| AMID SOME CONFUSION, KEVIN
SONG WINS POT-LIMIT HOLD’EM
In what had to be one of the wildest and most confusing tournament finishes ever, veteran pro Kevin Song won the 14th event of 2004 California State Poker Championship, $1,500 pot-limit hold’em.
Song was heads up with Florida poker player Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi with a substantial chip lead. Blinds were $500 and $1,000. Song, with the button/small blind, raised $2,500, Mizrachi re-raised the pot and Song three-bet it for $15,000 more.
Mizrachi thought for a while and Song called for the clock. “Let’s gamble, I call,” Mizrachi announced. He turned up Kh-Qh to Song’s 6-6. The Qd-9h-2h flop was near-perfect for Mizrachi, and then a 9-K gave him a winner.
“If you didn’t say ’clock’ I’d have folded,” Mizrachi told Song. He decided that Song had a small hand and was trying to put pressure on him. The two now were dead even in chips with $47,000 each. As the next hand was dealt, Mizrachi seemed to recall that he had gone in with about $27,000 and should have more chips. Whatever the true count, the ruling was that since another hand had been dealt, nothing could be done.
Instead, the two decided to chop the remaining $49,450 and play one showdown hand for the win. Song won with A-8 to 9-6 when a board of 10-7-2-5-10 was dealt. Realizing that Song got the trophy and title, Mizrachi now felt he should have played it out, but this one was already in the books.
The Korean-born Song has a 1997 World Series bracelet in a $2,000 limit hold’em event, and finished second in a limit hold’em shootout at the WSOP this year. He recently returned to tournament play after a three-year absence while he built a retail business.
With just 33 entrants, only five places were paid and this also turned into a one-day event. When it got down to the official five, Song had more than half the chips in play, a position he held until almost the end.
Song, who started the nine-handed final table only average in chips, loaded up in two big hands. The first time, he had 7-5 while Scott Fischman, the 23-year old who won two World Series bracelets this year, had A-7. Fischman bet the 10-10-7 flop, then checked when a 7 on the turn gave him a full house. Song, who sensed that Fischman did not have a 10, bet the turn, then moved in on the river and Fischman, with the same full house, folded.
The second big pot for Song came when Amir Vahedi check-raised all in with K-Q top pair on a board of Q- 9-7-10. Song already had a set of 10s and busted Vahedi with quads.
The five finalists made the money when Barry Greenstein finished sixth. Down to $1,450, he moved in with A-9. Dan Alspach called with Ks-2s and made a flush.
The five were playing with blinds of $150-$300 and 21:45 left. Song had $53,850 of the $74,000 in play. When blinds went to $200-$400, he had about the same lead. It took 54 hands to lose the first player. Alspach, a retired engineering executive who came in fourth in the recent $10,000 Plaza tournament, moved in for $2,200 with 7-7.. Fischman called with A-K and caught two more cowboys.
With blinds of $300-$600, the most-discussed hand of the tournament came down. Mizrachi opened for $1,000 and Song called. The flop was 10h-8s-6c and Mizrachi bet. When a Jc turned, Song bet $3,500 and Mizrachi check-raised $4,500 more. Song just called, but bet $6,000 when Mizrachi checked a river trey. After very long hesitation, Mizrachi announced he was making a big laydown and showed A-J. After much prompting Song, who doesn’t normally show uncalled hands, finally disclosed he had Qc-9c for a straight as well as a flush draw.
A humorous (though not to Song) incident then occurred. When Song took a few steps away from the table to get coffee from an urn, his hand was folded because of the somewhat controversial Tournament Directors Association rule that a player must be in his seat on the deal or get folded. When Song protested during the next hand, standing up and asking if that would get his hand folded, he ended up getting his hand declared dead a second time! “Maybe I should wear a safety belt and carry my chair with me,” Song fumed.
With blinds of $400-$800, Song still led big with about $58,000. After several all-in escapes, Joe Chiracosta finished fourth after moving in with pocket 8s and running into Song’s pocket queens. “I’m busting almost everybody here,” Song declared.
True to his word, he then busted Fischman. Song, with just 8-6, bet $2,000 on a flop of 5-4-2 and Fischman raised all in with A-10. Song called and caught an 8 on the turn. “I know where he was coming from,” Song said, explaining why he called with virtually nothing except a gut-shot draw.
Song was now heads-up with Mizrachi, who finished fifth in stud the day before. Song held a lead of $76,800 to $17,200. After some 47 hands of relatively cautious heads-up play, Mizrachi had just moved up a bit to somewhere in the $20,000 range. Then came the hand where Mizrachi called with K-Q because Song put the clock on him, the chip count evened and then the showdown hand ended it. — Max Shapiro
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