh place money, congratulated the other players and left the room.
At this point Kirk Conrad took the chip lead with over $40,000 while Minh Nguyen the smallest stack with under $9,000.
As is often the case out of nowhere someone suggested maybe a deal could be made. So the action was stopped, the chips were counted and a deal was struck. Ninety percent of the prize money was distributed by chip count and the players agreed to play it out for the remaining 10 percent and the ring.
With most of the money locked up the action got hot and heavy. Ulises Sandoval knocks Kirk's stack down quite a bit when he makes a seven high straight and a six low against Kirk's two pair.
Kirk never recovered and was eliminated sixth a few hands later in a large three-way pot which contained over $50,000. Ulises makes a seven low, and Chris "The Minister" Hanks made a full house on the river to beat Kirk's three Aces.
Minh Nguyen, who won his second gold bracelet earlier this year at the World Series of Poker, nursed a short stack the whole final table. He met his demise when he picked up Aces in an Eight/Stud hand against Chris Hanks. Minh never improved his hand while "The Minister" made Jacks full.
With four players left John Lam had taken the chip lead while David Levi had fallen on hard times and was the short stack with about ten thousand. David was put out of his misery in the hold'em session when his pair of eights lost to Ulises two Aces.
The next pot would be part of the big finish that John Lam would put on. It was a monster $60,000 pot. There was raising and reraising, Chris held two Jacks, while John decided to do some gambling with a K-Q. The flop was 3-7-10 rainbow, more betting then a Queen on the turn gave John the lead and the hand when a harmless 2 came on the river. Chris played like a champ but left having to tell his congre-gation that he had to settle for third place.
When it got down to the final two players, a short discussion and negotiation began and a split of remaining money was agreed upon and the winner of the tourna-ment, the ring and the glory was determined by one hand of show down. John Lam won and I predict this will not be the last tournament he will win.
BIOGRAPHY
John Lam lives in Los Angeles and has been playing poker since 1973. John is a part time professional poker player. He has at times worked as a floor man and shift manager in several Casinos in the Los Angeles area. When he is not working in the Casino business he puts on his poker face and becomes a "player." John who used to play Low ball now plays mostly limit hold'em.. He plays at levels from $40-$80 to $200-$400. He says he still considers low ball as his favorite game. John just started playing in tournaments; in fact tonight's tournament was only Johns third tournament. John says he prefers to keep a low profile and is very humble shunning any suggestion that he plays poker very well.
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