| Desert Ice Ices Second Win
Samer “Desert Ice” Alaama, a high-limit cash game player who only started playing tournaments a few weeks ago, locked up his second Legends 2004 win in event number 27, $500 no-limit hold’em. He came to the final table virtually tied for the lead, soon took over and essentially held it throughout.
Meanwhile, an uncharacteristically quiet Scotty Nguyen, who was down to $10,000 by the sixth hand, played selectively and shrewdly, gradually building his stacks and taking the lead briefly at one point before hitting roadblocks and finishing third. A few hands later, with Alaama holding about 195,000 of the 252,000 chips in play, he made a deal with runner-up Tho Ngo to close out the evening.
Final table play started with $200 antes, $800-$1,600 blinds and 21:25 left. Alaama had 47,000 chips, just 1,100 less than John Farrell, who owns a fireplace retail store.
Nguyen was left short-chipped after he opened for $3,700 two hands in a row and folded both times when a player came over the top. Soon after, he started his comeback by making a flush.
By hand 15 we had seven all-ins with no casualties. Then Ashok Surapeneni, a student at the Wharton School of Finance, opened for $6,000 and bet $5,000 into a flop of K-5-2. On the turn, Alaama bet $10,000, then bet 1k blind to put Surapeneni all in. Alaama showed a K-10 and Surapeneni mucked his hand. The Iceman now had a big lead with about $75,000.
Henry Chhor had been crippled in early action when Nam Le, with A-J, beat his A-9. After going all in and surviving twice, the third time was not the charm for Chhor. He went all in for $16,100 with Kh-8h and went broke against the pocket queens held by Max Angeloni of Barcelona, Spain.
On hand 20, Ngo was left with $5,000 after his pocket nines fell to Nguyen’s pocket queens, then recovered by making a wheel against Farrell. With blinds moved up to $1,500-$3,000, the chip count read: Alaama, $65,000; Nguyen, $55,000; Farrell, $40,000; Ron Fenton, $28,000; Rocky Enciso, $26,000; Angeloni, $16,000; Ngo, $13,000; and Le, $9,000.
Four hands later Le went out. He was in the big blind with Q-8 and couldn’t beat Enciso, who put him in with A-8. On hand 34, Nguyen took a slight lead after Alaama lost chips to an all-in Angeloni, who had pocket jacks to Alaama’s Ks-10s. Alaama took over again on the next hand after Enciso moved in for about $30,000 with A-K. “I’ll give it a call,” said Alaama, turning up two 5s. Enciso flopped a king, but Alaama hit a third 5 on the river. The field was down to six, and Alaama was back up to about $75,000.
Fenton moved in for $13,500 with pocket 9s on hand 42 and got a quick call from Ngo, with pocket kings. The two cowboys were good enough, but Ngo made it official with a third king on the river, and we were down to five.
On hand 60, with $2,000-$4,000 blinds and $1,000 antes, Nguyen eliminated Farrell. Nguyen had opened for $7,500 with A-J. Farrell, with pocket 7s, moved in for $14,000 and busted out after a flop of J-8-4 gave Nguyen a higher pair. Scotty’s chip count now reached about $95,000, roughly $20,000 short of Alaama’s. Desert Ice then took a lot of chips from Nguyen when he check-raised all in on a flop of Q-Q-6 and Nguyen folded.
Angeloni had been moving in repeatedly. Alaama, each time holding rags, could not call. “Here we go again,” Alaama said, when Angeloni, with K-5 raised his big blind. This time Alaama found something, an A-4. He called and knocked out Angeloni when the board came A-8-10-9-3. Nguyen, meanwhile, had been taking hits. He was left with $17,000 after Ngo, with Kc-Jc, made a flush to beat his A-J. A few hands later the former world champ went out with A-K against Alaama’s pocket jacks. The chip count deal then ended activities. Max Shapiro
BIOGRAPHY
Sam Alaama has been a pro for seven years and plays the highest limit cash games he can find. In his brief tournament career, he’s had cash-outs here and at the Commerce, Hustler and Hollywood Park, in addition to his two Legends tonight and in $300 no-limit hold’em. Tonight, he said, he was up and down, re-bought a few times and slowly built his stacks. Perhaps the key hand came when he had $12,000 left at the second table, and the small blind moved in. Alaama had pegged the player as “such a bully” from earlier encounters. Alaama had Ac-9c and didn’t want to go broke on a hand like that, but because of his opponent’s prior moves, he decided to call. The bully had A-7, and after winning the pot, Alaama said nothing could stop him.
At the final table, Alaama felt that chip-leader Farrell would get hurt because he was playing about one in three hands, and that’s what happened.
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