| German Champ Wins #25
Henry Nowakowski, who lives in Frankfurt, Germany, and whose titles include a 7-card stud European championship, won event 25 of Legends 2004 when the three weary finalists agreed to end things at 5 a.m. Earlier, with five players left, most of the prize pool had been accounted for in a chip-count deal. Nowakowski, very much an action player, came to the final table with a goodly chip lead, lost it and had a huge lead when activities ceased.
Limits at the final table started at $1,000-$2,000. Nowakowski was dressed in suit and tie, a habit cultivated from play in Europe, and led with $64,000.
Kathy Liebert started with only $1,500 and lost it on the second hand when she moved in with A-8 and got creamed by Gia Truong's pocket kings. "Well, at least I'm moving up the ladder," she said philosophically.
A few hands later, George Rahma looked to be in good shape when he went all in with A-Q after the flop came A-10-7. Not nearly good enough because Sun Chong had a set of 10s. Two down.
Hand 24 was a good one for Nowakowski and a bad one for Mark Bryan, who is in the mortgage business. The pot was three-bet pre-flop and again when the board showed 4-4-2-A. Bryan had A-K, but Nowakowski, with pocket aces, had a full house. Nowakowski now had $88,000 while Bryan was down to $7,500. A few hands
later, Nowakowski hit the $100,000 mark when he made a club flush against Sayavong Viensay’s set of jacks.
Limits now went to $1,500-$3,000. Bryan was in the big blind with Q-6 and went all in on a flop of 8-6-2. Chong had K-Q, turned a queen and Bryan finished eighth. Hand 44 saw lively four-way action to the river. After Viensay raised with pocket 8s, Gia Truong called all in with A-Q. Tom Coffey and Chong also were in the pot. When the flop came 10d-8c-7c, Coffey bet, Chong raised and Viensay just called with his set of 8s. An offsuit A-3 came, Viensay pulled in a big pot, and Truong was out in seventh place. Chong quickly followed him out. He had A-2 and re-raised all in. Nowakowski finished him with A-J and now five were left.
After 54 hands had gone by, David Levi suggested the players do a chip-count deal and play for 10 percent. The count at that point was: Nowakowski, $79,500; Viensay, $71,000; Levi, $62,500; Tom Coffey, $43,500; and Peter Placey, $30,500. One hand later, Viensay took the chip lead when he started with K-9 and flopped two more 9s.
Limits rose to $2,000-$4,000. Close to 50 more hands were to drag by before we lost another player. As chips fluctuated, Nowakowski dropped down to $60,000 when Viensay beat him with pocket jacks. Then Levi got a mite annoyed at Nowakowski for betting out with four spades on board. Coffey raised and Levi, who apparently flopped a small flush, was caught in the middle and had to fold. “Now I understand why your wife screams at you,” he remarked.
Placey, a businessman, was left with $12,000 in three-way action after he paired his king on the turn but lost to Coffee’s bigger kicker. Coffey now had the lead with about $110,000. Next it was Levi who hit the skids, dropping down to $24,000 in a pot where Nowakowski showed him pocket aces and re-took the lead. Placey busted out on hand 107. He went all in for his last few chips with pocket queens. All that Nowakowski had was 7-5 suited, until two 5s flopped, and he put Placey out of business.
On hand 108, Levi was left with $1,000 when his K-6 couldn’t overtake Nowakowski’s pocket deuces. A hand later, Levi posted it in the big blind, in very bad shape with J-3 to Nowakowski’s Jc-9c. He couldn’t catch up, finished fourth and the three finalists called it a night. – Max Shapiro
BIOGRAPHY
Henry Nowakowski buys and sells real estate in Germany and finds time to play about 20 tournaments a year, mostly in Europe, but also at the World Series and occasionally in L.A. A good-natured gentleman who obviously enjoys himself, he describes himself as meshugah, which is Yiddish for nuts. He has 20 lucky charms he uses. The charmer tonight was a 100-gram gold nugget on a long gold chain. The first year he started playing tournaments, he won the European 7-stud championship. Along with several other European titles, he also has a seventh place finish in a World Series championship event. He says he might have done better, but was nervous.
Nowakowski describes his play as very aggressive, and he likes to push rushes. He got one at the third table, which brought him the chip lead. Tonight he said he was in good shape throughout, and never was all in.
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