| THE SPANISH INQUISITION
The worldwide nature of the poker explosion was manifest by our winner today.
For pictures of this event, please check out Mark Napolitano's videos on the homepage.
There were 284 entries and 399 rebuys or add-ons for a total prize pool of $312,810. 27 were paid.
FINAL TABLE
Seat/Player/Hometown/Chip Count
1 Dave Cung Calgary, Canada 27,000
2 Robert Hooten Kansas City KS 34,000
3 Tony Cousineau Daytona Beach FL 92,000
4 Mike Lutz Louisville KY 101,000
5 Chris Grigorian Panorama City CA 31,000
6 Vince Ballinger Greenwood IN 39,000
7 Calvin Crain Lexington KY 43,000
8 Raul Paez Barcelona, Spain 211,000
9 Jack Ward Gulfport MS 109,000
31:49 remained in the 3,000/6,000 level.
For those unfamiliar with pot limit hold'em, the first bet seems harmless enough, and then the roof falls in. If you don't have a cushion built into your stack, you are living on borrowed time. That second bet will eventually destroy you. That's why what appeared to be a nine player Final Table was, in reality, a four player contest. The five shortest stacks were going to have to get lucky, early, to compete.
For a change, we got past the dreaded fourth hand today only to lose someone on the fifth instead. Calvin Crain was bodily lifted from this table in 9th by yet another catch from Raul Paez. Silenced Cal, raised on the button, then he called a reraise all-in for his last 19k. Crain had a whooping hand, an A 5 offsuit. Paez had K Q off in the small blind.
With the flop of a Queen, the entire table groaned. This was going to be a continuation of what they all saw the night before. The Raul Paez show aka The Spanish Inquisition. See him flop whatever he needs. The first of the five short stacks met their pre-ordained fate.
Two hands later Chris Grigorian, with his Armenian Express cap on, made his move to escape the Spanish Inquisition. 'I had to play the hand,' Chris said afterward. Undoubtedly. Under the gun for his last money, Chris shipped in 22k with pocket Jacks. One of the four 'haves' at this table, Mike Lutz in the big blind, covered Chris with the A Q of Spades. If this were ice skating, Mike did a double Lutz by receiving not one but two Aces to spin Grigorian out of the rink in 8th.
Everyone was good for a while, as the short stacks eyeballed each other for an extra few thousand dollars. Robert Hooten leaped over Vince Ballinger in the food chain when his all-in bet with Q 10 was rewarded with two 10's on board. Vince got his A J crushed and fell to into the 'next out' bin with only 5,000 left.
One hand 22, Ballinger got a good hand and flop for his 5k. Vince picked up pocket 9's and flopped a set. Unfortunately, because of the A J debacle, Vince couldn't bet Tony Cousineau off his big blind hand. Four hearts came on board and Tony had the 7 of Hearts. Now there were six, with only two baby stacks remaining.
If you've never played Pot Limit Hold'em in a tournament, It's not for the faint of heart. What a brutal game. Pot Limit is tough enough. Then add the pressure of rising blinds in a tournament structure. Only the strong and lucky survive.
Canadian Dave Cung had gotten lucky enough to get out of the starting basement, but his stack was never strong enough to handle the new betting level of 5k/10k. With the 10k big blind coming up on the next hand, Dave raised with K Q offsuit under the gun. Raul Paez was still printing face cards over in the eight seat and Raul reraised to put Cung all-in. Dave wasn't in a super position, dominated by the Inquisitor's A Q. End of Cung in 6th.
This was less a contest than a chorus line of death. Who would the Inquisitor choose next to burn at the stake? The next choice seemed obvious. There was only one of the defenseless short stacks left, Robert Hooten. But Robert refused to step forward to receive his punishment. On hand 71, after several all-in escapes, Hooten was shoved forward by picking up pocket 10's. Robert ran into the pocket Queens of Tony Cousineau.
Four handed the game was afoot. How could a game be a foot? Ask Arthur Conan Doyle.
Here at PokerPages, we are making every effort to improve on the best player database in the business. One of the problems with databases is that there are often players with the same name. One of those players is Jack Ward. There is another Jack Ward who plays in tournaments. He lives in Anchorage, Alaska. This is the Gulfport, Mississippi Jack Ward. Sounds like a blues singer.
Any doubt that Jack's first visit to a Final Table in this year's WPO was a fluke was ended by his second appearance. He's the first double dipper so far. Someone, of the three real challengers to the Inquisitor, had to be next to burn. It was Mississippi Jack Ward. He sang the blues in 4th on hand 79. Ward tried to get his case 83k and an A 2 of Clubs by the man with the torch, Raul Paez. The Inquisitor had another in an unending series of big hands, A K offsuit in the big blind. Bye, Jack E. Ward.
Who would face down death heads up? Mike Lutz or Tony Cousineau.
It looked like it would be Mike when Tony was rivered by a two outer earlier. But Cousineau, who plays more tournaments than anyone in the world, is nothing of not resilient. Besides he's married to the most beautiful woman in poker and Mrs. Cousineau looks like the poster child for high maintenance. Tony could probably find a use for the extra cash.
The pecking order switched on hand 83 when Tony went all-in with pocket Queens again. Mike Lutz fell in his jump with A 9. Now it was Lutz who looked like third place material. Sitting calming off to the side, Raul Paez waited to find out who he was going to light up next.
When Mike Lutz, who makes my GENERATION 20 list at age 24, found pocket Jacks he splashed all his chips into the pot. The Inquisitor was not amused by this show of disdain for his power. Raul called the extra 39k with the Q 6 of Diamonds. Then Paez lit his torch and touched Mike's feet with an unbelievable Queen on the river.
Heads up, Paez had a 2-1 chip lead and all the confidence of youth. At 27-years-old, Raul is now third on my young guns list with $99,657. That's because he took out Tony Cousineau in 2nd place like he'd done so many others for two dayswith an out on the river. 13 hands into heads up, Tony bet out 60k on the button with A 4 off. He called the reraise all-in from Paez who had the K 5 of Spades. Tony then left the area because he didn't want to see what was the inevitable result of a 7 6 4 flop.
Don't mess with the Inquisitor. Sure enough the eight came on the river for a straight.
When Juan Carlos Mortensen first came to the U.S. he spoke little English. When asked his name, he'd say it. But no one heard the Juan, only the Carlos. That's what we knew Mortensen by when he became world champion.
So the question comes to mind for the young and gifted, but not English-speaking Raul Paez-the Spanish Inquisition. What's his real first name?
Mike Paulle | 
